VIJAYAWADA: A total of 33,841 out of 57,721 (58.63 per cent) students who appeared for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) from Andhra Pradesh have qualified. The pass percentage reduced significantly from last year, when it was 70.72 per cent. The National Testing Agency (NTA) declared the results of this year’s exam for admission to medical colleges on Friday.
Eight students from the State made it to the top 50 ranks. Guthi Chaitanya Sindhu, from Guntur district, was the only one from the State to secure a place in the top 10. She secured All India Rank (AIR) 6, with a score of 715 out of 720 (99.99 percentile).
“I was confident of scoring good marks. Right from school I wanted to become a doctor. Both my parents are doctors and they were my biggest inspiration. Their encouragement and my teachers’ support helped me score good marks. I want to get admitted to AIIMS, Delhi and pursue MBBS. I want to major in a field related to deficiency, and will decide based on the most widespread deficiency when I complete MBBS. I think research on deficiencies is important for India. Once that is tackled, several major ailments can be taken care of,” Sindhu told TNIE.
Sindhu, who hails from Tenali in Guntur district, and is the daughter of G Koteswara Prasad and Sudha Rani, also stood first in the Andhra Pradesh Engineering Agriculture and Medical Common Entrance Test (APEAMCET) this year.
Apart from Sindhu, Kota Venkat bagged AIR-13 (710/720 marks), Bhavanam Manasa bagged AIR-16 (710), Shaik Kothapalli Arfath Khadeer bagged AIR-18 (710), Loka Sekhar Satvik Sarma bagged AIR-20 (710), Bala Siva Ramakrishna Jonnala bagged AIR-26 (705), Dasari Sai Chakradhar bagged AIR-39 (705) and Telu Swetha Gayatri bagged AIR-40 (705). Four candidates from the State also secured places among the top 20 female toppers. They are Sindhu, Manasa, Gayatri and Yarasu Mahitha Reddy.
The NTA is yet to announce the dates of counselling. Soyeb Aftab of Odisha created history by scoring a perfect 720. He bagged AIR-1. The overall pass percentage of the country stood at 56.44 per cent. As many as 7,71,500 out of 13,66,945 candidates who wrote the exam qualified.
The exam was conducted in two phases - on September 13 and October 14. A total of 290 students who could not attend the first phase of the exam as they tested positive for Covid-19 or were in containment zones, were allowed to write it on October 14. The results declared on Friday are of both phases of the test.