Toppers of the NEET-UG 2022 exam have been declared and their success stories shared. But did you know that four students scored the same highest marks? Four candidates scored 715 out of 720 marks this year. And the student who secured the 10th rank scored 710. How then did the National Testing Agency (NTA) decide on the ranks? That's when the tie-breaker policy comes into play.
NTA used this new policy to award the first rank to Tanishka from Rajasthan. Next, Delhi's Vatsa Ashish Batra holds the second rank. Hrishikesh Nagbhushan Gangule and Rucha Pawashe from Karnataka have been ranked third and fourth respectively. According to NTA officials, nine factors in a pre-decided order have been used as a tie-breaker to decide these ranks.
"In case of candidates scoring identical marks, candidate achieving higher marks or percentiles in Biology (Botany and Zoology) will be given preference followed by the candidate with the highest mark and percentile in Chemistry and subsequently the candidate who achieved the highest marks and percentile score in Physics in the test," a senior NTA official said, as mentioned in a PTI report.
It has been explained that candidates with fewer incorrect answers than correct answers in all the subjects in the test will be followed by candidates with the lowest proportion of incorrect responses to correct responses in Biology. They will be then followed by candidates with the lowest ratio of incorrect answers to correct answers in Chemistry. If a tie is still found, the ratio of incorrect answers to correct answers in Physics will be considered.
"In case there is still a tie between the candidates, the candidate older in age, followed by their NEET application number in ascending order will be used as a tie-breaker. It is important that every candidate gets a unique rank for counselling purposes and hence, no two candidates have been tied at the same rank this year," the NTA official said.
Three candidates shared the top score last year as well. They were Mrinal Kutteri from Telangana, Tanmay Gupta from Delhi and Karthika Nair from Maharashtra. "Earlier also there was a tie-breaker formula but despite that, three candidates were jointly awarded the first rank last year. From this year, we decided to adopt a new policy," the official said.
A three-point tie-breaker policy was used till last year. According to it, candidates obtaining higher marks and percentile scores in Biology were followed by candidates obtaining higher marks and percentile scores in Chemistry. They were subsequently followed by candidates with less proportion of a number of attempted incorrect answers and correct answers in all the subjects in the test, as per PTI.
