Not All 67 NEET AIR 1 Students Are Top Scorers, Says NTA Official

The NEET-UG 2024 results were declared on June 4. While 67 students were awarded the prestigious NEET All India Rank (AIR) 1, the National Testing Agency (NTA) clarified that each student was assigned an individual rank, not all of them being the top scorers. This distinction was elucidated by a senior NTA official in a statement to indianexpress.com.

The NTA official explained, “Every student has been allocated an individual rank in their scorecard, determined by the tie-breaking policies outlined by NTA.” Consequently, among the 67 students with NEET AIR 1, only one emerged as the true topper — Ved Sunilkumar Shende from Maharashtra.

NEET UG 2024 Tie-Breaking Policy

In situations where two or more candidates achieve identical marks or percentile scores in NEET (UG)-2024, the inter-se-merit is established as follows:

1. The candidate with the higher marks/percentile score in Biology (Botany & Zoology) is given precedence.
2. If still tied, the candidate with the higher marks/percentile score in Chemistry is favored.
3. Subsequently, the candidate with the higher marks/percentile score in Physics is prioritized.
4. In case of further tie, preference is given to the candidate with a lower proportion of attempted incorrect answers to correct answers across all subjects in the test.
5. Further priority is given to the candidate with a lower proportion of attempted incorrect answers to correct answers in Biology (Botany & Zoology) in the test.
6. This process continues for Chemistry and Physics, respectively.

Reason for Grace Marks in NEET 2024

The Chemistry section of NEET UG 2024 included a question on atoms with conflicting answers as per the old and new NCERT textbooks. While the old textbook stated, "Atoms of each element are stable," the new edition mentioned, "Atoms of most of the elements are stable." To address this inconsistency, the NTA decided to award 5 grace marks to all students who had selected either option as correct. Consequently, 44 students saw their scores increase from 715 to 720, contributing to the higher number of toppers.

NEET UG 2024 Results Overview

This year witnessed a record number of registered candidates, totaling 24,06,079 compared to 20.59 lakh last year. Among these, there were 9,96,393 male candidates, 13,31,321 female candidates, and 17 transgender candidates. Overall attendance stood at an impressive 96.94%, with male candidates at 96.92%, female candidates at 96.96%, and transgender candidates at 94.44%. Notably, Uttar Pradesh reported the highest number of qualified candidates with 1,65,047 students, followed by Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Tamil Nadu.