‘Mental Trauma’: NEET Aspirants Slam Exam Cancellation After Paper Leak Allegations

After the Centre cancelled the NEET UG 2026 exam amid allegations of paper leak and examination irregularities, a NEET aspirant, Yuvraj Singh, said that the news induces "mental trauma" in those who cleared the exam with hard work, calling the paper leak "an annual occurrence."

Singh, preparing to appear for NEET UG 2027, expressed the fear that the students of his batch already feel.

He said that the students who studied hard for the exam held on May 3 must have been impacted adversely by the news of the re-examination.

“This is happening to people who are working very hard. Now think about that person who scored 650 plus marks; their seat in a Government Medical College was certain, and they must have been spending quality time with their family, but now that they've heard this news, imagine the mental trauma they must be in," he said.

Another aspirant criticised the National Testing Agency (NTA) over the administration lapses, questioning how the paper got leaked despite supervision, calling the incident "traumatic."

"If such a big agency such as NTA claims that it has GPS tracked vehicles, then it is not good when such a thing happens. After working so hard, when such a thing happens, it is traumatic," she said.

"This is a dream for the children, the parents, and the families, and to fulfill this dream, it's not just a matter of one or two months of hard work; many children have been preparing since sixth or seventh grade,” he said.

“For those who score very well and are good at their studies, taking the exam again isn't a massive issue, but think about it: if you have to repeat a task over and over again... Even Prime Minister Modi and various agencies talk a lot about children's mental health. Think of those children who worked hard and today they are being told that no, you have to take the exam again in a month or a month and a half,” he added.

Will shifting NEET to an online mode solve recurring paper leak issues?

“They were ready to live their dream, thinking they would be starting college in just two months, but what happened today? And this problem is recurring; there is a way to solve it. We have been repeatedly demanding that this exam should be conducted online. If this exam goes online, this problem will be uprooted; the issue of paper leaks will never exist again," he said.

An aspirant from Lucknow seconded the opinion and called for the NTA to change the medium of the examination to online so as to avoid the hassle for the students.

"We cannot do anything about it now that it has been suspended. We are disappointed... The NTA should change the medium of the exam... We will have to travel again," he said.

As per the NTA, 22.79 lakh students appeared for the exam on May 3, which was held across 551 cities in India and 14 cities abroad, covering more than 5,400 centres.

(With inputs from ANI)