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NEET 2023: Malerkotla’s Pranjal tops female category,Jalandhar’s Ashika 2nd
Pranjal Aggarwal from Malerkotla has topped the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test in female category with an All India Rank of four
Pranjal Aggarwal from Malerkotla has topped the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) in female category with an All India Rank (AIR) of four. Jalandhar’s Ashika Aggarwal secured All India Rank 11. She secured 715 out of total 720 marks, bagging the second place in the female candidate list.
The 18-year-old Pranjal scored 715 marks in the medical entrance exam whose result was announced by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on Tuesday. Her father, Vikas Aggarwal, is a cloth merchant and mother Monika Aggarwal a homemaker.
She completed her schooling from a private school in Dhuri, Sangrur, and now wants to pursue her dream of becoming a cardiologist or neurologist after enrolling in All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi.
“My parents and teachers guided and inspired me at every step during my preparation. I have always wanted to become a doctor and therefore was preparing for the exam for the last two years,” said Pranjal, adding that she studied for at least 12 hours daily.
Sharing her success mantra, she said, “We should never give up, and just keep working hard to achieve our dreams and goals.”
The NEET exam was conducted at various centres in 499 cities across the country on May 7.
Ashika Aggarwal from Jalandhar secured All India Rank 11. She secured 715 out of total 720 marks, bagging the second place in the female candidate list.
Both students scored the same marks, but Ashika received 11th rank due to lesser marks in chemistry as per NTA’s inter-se-merit of candidates for tie-breaking.
A student of Delhi Public School, Jalandhar, Ashika scored 96.6% marks in Class 12 CBSE examinations.
“I am very ecstatic as my sincere hard work of two years finally yielded fruitful results. I have been preparing for this examination ever since I opted for medical stream in Class 11,” said the 18-year-old, who is upbeat about taking admission in All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi.
Her father, Vasu Aggarwal, is a chartered accountant and mother Anu Aggarwal is an associate professor at DAV College, Jalandhar.
Attributing her success to her parents and teachers, Ashika said she was grateful to them for providing her all facilities and study material to prepare for this tough examination.
“Biology remained my favourite subject. My teachers provided me every possible guidance to help me prepare for NEET. I also got enrolled with a local institute from time to time for study material,” Ashika said.
Sharing her success mantra, Ashika said in the past two years, she concentrated on NCERT syllabus and focused on thorough revision: “Instead of cramming, I always aimed at clearing concepts on daily basis. My focus also remained on practising multiple-choice questions,” she said.
Another student from Jalandhar, Gauri Gupta secured AIR 55 rank in the exam by scoring 710 marks.
Both Ashika and Gauri are not only close friends, but also competitors at school and coaching centre as well. Gauri scored 96.4% marks in Class 12.
Gauri had opted for both biology and mathematics in Class 12, and prepared for both NEET and JEE.
She got 99.76 percentile in JEE Main and is awaiting JEE Advanced result, before deciding on her career choice.
Inter-se-merit of candidates for tie-breaking
In case of two or more candidates obtaining equal marks/percentile scores in NEET (UG), the inter-se-merit is determined on the candidate obtaining higher marks/percentile score in biology (botany and zoology) in the test. If all students secured same marks in biology too, the candidate obtaining higher marks/percentile score in chemistry is placed higher in the merit list. It is followed by higher marks or percentile in physics.
