In an affidavit submitted to the Indian Supreme Court on Wednesday (July 10), the central government stated that there was no widespread cheating in the 2024 NEET-UG exam. The government claims that an analysis by IIT Madras shows no proof of large-scale misconduct or any unfair advantage for certain candidates that would lead to unusual scores. The government announced that counselling for the exam will begin in four rounds in the third week of July. They also warned that any applicant found to have cheated will be disqualified at any time during or after the counselling process. The IIT Madras report stated, “The marks distribution follows the normal pattern seen in large-scale exams, indicating no abnormality.”
The report also mentioned, “City-wise and center-wise analysis was done for the last two years (2023 and 2024) to check for any unusual patterns. The analysis focused on the top 1.4 lakh ranks, as the total number of seats across the country is around 1.1 lakhs.”
According to the report, “The analysis shows no signs of widespread cheating or any specific group of candidates benefiting in a way that leads to abnormal scores. There is a general increase in the marks obtained by students, especially in the range of 550 to 720. This increase is seen across various cities and centres and is due to a 25% reduction in the syllabus. Additionally, candidates with high marks are spread across many cities and centres, making cheating very unlikely.”
On Monday (July 8), the Supreme Court reviewed multiple petitions concerning the 2024 NEET-UG exam. The petitions included allegations of paper leakage and other malpractices during the May 5 test, with calls for the exam to be conducted again.
The Supreme Court had requested reports from the National Testing Agency (NTA) and the central government detailing the steps taken and any potential ideas on using data analytics in the cyber forensics unit or any other government-employed unit to find suspect cases.
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