Aspirants in Kota decry 'tough, lengthy' NEET-UG, fear missing cutoff

Kota (Rajasthan): NEET-UG aspirants in the coaching hub of Kota were distraught by what they described as a "tough" exam, with many expressing fear that they might miss the cutoff.

Some aspirants, however, said the exam, conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA), was moderate and expressed hope for a drop in the threshold for selection.

The exam was the toughest in the history of National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG). It is possible that the cutoff will be low because the exam was tough and lengthy, said ALLEN Career Institute, Kota, director Brajesh Maheshwari.

"The paper was lengthy and tough compared to last year's. Biology and physics questions were mainly from Class 11," said Shubransh, an aspirant.

Another aspirant, Ayushi from Uttar Pradesh, claimed some questions were not from the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) syllabus.

While subject experts said the biology section questions were aligned with the NCERT syllabus, conceptual and meant to assess the students' understanding rather than recall capability, subject experts in Kota said.

Physics and chemistry sections were filled with multi-step questions, cumbersome calculations and situation-based reasoning. Many students reported that time management became a hurdle due to the complex nature of the problems, they said.

Motion Education Coaching Institute CEO Nitin Vijay said, "NEET-UG in 2025 saw a definite change in philosophy. It is no longer a question of memorising lines from textbooks. The exam called for maturity, clarity of thought." The medical entrance examination concluded peacefully on Sunday at 73 examination centres in Kota. A total of 32,424 aspirants had registered to appear for the exam.

Some coaching centre teachers and directors were seen blessing the aspirants and showering them with petals before the exam.

Special buses were deployed by the district administration and stakeholders from the coaching industry under the KotaCares campaign to ferry the aspirants to exam centres for free.

Heavy security was deployed at all examination centres and the aspirants were allowed inside after thorough frisking.

Meanwhile, three men were detained by the Special Operations Group of Rajasthan Police for allegedly trying to dupe a NEET-UG aspirant of Rs 40 lakh by promising him the question paper, an officer on Sunday said.