Last student picked for AIIMS scored just 6% less than topper

Last student picked for AIIMS scored just 6% less than topper

06.10.2021

The actual scores in the entrance exam of those who got admission to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi differed very little, no matter which category they came from, reports Rema Nagarajan. While the ranks give an impression of huge differences between admitted students from various categories, their percentile scores vary by less than one and even the absolute marks differ by less than six percentage points between the topper and the last student selected.

In fact, not only were there no candidates with scores below 99th percentile among those who got admission, even their final percentage scores were well above 90% no matter which category they belonged to, an analysis done by TOIshows.

‘National SC/ST panel should demand data on admission’

For instance, in 2018 while over 3.74 lakh appeared for the exam, the lowest selected rank, which was from the scheduled tribe (ST) category, was 2,090 with a percentile score of 99.45 though the qualifying percentile level was 93.65 for tribals.

The competition is so close that several tie breaker scores have to be used to assign ranks. Ties — those with equal overall percentiles — were resolved using percentiles in the biology section of the paper followed by chemistry, physics and finally the candidate’s date of birth, with older candidates getting ranked higher.

The lowest selected rank from the SC category was 655 with a percentile score of 99.83, again well over the qualifying level of 40% marks equivalent to 93.65 percentile. The lowest selected rank from the OBC category was 188 equivalent to 99.95 percentile, against a qualifying level of 45%, equivalent to 97.01 percentile. For the general category, the qualifying level was 50% equivalent to 98.83 percentile.

In 2019 too, calculations show, there was a difference of less than six percentage points in the overall scores of the first rank and the last rank (3,000) that got admitted. The marks are not publicly announced. To understand how we arrived at them, see the accompanying box.

Anthropologist Dr Anna Ruddock notes in her book on AIIMS-Delhi called ‘Special Treatment’ that the ranking system acts as a management tool, suggesting a legitimate differentiation in achievement that actually disguises the homogeneity of marks among top-ranked students and ends up implying that OBC, SC, and ST candidates who score lower than the GC cut-off lack the necessary aptitude to study at AIIMS.

“Among those admitted in AIIMS-Delhi, there is hardly any difference between those from different categories because the OBC, SC and ST candidates selected represent a small proportion that has access to facilities and resources to be able to get in. The National SC/ST commission should demand anonymised data on admission into all such institutes and analyse it so that informed policies could be made on how to ensure inclusion of the most deprived within categories and across geographies,” said an AIIMS faculty member.

WIDE VARIATION