JEE, NEET go GMAT way, to hold entrance test twice a year

The Joint Entrance Examination (Mains) and the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) will be conducted twice a year instead of just once, and the best score will be taken into account for admissions.

Union Minister of Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar announced it on Saturday that the National Testing Agency (NTA) would conduct of these exams and not the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). In addition, the NTA will also conduct UGC NET, CMAT and GPAT examinations from this year itself.

A senior official said the tests will be made foolproof as they have to be downloaded at the test centres just before the exam and then distributed to all candidates through a local server on computers. The whole system will be encrypted.

“There would be no examiners and the answers would be fed into the system. So, a candidate would know her raw score immediately. The result would come out after some days to address any possible complaints,” the official told the Hindu.

Those who did not have a computer at home can practise at authorised centres which will start functioning from August this year.

Out of 10.5 lakh students who took the JEE this year, two lakh took it online, he noted. “If schools consider holding some Class-11 exams mandatorily online, students will catch up faster,” former CBSE Chairman Ashok Ganguly told The Hindu.