1.2mn Clear NEET-UG, Raj Boy Tops Medical Entrance Exam

1,236,531 students, none with a perfect score, cleared the national entrance test that is required for admission to undergraduate medical and paramedical courses, the National Testing Agency (NTA) said on Saturday.

- Sanjay Maurya

NEW DELHI:

The total number of students who cleared this year's National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET-UG) was less than last year's 1,315,853. But fewer—2,209,318—took the exam this year compared with 2,333,192 last year.

Rajasthan's Mahesh Kumar was the top-ranked candidate with 686 marks. Utkarsh Awadhiya from Madhya Pradesh and Krishang Joshi from Maharashtra secured the second and third spots by scoring 682 and 681, respectively. Mrinal Kishore Jha at fourth position was the top-ranked candidate from Delhi.

"I wanted to pursue Humanities and dreamt of pursuing UPSC. But my life took a turn after I took Biology after class 10 board examination as my sister advised," said Mahesh Kumar.

"I started preparing for the exam in 2022. I used to struggle a bit with Biology in my initial coaching days. But I gradually got a grasp over the subject. Though I expected a good result, I could not believe that I would emerge as the topper," he added.

While 722,462 women cleared the exam compared with 514,063 men, there was just one woman in the top 10 ranks, Avika Aggarwal at all India rank 5 from Delhi. Six transgender candidates too cleared the exam, NTA said.

No candidate for NEET-UG 2025, held in pen-and-paper mode in a single shift on May 4 across 5,468 centres in 552 cities in India and 14 abroad, scored a perfect 720 marks.