NEET 2020: NTA gears up for examination on September 13

New Delhi : After conducting examinations for IIT JEE Main (2020) from September 1 to 6, NTA is now gearing up for the NEET 2020 examination on September 13. 1,50,000 students have registered themselves for the examination this year despite coronavirus pandemic.

The Joint Entrance Exam (JEE Main), which began on September 1 for admission to engineering colleges, concluded on Sunday (September 6). While the official figures of attendees are not available, it is estimated that around 80 per cent of the students have taken the examination.

This figure is low, compared to previous years when attendance crossed 90 % for the engineering entrance exams, but officials feel that given the circumstances, a sizeable number of candidates have taken the test. The NTA did not officially release the figures on Sunday.

Since the JEE Main examination is now conducted twice a year, students are not worried as they will get the second chance after few months.

The exams are being conducted in September after being postponed twice in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to NTA officials, 1,597,000 candidates from across the country have registered for NEET, which is a pen-paper based test unlike JEE. In order to maintain social distancing, the NTA has increased the number of centres from 2,546 to 3,843 for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) while the number of candidates per room has been reduced from earlier 24 to 12.The NEET-UG was originally scheduled for May 3, but was pushed to July 26 and then scheduled for September 13.