NEET, JEE Mains to be conducted twice a year from 2019

By India News Stream Staff
July 7, 2018

New Delhi: In a major relief to students appearing for the JEE (Main) and NEET (UG), the two national level engineering and medical entrance examinations, government today announced that these test will be conducted twice a year before admissions in the next academic session.

This step has been taken to give a choice to the students especially if they fail to appear in a test due to unwarranted circumstances, Minister for Human Resource Development(HMRD) Prakash Javadekar told reporters here.

The examinations will be conducted by the newly-formed National Testin Agency(NTA).A student can take the exam both the times a year and the best score will be counted, the HRD Minister said.

He also said that the syllabus and the pattern of question paper would remain the same and there will be NO increase in the exam fees currently being charged.

The examinations for all candidates will be conducted in computer based mode only (Starting from next exam UGC-NET exam), and these examinations will use highly secured IT software and encryption to ensure delivery of tests just in time. This will ensure no leakages and other malpractices.

All the tests ( UGC- NET ( December), JEE (Main) & NEET (UG)) will be conducted in multiple sittings and a candidate will have an option of dates to choose from. Scores of different candidates in multiple sittings will also be equated using standardisation techniques.

NTA will establish a network of test practice centres for students of rural areas so that everyone will have an opportunity to practice before the exam. Schools/engineering colleges with computer centres would be identified and kept open on Saturday/Sunday starting from 3rd week of August. Any student can use the facility free of charge.

All tests would be set in a scientific manner with the test items developed jointly by the subject matter experts and psychometricians. Before developing the question papers, the item writers for the exams will be given feedback on the functioning of the previous years’ items so that they are able to make test items which are more valid and reliable. All the above mentioned examinations will be held in existing number of languages.

National Testing Agency (NTA) was approved by the Union Cabinet in November 2017 as an Autonomous and self-sustained premier testing organization to conduct entrance examinations for higher educational Institutions.