Negative marking only as tie-breaker in MBBS entrance exam: MCI

Updated on: Tuesday, October 11, 2011

The MCI has decided that negative marking would not be used in next year's proposed MBBS entrance examination to reduce the marks but resorted to only to break a tie between candidates securing the same marks.

Taking the decision at a full meeting of the Board headed by K K Talwar today, MCI decided negative marking would not be used for reducing the scores of candidates in the examination but only for determining the merit in case of a tie between various candidates having the same scores in the proposed National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to MBBS courses from the next year.
  
An expert committee constituted to look into modalities of the proposed single entrance test for admission to all MBBS courses across India had earlier recommended that there should be no negative marking in the exam.
 
The Council also accepted the recommendation of the expert committee for having objective type questions.    

The Committee had also recommended percentile score to determine the merit of all applicants in NEET next year.
   
It will be for the first time the centrally-conducted medical entrance test for undergraduate courses in India will not have negative marking.
 
Sources said the suggestion for not having negative marking was rooted in concerns over low scores by candidates in the entrance exam, leading to MBBS seats going vacant in various medical colleges in the country due to lack of merit.
 
Such concerns have been voiced primarily by north-eastern states which fear that their students may not match up to others in the all-India merit in the NEET.

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