1,236,531 college students, none with an ideal rating , cleared the nationwide entrance take a look at that’s required for admission to undergraduate medical and paramedical programs, the National Testing Agency (NTA) stated on Saturday.

Candidates examine discover board for his or her allotted seats earlier than showing for the NEET UG examination, at an examination centre in Moradabad. (PTI)

The whole variety of college students who cleared this yr’s National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET-UG) was lower than final yr’s 1,315,853. But fewer — 2,209,318 — took the examination this yr in contrast with 2,333,192 final yr.

Also Read: NEET UG 2025: Over 12 lakh candidates certified for MBBS admission

Rajasthan’s Mahesh Kumar was the top-ranked candidate with 686 marks. Utkarsh Awadhiya from Madhya Pradesh and Krishang Joshi from Maharashtra secured the second and third spots by scoring 682 and 681, respectively. Mrinal Kishore Jha at fourth place was the highest ranked candidate from Delhi.

While 722,462 ladies cleared the examination in contrast with 514,063 males , there was only one lady within the high 10 ranks, Avika Aggarwal in any respect India rank 5 from Delhi. Six transgender candidates too cleared the examination, NTA stated.

Also Read: Barnala boy secures All India Rank 7 in NEET UG, household eyes for AIIMS

No candidate for NEET-UG 2025, held in pen-and-paper mode in a single shift on May 4 throughout 5,468 centres in 552 cities in India and 14 overseas, scored an ideal 720 marks.

Also Read: Indore boy Utkarsha Awadhiya shines in NEET UG consequence

Last yr, 17 candidates topped with full marks in a second iteration of the rating after the primary one launched by NTA confirmed 67 had achieved an ideal rating amid allegations of irregularities. Moreover, controversy arose after 1,563 NEET-UG 2024 candidates got grace marks by NTA attributable to a lack of time for taking the examination. These grace marks have been later cancelled and a retest ordered.

The controversy that reached the Supreme Court later paved the best way for reforms in NTA. A government-appointed panel submitted a report on October 21 final yr that really helpful from 2025, the NTA will focus solely on entrance exams for increased training, excluding recruitment exams.

NEET topper Joshi, who cleared the examination on his first try, stated he quickly deserted his smartphone because it was distracting him from research.

“I studied for seven hours at a coaching institute and 5 to 6 hours at home. In the initial days of my NEET preparations, I was experiencing distractions due to my smartphone and hence I switched to a keypad phone. After my NEET exam, I switched back to my smartphone. My parents and teachers supported me in my exam preparations,” Joshi instructed HT.

Joshi is hoping to get admission for an MBBS diploma on the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi.

Likewise, Awadhiya stated that he studied six-seven hours after attending teaching courses daily. “Every two hours, I used to take a break of 15-20 minutes to play volleyball and football,” he stated. “During the break, I used to spend time with my family too. This helped me remain focussed on my studies.”

According to college students, teaching lecturers and mentors, the query paper was harder in contrast with final yr. The period of the examination was additionally decreased from 200 minutes final yr to 180 minutes this yr. NTA additionally eliminated the availability for non-obligatory questions, launched quickly in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic

Anika Mishra from Lucknow , Uttar Pradesh, scored 585 marks final yr however secured solely 530 this yr. “I did well in the Biology and Chemistry part but the sentences in Physics questions were lengthy and I could not attempt all questions as I wasted my time reading them. Even though I could solve a few questions in physics, I could not mark them on the sheet,” she stated.

Another pupil from UP, Hardoi Nitesh Patel, stated, “Compared to last year, it took more time to solve physics questions. Last year, we were getting answers to questions in just one step by putting values in formulas but this year we could get answers only after solving questions in two-three steps.”

Pritesh Maurya, a instructor at a NEET teaching centre in Lucknow, stated that the language of questions this yr was harder than final yr. “Ideally, a student gets less than one minute to solve a question if he or she has to attempt all questions but this year students took 5 to 10 minutes to solve a question…,” he stated.

Uttar Pradesh with 1,70,684 had probably the most variety of profitable candidates adopted by Maharashtra with 1,25,727. Rajasthan, dwelling to India’s teaching hubs reminiscent of Kota and Sikar, had 1,19,865 candidates qualify.

NEET UG 2025 noticed decrease qualifying cut-offs in comparison with 2024, in accordance with NTA. For basic and Economically Weaker Section (EWS) candidates, the cut-off decreased from 720-162 marks to 686-144 marks, with 11,01,151 aspirants qualifying. For Other Backward Classes (OBC), the cut-off dropped from 161-127 to 143-113, with 88,692 candidates qualifying. The Scheduled Caste (SC) class noticed an identical discount from 161-127 to 143-113, with 31,995 candidates qualifying. For Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates, the cut-off additionally fell from 161-127 to 143-113, with 13,940 qualifying.

In government-run academic institutes, 10% of seats are reserved for candidates from the EWS class, 27% for OBC-NCL candidates, 15% for SC candidates, and seven.5% for ST candidates.

Those who cleared NEET will now primarily compete for 1,18,190 MBBS seats in 780 medical faculties..