Despite facing health problems, Sekh Galib Raza cracked NEET UG 2024 in his fourth attempt. Hailing from Soro village of Odisha, he is pursuing his MBBS from SCB Medical College and Hospital. The 20-year-old secured a rank of 3835 and when he got a seat at AIIMS Bhubaneshwar, he turned it down. “SCB Medical College and Hospital is one of the best colleges in the state and was established since 1875. Here the intelligence and responsibility of the patient is good. AIIMS-B is still young and not functioning well,” he said.
Raza was suffering from uremia (urinary problem) while appearing for NEET UG in 2021 and 2022. Medicines could not work for him and the only option he had was to perform a urethrotomy. Due to poor health conditions, Raza underwent surgery six months before NEET UG 2023.
Unfortunately, Raza could not sit for long hours to prepare for his exam. “I was advised by the doctor to rest in bed, that interfered with the offline training program. Additionally, I was depressed about my illness and how it was affecting my dream. This affected my academic focus,” said the Odisha-based student who followed his parent’s advice to switch to Allen’s online classes.
It was during those exam sessions that his sister would stand with him and read his notes so that Raza could continue his NEET UG preparation. Unfortunately, he scored 590 and dropped by four marks.
Raza was not discouraged and changed his method of preparation. “My preparationwas rigorous and I always looked at my question paper as a patient and the examination hall as a surgery theatre,” he said adding that he wants to do PG in general surgery and will try for Master of Chirurgiae in Urology.
“I had one minor and one major surgery. To motivate myself, I recently remembered Steve Jobs’ famous quote, ‘You can’t connect the dots forward, you can connect them backwards. So one must rely on those dots; that one day and somehow it will connect in the future. You have to rely on something – your gut, your future, health, karma, whatever.”
The boy from Odisha focuses on making short notes in certain subjects, especially in Biology with topics like ecology and genetics. Before the exam, he appeared for 22 tests and five sample papers and also reviewed the important topics to have a deeper understanding of the concepts.