The next National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) is on July 24. The Medical Council of India has given the job of conducting it to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) . If a student who wrote NEET-1 held on May 1 and is not quite confident about his performance in it, he has now been given a second chance as the Supreme Court has allowed those in such a predicament to request the CBSE to cancel their first appearance and take the test again on July 24 by paying the requisite fee. Of course, once a student chooses this option, his answer paper for the May 1 exam will be destroyed and he cannot look back.
Secondly, students will have to find out from the CBSE website or office what the syllabus is for the NEET examination. They must realise that the NEET examination is being held nationwide and there are dozens of different education boards across India. For instance, there is a different syllabus for the Karnataka PUC, the Odisha PUC, CISCE, CBSE and Tamil Nadu class 12. As the nationwide NEET needs to cater to students of these different boards, it can only ask questions that are common to all of them.
The Tamil Nadu class 12 board examination is considered relatively easier than the others and students from that state will object if the NEET exam includes questions that are not covered by their syllabus. So it will be wrong to assume that the CBSE syllabus will be the only basis for the forthcoming NEET. Those who do will regret it.
Chances of a student securing a medical seat has become more difficult from this academic year as earlier the competition for entry in any state came only from those who had written one of a few handful of tests . But this time students from across India will be writing the same examination, which means every student is competing with the rest of India now.
As the Supreme Court has repeatedly said no private college, deemed university, minority institution or state government can now conduct its own medical entrance examination. So there is only one national level entrance examination to worry about today.
But cramming for it will not help, in my opinion. There is still enough time to honestly and systematically study and understand the various subjects well enough to face NEET confidently.
The writer is advocate, Supreme Court.
