As the countdown to the June 21 NEET-UG re-exam enters its final phase, hostels, classrooms, and coaching corridors in Rajasthan's coaching city of Sikar have become arenas of relentless revision and quiet anxiety. Here's what's happening in India's NEET coaching capital.
Aspirants sit for a mock test in Sikar as the Rajasthan city's coaching centres enter the last phase of NEET-UG re-exam preparations. (Image: Ankit Kumar Dwivedi)
At 4.30 am, a warm June morning, Shruthi was already at her study table in Rajasthan's Sikar. The city, often called India's NEET coaching capital, was still asleep. But for thousands of medical aspirants preparing for the NEET-UG re-examination on June 21 , the day had begun long before sunrise. In fact, there was little gap between when the last day ended and the new one began.
Like many students here, the 20-year-old had stretched her study hours, sacrificed sleep, and battled exhaustion to prepare for an examination she never expected to write twice.
"Every day, waking up early in the morning, I felt that for the last examination (NEET-UG 2026), I had gained the pace due to one year of practice. Suddenly, after the paper leak, the re-test was announced within a month, and now I have only two days left. It has been a hard path to transit, and today is the mock test in my coaching centre," Shruthi told India Today Digital.
Friday is significant in Sikar's academic calendar. Across the city's giant coaching campuses, students appeared for their final mock tests before the re-NEET examination. It was the last rehearsal before the real test for these students.
Students arrive at their coaching institutes in Sikar for a mock test ahead of the re-NEET examination. Students are seen travelling by bicycle, scooter, and on foot. Aspirants make their way to coaching campuses across the city during the final days of preparation. (Images: Avinash Kateel)
The NEET-UG is the all-India entrance test that is used to select students for graduation-level medical and dental courses. While Sikar emerged as a younger cousin of Kota, the hub of coaching in India, it has stolen a march when it comes to the medical entrance exam.
From the stretches of Piprali Road to the lanes around major coaching institutes, students carrying notebooks and water bottles streamed towards their centres under the scorching afternoon sun. Some revised formulae while walking. Others sat on roadside benches, hostel staircases, and coaching reception halls, trying to revise in a few more chapters before the test began at 2 pm.
Sikar appeared to be caught in a familiar yet unusual frenzied mode of preparation by students sitting for the NEET-UG re-examination.
WHY IT'S DIFFICULT FOR STUDENTS TO SIT FOR NEET-UG AGAIN
The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG), conducted on May 3 and attended by over 22 lakh candidates across India, was cancelled on May 12 after chemistry teacher Shashikant Suthar from Sikar exposed that the NEET question papers had been circulated in the guise of "guess papers" weeks before the examination. The National Testing Agency (NTA), the body that conducts the NEET exams, decided to hold a re-examination on June 21.
For many students, the real challenge is not preparing for the re-exam, but rather being prepared again after giving their everything in the last examination.
Students preparing for such entrance exams plan their schedule for months with study hours peaking towards the day of the exam. It is a gruelling task where they give up on socialising, entertainment and even sleep. It is difficult to repeat such intensive exercise in such a brief period.
The NEET paper leak in May controversy shattered months — and in some cases years — of preparation for students.
Aspirants who believed their journey was over suddenly found themselves reopening books, restarting routines, and rebuilding momentum.
For Kaushal, who is from Haryana, the re-examination required starting from scratch in an unexpected way. Confident of scoring over 650 marks in the examination held on May 3, he sold his study materials after NEET-UG 2026 and left for Qatar, where his father works, on a holiday.
A score of 650 and above can ensure admission to a good government medical college.
The NEET-UG re-test was announced on the day Kaushal landed in Qatar. He flew back the following day, collected books and notes and started all over again.
"There is no use sitting and sulking about what has happened. This system won't change, and I don't blame anyone. We have to be positive in mindset and prepare well for the examination," the 20-year-old told India Today Digital.
"Sikar has helped me build a competitive mindset, and the ecosystem here keeps me motivated," he said.
Students say Sikar's education-centric atmosphere keeps them motivated and focused on their studies. They add that the intense competition visible across the city encourages them to remain disciplined and dedicate more time to preparation.…
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