After a decade, Amritsar girl tops district in NEET, bags AIR 78

Neha Saini

Amritsar, June 14

Guntas Khanna broke the decade-long domination of boys on the top slot in district in NEET results as she emerged district topper in the NEET 2023 results that were declared late Tuesday night. She scored 706/720 and her AIR rank is 78, making her part of the top 100 merit holders in NEET. Guntas, a student of Wisdom Classes, comes from a family of doctors as her father Dr Gagandeep Singh Khanna and Dr Dolly Khanna, are renowned doctors from Surjit Hospital. She did her Class XII from Sidana International School, Khiala Khurd.

Besides her, Divyadeep, who hails from Beas, secured the second spot in district with a score of 701/720 and AIR of 185. Divyadeep too comes from a family of doctors as his mother Dr Anita Sawant is a gynaecologist and father Dr Ramandeep Singh is a general physician. Sumer Singh Dhaliwal came at the third slot with score of 690 and AIR 826.

Guntas shared that her result totally surprised her. “I did expect a good result but being among top 100 meritorious students in the country 0really was unexpected. I am really looking forward to get into AIIMS, New Delhi, or Safarjung,” she said. After a tedious two years of preparation for NEET, Guntas now plans to take a break and enjoy her success and pursue her other passions. Her father Dr Gagandeep, who is a renowned oncologist, shared how being from a doctor-family, Guntas was positively inspired to pursue medicine. “I feel that she got an early knowledge about the field of medicine, the life of a doctor and from childhood the kids see the way we work. It’s a tedious lifestyle and being a doctor comes with lot of responsibilities and one should also have a temperament,” he shared.

“Felt de-motivated, turned to my teachers for positive push”

Sumer Singh Dhaliwal, who aspires to pursue orthopaedics and will be looking to get into AIIMS, shared how the pre-NEET phase was stressful. “There was a time when despite the preparations, I felt de-motivated and quite exhausted. That time, I turned to my teachers at Wisdom Classes and used to talk to them about my fears and my doubts. It really helped me overcome the fear,” he shared. His parents are both doctors and for other NEET aspirants, his advice is quite simple. “Talk about your fears and doubts with your family, teachers. Try to take a break and pursue some de-stressing activities I used to play chess.”

Divyadeep, his batch mate at Wisdom, also said that he turned to music whenever he wanted to take a break from studies. A piano expert, Divyadeep has still not decided which field of medicine he will pursue in future. “I want to get into Safdarjung,” he shared.