Marginal dip in TN NEET show; MBBS cut-off may fall
CHENNAI: The number of students who had qualified in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET)-UG in Tamil Nadu recorded a marginal dip of 2.2 percentage points in the results declared by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on Saturday. Of the 1.36 lakh TN students who had appeared for the test this year, 76,181 have qualified (56.1%), a tad lower than the last year's 58.3%. Since there is a drop in score across the country, with the top mark being 686, the lowest since 2019, the cut-off for MBBS admission may drop by 60 to 70 marks.
The drop in number of qualifying candidates and failure of Tamil Nadu students to make it to the top 25 ranks, may set tongues wagging as all the TN political parties, except the BJP, have opposed the test saying that it puts poor, rural students at a disadvantage and the centre must give exemption to TN students from the test.The topper from Tamil Nadu, S Soorya Narayanan of Tirunelveli district, secured an All India Rank (AIR) of 27. Last year, P Rajaneesh from the state was among the 17 students who secured first rank by scoring a perfect 720 out of 720. In 2023, J Prabanjan from TN shared AIR 1 with another student from Andhra Pradesh by scoring 720.Moreover, five students from Tamil Nadu secured a spot among the top 25 in 2023.
Besides Soorya Narayanan, five more students made it to the top 100 AIR this year, compared to 10 students in 2024.
In a first in past five years, TN sees drop in number of state students appearing for NEET
The other five are Abhineet Nagaraj (AIR 50), GS Pugazhendhi (AIR 61), KS Hruthik Vijaya Raja (AIR 63), AJ Rakesh (AIR 78), and G Prajan Srivari (AIR 88). Experts attributed the dip in scores to the increased difficulty of this year's question paper. 'While many students scored perfect marks (nationwide) last year, the top score this year was just 686. Although the decline was seen across the country, the impact is more pronounced in TN,' said a NEET coaching expert.
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