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In a student-friendly move, the Human Resource Development Ministry on Saturday announced that the JEE (Main), NEET (UG) exams will now be conducted twice from next year.
While addressing the media here, HRD Minister, Prakash Javadekar said, “Students have been demanding this. As the exams happen once in a year and if some mishap happens during that day than the entire year gets wasted due to which this decision has been taken”.
He added that the students will have an option to take the JEE (Main) and NEET (UG) exam twice a year.
Tentative schedule
According to the tentative schedule, JEE (Main) will be held in January 2019 and April 2019. On the other hand, NEET (UG) will take place in February 2019 and May 2019 and UGC-NET will be held in December 2018.
Meanwhile, competitive exams like JEE (Main), NEET (UG) and UGC-NET from this year would be conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA).
The agency will also conduct the Common Management Admission Test (CMAT) as well as Graduate Pharmacy Aptitude Test (GPAT) exams. Also, all these exams will now take place in computer-based format to ensure leak-proof exams.
The time table of the exams to be conducted by NTA would be uploaded on the ministry’s website. The IITs would continue to conduct JEE-Advanced exam, the Minister said.
No change in syllabus, pattern, fee
“The syllabus, nature of questions, language choice as well as the exam fee will not change, however, the method of exam is now going to be only computer-based”, said Javadekar.
The official statement said that the tests would 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.
Practice centres
To ensure that everyone has an opportunity to practice before the exam, the testing agency will establish a network of test practice centres for the students of the rural areas, the statement added.
Schools/engineering colleges with computer centres would be identified and kept open on Saturday/Sunday, starting from third week of August. Any student can use the facility free of charge.
The Union Cabinet in November 2017 approved NTA as an autonomous and self-sustained testing organisation to conduct the entrance examinations for higher educational institutions.
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