NEET: Kishanganj’s Harsh ranks 16th to top in Bihar

PATNA: Harsh Agarwal from Kishanganj emerged the state topper with all India rank (AIR) 16 in the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) conducted by the CBSE for admission to MBBS and BDS courses. The results were declared on Friday.
Patna boy Nipun Chandra ranked 55 and Rishav Raj from Jhajha got AIR 138 to emerge the second and third topper from Bihar, respectively.Around 25,000 students appeared for the NEET at 32 examination centres in Patna. The qualifying marks in open category is 131 and in the reserved category 107 out of 700. Over 10.9 lakh students wrote the test out of which 6.1 lakh qualified.
Harsh had got AIR 5 in All India Institute of Medical Sciences admission test and AIR 113 in the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) exam. He scored 95% in Class XII exam from Durgapur. “I want to focus on medicine. I used to devote my time equally for board as well as medical entrance exams. I devoted five hours daily for each exam,” Harsh told this newspaper on phone.
Nipun, born to IAS officer (posted in Bhubaneswar) Niten Chandra and advocate Shalini Chandra, wants to be a researcher in neuroscience. He had also cleared the AIIMS exam with AIR 4 and topped the JIPMER. “When I was a kid, I wanted to be a doctor. My passion grew with time. Solving previous years’ question papers helped me a lot. I also wrote many test series in my coaching classes,” said Nipun, who got 95% in Class XII exam from Bhubaneswar.
“I used to study for 10 hours every day. My focus was on completing the syllabus and then revising the concepts. I took help from guidebooks, but focused on NCERT books,” Nipun said and added that his first preference would be to join AIIMS, New Delhi.
Rishav Raj had also earned AIR 6 in AIIMS entrance exam and got AIR 15 in JIPMER. He scored 92.8% in Class XII board exam (from CBSE) and emerged the Jamui district topper. He completed his schooling from St Joseph’s High School, Jhajha and scored 96.5% (ICSE) in 2015.
“I was expecting a better result than this. But I have made up my mind to take admission in AIIMS Delhi. I also appeared for JEE Advanced and scored 212. My parents and sister are my inspiration. I got all academic help from my teachers and mentors,” said Rishav, who is born to businessman Ajit Kumar Barnwal and homemaker Rekha Barnwal. They were on cloud nine over the success of their son. His sister Aishwarya Barnwal is the guiding light for her brother. She is a second year student of IIT Dhanbad.