NEET UG, JEE papers ‘too hard’ for students; govt panel analysis flags school curriculum-exam gap: Report

A government panel report has revealed major “gap” and “mismatch” between school curriculum and entrance exam requirements, resulting National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET UG) and Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) question papers being too difficult for average students, the Economic Times reported.

Citing an analysis of NEET UG and JEE question papers, the report stated that the difficulty level of the entrance exams is “too hard” for students, including a “substantial gap” between prevailing school curriculum competencies and entrance exam assessment.

“NEET UG data from 2023, 2024 and 2025 was studied and it shows that the paper was harder than the candidature. Physics, in case of NEET-UG, was found furthest out and far too hard for students in all three years, as per the draft report currently under examination by the education ministry,” the report added.

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Physics kept getting harder than Bio in NEET UG: Govt panel

As per the analysis in the report further showed that the average paper in NEET UG was tougher than the average candidate.

It also revealed that Physics kept getting harder than Biology and as most students aligned well below the paper’s level, a single mark difference can increase or decrease rank by a thousand points.

Furthermore, the JEE exam is conducted in two shifts to select students for engineering programmes. The education ministry did an analysis of JEE 2025 two shifts to reveal the difficulty level of questions against student ability, the report read.

“A study of question papers across all ten shifts revealed that the level of difficulty was higher than the preparedness of candidates who appeared for the exam. In each shift, candidate performance was concentrated towards the lower end of the score distribution and a very small percentage of students could achieve high scores, it was found,” the report said.

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Govt recommends 6-month gap between school board, entrance exams

Hence, the report results in a significant gap between knowledge and competencies gained through existing school curriculum and students assessed in entrance exams, the report added.

The analysis also made few recommendations to the education ministry, emphasising the need to align NCERT and board curricula with JEE, NEET exams, along with taking school curriculum across boards to provide neutral ground for students, it read.

The report concluded by also suggesting to the education ministry the need for a six-month gap between school board and entrance exams, and the entrance test should have held at least twice a year.