NEET-PG 2024 topper, Dr Vaibhav Garg, hailing from Chandigarh, is the only doctor in a family of engineers. Vaibhav got an All-India Rank- 1 with 100 percentile. The NEET-PG 2024 result was declared by the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) on August 23. 

Garg, a resident of Dhakoli, cracked NEET-PG on his very first attempt. Talking about his ambition to become a doctor, he told an English daily that the inspiration to pursue medicine came after I lost my maternal uncle, who was very close to him, in the second wave of the COVID pandemic. 

“My family is full of engineers. During the second wave of COVID-19, my entire family fell ill and I lost my maternal uncle who was very close to me. That was when I felt the need to work harder to become a good doctor."

He passed class 10th from from St John’s High School in Sector 26 Chandigarh and Class 12 from Sri Guru Gobind Singh Collegiate Public School in Sector 26. He said a curiosity to know more about the human body was also another primary reason for him to choose medicine after Class 12.

“God has made the human body a powerful machine, and from the beginning, I was interested in knowing how this machine works,” he said.

Vaibhav's father, Sanjeev Garg is an assistant executive engineer at Haryana Power Generation Limited and his mother, Manju Garg is a primary school teacher at DAV- Surajpur school. His sister Aditi works at Amazon as a software engineer. 

Coming from a family of engineers, Dr Vaibhav Garg was determined to pursue medicine, especially after his maternal uncle passed away during the pandemic. That steely resolve has now paid off, as he secured all-India first rank in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Postgraduation (NEET PG) in his very first attempt and made Chandigarh proud.

Success Mantra

"Initially, I got only three to four hours to study for NEET-PG as I was also doing an internship. However, I later started to put in 12 hours for the preparation. During this time, I stayed away from social media. I used Whatsapp and Telegram for accessing study material and solving doubts," he said. 

“I want to specialise in medicine and repeated revisions helped me a lot. I kept revising the standard textbooks which form part of the syllabus,” he said. “I also took a lot of mock tests and solved previous years' questions and question banks,” he added.

‘NEET PG Postponement Caused Anxiety’

Talking about the postponement of NEET-PG from June to August, he said it caused anxiety. 

“It was in the night (before the scheduled exam) when the news of exam postponement came out, and by then, I had slept. In the morning when I woke up to get ready to write the exam, I saw that the exam had been postponed. It did cause anxiety but such incidents teach you a lot- patience and perseverance,” he said.
“Staying focused towards your goal will help you achieve what you want,” he added.