WBJEE Board’s model answer key leaves medical aspirants miffed

Confusion prevailed among medical aspirants in the state after the West Bengal Joint Entrance Examinations (WBJEE) Board has published a model answer key which is reportedly full of errors.

The model answer key has been published so that candidates who have appeared in the state medical entrance examination can verify their answers.

It has also invited applications from the students to point out errors if they find any in the answer key. However, for this, each student has to pay Rs 1,000 to the board if he or she writes to it mentioning an error in the answer key.

The students have questioned why they would have to pay the amount for the errors that have been committed by the joint board. This means that if 1,000 students write to the board pointing to the errors committed in the model answer key, all of them would have to the amount each.

The medical aspirants also said that in spite of their appeals, the WBJEE board refused to publish a primary answer key. If a primary answer key had been published, the board could have taken feedback of the students, their guardians and the teachers on the basis of which it could prepare a model answer key. Had this process been followed, the model answer key would have been devoid of any errors.

Dr AK Maity, who trains several medical aspirants in the state, said that there were altogether around 7-8 mistakes in Biology, Physics and Chemistry. Around, 75,500 medical aspirants appeared in the medical entrance examination this year.

The board has asked the students to submit their application mentioning the errors if any between August 10 and 13. The applications will be thoroughly reviewed by the experts of the board from August 14-20. The final answer key will be published on August 20.

Medical aspirants have pointed fingers at the board, asking why it did not publish a primary answer key. As a result, the students are in a fix whether or not they should submit applications suggesting correction of the errors. 

They also questioned the role of the WBJEE board after the shocking move to charge each student Rs 1,000 for the application. “Why should the students pay the penalty for the mistakes of the board,” said one vexed student.