NEET Result 2020: Odisha’s Shoyeb Aftab creates history by scoring 720/720 marks

New Delhi, Oct 16: Odisha's Shoyeb Aftab has topped NEET 2020 and created history by scoring a perfect 720 out of 720 marks to become the first student ever to do so. According to reports, Shoyeb is also the first student from Odisha to top the NEET exam.

Topper Soyeb wants to be a cardiac surgeon when he finishes his medical studies.

"There is no doctor in my family, so I didn't expect this. I had hoped to make it to top 100 or top 50 but I never expected to score 720/720. The exam was being postponed, so there was a lot of pressure. But the goal was to stay calm & utilise time," said Soyeb Aftab, NEET 2020 topper.

Congratulation Shoyeb for the achievement, BJP national vice-president Baijayant Jay Panda said, "Congratulations to Shoyeb Aftab of Odisha on becoming the all India topper of #NEET2020 by scoring a perfect 720/720. The nation is proud of you, wish you all the best for many more successes ahead."

The result of the medical entrance exam NEET was announced on Friday. A total of 7,71,500 candidates have qualified the exam for which over 13.66 lakh candidates had appeared. The highest number of qualifying candidates are from Tripura (88,889) followed by Maharashtra (79,974).

The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test was conducted on September 13 amid strict precautions in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

From this year, the admissions to MBBS course in the 13 All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, Puducherry, will also be made through NEET following the amendment in National Medical Commission Act, 2019, passed by Parliament last year.

The test was offered in 11 languages - English, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Odia, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu this year. Based on the initial report, more than 77 per cent aspirants took the test in English, around 12 per cent in Hindi and 11 per cent in other languages.

The exam was earlier postponed twice due to the pandemic and the government decided to go ahead with it, despite opposition by a section, to mitigate any further academic loss.

The National Testing Agency had set in place strict standard operating procedures in view of the pandemic, including measures like reducing the number of candidates per room from the earlier 24 to 12.

The NTA had also increased the number of centres from 2,546 in 2019 to 3,862 this year to ensure crowd management and staggered entry and exit protocols. Unlike the engineering entrance (JEE), NEET-UG, the medical admission test, is a pen and paper exam and held once a year.