The Credibility of Entrance Examinations
“NEET 2025 was the toughest paper till date”
“NEET 2025 will have the lowest cutoff in history of its entrance exam time period”
You may have heard about the extreme difficulty level of entrance exams mandatory to enter professional fields across India set by the National Testing Agency (NTA). Whether it is NEET, JEE, AFMC, CLAT, BMCC etc. And the lakhs of students who register but only a few who get selected.
Now you may counter the argument about the scale of difficulty with the ideal factor that only those people should be selected who are truly passionate and determined to pursue either becoming doctors, engineers, lawyers but if you look at the bigger picture:
Lakhs of students study for approximately two years to give these examinations, skipping social events, parties, wedding functions and much more to stay in the four walls of their rooms studying for long hours, leading to sleep deprivation, exhaustion and burnout.
This scenario at times may lead to anxiety, stress, depression and many other neuro disorders. Cause at the end of the day the students are just children, right? Exposing them to such competitive and stressful environments accompanied with the fear of failure is horrible for their mental health.
“Entrance exams are standardized assessments used by educational institutions to evaluate a student’s knowledge, skills, and aptitude for a particular course or program.”
This is the Google definition of entrance exams.
Here they say “evaluate a student’s knowledge, skills, and aptitude for a particular course or program” but I would like to argue a student’s knowledge expands larger
than an objective paper where there is negative marking, which at times scares the exam taker to select an answer. A student can be better at practical work, collaborative work, logical thinking. Why does testing someone’s aptitude depend only on their memory?
Adding to this, the exam environment is stressful which at times causes one to forget what they studied and they black out during the paper. Is this really the aim?
Now let’s talk about current events: NEET 2025
National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) is given by scholars who want to take undergraduate medical courses like MBBS, BDS etc. So the logical thinking would be to focus on subjects like Biology specifically Human Anatomy, right? Well, the NTA had other things in mind.
The most difficult section of the science paper was Physics. Yes, for a paper specifically made for Biology students, the most challenging, time-consuming section was physics. Students and experts concluded that the questions asked in the section were for JEE Advanced level—an exam focused on physics. Was this really fair for them?
Imagine all your hard work for over two years going down the drain because the paper setup was not appropriate for your eligibility. Is this really fair?
Though having many downsides of these exams, at the same time they are important.
They are standardized exams which test the students’ problem-solving skills, how well they perform under stressful environments—necessary for a doctor—and prepare the students for further brief studies.
Entrance exams are more known as an ‘elimination process’, so as to recruit only the candidates who have excelled in their studies and exams. Selection of scholars is based on their All-India Rank Percentile, which allows institutions to select candidates most suitable for their curriculum.
The idea of entrance exams tells the ones opting for them that what they are pursuing is no laughing matter and should be studied sincerely and with a well-planned schedule. Developing the skills to learn, understand and focus on securing the spot should be prioritized instead.