Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
My paper went very well, but now all of this feels futile – 18-year-old boy who had appeared for NEET UG
It is just exhausting that we have to bear the brunt of someone else’s callousness – Seema, 17, appeared for NEET UG
The NEET-UG 2026 exam ended on May 3. Or at least, 22 lakh students thought it did.
For days after the examination, many aspirants across the country did what every exhausted NEET student dreams of doing after months — sometimes years — of preparation. They slept guilt-free. They stopped solving mock papers. Some finally watched shows they had put off for months. Others went out with friends after what felt like an eternity.
advertisement
And then came the announcement.
Following reports of a paper leak, the National Testing Agency (NTA) cancelled the exam on Tuesday, saying information gathered by law enforcement agencies indicated that the “present examination process could not be allowed to stand”. A fresh examination will now be conducted, with dates expected to be announced soon.
In one notification, relief turned back into uncertainty.
For students already running on academic exhaustion, the cancellation has done more than disrupt schedules. It has disrupted emotional recovery.
‘The momentum had cooled down. Then suddenly, this happened’
For Delhi-based student Aditya Uprety, the announcement felt unreal.
“I felt completely thunderstruck,” he says. “The exam happened on May 3 and this news came almost a week later. By then, the momentum of studies had practically cooled down.”
Aditya, who is also awaiting his CBSE Class 12 results, says he had finally allowed himself to mentally step away from the grind. Like many NEET aspirants, his life for the past two years revolved around coaching classes, revision schedules and performance pressure.
“There was a year-long sacrifice behind this,” he says. “Absolute hard work. You function almost like a robot preparing for NEET.”
Now, he says, students are being pushed back into a cycle they had only just escaped.
That emotional whiplash is exactly what mental health experts are worried about.
Not just an exam. A psychological timeline
“These competitive exams are not just academic tests alone,” says Dr Vivian Kapil, consultant psychiatrist at SRM Prime Hospital. “There are a lot of emotions attached to them, especially in a country like India.”
According to him, students preparing for exams like NEET or JEE often structure their entire lives around one fixed date. So when an exam is suddenly cancelled or postponed, it creates what experts describe as a loss of emotional structure.
“Clinically, we see heightened anxiety, irritability, sleep problems, emotional exhaustion and difficulty concentrating,” says Dr Kapil. “Students start feeling helpless because suddenly there is uncertainty everywhere.”
And uncertainty, experts say, is often harder to deal with than failure itself.
Students who believed they had performed well are now stuck in a strange emotional limbo. They cannot fully move on, but they also cannot fully restart. Some are terrified they will lose momentum. Others fear burnout if they begin preparing again immediately.
“Even thinking about what comes next creates anticipatory anxiety,” says Dr Kapil. “Students keep thinking — when will the exam dates be announced? Will the paper pattern change? Will I be able to perform the same way again?”
The emotional toll nobody talks about
What makes the situation particularly brutal is the sheer intensity of NEET preparation itself.
For lakhs of students, these are not ordinary school years. They are years defined by coaching institutes, endless mock tests, isolation, pressure and sacrifice. Many teenagers spend Class 11 and 12 in survival mode, often cutting off hobbies, vacations, celebrations and social life entirely.
“Students preparing for NEET spend one to two years in an intense high-pressure cycle,” says Ganesh Kohli, founder of IC3 (International Career and College Counselling). “When that fixed goal is suddenly removed, it creates a psychological vacuum — a loss of control, structure and purpose.”
Counsellors say the sudden stop-start nature of such disruptions affects students deeply because preparation for competitive exams relies heavily on rhythm.
“Students prepare with a certain momentum,” says Santosh Solanki, school counsellor, Dharav High School, Ajmer Road, Jaipur. “When exams are postponed or cancelled, that rhythm gets affected. Some students struggle to restart preparation with the same intensity, while others over-study out of anxiety and end up burning out.”
And burnout, experts say, is no longer rare among aspirants.
Many students today are functioning in a constant state of hyper-alertness — sleeping less, studying longer, worrying more. Add uncertainty to that environment, and the result is emotional exhaustion.
“This can lead to fatigue, irritability, lack of concentration and sleep issues,” says Solanki. “Students are unable to fully relax because they feel they have to remain prepared all the time.”
‘Parents become the invisible second victims’
The anxiety, however, rarely stays confined to students.
In India, competitive exams are often entire family projects.
Parents reorganise finances around coaching fees. Some families relocate to coaching hubs like Kota. Others spend lakhs on study material, travel and mock tests. Daily life inside homes begins revolving around ranks, schedules and cut-offs.
So when an exam collapses, parents collapse emotionally too.
“Parents are often the invisible second victims in examination disruptions,” says Kohli. “The financial and emotional investment suddenly gets put on hold, and many parents don’t know how to process that grief themselves.”
Dr Kapil says parents often internalise their child’s stress while simultaneously trying to appear calm.
“They themselves begin experiencing uncertainty, frustration and anxiety,” he says. “Many parents worry whether their own stress will affect their child’s confidence.”
And often, without realising it, homes begin turning into pressure chambers.
“Most conversations become performance-focused,” says Dr Kapil. “That increases emotional tension inside the household.”
Aditya says he saw exactly that happen after the announcement.
“My parents were very shook,” he says. “Relatives started calling immediately. Everyone was angry and frustrated.”
“The worst part is not even the re-exam. It is the waiting. Every day starts with checking news updates and social media for announcements. The house feels tense all the time,” says a parent whose ward just appeared for NEET UG.
“People think only students give NEET. In reality, the whole family gives it. We rearranged finances for coaching, cut down on expenses, and built our lives around this exam schedule. Now everything feels suspended again,” Nitin Srivastava, a parent tells India Today.
‘What students need right now is calm’
While experts acknowledge that maintaining fairness in an exam taken by lakhs of students is critical, many also say institutions need to recognise the emotional cost of such disruptions.
“What students need most right now is clarity,” says Solanki.
Kohli believes families also need to rethink how success is discussed at home during moments like these.
“Children benefit immensely when they are reminded that examinations are one chapter in life, not the entirety of it,” he says.
For now though, lakhs of students remain stuck in the same cycle — waiting for the next announcement, trying to regain lost momentum, and attempting to study through exhaustion.
Because for India’s NEET aspirants, the exam may have ended on paper.
Mentally, for many, it still hasn’t.
– Ends
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
