Hyderabad: What initially felt like a crushing setback has turned into a career-defining opportunity for several Telangana students, who say the NEET re-examination helped them transform expected three-digit ranks into places among the country’s top 100.Speaking to TOI, several toppers from the state said they would have secured ranks between 700 and 1,000 at the All India level, had the June examination been considered. They said the re-test gave them an opportunity to correct their mistakes, strengthen weak areas and significantly improve their performance — even though the news of a paper leak left them jittery at the beginning.“I was frustrated and angry when the exam was cancelled. But somewhere at the back of my mind, I was aware that I couldn’t perform as well as I had expected. If that performance had been considered, I would have secured a rank below 1,000, as the paper was easy and many students would have scored around 700-710 marks,” Bura Sai Sharan, who secured All India Rank 19, told TOI.Sharan, who secured the state second rank in the NEET-UG re-examination, said it took him about a week to move on and prepare for the test again. “I couldn’t concentrate on studies. But my parents motivated me. Luckily, though Physics was tough in the re-exam, I handled it well,” he added.Looking back, he said the extra month of preparation was worth the sacrifice, despite the cancellation disrupting the plans of lakhs of students across the country.Several top-scoring students said they used the time between the cancellation and the re-exam to study NCERT concepts and write practice tests.“Maybe I was a bit tense while appearing for the exam in June. Though I was confident after writing the exam, after checking the provisional key, I realised that I had marked four answers wrong despite knowing them. In the re-test, I was calm and performed well,” said Andem Sai Charan Reddy, who secured All India Rank 38. He said he worked on improving accuracy and learning NCERT concepts for the re-exam.Charan, who secured the state fourth rank, said that in the June examination, he might have secured a spot in the top 500. “My son made very silly mistakes. He bubbled one answer wrong but couldn’t correct it as tampering with the answer would have made the entire OMR sheet invalid. Similarly, he missed the logic in a few questions. In the re-exam, he was very careful as it was his second chance. He is very happy now and we are all very proud of his performance,” said Malathi, his mother.
