Two NEET aspirants lose fathers; CBSE goofs question papers again
Sunday was a day of tragedy for Kasturi Mahalingam of Vilakkudi in Tiruvarur district and Devi Ishwarya of Singampunari in Sivagangai district.

Published: 07th May 2018 04:11 AM  



An official reading out the list of students who are yet to write the NEET at Noyes MHS School exam centre in Madurai on Sunday | k k sundar

By Express News Service

Sunday was a day of tragedy for Kasturi Mahalingam of Vilakkudi in Tiruvarur district and Devi Ishwarya of Singampunari in Sivagangai district. Kasturi was among the 1500 students from Tamil Nadu who took the NEET outside the State. While he was writing his exam, his father Krishnasamy Srinivasan, who had accompanied him to Ernakulam for the test, took ill.

By the time Kasturi exited the exam centre at Thammanam, 47-year-old Srinivasan, a government librarian, had died of cardiac arrest. Later, it was learnt that J Kannan, father of Devi Ishwarya, who wrote the NEET exam in Madurai, also died. Kannan, 49, a lorry driver, had accompanied his daughter to Madurai. After the exam, he developed chest pain. He was brought dead at Government Rajaji Hospital.

Meanwhile, question paper goof ups in Madurai and Salem caused stress. In Madurai, 112 students who were to take the test at Noyes Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Narimedu started the exam late as the centre received 100 question papers in Hindi. E Georgina Jacquline, school’s principal said, “We opened the three boxes of the Tamil/English question papers minutes before the exam as per CBSE instructions and while distributing them discovered that the third box contained 100 question papers in Hindi/English.”

While 22 students started the exam at 12.30 pm, 90 students started the test at 3pm. In Salem, students at three centres were left to stew as the question papers for 195 Tamil medium students reached only at noon forcing the students to start the exam at 1pm. Tension prevailed at a Salem centre after a student was not allowed to write the exam as she produced two hall tickets.

Over a lakh students take test in TN
The NEET exam for admission to MBBS and BDS course saw around 1.07 lakh students taking the examination in Tamil Nadu. Around 24,720 opted to write the exam in Tamil.

Ex gratia for Krishnasamy family
TN announced ex gratia of D3L and funding for Kasturi Mahalingam’s future studies.

‘Little support from KL or TN’
Parents of students who took the test in Kerala complained of lack of support from both governments.

‘Physics section tough’
State board students found the Physics section of the question paper very tough.

Student with chicken pox sits for exam 

Pon Vasanth B.A 
 
MADURAI, May 07, 2018 00:00 IST

With blisters all over body, boy reaches centre from Dindigul village

Despite suffering from chickenpox, a government school student from Puliyurnatham near Oddanchathiram in Dindigul district managed to sit for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test at his designated centre, Noyes Matriculation Higher Secondary School, here on Sunday.

M. Tamilarasan, a student of Government Higher Secondary School in Muthunaickenpatti near his village, who could not wear proper clothes to cover his upper part of the body because of the blisters, came to the centre by covering his body with a dhoti.

The authorities, who were initially unsure of allowing him to take the exam, consulted senior officials and allowed him to sit for the exam in a separate classroom.

“The officials helped me well. They gave me water at regular intervals to keep myself hydrated,” he said. Tamilarasan was given some extra time to complete the exam due to the delayed permission to start answering questions.

His father S. Muniyandi said Tamilarasan attended a month-long residential NEET coaching at a centre in Thrissur and returned home only on Saturday. “In the evening, he developed symptoms of chickenpox, but they were not severe. However, later in the night, his body was full of blisters,” he said.

“He insisted on taking the exam since he had put in a lot of efforts. We had also spent a good amount of money for the coaching,” he added. Mr. Muniyandi arranged a car to bring his son to the exam centre.

“Except for Physics, I have done relatively well. I hope I will clear it,” Tamilarasan said.

Testing times for NEET candidates, parents 

Pon Vasanth B.A. and Sanjana Ganesh 
 
MADURAI, May 07, 2018 00:00 IST


Long journey from far away places, minimum facilities provided at examination centres create difficulties

Sunday started with a bundle of nerves for many as 11,341 students from various districts took National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) in 20 centres across Madurai. With 459 students absent, 96.11% of the registered candidates took the test.

Police personnel and Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE) officials frisked students at two points prior to their entry into the examination hall. The students were asked to remove jewellery, clips, dupattas and even socks before entering the hall. The girls experienced some discomfort when they were asked to remove duppattas. Some had bought new clothes to comply with the dress code.

Longer sleeves were cut off from a girl student’s kurta top at M.S.S. Wakf Board College, because it went against the CBSE dress code guidelines. The student’s sister said they had arrived from Manamadurai at 6 a.m. Despite reaching the exam centre on time, her sister did not have a proper place to change her kurta. Several parents registered their protest against this move.

G. Jayaprakash, a parent, said the centres should have been equipped with emergency facility such as a changing room. Many students were unaware that they should have brought additional passport size photograph apart from the one affixed on hall ticket. Hence, Kendriya Vidyalaya, Noyes Matriculation Higher Secondary School and some other centres had arranged photographers to shoot pictures. They charged Rs. 100 for 8 copies. Students in Wakf Board College, however, had to travel all the way to Anna bus stand or Goripalayam to the studios.

Parents who travelled long distances to accompany their children, particularly from districts such as Theni, Ramanathapuram, Vellore and Dindigul, said that the travel and lack of proper arrangements left them exhausted. M. Veni from Ramanathapuram said most centres did not provide proper bathroom facilities for girls and seating arrangement for parents. “After catching a bus early in the morning, we directly came to the centre. We did not book any hotel room. Where are we expected to wait for our children? Can’t they provide water or bathrooms at least?” she asked.

N. Kannan, a parent from an interior village in Theni district, said the government should have started bus services very early in the day so that students could make it to the centres on time. “I started my journey to Madurai from my village at 2 a.m. but could arrive in Theni only at 5 a.m. We were lucky to make it on time but some students could not,” he said. The students should have been allotted centres closer home so that they would not experience fatigue during the test, he said.

After the test, some of the the students said the Biology component was easy for both State Board and CBSE students but Physics was difficult. E. Ranjith from Abiramam in Ramanathapuram district said he attended coaching classes arranged by the State government. Though it helped, he could not complete the paper on time, he said.

Sharon, a student from C.S. Ramachary Matriculation School in Tirunagar, Madurai, said the paper was not very difficult but challenging. Several others echoed her opinion.

Over 100 take the test in Rajasthan 

Mohammed Iqbal 
 
JAIPUR, May 07, 2018 00:00 IST

Over 100 candidates from Tamil Nadu appeared for NEET in Rajasthan on Sunday after travelling more than 2,000 km to reach their exam centres. The exam was conducted in six cities, including Jaipur, in the State.

The NEET aspirants, mostly accompanied by their parents, arrived here by train, road and air. The Rajasthan Tamil Sangam, an association of people from the southern State who are settled in Rajasthan, had made arrangements for the students’ stay, food and transport.

However, very few candidates contacted the Sangam though it had tried to reach out to them through social media platforms, Sangam member S. Muruganandam told The Hindu .

Mr. Muruganandam said the Sangam had posted its volunteers at the railway station and bus stand to help provide food and local transport, especially to those who don’t speak Hindi.

The Sangam had earlier received calls from about 30 NEET aspirants.

Temple burgled at Madambakkam

CHENNAI:, May 07, 2018 00:00 IST

Burglars broke into Sri Devi Karumari Amman Temple in Sudharsan Nagar, Madambakkam on Saturday night and escaped with temple jewellery.

Over 130 g of silver ornaments and 3 g of gold jewels were stolen.

The burglary was noticed by temple cleaning staff at 6 a.m. on Sunday.

The physics hurdle in the medical entrance race 

R. Sujatha 
 
CHENNAI, May 07, 2018 00:00 IST


Playing it safe:Some attempted lesser number of questions in physics and more in other sections like chemistry, fearing negative marks for wrong answers.T. Singaravelou 

‘Many would’ve found section tough’; qualifying marks could be around 150

This year’s NEET was slightly easier than the one last year. But for admission to a government medical college, a score of over 500 would be needed, experts said. They expected the qualifying score to be around 140-150 marks for the general category.

Though most questions were not time-consuming, there were similarities between the weightage of marks in this paper and the Class 12 syllabus. Though there were almost an equal number of questions from Class 11 and Class 12 chemistry and physics, the chemistry questions were said to have been easier, while physics had calculation-based questions.

“Only those who understand the concept well would have been able to attempt the questions confidently,” said S. Sree Rangapriya of Coimbatore. Violet Priscilla of Chennai said she attempted only eight questions in physics and 35 in chemistry, fearing negative marks for wrong answers. She hopes to score 400 marks. D. Srivarshini of Sirumugai, who took the test in Coimbatore, said she also followed a similar approach.

However, Franklin Jacob from Nagercoil, who took the test in Chennai, said he did better in the physics section.

Biology, a breeze

“A majority of students would have found the physics section a tad difficult as there were some good conceptual questions thrown in. Any score in excess of 525 should get the students admission in top colleges through the State quota,” said Anand Nagarajan, academic head for school division, T.I.M.E. Chennai.

The physics section was the toughest and was lengthy, with 24 questions from Class 12 and 21 from Class 11 syllabus. “The section had two difficult questions, nine moderately tough questions and 34 easy questions,” said Rajshekhar Ratrey, vice president, educational content, Toppr.com.

Most questions in chemistry were based on simple concepts. With an equal number of questions from Class 11 and Class 12 syllabi, students had to answer one difficult question, 20 moderately difficult questions and 24 easy questions.

Students found biology easier than physics and chemistry as unlike last year, it had very few application-oriented questions. There were 46 questions from Class 12 and 44 from Class 11 syllabi. The section had 9 difficult questions, 33 moderately difficult questions and 18 easy questions.

“As many as 170 questions were based on the NCERT syllabus and only 10 were tricky, interlinking two topics,” said Uday Nath Mishra, chief academic officer, BasicFirst. Of these, 110 were easy and 25 fell under the highly difficult level.

He anticipated the minimum qualifying mark to be 130-140 and 505-515 marks for admission to government colleges.

( With inputs from Karthik Madhavan in Coimbatore)

Officials play by the book; students and parents cry foul 



Special Correspondent 
 
CHENNAI, May 07, 2018 00:00 IST


Taking no chances:NEET aspirants being frisked outside an examination centre in Chennai on Sunday.M. Vedhan
Heavy frisking and strict adherence to rules mark conduct of National Eligibility cum Entrance Test; arrangements could have been better, feel many

Heavy frisking and strict adherence to the rules marked the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), the qualifying exam for admission to medical colleges that was conducted on Sunday.

A total of 1,07,480 candidates had registered for NEET from the State, including 24,720 aspirants who took the test in Tamil. As many as 3,685 candidates from Madurai, Tiruchi and Tirunelveli were allocated centres in Ernakulam.

With NEET made compulsory for admission to courses under the Indian systems of medicine from this year, a total of 25,206 more candidates had registered for the test.

Though the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), which conducts NEET, had posted instructions on its website, scores of students and parents had a tough time complying with them. In some schools, parents had to snip the sleeves of their children (only short sleeves were allowed); girls also had to remove jewellery, hair clips and duppatas. In some centres, students who arrived a few minutes late were not allowed inside the centre. Flash protests staged by a few parents were of no avail.

At Kendraiya Vidyalaya, Sowripalayam, a candidate fainted in the school towards the end of the examination and was rushed to a hospital.

At a centre in West Mambalam, a group of girls from a government girls higher secondary school in Chidambaram had come in whites. “We wore white after reading the instructions on the internet,” said M. Madhumathi. The group had attended the government-sponsored coaching at Bhuvanagiri.

Heat adds to woes

K. Sugapriya, who also took the test from the same centre, is a student of St. Philomena Higher Secondary School in Ariyalur of which Anita – who committed suicide last year to protest against NEET – was a student. Anita had approached the Supreme Court against NEET. Ms. Sugapriya said five other students from the school took the test in Chennai.

While the students took the three-hour test, parents waited outside the venue, sometimes with no shade to protect them from the scorching sun.

R. Murugan, a welder from Thirukovilur, came with his daughter to the venue at 4 a.m. as train services to Chennai had been hit.

R. Kalyanasundaram of Pudukottai, a parent who was waiting outside a test venue in Coimbatore, said the examination centres could have opened a few classrooms for parents who were forced to wait on the streets.

But D. Rajkumar, who had flown from Singapore as his daughter A. Merlin was taking the test in Coimbatore, said the arrangements were good and the instructions had been clear.