There was no doctor in Alik Mandal’s village. That single, plain fact sat behind almost everything he did over the past two years. The farm work squeezed between chapters, the coaching he almost didn’t get to, and the hospital corridors he sat in while his father fought blood cancer.
This year, on his second attempt, he scored 573 marks and an All India Rank of 21,801 in NEET — a sharp jump from the 410 marks and AIR 1,91,900 he had managed last year. He now hopes to join Medical College Kolkata, a choice driven less by prestige than by proximity: it will let him stay close to his family while his father continues treatment.
Mandal hails from Shantipur, a village in West Bengal’s Nadia district. He studied in the Bengali medium at a government school affiliated with the West Bengal Board, scoring 88% in Class 10 and 87% in Class 12, where he took Physics, Chemistry, Biology and English. He began preparing for NEET only after completing school in 2024. He appeared for the exam for the first time in 2025, and this year marked his second attempt.
A syllabus that didn’t quite match
The West Bengal Board’s syllabus, he said, does not map neatly onto what NEET demands, which leans heavily on the NCERT curriculum. He found the mismatch genuinely difficult to work around on his own. “I found it difficult to prepare on my own, but I was able to do it with help from online coaching,” he said, describing hours spent reconciling two different syllabi.
Why he wanted to become a doctor
Asked why he chose medicine, he said that since there is no doctor easily accessible in his village, people often travel long distances for basic care. That absence pushed him toward NEET, and it is also why he wants to return to Shantipur once qualified. “I want to help the people in my village and surrounding areas, especially those who have to travel long distances to access basic medical care,” he said.
“If I can become a doctor and serve my own community, that would be very meaningful to me.” After his MBBS, he plans to specialise in General Medicine.
A father’s illness, and a rank that almost didn’t happen
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Mandal’s father’s health began deteriorating about four months before the exam. After several rounds of tests, he was hospitalised for around 15 days for treatment and blood transfusions, and he spent much of that period by his side.
He sat for NEET on May 3, and came out expecting around 633 marks, a result he felt satisfied with. But the exam was subsequently cancelled, an emotional setback in itself. The very next day, his father’s bone marrow biopsy report confirmed the blood cancer diagnosis. “That news completely shattered me,” Mandal said. “At that point, preparing for another exam wasn’t even on my mind. I had lost the motivation and confidence to start all over again.”
It took him time to accept the situation. With support from his family and teachers, he slowly reminded himself why he had started the journey in the first place. “I knew giving up wouldn’t help anyone, especially my father, who had always believed in me,” he said, and he began preparing again with whatever strength he had left.
With his brother the only earning member, he stayed on to help manage the initial stages of treatment, a decision that left him with a significant backlog in his studies. “I had to work much harder afterwards to catch up, complete my lectures and cover the syllabus,” he said.
What changed between attempt one and attempt two
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The gap between 410 marks and 573 was, in Mandal’s telling, mostly a matter of structure. This time, he enrolled in PhysicsWallah’s Yakeen Batch from the very start, rather than trying to piece preparation together on his own. Regular practice tests, timely doubt-clearing, and consistent faculty support made the difference, he said. “The support from the faculty also played a very important role. They were always available to guide me and help me whenever I had doubts. Overall, I was more consistent and better prepared this time.”
He also gave up social media entirely during preparation. He’d had an Instagram account since he was 12 but deactivated it once serious studying began, reactivating it only after he was done with the exam.
Both his parents dealt with health issues, and money was a real strain on the family. But he credits his parents and brother, who never pushed him to start earning despite the pressure at home. “My parents and my brother always supported me and never put any pressure on me to start earning,” he said, support that let him keep his focus on the syllabus rather than the household’s finances.
On having a plan-B, if it doesn’t work-out
Mandal said he was good at mathematics and had considered it as a fallback. But once serious preparation began, he felt he could not afford to keep a second option alive in his head. “When you are preparing, give it a 100 percent,” he said.
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“Thinking about what happens if it doesn’t work out divides your mind. I didn’t have that kind of strength to spare.” Asked about the student protests over the CJP issue that took place in July, Mandal said he didn’t have a strong opinion to offer — his father’s illness meant his focus, in his own words, stayed on his preparation rather than on anything outside it.