Rajasthan best in NEET; UT, Haryana, Punjab in top 10

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 4

Rajasthan has emerged as the best performing state in the results of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for MBBS admissions announced by the Central Board of Secondary Education on Monday. The state has recorded a qualifying percentage of 74.29, much above the national average of 56.26.

Out of 12,69,922 students who took the exam, 7,14,562 have been declared qualified for admission to around 62,000 MBBS seats across medical colleges in India.

The top 10 performing states and UTs and their pass percentages in the order of merit are Rajasthan (74.29 per cent), Delhi (73.72), Telangana (73.33), Haryana (72.59), Chandigarh (71.81), Kerala (66.73), Punjab (65.92), Karnataka (63.50), Manipur (63.16) and Himachal Pradesh (61.22).

Nagaland, with only 29.33 per cent of its students managing to qualify NEET-UG, is the worst performing state. Tamil Nadu with 39.55 pass percentage and Maharashtra with 39.57 are other poor performers. Tamil Nadu’s results are significant as it single-handedly stalled NEET through the later years of UPA-II. The state was forced to come on board only in 2016 when the Supreme Court ordered the Centre to hold a national-level uniform exam for MBBS admissions.

This year, more girls than boys took the test, but results are equal for both. While the pass percentage for girls is 56.16, it is only slightly better for boys at 56.4. As against 7.16 lakh girls, only 5.53 lakh boys wrote the test.

NEET-UG results 2018 signal another important trend. The interest of general category students in medical under-graduation could be declining. Picture this — out of 12.69 lakh students who took NEET-UG this year, only 36.51 per cent are from general category. OBC students make up the largest chunk of NEET-UG aspirants at 43.74 per cent, followed by 13.66 pc SCs and 6.09 pc STs. This implies far greater competition for MBBS admission among reserved categories. Until last year, reserved and un-reserved category students would normally be equal in proportion. Interesting also is the pass percentage for OBC students;  at 58.85, it is higher than for general students at 57.55 per cent.

Another statistic that stands out in results is that students in the Overseas Citizenship of India, NRIs and Persons of Indian Origin categories (nationality) have outperformed Indian students. 

The NEET-UG qualifying percentage for OCI students is the highest at 78.25 per cent followed by NRI students at 65.45 and PIO students at 65.45.  The corresponding percentage for Indian national students is only 56.23.