National Testing Agency (NTA) successfully conducted the National Eligibility Entrance Examination (NEET) 2021 today, September 12, 2021. Overall, the paper was easy in terms of the level of difficulty. Though continuing the tradition, Physics was most difficult while Biology and Chemistry were easy, according to test takers as well as educators’ popular opinion. Here is a detailed analysis of the NEET 2021 paper.
The exam was conducted in 3,858 centres across the country in the pen-and-paper format. A record-breaking 16.14 lakh candidates, barring a few absentees, have reportedly attended the national-level medical entrance examination. As per reports, the exam was conducted by following all the social-distancing norms and protocols.
NEET 2021 was an overall easy paper, termed as moderate by some. Physics was difficult for most candidates, and biology and chemistry were quite easy. It was a 3 hour long paper with a new exam pattern comprising optional questions. There were 16 question paper sets, each with same questions but in jumbled order. All papers had 200 multiple choice questions, of which 180 had to be answered. Marking was same as always, that is +4, -1.
There were 16 sets of question papers, namely – M1, M2, M3, M4, N1, N2, N3, N4, O1, O2, O3, O4, P1, P2, P3, P4.
This year, the exam pattern was different from past years – There were 4 subject-wise parts namely physics, chemistry, botany, zoology. Each part had two sections named as section-A, and section-B. Section-A of each subject had 35 MCQs, and section-B had 15. While all questions in section-A were compulsory (meaning one can attempt all), students had to attempt only 10 questions in section-B. The motive of having optional questions was to compensate for any loss of studies that students had in the session.
The UG medical entrance exam covers the class 11th, 12th syllabus pertaining to three subjects – Physics, Chemistry and Biology. Usually, questions from physics are tough and tricky to solve while the remaining two are comparatively simpler. Last year however, candidates found all three sections simple, with even Physics, which is a waterloo for most NEET aspirants, became a scoring subject. This year, however the trend reverted to normal with Physics being toughest while Chemistry and Biology were easy to solve.
In Biology, equal importance was given to topics from the NCERT class 11 and 12 syllabi. So, candidates who had thoroughly read the NCERT textbooks must have found this section to be easy as a breeze. As predicted, hot topics like Human Physiology, Ecology, Kingdom Animalia, Plant Kingdom, Environmental Issues, Reproduction and Biotechnology were predominantly asked in the NEET 2021 examination. However, other chapters were also given importance, making the overall section more uniform with respect to the syllabus.
This year, candidates could easily solve the NEET 2021 Chemistry section as emphasis was given to the usual chapters like Thermodynamics, Equilibrium, Solutions and Colligative Properties, Coordination Compounds and P-Block elements. Every NEET aspirants considers these chapters to be “hot topics” simply because they cover a huge chunk of questions in the examination. Naturally, a candidate who has thoroughly prepared these chapters would be able to score at least 150 marks out of 180 in Chemistry.
Unsurprisingly, Physics was of semi-difficult to very difficult for every student. This section featured questions from NCERT Class 11 chapters like Units & Measurements, Rotational Motion, Thermodynamics and Work, Energy & Power. In case of Class 12 syllabus, candidates found questions from chapters like Electrostatics, Current Electricity, Optics, Semiconductors, and EMI & AC. With such predictable chapters coming in the exam, candidates had to use straightforward formulae to solve the questions.
Overall, the paper was easy to moderate for candidates to solve. With such an easy paper and the level of competition this year, cut-offs for various colleges are bound to skyrocket!
