Tense faces could be seen outside many NEET centres on Sunday as several medical aspirants said they had a tough paper to answer.

The second phase of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) was conducted across the country, including 16 examination centres in Patna. Roughly 4.7 lakh candidates registered for the test, introduced on the directives of the Supreme Court for a single entrance test to medical and dental courses in government and private medical colleges. Candidates had to answer 180 questions in as many minutes and a lot of them claimed the paper was tough compared to the last NEET on May 1. "The paper, especially the biology section, was tough," said Shristi Priya, a student of Anandram Dhandhania Saraswati Vidya Mandir, Bhagalpur, outside her exam centre - Kendriya Vidyalaya, Bailey Road. "Even the physics and chemistry sections were tough compared to the last NEET on May 1 and last year's All India Pre Medical Test."

Anamika Sinha, another medical aspirant, concurred. "The standard of questions was higher than what is taught to us with NCERT books in classes XI and XII. A lot of the questions were conceptual," she said. Anamika is although happy with the introduction of NEET as it lessens burden on students to appear in multiple tests.

Each question in Sunday's exam carries four marks, taking the total marks to 720. But for every wrong answer, 1/4th of the marks will be deducted.

Bipin Kumar Singh, director of a medical preparatory coaching institute in Patna, said: "The questions were tricky and required the students to apply their minds. In the biology section, which is considered the deciding factor for clearing the test, majority of questions was from botany."

"We will declare our answer keys by the evening but we expect the cut-off to be around 69 per cent in general category," Singh added.

The examination did not pass without its fair share of trouble. Several girls lodged a case against principals and teachers for forcing them to remove their veils and dupatta, and video recording them without permission in name of checking use of unfair means. A case has been registered under sections 354 and 295 of the Indian Penal Code.

CBSE, the examination conducting agency, will prepare the merit list based on NEETs on May 1 and Sunday. However, candidates who have not surrendered their May 1 scores and still appeared in Sunday's will have their results cancelled. The result will be declared on August 17.