Jaipur: An Odisha student Soyeb Aftab scripted a new record in the NEET medical exam in 2020, by scoring 100% marks 720/ 720. This is the first ever such instance in the exam for admission to undergraduate medical courses.

The formula for rank determination in case of a tie is that the scores of biology, chemistry, and physics are taken into account, a National Testing Agency official said. The 19-year-old from Rourkela had enrolled himself at a top coaching institute of Kota. Besides thanking his teachers, Soyeb especially thanked his mother Sultana Nazir who stayed with him in Kota over the past two years as he prepared for the NEET exam.

“There is no alternative for hard work. I just followed what my teachers told me to do but I had never thought of securing 100 per cent marks. My aim was just to get selected in the exam,” he said. The teenager conceded that his hopes kept soaring since he was consistently doing well in all exams in the last two years.

“As my marks increased slowly, my expectations soared and I aspired to achieve rank among top 100. In 12th exams, there was not much fluctuation in my performance and I was consistently getting around 700 marks.” Back in Odisha, the Steel City erupted in joy. “When all students had left Kota fearing spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, Soyeb stayed there with focus on study. It should be a message for others not to take recourse to excuses and back off from hard work as risk comes to life naturally,” Soyeb’s father Sheikh Mohammed Abbas said.