(Graphics by Abhishek Mitra)

According to the National Testing Agency (NTA), SC, ST and OBC candidates must score 50th percentile in NEET-UG to be eligible for counselling. The equivalent marks range for 50th percentile this year is 116 – 93. This is a sharp decline from last year’s cut-off range, which was at 137 – 108 marks and even lower than the previous all-time low of 2018, when qualifying marks for reserved categories were pegged in the range of 118-97.

Meanwhile, the qualifying scores for the general category this year also saw a marginal decline, going from 720 – 138 marks in 2021 to 715-117.

Experts who spoke to this newspaper said the drop in qualifying marks for quota candidates could be because of multiple reasons. “There are year-to-year variations in the cut-offs for any competitive exam depending on the pattern of the question paper. Perhaps, it was a tough question paper this year,” said the dean of one of the renowned medical colleges in Delhi, on condition of anonymity.

Another pointed to the pandemic-induced lockdown, online classes and varied accessibility to resources as possible reasons behind the drop in cut-offs for the reserved category.

“When it comes to those belonging to different categories, if you look at the last two years, who was going to school? Who went to the coaching centres? No one. Everything largely happened online. And, when we talk about the have-nots, it affected them more. A student from Delhi can perhaps attend all classes online. Accessibility was an issue for people from poorer households and those who live in far-flung areas. How could they have assured uninterrupted power and internet connection?” said Dr Yatish Agarwal, Dean of the university school of medical and paramedical health sciences at Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University.

The decline in cut-off marks for reserved category candidates is similar to the trend noticed in the qualifying scores to take the upcoming JEE Advanced 2022. Candidates must appear for JEE-Main first to sit for the JEE-Advanced, the gateway exam for admission to the 23 IITs. Every year, NTA brings out a cut-off for JEE-Main examinees to qualify further for the IIT entrance test.

As reported by The Indian Express last month, to qualify to sit for JEE-Advanced, SC candidates should have scored 43.08 percentile, down from 46.8 in 2021, 50.1 in 2020, and 54.01 in 2019. Cut-off for ST students to appear for JEE-Advanced, meanwhile, was 26.7 this time, a sharp decline from 34.6 in 2021. It was 39.06 in 2020 and 44.3 in 2019.

IIT directors had also pointed to the disruption caused by the pandemic as one of the reasons behind this. “The impact of the pandemic has been different for diverse sections of society. Learning outcomes of those candidates who are from the reserved category may have been more affected compared to the general category students,” Prof. V Ramgopal Rao, former Director of the IIT Delhi, had told this newspaper.

This year, the first rank in the NEET (UG) examination was achieved by Tanishka, from the OBC-NCL category. She is the first OBC candidate to top the exam since 2017. She obtained 715 marks, with a percentile score of 99.9997733. The second and third rank was obtained by Vatsa Ashish Batra and Hrishikesh Nagbhushan Gangule respectively, both candidates are from the general category and obtained 715 marks in the NEET (UG) 2022 examination.

The qualifying range for the reserved category was highest in 2020 with the scores of 146-113. The general category cut-off for 2020 also saw the highest scores with 720-147.

According to the Information brochure released by the National Testing Agency (NTA) earlier this year, reservations in government medical colleges is 10 per cent for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS), 15 per cent for SC, 7.5 per cent for ST, and 27 per cent for all OBC-NCL candidates in the central list.