New Delhi: There are concerns within the government over suspected flaws in the examination conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA). neet 2024ET has learnt that some of the decisions taken by the testing body are not in line with its normal procedures.

It is believed that there was internal doubt within the party as well. NTA On certain decisions, such as awarding compensatory ‘grace marks’ to some students.

Other major red flags include the declaration of results on the same day as the Lok Sabha election results and the alleged leak of exam question papers.

“The NTA is a highly professional body and has done a stellar job over the years, including conducting large-scale exams, but one thing is clear — there were some flaws and warning signs this time, which were not properly addressed,” a leading academic familiar with the functioning of the organisation told ET.

“Timely and calculated action was necessary, not only to prevent the controversy from escalating but, more importantly, to prevent any mistrust from building up with regard to the NTA. Some reforms have been made, but more needs to be done,” the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The results of the National Graduate Medical Education Entrance Examination were declared on June 4, just 29-30 days after the May 5 exam and 10 days earlier than the June 14 date mentioned in the NTA notification. National Eligibility Criteria Information Bulletin. Last year, NEET was held on May 7 and the results were announced on June 13; in 2022, the exam was held on July 17 and the results came on September 7; in 2021, the exam date was September 12 and the results came on November 1.

People well versed with the processes told ET that declaring results in 45 days is quite challenging and is possible only when the entire system works at a “very good pace”. In the post-exam scenario, answer sheets take about 15 days to reach the NTA from exam centres across states. After that, an extensive exercise is carried out at the NTA that involves scanning of exam papers and thorough manual checking to spot any discrepancies. This could take another 15-20 days or more, they said.

“Even after this, the result data is analysed closely to check for anomalies like higher number of scorers in some centres or inflated marks in some places etc… all of which may look unusual given the past record of those centres,” a person familiar with the matter told ET. “If any such anomaly is found, the NTA team goes back to the starting point and analyses the answer sheets and data from that cluster. This is a time-consuming process.”

The results, which were reportedly declared in a hurry, have raised several questions. For instance, insiders say how did the NTA analysis overlook the number of high scorers from some centres and the presence of crowds at top ranking venues?

The biggest concern is about the decision to give grace marks to 1,563 students, which has now been reversed. The most serious concern is about the alleged exam paper leak.