NEET PG 2024 results spark controversy, Candidates allege discrepancy in Normalisation Formula, Demand Release of Answer Key

New Delhi: Controversy has erupted over the National Eligibility-and-Entrance Test Postgraduate (NEET-PG) 2024 exam results as some of the candidates, especially those who appeared in the second shift of the exam on August 11, 2024, have started questioning the transparency of the exam results.

Raising their doubts regarding the fairness of the NEET PG 2024 exam and also about the normalisation of scores policy adopted by the NBE, several candidates have urged the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) to issue the answer key to the PG medical entrance test and disclose the details of the normalisation policy adopted by the authorities. 

After several controversies, the NEET PG 2024 examination was finally conducted on August 11, 2024 in two shifts i.e. from 9 am to 12:30 pm and 3:30 pm for admission to MD, MS, DNB and Diploma Courses of 2024-25 admission session.

Consequently, the PG medical entrance exam results were published on August 24, 2024, and NBE reportedly applied a normalisation formula as the exam was held in two shifts. However, this normalisation policy adopted by NBE was earlier challenged by the petitioners before the Supreme Court. Filing the plea, the petitioners sought disclosure of the normalization formula of the four sets of question papers to the candidates to eliminate any possibility of arbitrariness.

Once again, this formula of normalisation has been questioned by the candidates, who have also raised doubts regarding the transparency of the exam.

Referring to this, a user wrote on X (formerly Twitter), "In high-stakes exams like NEET PG with multiple sets and normalization, transparency is crucial. NBE should release the answer keys, make the normalization process public, and display the raw scores of each student. This would ensure fairness and build trust in the system."

"Huge level scam is found again ~Two shift exam conduction ~Result declaration in the name of normalisation while nothing has been implemented," another user mentioned.

Discrepancies in Exam Marks: 

After the publication of the NEET PG 2024 results, several candidates have started complaining that there are huge discrepancies between the marks they calculated and the marks they received.

Sharing the ranks of aspirants, a X user highlighted the discrepancy between marks and ranks and wrote, "This is the rank and score among our friends .How is this possible??.This much discrepancy between marks and ranks . High inflation of rank within same shift and also with other shift for the same score around.Neet pg 2024 results are not fair.Many aspirants are effected."

"There are 153 candidates with the same percentile of 90.1871752.... Just imagine total how many students with percentile of 90.00 to 90.99 HOW DID THEY DO TIE BREAKING??? That's why normalisation in competitive exam is not justified..." wrote a candidate.

No Normalisation Done, claim Candidates: 

Questioning the normalisation policy of NBE, the candidates have even questioned if any normalisation was even done before publishing the results.

Explaining the marking scheme, a user shared a post stating, "Suppose a guy Aman got a rank 5000 in shift 1 must be scoring something around 560 marks. Another guy from shift 2 Anuj who's getting 5000 rank in his own shift must be scoring 540 marks due to toughness of shift 2 paper. What nbe did is... they merged result of Aman and Anuj and gave them a common rank of (10, 001 to Aman and 10,002 to Anuj) That means 560 marks from shift 1 is equivalent to 540 marks of shift 2.. (Now if normalisation would have been done 540 marks would have been more compared to 560 considering the toughness ) This means they didn't even consider the toughness and normalisation wasn't even done..."

Release Answer Key, Demand Doctors: 

Amid the controversy and confusion regarding the NEET PG 2024 exam results and the normalisation policy, a surgeon Dr Abbas Ali wrote on X, "After the #NEETPG Results, Students are unhappy with the normalisation. To clear the air, I think NBE should release the result sheet which includes rank with percentile, and the raw positive & negative scores of each candidate."

"All the coaching institute & educators must raised concern over 1. NEETPG Results discrepancy 2. Release of #NEETPG 2024 Questions & correct response 3. Raw individual score 4. Normalisation Time to raise voice for the students," wrote a doctor in an X post.

Questioning why the raw scores of NEET PG 2024 cannot be released, a user wrote on X (formerly Twitter), "It's not just candidates got lower ranks than expected, there are genuine people saying they didn't even expect the higher ranks they have got, this is regardless of S1&2 If Ranks, Percentile can be released together, why can't the Scores? Where is the error!"

RTI filed: 

Amid this confusion, a candidate has reportedly filed an RTI application before NBEMS seeking to know how many centres were booked for the June 23 exam, which was going to happen in one shift and how many centres were booked for the two-shift exam on August 11.

Further, the application also sought to know the details regarding the normalization process in preparing results with actual marks considered for equations. The application also sought the details of how normalization is applied in preparing results etc.

Application ID not Matching with Scorecard:

Health activist Dr. Dhruv Chauhan also highlighted the issue of several candidates, who found that their marks do not match for their application ID and roll number.

Commenting on this, he told Medical Dialogues, "It's not about having the issue of unexpected scores only, or percentile only, it's about having various other issues. There are various students, whose application ID and roll number both have different marks. It's not matching."

Referring to the discrepancies in the results and the doubts regarding the normalisation policy, he added, "There are a huge number of students who are saying on social media platforms that they never expected the ranks that they got from what they recall. Someone who was expecting 2000 ranks, shockingly got 28,000 rank. Several students got bad ranks when compared to last year, despite working very hard. If this was a confusion of only a few people, it would have been understandable. But it is a case of thousands of people who are complaining of a similar thing. How the normalisation was done? Nobody is aware of how it was done if it was done based on marks or percentile. Everyone wants clarity regarding this. "

"Releasing the answer key or scorecard is very important to avoid such confusion. The most important factor is the lack of transparency in releasing the results," he further mentioned.

Also Read: NEET PG 2024 Results OUT, Scorecards likely from August 30th, check details