Don't ask Shraboni Chatterjee, “How was NEET exam today?” The “paper was difficult” for her but she blames the situation brought on by COVID-19. “I had to report at 11. Left the house at 4 am. I was exhausted before appearing in the examination,” said Ms Chatterjee who is from Malda, West Bengal. NEET 2020 exam was conducted on Sunday, September 13. Close to 16 lakh candidates had registered to appear at over 3,800 centres across the country. Many candidates who wrote NEET said the Physics paper was “difficult” and they found Biology “tricky”.
Riddhi Mukherjee from Bardhaman had a similar experience -- both with getting to the centre and the exam itself. “I had to report at 12 noon. We stood in the queue outside the exam centre for an hour or so in this hot weather. There was no shade or seating arrangements.” Already tired, she attempted the paper and found that “Physics was the most difficult”. Ms Mukherjee and her father left the centre, drained.
Shreyanshi Battacharya from Kolkata said the "Question paper was moderate to difficult. Biology questions were tricky and lengthy.” Nibedita Saha, also from Malda, had the same verdict: “Paper was difficult. Physics tough and Biology tricky and most difficult.”
Sunidhi Singh from Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, found the NEET Question paper difficult. “Biology questions were simple, but tricky. Physics was lengthy and difficult," she said.
"Paper was difficult. Physics tough and Biology tricky and most difficult.
NEET 2020: ‘Tired before the exam began'
As for COVID-19 arrangements and the experience of writing exams in the midst of a pandemic, candidates had a difficult experience. “All of us were feeling tired even before the exams started. Kolkata Metro services resumed, but the frequency was horrible. I couldn't afford to wait for half an hour at the station. I reached the centre in time, but had to wait for an hour to get done with the corona screening,” said Ms Saha.
Singh was assigned a NEET 2020 exam centre in Bareilly, over 120 km from home. “We had to leave home early. I travelled on scooty with my mother,” she said. “I had to report at 11 am.”
Here, too, the exam centre staff tried to implement safety measures but the “crowd was not following the instructions”, she said. “Students were still standing in a queue in front of the entry gate, but parents were standing in a group and shouting, screaming and complaining about a lot of things,” said Ms Singh.
One group of parents even protested against the NTA conducting NEET 2020 exam on the day of the exam. They were standing outside the exam centre in Bareilly and shouting slogans. “We are here as we couldn't let our children suffer alone. We want the government to know that this is not right. You cannot put the lives of so many students in danger,” said a parent. “No matter how much you prepare to avoid crowding and spread of the novel Coronavirus, it's going to stay and affect millions. As our children couldn't bear the thought of not appearing in the examination, we had to support their decision for their mental peace. The Centre should have considered the plight of lakhs of students travelling from far-away locations before conducting the examination.”
