NEET Exam Controversy: Students in Kota Feel Helpless, Frustrated, Angry, and Confused

Newton Kumar and Lakshya Raj moved to Kota two years ago with a single goal: to clear the NEET exam and become doctors. “My only dream was to become a doctor,” says Kumar, 21, from Samastipur, Bihar. His friend Raj adds, “I wanted to be the first doctor in my district.” However, their current NEET scores and ranks mean they won’t get into any good medical colleges. “The scariest thing in the world is for dreams to die,” says Kumar, referring to the recent education scam that has left NEET aspirants like him in despair.

NEET, or the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, is a highly competitive exam conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) for admissions to medical courses like MBBS, BDS, and AYUSH in India. This year, about 24 lakh candidates appeared for the exam on May 5. However, since the results were announced on June 4, ten days earlier than scheduled, the exam has been surrounded by controversies. Issues like paper leaks, hidden grace marks, high cut-off scores, inflated ranks, and 67 students scoring full marks have raised eyebrows. In previous years, only a few students scored 720/720.

Due to these irregularities, the Supreme Court will hear pleas on July 8 from petitioners demanding a re-exam. For students like Kumar, Raj, and over two lakh others in Kota, these complications mean starting over. “We dream only one dream,” says Raj, 21, from Bhagalpur, Bihar. “No student comes to Kota with a Plan B. Having a Plan B would mean we’ve already lost the battle.”

Shivshankar Singh Tomar, a 21-year-old from Gwalior, had taken a holiday after two years to Kedarnath and Delhi after attempting NEET for the second time. “I was happy with my score, but I was shaken when I saw the inflation in ranks,” he admits. His classmate, Vikas Patidar, 21, thought he would never have to return to Kota. “Our professors tell us on our first day here, ‘You must get out of this hellhole as soon as possible.’” He adds, “When I saw my rank against the score, it felt like I was sinking into the ground.”

Instead of being at home with family or preparing for counseling, these students are stuck in Kota, battling the uncertainty around ReNEET. “It’s been more than two months since we attempted NEET. Before the exam, we had a rhythm and momentum to study. It’s all lost now,” says Tomar. “So much time has been wasted. We’re confused about preparing for re-examination or taking a drop year to join classes that have already started for the next year. Will the Supreme Court give us as much time to prepare as the time that has been lost?” he adds.

Patidar asks, “Toppers will top, but what about average students who work hard all year only to be told to take a drop year?” He continues, “We can’t even concentrate now when we should be preparing for the ReNEET.”

For some aspirants like Kumar, who studied in a government school and wanted to become a doctor to fulfill his father’s dream, it’s time to make tough decisions. “I’m still confused about continuing this journey. I think about giving up multiple times a day,” he confesses. “I don’t think I can attempt the ReNEET with the same potential. I study all day but keep thinking, what if there is another scam?”

For those who have taken multiple drops, it feels like life has come to a standstill. Tomar’s roommate, for instance, was on his seventh attempt. He scored 645 but was still crying inconsolably. Last year, with this score, he would have had an all-India rank between 11,000 and 6,000. This year, the same score ranges between ranks 29,000 and 25,000. “He hasn’t been home in seven years. He said he would return only if he got selected. Now he’s worried about relatives asking him what he did in Kota for seven years,” Tomar says.

For Shahzad Ahmed, a 23-year-old BSc graduate from Jamia Milia Islamia in New Delhi, NEET was a second chance at a better life. “I didn’t see any scope for biotechnology in India, so I had to pivot, but I’m nowhere today,” he rues. He fought opposition at home for changing streams and studied hard to compete against students who start preparing as early as 16 and 17. “Both age and time are not on my side right now,” says Ahmed, sounding despondent. “We break from within when exam papers get leaked,” he says.

In the months leading up to the exam, Ahmed says students prepare for a realistic score of 620 to 630, studying 16 to 18 hours a day. By the end, they just want to be selected. Ahmed appeared for the second time this year and scored 626. “I’m losing the strength to study again. It was my first day back to coaching last week, and I feel I’ve forgotten everything. I’m frustrated about being stuck here and still having to ask for money from home at 23.”

For guardians, money is a big concern too. On average, a student in Kota can spend up to Rs 4 lakh a year on tuition, stay, food, and other expenses. “When you’re a drop year student, a guardian is already shattered financially,” Raj says. “A student scores beyond 600, there’s a scam, and they don’t get selected. The students and guardians feel there is nothing left for them in the world.”

Raj stayed back in Kota at his professors’ insistence. “Give it one more shot, they told me,” he says, adding that he has started classes again. “But the thought of preparing for exams again despite getting a decent score bites me from within. This is not a small journey. We prepare day and night for this. There’s no time for hobbies or sports. The whole experience has been emotionally damaging for us and our parents.”

The faculty in Kota is known for their inspiring speeches and motivational lectures, driving students to achieve their scores. But for the past two months, the same faculty doesn’t have any answers to comfort the students. Sunil Nain, director and founder of BeWise Classes, a Kota-based coaching center for NEET aspirants, says students are feeling insecure and have no motivation left. “The three hours and 20 minutes of the exam are the toughest in a student’s life after a year of studying. Now they’ll have to take a drop unwillingly and go back to the same life. Are students’ feelings and emotions a joke?” he says.

Students studied for the exam bearing in mind last year’s cut-off at 609. Nain talks about a student who scored 657 and came to the coaching center with sweets and gifts. “Now, she won’t even get into the top 50 colleges. Students have distributed sweets, had their photos printed in newspapers, and are now dealing with society’s taunts like they must have cheated,” says Nain.

The emotional trauma of the NEET scam is not limited to 24 lakh aspirants but also affects their families and siblings. “A student works for one exam, one college, one dream. And it gets shattered in a moment,” says Triyogi Narayan Mishra, a professor of physical chemistry at a coaching center. Mishra is trying to push NEET aspirants to keep revising the syllabus while managing worried parents. He narrates the story of a student who sold all his study material after scoring 620-plus, confident about getting a seat. “He belongs to a farming family from Aurangabad. His father calls me constantly to arrange for books and notes, but I am not in a position to give them any reassurance,” Mishra says. “This year is shocking, sad, and frustrating, even for us, because students’ results are our results.”

The students’ situation is like a train without a destination. “They don’t know what journey to take or where to end it. The uncertainty isn’t letting them prepare or withdraw. It’s the worst scenario for students to be in. We don’t know which side of the boat we’re on. The uncertainty destroys you,” he adds.

Ajit Chandra Divedi, a faculty member for organic chemistry at the same institute, says the same aspirants who were celebrating their scores are now crying. “I know students who wanted to give up but stayed back because we saw the potential in them. Now what do we tell them?” Divedi asks. From January to April, students study for the equivalent of eight months. They are ready and highly energized to take the exam. “We wish we weren’t at this juncture when all that energy and momentum is lost,” Divedi says. “We tallied the answer key along with students and assured them that they were in a safe zone, but now I’m attending calls of students crying in the middle of the night. They aren’t eating or sleeping.”

A lifetime of dreams is at stake, say the professors. “We say our future will be secure if our present is secure. The students are our future, but their present looks so weak,” he adds. Nain thinks that if there is no re-examination, we will be staring at a country full of fraudsters, referring to the film Munnabhai MBBS. “We don’t want fraudsters. We want doctors,” says Nain and his class full of NEET aspirants.

Tomar warns that due to such scams, the country will be confused about which doctors to trust in the future. Students are not very hopeful about the possibility of a ReNEET, but they aren’t ready to stop fighting. “For us, the NTA means No Trust Agency or Never Trust Agency. They aren’t aware of our sacrifices,” says Patidar. “When a drop year student doesn’t give up on NEET year after year, why will we now? We will not stop till the NTA accepts its mistake.”