Four candidates of the state joint entrance examination went to the JEE board’s office in Salt Lake, instead of going to the centres allotted to them, an hour before the exam started on Sunday.
The JEE board made arrangements so they could write the papers at Bidhannagar Government College.
The test started at 11am.
The board chairman, Malayendu Saha, said the candidates were allotted centres in Murshidabad, Dum Dum and Sheoraphuli (in Hooghly).
“For some reason, instead of going to the designated centres, the four came to the board’s office around 10am and pleaded that they be allowed to write their papers. We allowed them to write the test at Bidhannagar Government College, which was one of the centres,” said the chairman.
A board official said they suspect the candidates did not read the names of the centres printed on their admit cards.
Usually, the board asks candidates to mention in the form two or three zones where they want to write the test.
The board allocates centres on the basis of the preference of the candidates.
An official said they suspect one of the students ticked the options “Murshidabad” and “Kolkata”, another student chose the options “Dum Dum” and “Kolkata” and the third “Sheoraphuli” and “Kolkata”.
“It could be that though the students are from Murshidabad, Dum Dum and Sheoraphuli, they currently stay in Kolkata. So they opted for the Kolkata zone as well. However, they did not bother to check whether they were allotted centres based on their residential addresses. When they realised their mistakes, they landed at the board’s office,” the official said.
The board chairman said: “A candidate fell sick at a centre near Nagerbazar. A doctor was called and the candidate completed the test.”
The candidates wrote mathematics in the first half (from 11am to 1pm) and the combined paper of physics and chemistry in the second (from 2pm to 4pm).