For 18-year-old Soyeb Aftab, pursuing medicine wasn’t always the first preference. Speaking to The Quint, the resident of Rourkela in Odisha, who secured All India Rank One in the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test 2020, said that he wanted to become a software engineer as he believed that technological advancements would make the role of a doctor obsolete in the future.
But things changed when Aftab, who scored 720 out of 720 in the medical entrance exam, reached the ninth grade and realised that medical practitioners are very much relevant and are here to stay for a long time.
“When I reached the ninth grade, I realised that what I had thought in my childhood would not be possible, at least in this century.”Soyeb Aftab, NEET Topper
Hence, after clearing his class 10 board exams, Aftab went to Kota in April 2018, where he took coaching with Allen Career Institute. Aftab says that he did not return home even once after this and focused on studies, as his mother and shifted along with him to the coaching capital.
When asked about his success recipe, Aftab said that in the beginning, he did not put in too many hours to study, but as his scores became more consistent, he began studying 12 hours a day.
The son of a builder father and a homemaker mother, Aftab wants to study cardiology after completing studies at the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi.
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