51.2% candidates qualify NEET this yr; TN's performance dips

CHENNAI: At least 1.42 lakh students in Tamil Nadu had registered for the examination and 17,567 students from government and government aided schools had appeared for the examination. Of those who appeared for the exam, 67,787 students from the State have qualified for the examination.

More students qualified NEET in Tamil Nadu this year due to more number of registrations when compared to last year, but the pass percentage dipped to 51.2 per cent from 57.4 per cent in 2021.

Thridev Vinayaka S, has topped with a score of 705 and 99.99 percentile in Tamil Nadu. He stood at 30th position in the All India Rank list. M Harini scored 702 marks and 99.99 percentile and stood second in the State and 43rd rank in the country.

No other students from Tamil Nadu made it to the top 50 in the rank list.In the male toppers category of persons with disabilities, Subramanian A from Tamil Nadu stood at seven position in the country. He scored 615 marks, while his all India rank was 14,800.

The cut off has dropped from 720-138 from last year to 715-117 this year. The NEET 2022 cut-off marks for students under all the categories has dipped in all categories when compared to 2021. The cut off for unreserved category students is 117 for 50th percentile, which was 138 in 2021. The cut off is 116-93 for 40th percentile for OBC/SC/ST that was 137-108 last year.

"We initially thought that the examination was easier but when we checked the answer key, we found that it was difficult than last year. The reduction in cut-off was expected due to this and low cut-off is a good sign for many of us," says Deva Anand, an MBBS aspirant who scored 521 marks in NEET.

For differently-abled category, the cut off is 116-105 this year, which was 137-122 in 2021. For the differently-abled among the OBC, SC and ST candidates, the cut off has decreased from 121-108 in NEET 2021 to 104-93 in 2022.

"The cut off is likely to remain stable in the State and there would not be much variation than last year. Moreover, wd have more number of MBBS seats to offer this year," said Dr P Vasanthamani, former selection committee member.