Tie-Breaker: Why was Soyeb Aftab declared NEET topper even as Akanksha scored 720/720?

NEET 2020 Toppers are Soyeb Aftab and Akanksha Singh securing AIR 1 and AIR 2 respectively. Both of them have secured 720 out of 720 marks in the examination.

Akanksha Singh, who also scored 720/720 in NEET, lost the top rank to Soyeb Aftab due to her younger age. The policy takes into account factors such as age, subject-wise marks and number of incorrect answers.

According to the tie-breaker policy, preference is first given to Biology marks, followed by Chemistry. Another factor to decide the rank is the number of incorrect answers. If the tie still remains, the candidate older in age is preferred

An Education Ministry official clarified “It’s because of the tie break policy. When two candidates secure the same marks, their performance is compared by looking at the marks that they have secured in each of the subjects and the number of incorrect answers that they gave. The difference in their age is also considered to break the tie. In this case, Akanksha was older than Aftab. Hence, she was placed on the second position”