(This article is part of Paper Heist, The Quint's special project bringing out the inside story of India's paper leak scandal. Please support our coverage and help us do more such deep-dive stories.)
Out of the 494 students who appeared for re-examination of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test at a testing centre in Haryana's Jhajjar, not a single student scored above 700, data released by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on Saturday, 20 July revealed.
Following a Supreme Court order, the NTA released the NEET-UG 2024 results for all the students city and centre-wise following a Supreme Court order
An analysis by The Quint of the Hardayal Public School— a testing centre which was came to spotlight as grace marks bumped scores of six students to a perfect 720 — showed that only two students scored above 650.
While the highest score in the centre of 494 students was 682, achieved by one student, only 15 students (3 per cent) managed to score above 600 marks, a significant drop from the results of the 5 May exam.
It is important to remember that the irregularities in the NEET-UG exam for admission in medical colleges across India first emerged after six students from this particular centre scored 720/720 and became a part of the 67 toppers in 2024.
In the initial results released, two candidates got 718 and 719 marks each, which is a stark contrast to the current results.
As per an analysis by The Quint of the revised NEET-UG 2024 results:
The average score in this centre was 232.60
Only 55 students (11.12 per cent) were able to score above 450
Out of this, 40 out of 494 students scored between 500 and 649 marks and 15 students scored between 450 and 499
Nearly 88 percent of the students from this centre (435 out of 494) were below 450 out of 720 marks
Nearly 61 per cent scored between 100 and 300 marks
23 percent of the students scored below 100 marks
Only one student scored 0/720 marks
It was in this centre where students did not get the fully allotted 3 hours and 20 minutes to write the exam due to administrative reasons including mix-up of question papers, and delay in the distribution of OMR sheets.
However, the NTA claimed to have assigned ‘grace marks’ to the students to compensate for "lost time." These results were deemed mathematically improbable, prompting the Supreme Court to order a re-examination.
The results were released in this format on Saturday following an order of the Supreme Court, which is hearing several petitions about the alleged irregularities in the conduct of the exam, including paper leak.
A bench, led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, along with Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, ordered that while the marks obtained by students should be made public by the NTA, their identities must remain confidential.
The court is set to resume hearings on the matter on 22 July. The exam was conducted on 5 May at 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including 14 cities abroad, for more than 24 lakh candidates.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)