NEET-UG results declared: Two in top 10 from Pune, Mumbai; Baramati girl ranked 26

Siddhi always held a dream to become a doctor. “I would study everyday for several hours. But what is important is to continuously keep solving tests. I didn’t miss even a simple weekly test. It helped understand where more effort was required,” said Siddhi, who joined the Success Academy in Baramati for NEET preparation and has qualified for MBBS admission with her score of 665/720. According to her teacher, Dr Viraj Yele, it was not unexpected. “She has been a very bright student who was thoroughly focused on her dream of becoming a doctor. Throughout the two years of preparation, I have not seen her not studying. In fact, even after the NEET exam was over, she would come to the academy just to read different books available in the library on medical education and biology etc,” he said.

Krishang, who has scored 681/720, was confident of a rank in the top 10 candidates, but AIR 3 was a delight for him. Krishang, who was born in Mumbai, grew up in different cities owing to his father’s transferable job with the port authority “When I decided to study for NEET, we were staying in Goa where I joined Aakash institute in Class 10. But soon I was made part of the Aakash’s toppers’ batch, which has residential coaching in Pune so I shifted there to study,” said Krishang, who is thankful to his mother who decided to shift to Pune too where he could stay with her in a rented flat. “Having her around kept me motivated to study,” said Krishang, who studied 14-16 hours a day. But he did take breaks for his favourite activity – cooking. “Pizza and pastry are my favourite,” he said.

Aarav, a resident of Mumbai’s Anushakti Nagar, said, “I like the profession, it holds respect in society and I love biology as a subject.” He has scored 675/720. Aarav did not have fixed hours to study. “The preparation included a combination of coaching and self-study with great focus on practicing to solve a variety of question papers,” said Aarav, who would watch TV or talk to friends to unwind. His father works in BARC and mother works with a private firm.

All three of them plan to take admission in AIIMS Delhi for MBBS. A total of 2,48,201 students had registered for NEET in Maharashtra out of which 2,42,858 appeared for the exam and 1,25,727 passed the national level entrance test for medical courses.