Thursday, May 25, 2017
Authors' diary: How to study during Ramzaan
Tuesday, April 25, 2017
Exam Prep Hacks -Tips for a lazy person
Saturday, April 22, 2017
Preparing for NEET - Part 2
Thursday, April 20, 2017
Preparing for NEET: Part 1
Hello folks,
This is a common post requested as to how to prepare for NEET PG exams.
And as to whether joining classes is really required to get a decent rank.
So today I will share with you a study schedule told to me by my professor. Which takes around 7 month hardcore prep.
Now for a general approach to it
1. Classes are not essential. Classes add only 20% to the entire PG prep of yours.. That's with like max optimum attention and taking down notes vigorously.
2. Don't read standard books. The competition is so high, that the publishers end up increasing the number of pages. Just to make the book more appealing. Reading those books is a waste of your time cause they repeat the explanations over and over again with unnecessary details which will make you take a month atleast to finish a subject like obstetrics.
The only decent book I found was modit khanna for medicine, like the initial pages of high yield notes and the questions and not the explanations. Don't read the explanations unless the answer is not known to you through the high yeild section.
3. Try getting your hands on class notes. Be it DAMS, Bhatia or IAMS. They are all amazing and to the point. And that's what is needed.
4. Get the NEET PG question booklet, by Arvind Arora. A minimum of last five years questions of NEET is a must to solve.
5. Never sit with a pen and a paper or a marker during your first read for any subject. You will end up marking the whole book and write unnecessary notes and wasting a lot of precious time. Save it for your second and third read or when you are confident enough that you know the flow of the subject and now just need to focus on details.
6. While reading if you have any doubts make a point to jot it down and find answers before sleeping or at the end of the week. But do solve them. Cause at the end just before exams these are the doubts that trouble you the most.
7. You need to score only a 75% aggregate to score a decent rank. Like to be in the top 3000. That is very much possible with a 7 month smart prep. For the the fight in between the top 3000 see the next para
8. Imagine yourself after a 24hr emergency duty, back to back and just next day you have to write theory paper of your uni exam.That's a near about situation of how mind stressed you are before neet.
Like it's 20 subjects..and you need to shift your focus from ophthalmology to psm in a matter of seconds. If you can't do that and if you waste your time even like an extra 5 mins on one question then you will be compromising the tail questions and that's when the stress gets to you. You keep looking at the timer and boom you black out.
A solution to this is you need to train your brain to deal with this situation. I have an aggregate of tips from medicowesome authors to deal with this.
- Solve the grand test. Just don't stick to one subject solving be as varied as possible. Like your best shot is solving 100 random questions every day doesn't matter if you know only 5subjects out of the 20, you only need to train your brain to deal with it.
- Solve the questions after an on call or after a very stressful day, give yourself the taste of it. So that your brain will be able to switch attentions during exams.
I feel the battle between the top 3000 rankers all comes down to who switched their attention between questions the fastest. The knowledge is the same it all matters that whether you were able to use it to your best or not.
9. Follow medicowesome :D
A bit cheeky but seriously it helps. Every now and then try reading the various posts. It will help you to condition your brain to all the subjects piece by piece.
10. A lot of questions are photo based. Try making your own picture library like jot down the things of pics you want to search for and look for it at the end of the day or the week end.
11. We don't promote apps and stuff but I would seriously advice downloading the pg prep app from Google play. It has stats to show your progress, daily exams, a 55 thousand question bank, photo questions, subject wise and grand test questions. It is amazing. Go ahead download it if you haven't and stick to it.
12. Have a way to destress yourself during the prep. Like be it running , movie, at a cafe or a novel.
Pg prep is a monotonous dumb thing to do , let's not lie to our selves -_-
You need to keep your engine at a steady pace so that you are able to fast track during the last month before your exam.
Like I personally read manga :D
Weekly updates were my solace and paradise. That's the way I treated myself after I had completed my schedule for the week.
I will upload a seven month prep schedule in part 2.
- Sakkan
Wednesday, March 22, 2017
An overview of the NEET PG entrance exam
by Dr. Prateek Charuchandra Joshi (DNB AIR 291, MH state rank 51)
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Fact of the day: Talking to yourself is a sign of smartness
Monday, January 9, 2017
MBBS practical viva tips on examination
Keep calm.
And rock those vivas!
This video is on how to not make silly mistakes during pracs!
Monday, October 3, 2016
Concepts vs mnemonics
"There are two ways to learn something - One is through pure logic ie, from first principles (building up a concept). The other is mnemonics (To help retrieve info quickly... To avoid all the time and thinking taken to derive it).
The best thing is to learn both ways. If you forget the mnemonic, you can derive it from the concept. If you forget the concept, you'd at least have the mnemonic." - SG
Many people question whether mnemonics really help. This is what I have to say in explanation. Learn both like SG said. They'll help if you manage to remember, if you forget, you can use your knowledge and understanding to come to the same conclusion.
That's all!
SG is a good friend and is very philosophical on learning. These are some random thoughts that she sent and I thought of sharing them because I strongly agree!
-IkaN
Saturday, June 4, 2016
Step 2 CK score 251 experience by Saminathan Anbalagan
Saminathan:
There are a lot of experience posts which are excellent guides.. I actually went through many of them and took the one which suited me.. So I’ll first write about few areas where I felt difficult.. And then give the whole experience..
I didn't have proper guidance for the assessments.. CMS, NBME and UWSA.. I didn't know how to go about.. I guess many people are feeling the same.. So lemme give an overview..
Step 1 score 256 experience by Satish Advani
Thursday, May 26, 2016
Biochemistry – How to study?
Sunday, April 3, 2016
Anatomy and Neuroanatomy - How to Study
So I thought I'd share some facts about how I studied anatomy in my MS1 or First year of Medicine.
First, which books to read?
Saturday, March 19, 2016
How to study for final year MBBS
- Asked on Tumblr
Friday, March 11, 2016
Don't let the score get you down
Thursday, March 10, 2016
Studying anatomy again
-Asked by Anonymous
Hey. I can understand that what you are going through must be really tough. Studying for the same subject again and again is really boring and can be frustrating at times. I am so sorry you have to go through this :(
Alright! So what can we do?
Tip 1: Fake it till you make it.
Pretend you are a super awesome anatomy professor and teach it to yourself after reading.
Write cool things and fun facts about anatomy. Make colorful notes.
Celebrate after every page you read. Be happy while studying.
You have to fake interest in the subject. Because otherwise you won't be able to study for it.
Tip 2: Figure out what went wrong in the previous attempts.
I think you can tell what went wrong. Was there an easy question in your viva that you did not answer? Was there a question with high weight age that you didn't about? Did you mark more than half MCQ's wrong? Did you fail to draw diagrams? Did you forget the answer or did you not know about it? Are you just studying important questions and not reading everything that is supposed to be read? What are your weak points: Neuroanatomy? Abdominal anatomy? Embryology?
Work on it.
Tip 3: Get another book or resource
Maybe your textbook isn't good enough for you any more. Stick to you but get new books just to have a read in other words.
Google for diagrams.
Make mnemonics.
YouTube songs on anatomy. Play them and sing them!
There is a lot of help available, just look for it.
Tip 4: Visualize it
Palpate your brachial artery and tendons while studying. Imagine the muscles in your feet. Visualize how your skull looks like on the inside. Look at diagrams, cadavers and notice the origin and insertion of various muscles. If you can't see it, you won't be able to answer questions related to it.
Tip 5: Live in anatomy
So here's a fun thing you can do. Talk to yourself in anatomy.
Today, when I didn't know the answer to the question, I used my trapezius with my 11th cranial nerve to shrug my shoulders.
To tease my friend, I used Genioglossus to protrude my tongue :P
I used my facial nerve and orbicularis oculi to wink at my girl friend ;)
I am glad I have strong pelvic muscles iliococcygeus and my internal organs aren't prolapsing.
Maybe you could write a "Life in anatomy" diary! xD
Make stupid anatomy jokes. (Soleus has a soul and heart?) Play anatomy games and quizzes.
Have fun with studying, please. But please, study everyday. Make a study plan and study a lil bit of everything. An hour everyday of: Head and neck, limbs, neuroanatomy, embryology, etc. Revise. Revise. Revise. Anatomy is all about memorization and you are likely to forget if you don't revise. Have someone keep a track of your progress. If you can't, email me. I would love to help you out and see you kick anatomy's gluteus maximus this year :D
-IkaN
Related posts:
Giving the exam you failed in
When you get tired of studying
Study tips on preparing for PG CET
So many of you have been asking me how to prepare for the Indian PG exams. As you all know, I am preparing for studies abroad and I don't find myself competent to answer the question. But, we convinced Dr. Prateek Charuchandra Joshi to share his study tips with us.. And he agreed! How cool is this guy! Thanks, Prateek! ^__^
I asked him a few questions focusing on the strategy of studying and irrelevant questions like - how many months/attempts did you take, what were your MBBS scores, how was internship, etc. were not asked simply because these are variable for all of you and you can't do anything about it. What you can do is get a general idea from this post, and make your personalized study schedule :)
Saturday, January 16, 2016
Time management and avoiding silly mistakes in exams
Divide number of questions by number of minutes. Have some spare time at the end.