This news may give some relief to medical aspirants. A committee set up by the Medical Council of India has recommended that there should be a percentile score and no negative marking to determine the merit of applicants in the proposed National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to MBBS courses for 2012. The suggestion of not having negative marking was rooted in concerns of low scores by applicants in the entrance exam.
Till now students would lose one mark for every wrong answer and not losing marks instead of scoring became their priority. As a result, students sometimes ended up not answering questions.
Dr Ranjani Iyer, who has taught first year medical students, feels that this move will ease a lot of pressure on students and make them confident enough to attempt all questions. “Negative marking takes away from a student’s performance as he is scared of losing marks. As the percentile marking has been successful in other competitive exams, its implementation here will ensure that students are able to sit for the exam more confidently,” she says.
Seconds engineering student Ankush Thakur, “It surprises me that the MCI is yet to introduce the percentile system, which has worked successfully for CAT exams. If the paper is tough, everyone scores low, but the toppers will still have more than 90 percentile.”
However, others like Rachit Kinger, an IIM Lucknow passout, feel that negative marking ensures that the student is absolutely sure about his answer, which is a good thing. But it can also backfire as negative marking is a deterrent for those who just love to guess.
“I cannot think of any reason why negative marking could be bad for tests which are more logical in nature. Negative marking forces the student to be strategic in his answers. And if you are guessing you probably have 20 per cent chance of getting something right and 80 per cent of getting it wrong. For every five guesses chances are that he will get one right, so it increases his overall marks but that is not what education is all about,” explains Rachit.
Solving a problem in the exam not only asks for theoretical knowledge but it also tests students for systematic thinking and logical reasoning which is a prerequisite for any profession. “In the absence of negative marking, problem-solving ability of students will be deeply affected,” feels medical student Varun Ghoreta.