NEET-UG scam: Number of toppers set to drop from 61 to 17 in revised list

NEW DELHI: The number of toppers in the NEET-UG exam is set to come down to 17 from 61 when National Testing Agency (NTA) announces the revised merit list, most likely on Friday.

Revision of the merit list was necessitated after IIT-Delhi, working at Supreme Court's instance, recommended that only one of the options in a question in the physics paper was correct.

Several students had complained that two of the four options could be held to be correct going by different NCERT books. With only one answer being deemed correct, those who had chosen the other option lost five marks (four marks for wrong answer and one negative mark), in what was sure to have a cascading effect on the ranks of all those who took the exam.

This decision will primarily impact the scores of 4.2 lakh candidates, including 44 who achieved perfect scores of 720, because they had opted for the answer deemed incorrect by IIT-Delhi and for which they had been awarded four marks earlier by NTA.

“The number of toppers, which stands at 61, will come down to 17, post the deduction of marks,” an NTA official said.

The change in ranking could prove to be crucial for many students considering that over 24 lakh aspirants took the NEET-UG for the 1.08 medical seats up for grabs in the country. Of these, 56,000 seats are in govt institutions, which are much sought after for their better infrastructure and lower fees.

According to sources, the biggest impact will be on candidates ranked between 50,000 to 1 lakh as over 16,000 candidates, who were earlier likely to earn a seat in a medical college, are likely to go out of the cohort.

Sources said the impact on the 44 students, who will no longer be toppers, will not be much as they would still feature in the rank cohort of 33,000 to 50,000 but change in their ranks will impact their chance of securing seats in govt medical colleges of their choice. (Times of India)