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As the saying goes “where there’s a will, there’s a way,” you may have also met individuals or seen examples proving this. In a heartening display of determination, 50-year-old Vikas Mangotra took the NEET UG 2024 just to be a better teacher to his daughter, who also took her first attempt this year.
“NEET is a highly competitive exam and I wanted to support her preparation, so I appeared for it. My daughter says that I teach in a very simple manner and she loves to learn from me. Once, she had some difficulty with a question and I helped her. She was almost amazed to see that I still remembered everything,” Mangotra was quoted saying to Indian Express.
The father-daughter duo appeared from different centres in Delhi NCR — Vikas from the Greater Noida centre and his daughter Meemansa (18) from the Noida centre.
Mangotra, who hails from Jammu, qualified the NEET in 2022 as well. “I appeared for the state PMT in the early 90s. Though I wished to become a doctor and even had enough marks to secure a medical college seat; due to some personal issues, I had to go ahead with engineering the next year,” he said.
Notably, he took NEET in 2022 to test his own abilities and gather confidence to understand the examination better. However, his second attempt in 2024 was to motivate his daughter and enhance his teaching skills.
Reportedly, Mangotra was initially apprehensive of taking the exam considering his age, but he got inspired by a 60-year-old Odisha man who had qualified for NEET in 2021.
Mangotra, who managed to study after his office hours, felt the need to devote more time to preparation and took leave from his job to study for 15-16 hours a day. He said, “Time is not physical, and its usage is very arbitrary.”
His daughter Meemansa has taken a drop year to prepare and improve her NEET score. Vikas said that it was only after he started teaching her that he realised the challenges students faced while preparing for the examination.
Mangotra analyzed that the test this year was comparatively straightforward compared to previous years. “In my attempt in 2022, I felt the paper was a little tricky,” he said.
Regarding the allocation of grace marks, Mangotra was disheartened. “I have never heard of such a policy in competitive exams before. Seeing this happen with NEET, I feel NTA should have taken responsibility for its carelessness,” he said.
