Celebrations erupted in three houses in Tamil Nadu's Namakkal as soon as the results of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test was declared on November 1. The reason? Two Tamil Nadu NEET toppers and the second rank holder hail from the district.
Incidentally, all three of them attended the same coaching centre too — Green Park Coaching Centre. This is the first attempt for all three of these students — Geethanjali SA (AIR 23), M Pravin (AIR 30) and Archithaa T (AIR 60). Geethanjali and Pravin scored an impressive 710 out of 720 marks and Archithaa scored 705. Both Geethanjali and Pravin share the Tamil Nadu rank 1.
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Geethanjali says that she wanted to be a doctor after her elder sister enrolled to study MBBS four years ago. "That was when I thought that this would be an interesting profession," she says. And hence, began preparations. She told EdexLive how she spent almost 18 hours every day studying. "I will now be the second doctor in the family, after my sister. My father is a farmer and mother is a homemaker," she says. Her goal right now is to study at the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), Puducherry.
Apart from this, this 18-year-old is also a National Talent Search Examination (NTSE) scholar, who scored a whopping 98.79 percentile in JEE Main 2021. She also secured All India Rank 3027 in JEE Advanced 2021. While there was a lot of hue and cry about the new examination pattern of NEET, the Namakkal girl says that it was a cakewalk for her. "I practised a lot of mock tests. That made things easy for me," she says.
Mock tests and online coaching were what made things easier for Pravin too. The teenager says that, every day, he spent 12 hours studying. "I may not have been able to do this with regular classes. Because classes were held online, I saved a lot of time and could manage to study in an environment where no one disturbed me," he says. "I would also go back and listen to portions that weren't quite clear," he adds.
Pravin admits that he never expected a rank. However, he knew that his efforts would pay off. After all, he would spend his time solving mock papers, especially after that new exam pattern was announced. "Honestly, I found it quite difficult initially. But I wasn't ready to give up. I would solve mock papers and challenge myself. After a while, it turned out to be quite easy. I was completely stress-free during the exam," says Pravin. Like Geethanjali, he too hopes to join JIPMER, Puducherry and then, pursue his master's in Cardiology.
Archithaa, who made it to the list of top 20 female toppers in the country, would study almost 18 hours every day as well. While her parents Thangaraju and Sasikala hold PhDs in Geology and Economics respectively, they are now excited to have a medical doctor in the family. "She would study until 1 am almost every day," says Thangaraju. "Her mother too would stay awake until then, making tea for her. Since she is an academic, she knows how students prepare for exams," he says.
