CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu has put up a stellar performance in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) undergraduate-2023 examination, with state boy Prabanjan J emerging national joint topper along with Bora Varun Chakravarthi of Andhra Pradesh scoring 99.99 percentile, as per the result declared by the National Testing Agency on Tuesday.
Prabanjan, with a perfect score 720 out of 720, became the first candidate in the state to score the top rank in the national entrance test. There are six students from Tamil Nadu in top 50 this year and four students in top 10 rank.
At least 1,44,516 TN students had appeared for NEET 2023 and 78,693 students have cleared the test. The overall pass percentage is 54.45%. It was 57% last year. While Kaustav Bauri from TN has secured all-India third rank, Surya Siddharth N has secured sixth rank.Varun S was ranked ninth, Samuel Harshith Tsapa has bagged 24th rank, and Jacob Bivin has bagged 36th position.
Bauri is also the topper in SC category in the medical test. Speaking to TNIE, Prabanjan, who has got the top rank in his first attempt, said the result has come as a surprise to him. Prabanjan’s father is a teacher at a government school at Mel Olakkur village in Villupuram.
“After the answer keys were announced, I was confident of scoring a good rank but I never expected to be all-India topper,” Prabanjan said. The student of a private residential school in Mogappair East, which provided NEET coaching, has passed his Class 12 this year. AIR 3 Kaustav Bauri’s father is a professor in IIT-Madras and his mother is in a corporate job.
A total of 11.45 lakh candidates out of 20.38 lakh have qualified in the test across the country. Uttar Pradesh has highest number of qualifying candidates (1.39 lakh) followed by Maharashtra (1.31 lakh) and Rajasthan (over 1 lakh). With 78,693 students clearing the test, TN was fourth on the list.
The NTA conducted the NEET (UG) at 4,097 centres located in 499 cities throughout the country including 14 cities outside India on May 7. The examination was conducted in 13 languages (Assamese, Bengali, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu).
The NTA has provided all-India rank to candidates and the admitting authorities will draw merit list based on the ranks for MBBS and BDS seats under their jurisdiction. According to academicians, this is the best ever performance by TN students in the test.
NEET results: Overall TN pass percent dipped
“Tamil Nadu’s NEET results were impressive this year. Four of our students are in top 10, which is quite rare. Biology paper was fairly easy this year which I think gave an edge to our students who usually perform better in science streams,” said career consultant Jayprakash Gandhi.
Among girls across the country, Pranjal Aggarwal from Punjab topped the list with 715 marks. She stood fourth on all- India rank list. Ashika Aggarwal, also from Punjab, followed with 715. Her AI R is 11. The third position among girl toppers was bagged by Arya R S from Kerala with 711 marks.
While 9,02,936 male candidates registered for the exam, 8,81,967 appeared and 4,90,374 qualified. A total of 11,84,513 women registered for the exams, while 11,56,618 appeared and 6,55,599 qualified. The cut-off for general category candidates increased to 720-137. It was 715-117 last year.
The Directorate General of Health Services will conduct the counselling for 15% of All India Quota Seats, Deemed Universities and Central Universities besides seats of ESIC and AFMC, BHU, and AMU.