New Delhi: Over 11,000 candidates scored zero or negative marks in this year’s NEET-UG medical entrance exam, according to the centre-wise results announced by the National Testing Agency (NTA).
The city- and centre-wise analysis released by the NTA on Saturday shows that more than 2,250 candidates scored zero marks, while over 9,400 candidates received negative scores. Notably, a candidate from a centre in Bihar recorded the lowest score of -180 in the NEET-UG exam.
The results also indicated that several candidates at a scrutinized centre in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh scored less than zero, with multiple candidates from some centres scoring zero marks.
Despite these findings, the NTA data does not show high clusters of such candidates at any centre.
Officials clarified that scoring zero or negative marks does not imply that the answer sheets were blank or that no questions were attempted. They explained that negative marking could result from a mix of correct and incorrect answers. In NEET-UG, four marks are awarded for each correct answer, and one mark is deducted for each incorrect answer, with no change in score for unattempted questions.
The NTA’s release of the city- and centre-wise results come amidst scrutiny over alleged irregularities and paper leaks.
Data analysis suggests that candidates who allegedly benefited from the paper leak did not perform well, whereas some centres had a high number of high-scoring students. For instance, more than 2,000 candidates from Sikar centres scored above 650 marks, and over 4,000 scored above 600 marks.
The extensive result data covers over 23 lakh candidates from 4,750 centres.
