Keshav Mittal, 17, from Tapa town in Punjab’s Barnala district secured all-India rank (AIR) 7 in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) UG, scoring 680 marks out of a total of 720, the National Testing Agency (NTA) announced on Saturday.
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This was his first attempt at the medical entrance exam that the NTA conducts every year and he has emerged as the highest scorer from Punjab.
Keshav, who studied at DM Public Senior Secondary School, Karar Wala, Bathinda district, undertook coaching at a private institute in Chandigarh, where he maintained a study routine of eight to nine hours daily.
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His father, Dr Prabodh Mittal, is a homeopathic doctor in Tapa, while his mother, Sunita, is a homemaker.
An elated Dr Mittal said: “We were expecting he would be in the first 100, but Keshav has scored beyond our expectations to make it to the top 10. He will study in one the best institutes of the country.”
The father shared how Keshav had been focused and balanced in his preparation. “He ensured adequate sleep and limited smartphone use to about 30 minutes a day,” Dr Mittal said, adding that his son was able to manage stress effectively.
Expressing happiness over her son’s performance, Sunita said Keshav was the Bathinda district topper in the medical stream in his Class 12 board exam.
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Rajasthan’s Mahesh Kumar topped the exam, while Madhya Pradhesh’s Utkarsh Awadhiya bagged the second rank. More than 12.36 lakh candidates out of 22.09 lakh test takers qualified the exam. The number is down from last year’s 13.15 lakh qualifying candidates. However, the number of test takers was also higher last year at over 23.33 lakh. The maximum qualifying candidates are from Uttar Pradesh (over 1.7 lakh), followed by Maharashtra (over 1.25 lakh) and Rajasthan (over 1.19 lakh).The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) is the largest entrance exam in the country in terms of the number of candidates appearing for the test.
A total of 1,08,000 seats are available for the MBSS course — approximately 56,000 in government hospitals, and about 52,000 in private colleges.
Admissions to undergraduate courses in dentistry, Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha also utilise NEET results for admission.