Eighteen-year-old Navdeep Singh from Punjab’s Muktsar made his family proud by securing the All India Rank 1 in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) 2017 on Friday.
Muktsar’s Navdeep topped with a score of 697 marks out of 720 in the exam conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) for admission to medical, dental, AYUSH and veterinary colleges across the country. Indore’s Archit Gupta and Manish Mulchandani secured the AIRs 2 and 3.
“I was hopeful of clearing the exam but I had not expected to become the all India topper,” the 18-year-old told the Hindustan Times.
Navdeep’s mother Simarjeet Kaur was elated over her son’s success in his first attempt and credited the top rank to his hard work. “We are very happy over Navdeep’s success. He has made us feel proud,” Kaur, an employee of the Life Insurance Corporation of India, said.
“He worked very hard for this exam. He secured a perfect CGPA of 10 in Class 10 as well,” she said of her cricket-loving son.
Navdeep’s father Gopal Singh (47), a teacher at the Government Senior Secondary School in Charewan village of Muktsar district, said they want Navdeep to secure an admission into Maulana Azad Medical College in Delhi for his MBBS course.
“I am highly inspired by my brother today,” Navdeep younger brother Navjot said.
As Navdeep and his father left for Chandigarh soon after the result was announced, people flocked to their house to congratulate the family on their son’s success.
Navdeep cleared his Class 10 from Akal Academy School and Class 12 from Shivalik Public School with 88% marks. He attended Helix Institute in Chandigarh to coach for medical exams.
Nikita Goyal from Bathinda secured AIR 8.
Out of the 11,38,890 students candidates registered for the exam, 6,11,539 cleared the medical entrance examination for 65,000 seats in MBBS and 25,000 seats in BDS courses. Of these, 2,66,221 were boys and 3,45,313 girls. Eight transgenders appeared for the exam out of which five were declared successful.
