NEET Topper Skipped Protests And Focused On Studying Instead

Picture this: your exam gets cancelled because someone leaked the paper. Thousands of students take to the streets in anger. What do you do?

Panshul Bansal picked a different path. He stayed home and studied. That choice paid off big time.

From Disappointment To Determination

Bansal secured All India Rank 2 in the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination, with a jaw-dropping 99.9999 percentile. He scored 715 marks, up from 706 in the original exam that got cancelled.

The backstory here matters. The NEET-UG exam, which decides who gets into medical colleges across India, was held on May 3. It got cancelled on May 12 after allegations surfaced that the question paper had leaked. The CBI stepped in to investigate. A fresh exam happened on June 21, this time with extra security. Results came out on July 16.

When the news of the cancellation broke, Bansal did not celebrate. He told NDTV that he felt "despair and sadness" at first. Fair enough. He had already sat for the exam and felt good about his performance.

But something shifted within a couple of hours.

The Mindset Shift That Made The Difference

"I looked at it from a positive perspective and got motivated and determined to do better this time," Bansal said.

That right there is the whole story. Instead of dwelling on what he lost, he asked himself what he could still gain. A second chance to improve his score sat right in front of him. So he took it.

While protests grew louder outside, with students marching and opposition parties calling for the resignation of the Union Education Minister, Bansal made a simple calculation.

"I thought, why should I go to the protest? Instead, I could be studying at home and improving my skills and improving my score," he told NDTV's Shiv Aroor.

No drama, no debate. Just a student doing the math on how he wanted to spend his time.

Same Routine, Better Result

Here is the part that surprises most people. Bansal did not overhaul his study plan or pull all-nighters. He stuck to his usual routine.

"I did not change anything in my schedule. I simply followed the same routine. I just felt that in the last one-and-a-half months I had to give everything I could and leave the rest to God," he said.

Sometimes the answer is not a fancy new strategy. It is just doing the same solid work with a little more focus and a lot less noise around you.

Bansal, a student of KR Mangalam World School in Greater Kailash, New Delhi, admitted he initially questioned the decision to cancel the exam. He believed he had already scored well enough to get into a government medical college. That kind of frustration makes sense. Imagine acing a test only to be told you need to retake it.

Yet he chose not to hold onto that frustration.

"I thought, why should I bring negativity into the picture? I should forget everything and focus on my main goal. Whatever happens will be for the good. Once the paper is over, the stress and anxiety will also end," he said.

Staying Neutral On The Protests

When NDTV asked him directly about his views on the protests happening across the country, Bansal chose to stay out of it.

"I would not comment on that," he said.

That answer tells you something about him too. He knows where his energy needs to go, and it is not into public debates. His job was to prepare for an exam that decides his future in medicine, and that is exactly what he did.

A Lesson Beyond The Exam Hall

Bansal's story is not really about NEET alone. It is about how you respond when something outside your control throws a wrench into your plans.

You can protest, you can complain, or you can put your head down and work on the one thing you can actually control, which is your own effort. Bansal picked the third option, and it took him from 706 marks to 715, and to the second rank in the entire country.

Not a bad trade for one and a half extra months of studying at home.