According to NTA officials, nine factors in a pre-decided order have been used as a tie breaker to decided the ranks. "In case of candidates scoring identical marks, candidate achieving higher marks or percentiles in Biology (Botany and Zoology) will be given preference followed by the candidate with the highest mark and percentile in Chemistry and subsequently the candidate who achieved the highest marks and percentile score in Physics in the test," a senior NTA official told PTI.
Candidates with fewer incorrect answers than correct answers in all the subjects in the test, followed by a candidate with the lowest proportion of incorrect responses to correct responses in Biology (Botany and Zoology) is the winner, followed by candidate with the lowest ratio of incorrect answers to correct answers in Chemistry, will be further deciding factors besides candidate with a lesser percentage of attempted incorrect answers and correct answers in Physics, according to PTI report.
"In case there is still a tie between the candidates, candidate older in age, followed by their NEET application number in ascending order will be used as a tie breaker. It is important that every candidate gets a unique rank for counselling purposes and hence no two candidates have been tied at the same rank this year," the official added.
Last year, three candidates had shared the top rank. The candidates were Mrinal Kutteri from Telangana, Tanmay Gupta from Delhi and Karthika Nair from Maharashtra. "Earlier also there was a tie-breaker formula but despite that three candidates were jointly awarded the first rank last year. From this year, we decided to adopt a new policy," the official said.
The three-point tie breaker policy used till last year chose candidate obtaining higher marks and percentile score in Biology (Botany and Zoology) in the test, followed by the candidate obtaining higher marks and percentile score in Chemistry followed by the candidate with less proportion of a number of attempted incorrect answers and correct answers in all the subjects in the test.
(With inputs from PTI)
