Students who put themselves through a gruelling schedule of preparations for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) reaped the benefits on Monday when the NEET ranks were announced.
One of the high-flyers in the State, Shridhar Dodamani, a student of Excellent P.U. Science College, Vijayapura, secured an All-India Rank (AIR) of 105. He had also topped the Common Entrance Test in the engineering stream. But, he has decided not to pursue medical or dental courses and instead has set his sights on the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Surathkal, to pursue engineering. He is awaiting the results of the Joint Entrance Examination (Advanced) which is expected next week.
Shridhar attributes his rank to religiously following his NCERT textbooks and solving several mock papers. He aspires to be a computer science engineer. “I used to study for four to five hours a day and focussed more on my competitive exams. I’ve always wanted to become a researcher, and have always been inclined to logical reasoning and problem solving.”
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Akshata Kamath, a student of Expert P.U. College, Mangaluru, bagged an AIR of 107. She has also secured a score of 568 out of 600 in her board exams and is currently waiting for the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) results. She aims to get into one of the top 10 medical colleges across India. “I did not focus much on my boards, but prepared for my entrances thoroughly for a year,” she said, adding that she drew inspiration from her doctor-parents.
Another student from Bengaluru, Mahima Krishna of VVS Sardar Patel P.U. College, secured an AIR of 209 in NEET. She has also appeared for the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and JIPMER tests.
“I’ve always been interested in medicine and am passionate about it,” said Mahima.
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Her favourite subject is Biology, and preparing for NEET was not such a challenge, she said. “I would generally spend more time on Physics and include it in my study schedule more often as I found it difficult,” she added. She hopes to get into JIPMER, or the Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute.
Medha Sharath from Deeksha P.U. College, cracked the NEET with an AIR of 213. She said she studied NCERT concepts clearly and followed her teachers’ instructions “For NEET aspirants, I would suggest that they focus more on physics as that is the subject where questions may get tricky. However, having said that, one should not neglect chemistry and biology.”