NEET-UG sees 83% rise in top scorers

NEET-UG sees 83% rise in top scorers

But Unlike In 2020, Cutoffs For MBBS/BDS Admission May Not Go Up This Year

Manash.Gohain@timesgroup.com

New Delhi: 23.11.2021

This year’s NEET-Undergraduate exam registered an 83% increase in the total number of candidates scoring 700 and above out of 720, with 203 candidates scoring marks in that range as compared to111 last year.

However, unlike in 2020, the cutoffs for MBBS/ BDS admission is not going to see any spike this year as there is a marginal drop in the number of candidates scoring in the mark ranges of 600 and above and 500 and above.

State-wise candidates from Rajasthan and UP continued their dominance in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate) exam recording the biggest gain in the high scorer range. These states are joined by Delhi, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal which have seen an increase in the number of candidates scoring between 650 and 699 marks.

While in absolute numbers the number of candidates scoring 700 and above marks have increased significantly, the proportion to the qualified candidates have increased by just 0.01% from that of last year, while the percentage of candidates scoring in the mark range of 650-699 and 600-649 have decreased by 0.1% and 0.4% respectively. Percentage of candidates to the total qualified scoring 550-599 marks too have decreased by 0.6% this year.

In absolute numbers candidates scoring 600 marks and above dropped from 20,181 in 2020 to 19,135 in 2021. Similarly, the number of candidates scoring 500 marks and above dropped from 87,093 in 2020 to 85,022 in 2021. These mark ranges form the key cohort for counselling and allocation of seats. The total number of candidates scoring 450 marks and above increased to 1,33,906 and an increase of 1.5% from last year. The three-year NEETUG score data, exclusively accessed by the TOI, reveals that 64.3% (86,128) candidates in the mark range of 450 and above are from just eight states — Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerala, Bihar, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.

In all, there are around 81,000 MBBS and 39,000 BDS seats available for aspirants this year. Total number of MBBS seats under NEET 2020 has increased with AIIMS and JIPMER MBBS seats. In the government run institutions, which include AIIMS and JIPMER there are around 42,500 seats.

The states from where this significant increase in top scorers is seen are Delhi, (from 261 to 376), Rajasthan (from 519 to 729), Karnataka (from 146 to 223) and Tamil Nadu (from 205 to 235).