India’s aspiring doctors heartbroken by exam paper leak

BBC:

For the past two years, Manas Sharma’s life revolved around one goal – cracking the tough exam that would get him admission to a medical college in India so he could become a doctor.

But the exam – the National Eligibility Entrance Test (Undergraduate), known as NEET-UG – has been at the centre of a controversy this year following allegations that the question paper was leaked.

On Tuesday, the federal government’s National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts the exam, cancelled the test that took place on 3 May because of an investigation into the allegations.

The agency also said that a new date for a retest would be announced next week.

“It just left me shocked,” says Sharma, who sat the exam on 3 May.

“Since October, I have been studying 12 hours a day – not watching films or even hanging out with friends. That’s what it takes to get into a good medical college,” Delhi-based Sharma said.

He was expecting to score 615 marks out of 720 – an assessment that he said was based on unofficial answer keys released by private coaching centres after the exam.

A score like that, he said, could have gotten him admission in one of the top medical colleges in India.

Sharma is not the only one left shocked and anxious by the exam’s cancellation. Nearly 2.28 million candidates sat the exam on 3 May at more than 5,000 centres across India. The NTA’s announcement has left most of them devastated.

Admission to medical colleges in India is mainly based on the NEET-UG exam.

India has a highly competitive system, with millions of candidates writing the exam each year for a limited number of undergraduate medical seats in government colleges and some prestigious private colleges.

In many Indian cities, students attend private coaching centres to prepare for competitive entrance exams. The classes are held separately from school lessons and can add several more hours of studying each day, especially on weekends.

“Becoming a doctor has always been the plan for me,” says Sumi (who goes only by her first name), a 20-year-old aspirant from the northeastern state of Assam.

When she heard that the exam was cancelled, her first thought was that it could not be true. “Now I have made a new schedule and started preparing again,” she told the BBC, adding that the stress caused by the announcement has affected her focus.

Anamika, a 22-year-old medical aspirant from the eastern state of Bihar, said this was her sixth attempt at the NEET-UG exam.

“You can understand how important this exam was to me from the fact that this was my sixth attempt,” she told the BBC. “My whole life became just college and library. I gave up family functions, friends – everything.”

She said she had earlier studied at a coaching institute in Kota, a city in Rajasthan state known for its competitive exam centres, before the Covid pandemic disrupted it. After several unsuccessful attempts, her parents encouraged her to join a nursing course while still preparing for NEET.

Anamika said this year’s exam was “excellent” and that she had expected around 640 marks – a score that could have secured her a place in some top medical colleges. “I thought this time it was finally certain,” she said.

But after struggling with stress following the cancellation, she said she had now accepted the situation and resumed preparing again.

Some, however, believe that the cancellation was necessary.

“The NTA has taken a good decision because what happened was an injustice to hardworking candidates,” an aspiring doctor told ANI news agency. “Those who cheated should not get admission in medical colleges.”

Some say they would welcome a re-examination to improve their scores.

Sharma is one of them. He said he was looking at the situation as an opportunity.