NEET: How exam scandals are tainting India’s most competitive tests

None of this comforts Archit.

For the past two years, he had given up his social life – avoiding even meeting friends – and studied up to 12 hours daily for one of the world’s most competitive exams. Scoring 620 out of the final 720 marks, he secured an all-India rank of 53,000.

“This has come as a shock. There’s a lot of anxiety. I have a friend who sat for the exam for the fifth consecutive time this year. Imagine his state. Imagine if we have to sit for a retest. I have forgotten so many things,” says Archit.

India’s examination system is in chaos. To be sure, cheating and paper leaks have long plagued exams. But now, major exams managed by the state-run National Testing Agency (NTA), including those taken by Kavya and Archit, appear compromised. In the past month, alleged paper leaks and manipulated marks in these exams have put the futures of 3.5 million aspirants at risk. Last week, three other public exams conducted by the government were either cancelled or postponed, affecting another 1.3 million candidates.

“Things have gotten worse. There’s a mafia-like nexus of teachers, touts and people who run exam centres which is creating this situation,” says Maheshwer Peri, an educationist who has been tracking paper leaks.