NEET vs JEE, CAT, UPSC: Why some national exams inspire more public trust

From NEET and JEE to UPSC and CAT, India's top competitive exams shape millions of careers. But recent controversies have exposed stark differences in how students view the credibility of exam systems

The NEET paper leak issue has reignited a broader debate: Why do some national-level exams such as UPSC, CAT and GATE continue to command relatively higher public trust, while the National Testing Agency (NTA) faces scrutiny over transparency, security and administrative reliability?

 

Set up in 2017 to streamline and standardise entrance examinations, the NTA was meant to bring transparency and consistency to the system. However, its image has increasingly been hit by paper leak controversies and repeated allegations of irregularities.

 

Unlike other national-level exams like the CAT, UPSC, GATE and CLAT, NEET is a large-scale examination where the number of appearing candidates runs into millions, far more than any other exam. In 2026, the exam was conducted for over 2.2 million aspirants on a single day.

 

 

All these exams are high-stakes gateways to careers and higher education, but public confidence in their systems varies sharply.

 

Testing agencies and exam owners

 

India’s major entrance and recruitment exams are conducted by different bodies. NTA conducts exams such as NEET-UG, JEE Main, CUET and UGC-NET. JEE Advanced is organised by an IIT on a rotational basis, while CAT is conducted by one of the IIMs each year. UPSC independently handles the civil services examination and other central recruitment tests. GATE is jointly conducted by IITs and IISc, CLAT by the consortium of NLUs, and CA exams by ICAI.

 

Exam formats also differ. NEET-UG and UPSC are still held in pen-and-paper mode, while JEE Main, CAT and GATE are computer-based. Some exams are conducted in a single session, while others are spread across multiple shifts or days to accommodate large numbers of candidates. Exam frequency varies too—NEET and UPSC are held once a year, whereas JEE Mains is held twice a year.

 

Why is NEET more vulnerable?

 

Experts say NEET’s biggest vulnerability lies in its scale and format. Conducted in a single day through a three-hour pen-and-paper mode, the exam determines the future of over 2.2 million candidates annually. Its nationwide, single-session nature requires massive infrastructure, logistics and manpower, involving multiple agencies and personnel, which experts say increases the risk of paper leaks and irregularities.

 

Founder of Career360, Maheshwer Peri, spoke to Business Standard and said the exam needs to be localised and decentralised, arguing that the current format puts the future of millions at risk. He said repeated irregularities and recurring paper leak allegations have steadily eroded public trust in the examination system and the agencies conducting it.

 

“Paper leaks are happening repeatedly, students are suffering, and people are beginning to question the integrity of the system,” he said.

 

Experts also point out that much of NEET’s operational work is outsourced, making tighter monitoring more difficult. Reports have also flagged staff shortages within the NTA. UPSC, meanwhile, conducts its examinations through its own institutional framework.

 

The agency is said to have just 25 permanent employees, with the government having created 16 additional posts after the 2024 controversy. But only three joint directors had joined so far, while the NTA continued to rely on 43 contractual employees, according to an HT report.  

 

Why JEE, CAT, and GATE exams inspire more confidence

 

The digital format reduces dependence on printing, transporting and storing physical question papers, considered major points of vulnerability in paper leaks. Since GATE, JEE, and CAT use encrypted digital question delivery and different shifts with score normalisation, a single breach is less likely to affect all candidates at once.

 

The way forward

 

On Friday, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that from 2027, NEET-UG will be conducted online, much like JEE.

 

Pradhan said, "After the irregularities that surfaced last time, the Radhakrishnan Committee had been constituted, and we implemented its recommendations. Despite that, this incident occurred. Hence, our first decision was to cancel the examination."

 

After the NEET-UG 2024 controversy, the K Radhakrishnan committee recommended a series of reforms, including biometric and AI-based candidate verification, encrypted digital question paper delivery, multi-session exams and standardised testing centres.

 

The panel proposed a hybrid model in which question papers would be sent to secure servers shortly before the exam and printed at centres using high-speed printers to minimise leak risks during transportation. Other recommendations included stronger regulation of the coaching industry, better school education systems, mobile exam centres for rural areas and a nationwide digital testing ecosystem called “DigiExam”.

 

However, reports suggest that even basic measures such as effective CCTV surveillance at centres remain a challenge.