India blocks Telegram ahead of scandal-hit medical school entrance exam

India has decided to block messaging service Telegram for a few days to reduce the chance of scams targeting over two million people taking a single exam that has already provoked a national scandal. The exam is called the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and is the only way to earn a place to study medicine in …

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Simple solution

Include a question about the effectiveness of vaccines and the online answers will be wrong

[IGotOut]

Hmmm

I'd thought we'd relish this quote in here like children that we are.

"National Eligibility cum Entrance Test"

[John Miles]

Re: Hmmm

Then you'll like this direction sign On Google Maps (to Shingay-cum-Wendy & Bassingbourn-cum-Kneesworth) - in these cases it just means "with" - so Shingay with Wendy

[TimMaher]

Re: National Eligibility cum Entrance Test

I thought NEETs didn’t work.

[Pascal Monett]

Here's an idea

Just put a smartphone signal-blocking system in the test centers.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Here's an idea

Not sure this is about cheating during the exam, it's about confidence that it's a level playing field isn't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Here's an idea

It is all about cheating.

[doublelayer]

Re: Here's an idea

That wouldn't prevent any of the things they mentioned in the article. It probably would prevent a lot of ways people might actually cheat, but when they go this nuclear out of someone doctoring an image to suggest cheating which they themselves declare wasn't real, who knows what they would do for someone actually cheating. They might actually subject test takers to an EMP as suggested by comments two weeks ago.

[katrinab]

Re: Here's an idea

They presumably have invigilators checking that students don't use phones during the exam session.

I think this is more about them having advance warning about what to focus their revision on.

[Rattus]

Re: Here's an idea

You are assuming that they are physical attendance exams - for 2 million candidates? I suspect that this will be 'on-line'

However it is possible to have many exam centres, but now you run into the problem of staggered exam times (either because of the size of the country, and / or to allow multiple sittings at the same address)

Note: I am only inferring from the article and have no Idea if the entrance exam is IRL or online, but given the sheer numbers I would be very surprised if this isn't online- if only to allow speedy automatic & hopefully corruption free grading

/Rattus

[doublelayer]

Re: Here's an idea

If it was online, the everyone taking it at the same time option with questions unavailable until right then would become more practical. In fact, it is in person at a fixed set of testing locations. Still, I'd think that the extra cost of making people take it at the same time across all those locations is less than state-wide internet blocks.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

NEET - a tale of two countries...

India - National Eligibility cum Entrance Test

UK - (Young people ) Not in Education, Employment or Training

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: NEET - a tale of two countries...

Which one has an archaic caste system that ensures only a favoured privileged set of students would be accepted to medical school based on what their fathers did?

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Re: NEET - a tale of two countries...

Icon...

[Ian Johnston]

Re: NEET - a tale of two countries...

I know of one Russel Group medical school which at one time gave extra points in their admissions rankings to children of doctors on the grounds that they understood what the life of a doctor entailed. They also gave points to candidates who played rugby (but not football) for their schools and to those who played classical instruments (but not pop/rock instruments). By a curious coincidence their student body was overwhelmingly upper middle class and privately educated.

That was 30 years ago, but I suspect that admitting People Like Us is still very much a thing. After all, who could make better doctors than 18 year olds motivated by status and money?

[fg_swe]

Crazies

One can see how backwards India is. Punish the mailman for illegal letters. Next time include the mailman WhatsApp, the swiss one and DeltaChat ?

Here is the protip:

1.) Ministry sends the test questions to all test centers, AES/GPG encrypted.

2.) All tests are done at exactly same time. Testees must appear 15 minutes before.

3.) Keys for test questions are broadcast by Ministry 5 minutes before 2.

Then the miscreants can do nothing of value by leaking questions.

[Ian Johnston]

Re: Crazies

And if the miscreants obtain the questions before they are encrypted?

[doublelayer]

Re: Crazies

How would they do that? Find out, and that's what you prevent next time. If it's important enough to switch off the internet for millions of unrelated people just to make sure they don't hear a rumor about cheating that's not even true, it's important enough to take a few steps to prevent actual cheating, right?

In my opinion, it would be less drastic to lock all those writing the exam into a hotel from the time they start writing to the time the exams have been taken. I don't think they have to go that far either, but we're dealing with some rather extreme reactions, and at that point there are lots of choices that work better than turning off one messaging app, which will do nothing, or switching off the internet altogether, which will but even more painfully.

[fg_swe]

Re: Crazies

Until the keys are broadcast, only 3 servants in the ministry know the set of questions. They are hopefully well enough paid to keep the ship from leaking. If not, jail the leaker.

There are much more important secrets kept by much larger teams inside governments.

[kz20fl2]

India in scamming shocker.

[Anonymous Coward]

Scams all the way down

If only they had police in India.