NEET aspirants in Kota train for upcoming computer-based test

Jaipur: With the National Testing Agency (NTA) planning to conduct NEET-UG in computer-based test (CBT) mode from next year, students in Kota have begun preparing for the new format.Kota already has CBT lab capacity for more than 10,000 students, developed primarily for JEE aspirants.

The same infrastructure is now being used for NEET students, who are taking computer-based tests every three weeks on a rotational basis.

Coaching institutes are also preparing question banks to familiarise students with the new exam pattern.Manya Khare, a student from Madhya Pradesh preparing in Kota, said, “In CBT, we get to see one question at a time, whereas in the paper-based test, we could go through all the questions together and decide which ones to attempt first.

If difficult questions appear initially in CBT, it can affect a student’s confidence. This is also the time when we train ourselves to spend the least possible time on each question and return to difficult ones later.

”Students said CBT would help save time as there is no need to fill in OMR sheets and answers can simply be selected with a click.Samarth Chaudhary, a student from Bihar who moved to Kota in 2025 to prepare for NEET-UG, said solving diagram-based Physics questions is slightly more difficult in CBT mode.

“In CBT, we have to redraw the entire diagram on rough paper before solving it. However, we save time because there is no need to fill in an OMR sheet. In the past month, I have taken one full 720-mark test in CBT mode and several other mock tests with different marking schemes,” he said.Students also said that shifting from the pen-and-paper format is taking time, especially because they are accustomed to underlining keywords and important sentences in the question paper.“For me, learning to divide time judiciously for every question is the biggest challenge. Physics and Chemistry questions usually require more than a minute each, while Biology questions must be solved in less than a minute so that enough time is left for revision,” said Divyanshi Joshi, a student from Sawai Madhopur who has been preparing in Kota since 2025.