NEET 2020: Why was Soyeb Aftab declared topper even as Akanksha scored 720/720?

New Delhi, Oct 17: Odisha's Soyeb Aftab created history by securing a perfect 100 per cent score in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), results of which were announced by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on Friday.

Akanksha Singh, from Delhi who also scored 720/720 in NEET, lost the top rank to Soyeb Aftab due to her younger age. NTA placed her on the second position in the all India merit list.

According to the tie-breaker policy, preference is first given to Biology marks, followed by Chemistry. The third factor to decide the rank is the number of incorrect answers. If the tie still remains, the candidate older in age is preferred.

"It's because of the tie break policy. When two candidates secure the same marks, their performance is compared by looking at the marks that they have secured in each of the subjects and the number of incorrect answers that they gave. The difference in their age is also considered to break the tie. In this case, Akanksha was older than Aftab. Hence, she was placed on the second position," an Education Ministry official clarified.

Tummala Snikitha from Telanagana was placed on the third position in the all India merit list as she scored 715 out of 720 in the test.

This is for the first time that the candidates have scored a perfect 100 per cent in the NEET exam.

Last year, Nalin Khandelwal from Rajasthan had secured the highest marks ever in the NEET. Out of 720 marks, he had scored 701 to emerge as the topper in the entrance test.
Over 15.97 lakh students had registered for the entrance test this year conducted on September 13. Of them, a total of 7,71, 500 students (56.43 per cent) qualified for the test.