NEET And COVID-19: How NTA Conducted Medical Entrance Exam Last Year

NEET: Over 15 lakh students had registered to write the NEET examination last year, which was postponed twice from the initial May date due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Unlike the engineering entrance test—Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET-UG) is a pen and paper exam held once a year for those seeking admission to undergraduate medical and dental courses. Over 15 lakh students had registered to write the NEET examination last year, which was postponed twice from the initial May date due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The exam was originally scheduled for May 3, was postponed to July 26, and then to September 13. While the National Testing Agency (NTA) had set in place strict standard operating procedures (SOPs) in view of the pandemic. The NTA had also increased the number of centres from 2,546 in 2019 to 3,862 in 2020 to ensure crowd management and staggered entry and exit protocols. It had also reduced the number of candidates per room from 24 to 12. NTA had also changed exam centres for a few candidates in the final week in view of social distancing norms and COVID restrictions. The centres which had more than 900 candidates were distributed into two centres. The city of the exam centre stayed the same, however. NEET began at 2 pm, but entry to exam centres started at 11 am. Students were allotted different slots for staggered movement to ensure social distancing.