Bengaluru: There was high drama before the commencement of National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), for medical and dental courses, at various centres in the city on Sunday. However, the test went off smoothly without any glitches.
There was elaborate frisking of candidates, and those who turned up after 9.30 am were sent away, leading to heated exchanges between students/parents and guards.
Female candidates were told to remove hair bands, earrings and some even had to cut the long sleeves of their dress before entering the exam centre!
"Six candidates were not allowed as they came post 9:30 am. I live in HSR Layout, but my centre was in Hebbal. We were not allowed to choose the test centre," said Preasa Pravasi, a candidate from Narayana PU College.
Students from Mysuru, Ballari, Hassan and Tumkuru had to come all the way to Bengaluru, as the list of centres in their hometowns were announced much later and they were unable to change it. "Many girls were made to remove hairbands, hairclips, high heels and earrings. We couldn’t carry our Aadhar cards into the exam room either,” said Pratyusha Pallacholli, who claimed her centre was a two-hour drive from home.
She, however, said there were no delays or glitches, it all went smoothly. “The paper was moderately difficult, with physics being the hardest. It was similar to the mock test we had in school,” Pratyusha added.
The three-hour exam began at 10 am and it included Physics, Chemistry and Biology. Some found Physics tricky and lengthy with too many calculations.
However, Professor Venkata Suresh of BASE said, "The physics paper was moderate, with only four of them being lengthy and time consuming. They were all from the NCERT framework."
Chemistry Professor Vincent John of BASE said, "The Chemistry section was moderate with most questions being direct. A well prepared student can score about 80 per cent marks."
Biology Professor Dr C Krishna Poojar of BASE said, "There was no apparent ambiguity in the paper."
