Spending a major part of the day in front of screens and books was never Prasenjthan's cup of tea. He remembers spending seven hours studying and solving mock NEET papers (the time includes his breaks too). He could never go beyond that. And that is probably why this Chennai boy stands out among a lot of NEET 2021 toppers.

A former student of DAV Boys Senior Secondary School, Mogappair and Aakash Educational Services Limited, he is among the three Tamil Nadu students, who scored 710 out of 720 marks in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test. While he holds the All India Rank 43, his state rank is yet to be out.

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"I have been preparing for this exam since Class IX," says the 18-year-old. This is his first attempt at cracking NEET. "For the last one year, classes were completely online and to me, this was a blessing in disguise. I saved time on travelling and could study without any disturbance," he says. Did he expect this good a rank? Prasenjithan says, "I was always good in studies and so, my parents (both software engineers) were sure that I'd get into a good government college. The exam was quite easy for me, so I expected good grades. This rank was quite unexpected," he says. He now plans to secure admission to the  All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi.

This year, the change in exam pattern had left a lot of students confused and there was even a demand to postpone the exam further. Prasenjithan got over this issue by solving more mock test papers. "You have to get adjusted to the system. There is no other way out," he says. "Always remember to stick to the NCERT curriculum for Biology and do not leave anything in Physics," he tells future NEET aspirants.

Prasenjithan says that he has always been adamant about having a proper study-life balance. "I used to use social media and gadgets, but in a limited capacity. In my free hours, I'd listen to music," he says.