The train from Rudrapur to Kota was already full when 25-year-old Yash Gangwar and his cousin Arthik boarded it on May 14. There were no AC tickets left. The region was in the grip of a heatwave, but the two NEET aspirants could not afford to wait. “We had to return immediately. We had to start preparing again,” Yash told The Indian Express from Kota.
Across the country, thousands of medical college aspirants are making the same journey back to Kota after the National Testing Agency (NTA) cancelled NEET-UG 2026 following allegations of a multi-state paper leak. With the re-examination scheduled for June 21, students who had only just returned home after the May 3 exam are once again moving into hostel rooms and coaching classrooms, even as institutes scramble to launch emergency crash courses, free test series and counselling support.
Within hours of the cancellation announcement, the city’s coaching industry had begun reorganising itself around what students are now calling “Re-NEET”.
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At Motion Education in Kota, founder and CEO Nitin Vijay said the institute was redesigning its support system around what he described as an “emergency situation”. “The three things students need most right now are test papers, practice and lecture revision,” he said.
The institute will conduct daily live revision lectures on YouTube, provide free practice material and test papers through its app, and create customised study plans based on weak chapters identified for each student. Around 40 to 50 per cent of its roughly 6,000-6,500 students are expected to return for physical classes, which will include daily sessions, tests, discussions and personalised homework.
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“Students are emotionally exhausted… Teachers, parents and students all have to work together to keep them mentally strong,” Vijay said.
Aakash Educational Services Limited announced a dedicated “Victory Batch” for Re-NEET aspirants at a nominal fee of Rs 99, while making the programme free for already enrolled students. Classes began on May 16 across centres nationwide and included chapter-wise tests, NEET-pattern practice papers, revision sessions focused on high-weightage topics and post-test discussions.
Edtech platform Physics Wallah has launched “Mission 30 NEET 2026” for students appearing in the re-examination. Running from May 14 through mid-June, the programme includes daily live classes streamed through PW’s Competition Wallah YouTube channel, complete syllabus revision, handwritten notes, formula sheets, mind maps, video solutions and 12 full-length tests. Students can attempt these tests online through the PW app or in person at nearby offline centres.
The company has also introduced one-to-one emotional wellbeing support through “PW Prerna” counsellors and in-person helpdesks at offline centres for students navigating travel, accommodation and re-exam anxiety.
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The head of a prominent coaching institute in Kota said the economics behind such initiatives were more manageable for large coaching companies than they appeared. “Strategically speaking, for giant coaching centres, this is quite affordable,” he said. “One reason is genuine goodwill — institutes understand that students are under tremendous emotional stress after the cancellation. But these are also already scalable systems.”
Most large institutes, he said, already have faculty, digital infrastructure and recorded lecture ecosystems in place. “The teachers are already employed, the infrastructure already exists, and many lectures are anyway available free on YouTube. When it comes to test series, most institutes are running them through their own apps and internal platforms. They are not hiring external vendors,” the institute head said.
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For many students, the cancellation has taken a toll. Yash, now in his eighth attempt, believed he finally stood a chance this year. “I calculated my marks and thought maybe I would make it this time,” he said, adding that returning has also brought fresh challenges. His cousin Arthik said accommodation costs had already started climbing. “Earlier rooms were around Rs 10,000. Now they are charging nearly Rs 15,000,” he said.
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For many students, though, the biggest reason to return is not lectures alone but the environment Kota offers. “There is no proper internet, no test series and no study environment in my village,” Arthik said. The free test series is another draw. “If the tests had not been free, I would have spent another Rs 2,500 to Rs 5,000 just for the tests,” he said.
Parvez, a 25-year-old aspirant from Moradabad in UP, said the emotional impact of the cancellation had been severe. “My mind is not at peace,” he said. Yet he too plans to return to Kota. “When you see other students studying, you automatically begin studying seriously yourself,” he said.
For 20-year-old Shantanu Kacher, the cancellation came while he was staying at his grandmother’s house in Damoh, MP. Within hours, his father booked him a train ticket back to Kota, where his books and notes are still inside his hostel room. Back after a seven-and-a-half-hour journey, the fourth-time aspirant is trying to force himself back into a routine, though he sees the re-exam as an opportunity to improve on last year’s score. “After the exam, I had mentally stopped studying,” he said.
Students say they are now drawing from multiple institutes simultaneously. “I already began taking full-syllabus tests from different platforms because there is no time left for sectional preparation. At this stage, we need to complete papers continuously so that we remain in exam rhythm,” Yash said.
