With the NTA (National Testing Agency) expected to declare the JEE Main 2022 Session 2 result on Sunday, August 7, candidates across India have highlighted irregularities in the conduct of the second session by the government body.
Candidates across India describe loopholes in conduct of the exam
From exam centres to response sheets, candidates allege that there have been hindrances during the JEE session 2 examinations.
“If results are released today, it will be the end all, be all for us,” said Bhukya Manav Naik, a JEE aspirant from the southern state of Telangana, who took his exam in Hyderabad. “While taking the exam, my system server expired twice, once before and once during the exam. The administrator at the centre looked into the issue and took some 12 minutes to set it up again but after some 45-50 minutes when my server again faced some issues, I was asked to wait for another 15 minutes,” said Manav, who added that options chosen by him during the exam as answers didn't match the options mentioned in the response sheet.
Manav is not the only candidate who had problems with the conduct of the examination, aspirants from different parts of India have had their ordeals with JEE Main Session 2.
'Seat wasn't changed despite facing issues'
“My exam centre was in Kota. Even before the exam, my system was constantly getting disconnected so I alerted the officials. The officials there didn’t pay much attention and asked everyone to not kick or stomp the cable wires beneath. The issue didn’t stop as it happened 7-8 times again, once in the presence of an NTA official who asked one of the supervisors present there to check the problem again. My seat wasn’t changed though I requested it,” said Harshit Singh, a JEE aspirant from Kota who also found his choice of answers in the response did not match the original options. “We didn’t have an issue during the examination in the first session,” added Harshit.
A test centre near Pakistan
Certain aspirants claim that the allotted centre was supposed to be in a different district from the one shown on their admit card. “The timing of my test was from 3 to 6 PM in Patti, Punjab, a city close to the Pakistan border according to the admit card but the original venue in the slip containing advance information had Amritsar as the city of examination,” said Shashwat Shakya, who found the city to be 47 kilometres away from Amritsar and its centre, Shaheed Bhagat Singh college, being in an extremely poor condition.
A copy of the query sent by Shashwat to the NTA, which the Free Press Journal has, shows that the testing body has said that the exam centres are chosen on a random basis, without any human intervention, and candidates are allotted the same based on the choices made in their online application form. It also mentions that due to administrative/logistical reasons, a different city can be allotted.
“My server disconnected between the exam and some of my answers got unmarked. I constantly saw the message NTA server client error on the window which would mean it’s an error on the part of the body,” claimed Shashwat.
Some like Keshav Ojha, though didn’t find an issue with their exam centre, alleged major misconduct. “Around 8 questions are being shown ‘not attempted’ in the response sheet though I attempted all of them,” said Keshav, who sat for the exam in Jabalpur.
What the Supreme Court has said
The Supreme Court on Friday, July 29, instructed the National Testing Agency (NTA) to allow 15 students to participate in the additional session of the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main 2022 scheduled on July 30, who experienced technical difficulties in the first session.
The court was considering a petition filed by Gaurav Bhairava and others, who claimed that when they took part in the JEE Main 2022's first session, which took place between June 23 and June 29, they encountered numerous technical difficulties, including server problems, questions that wouldn't load, and other issues, which caused many candidates to lose a lot of time. “We want the NTA to conduct the third attempt for us as well as there are thousands who have faced technical glitches, wrong response sheets, etc,” said Deepti Alle, who was shocked to see her response sheet having option number (d) marked for all answers, which is not the same as the actual options she selected.
FPJ reached out to the Director General of NTA, Dr. Vineet Joshi, for a comment but has not received a response yet.
