The NEET-PG test — the qualifying examination for PG medical studies — will be held at 500 “trusted” centres this year, according to people in the know of the matter.
The National Board of Examinations last month announced that the exam, to be conducted on August 11, will be held in two shifts for the first time this year.
This is because the number of centres has been reduced from 1,200 — with the exam body not trusting any outsourced centres, especially after several instances of paper leaks.
The NEET PG examination was postponed a day ahead of its scheduled June 23 date as a “precautionary measure”.
Not only that, to ensure a cheating-free exam, an official said all students have been allocated centres in same cities as the address provided on their forms.
“Earlier, the students were given the option to select different centres across the country to appear in the examination. Now, they have to appear at a centre either in the city or close to where their address is. It will be ensured that a person from one corner of the country does not go to another just to appear in the examination,” the official said.
The Indian Express had previously reported that the examination will be conducted only at TCS iON centres and not outsourced centres.
“The examination started in 2018 and since then there hasn’t been any need for normalization because the examination used to take place simultaneously for all students with the very same question paper,” said the official.