Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The wannabe doctors and their teachers heaved a sigh of relief with the National Testing Agency (NTA) notifying changes in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) syllabus.
First, because the changes have been announced fairly in advance (NEET will be conducted on May 5, 2024). This means that the aspirants will not have to cope with last-minute changes.
Second, they will not have to go beyond their Class 11-12 syllabus to prepare for the exam. And third, as topics which required mugging have been replaced with those which require understanding and logical reasoning to comprehend.
The NTA announced on Wednesday that it had shortened the syllabus for the NEET-UG to align it with the curriculum of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and state boards.
“This is fruitful for the students. They will not have to study anything more than their school syllabus,” Asha Bais, who teaches biology at Government Subhash Excellence School, said.
Educationist Rishikesh Sharma said that with the new syllabus, the students can just focus on their school books. “Changes that were made in the NCERT books in accordance with the New Education Policy (NEP) have now been incorporated in the NEET syllabus. Some outdated topics have been removed,” he said.
Another educationist Randheer Singh said that the topics that required mugging have been dropped and those that need logical thinking have been added. “This goes in favour of the students,” he added.
Singh said topics like ‘Environmental Chemistry’ and ‘Hydrogen, The s-block elements’ mainly involved rote learning have been dropped. However, he said that the removal of the topic ‘Digestion and Absorption’ was baffling as it figures in the MBBS syllabus, too.
Ankit Dwivedi, a Class 12 student and preparing for NEET, however, had a slightly different take. “Yes, some topics have been dropped, but we will still have to study them as they are fundamental topics and without them, it would be difficult to understand other topics,” he said.
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