India voided this year’s Neet examination on May 12, days after nearly 2.3 million aspiring doctors sat the test in India and in Doha, Dubai, Singapore and Kathmandu. The government said another exam would be held later, a decision that jolted students and families who had spent years preparing for a single score that can decide whether they enter medical school.
For Pradeep, 21, the cancellation landed like a blow after five years of preparation at a private coaching centre, including his last two years of high school. He had already taken Neet twice before and failed to get the marks needed to qualify, yet his answer-key score this time was more than 650 marks. In a country with less than 130,000 spots in medical colleges for the 2024 exam, that number once looked like a door opening.
Neet scores determine not just whether an aspirant can study medicine, but which colleges are even within reach. India has hundreds of private medical colleges, but its public-funded schools remain among the most sought-after and are heavily subsidised. Private medical colleges can charge more than $100,000, putting them far beyond the reach of most families and making every mark on the exam feel like a verdict on an entire household’s future.
That pressure helps explain the anger that spilled into the streets after the exam was voided. Thousands of students protested, accusing the system of failing them after months and years of sacrifice. The government’s move came amid allegations of a paper leak and repeated frustration among students and parents who had built their lives around a test that, for now, no longer counts.
Pradeep’s story is one of many, but it captures the cost in plain terms. His coaching alone cost more than 500,000 rupees over three years, and his father, Rajesh Kumar, said he sold ancestral land and exhausted almost all his savings to fund the dream. “O mharo beta… O mharo doctor beta… wapas aa ja. Thari kitaaban thane bula ri hain. Ab main inka kya karun?” he said. He also recalled the moment his son emerged from the hall after the exam: “The moment he walked out of the examination hall, he hugged me, broke into tears, and said, ‘Papa, this time I have become a doctor,’” Kumar said.
The cancellation has now turned what was supposed to be a gateway into another waiting game. Four students who appeared for the exam died by suicide after the May events, a grim marker of how much Neet has come to carry in India’s fiercely competitive medical admissions system. The next test will decide whether the promise of fairness can be restored, or whether this year’s exam will be remembered mainly for the confidence it broke.
