1st attempt

Funny story… there are more than several reasons why I chose this profession.

• 10th std NCERT successfully made me fall in love with the subject of biology.

• My paternal grandfather, in the last few months, just before he passed away, was trying to convince me to choose MBBS, and once I said yes, his joy knew no bounds. He would proudly tell everyone how the granddaughter who he knew was the brightest kid to be born in his family, was going to become a great doctor! I wanted to live up to his expectations, to make him, and everyone else proud.

• Ego. As funny and absurd as it sounds, ego played quite a big role. No one admits it, but most of us who join MBBS, have quite the big egos. No wonder I was so surprised in my first year, to see how every other kid at my college seemed just as capable and mind-blowingly excellent, that MBBS started to seem more like a rat race to me. When you finally arrive, it turns out to be the best experience.

• Well, let’s save that story for some time else now… so basically, I have always been a proud and confident kid. I’m confident that I will be good at whatever I set my mind to, and I am proud of that confidence and everything that I have achieved. I take pride in my values, principles, personality, and intellectual abilities, along with my intrinsic drive to excel. This pride, self-confidence, and competitiveness, coupled with my competency have given me this huge ego. Not in a bad way, no. I am very down to earth, and I believe that everyone has the potential, if they just TRY and BELIEVE. My huge ego is what acts as motivation for me. My ego tells me that I have to do the hardest of things and that I have to be the best at it. And well, so I chose MBBS.

• Stability. I crave stability and clarity. Stability in life and clarity in my goals. There were a lot of things that I enjoyed doing and was good at. Drawing for example. Since childhood, people would tell me that I’m already an artist. Even my drawing teacher was very proud of me and encouraged me. But I knew that I would go mentally crazy if I chose that lifestyle. In a creative career, it's common to encounter artist's block. It is inevitable. But if that happened to me, I would not be able to take it. Hence the options of becoming an author or pursuing my hobby of singing were also out of the question. In complete contrast, my understanding was that I just had to study, really well, consistently, and I would get into med school and then become a doctor. Such a clear path. I just have to do well and I’ll be sorted. So I chose this. (One thing I didn’t realize though, is that there still are numerous possibilities. You can pursue research, surgery, hospital management, or even take the UPSC exam after MBBS to become a diplomat.

During my 11th standard, my preparation was online… I would study and give exams, but there was hardly much motivation since I was unable to see what and how my peers were doing. So I would say that the maximum of my preparation happened in 12th. Although, the brilliant notes and concept clearance that I had done in 11th grade did help me to revise 11th standard topics much faster and more easily than most of my peers.

I was with Aakash. I feel that it made the journey so much easier and smoother that I couldn't even tell that it could have been difficult. The regular tests they took gave me deadlines to complete topics. The modules they provided were perfect for solving questions as soon as I studied any topic. Plus, the way they taught, all my concept clearance was done in classes itself. And yes, my obsessive note-making habit helped a lot till the very end.

It was actually the same. CBSE and NEET, both are based on NCERT. So I never had to study for the school exams separately. As long as my preparation for NEET was going well, it meant that I was automatically doing very well at school as well.

NCERT and Aakash modules. The modules weren’t different from NCERT content-wise. But they made understanding the topics easier for most of the chapters. Plus, in the modules, the topics were subdivided into multiple smaller ones, with related questions after each. So, it took much less time to read as well as be done with question-solving, with the help of the modules.

NCERT has all the wordings you need. I personally feel that reading NCERT is non-negotiable, and solving questions is the most crucial. So I would recommend that even if you are just reading, do solve the related MCQs immediately after whatever topic you read.

I used to be very fixated on first studying everything before solving anything. Realizing that it wasn’t working and then trying to shift to studying and solving side by side was a change that came as a challenge to me (I am a little rigid even with the smallest of changes), but fortunately, I was able to overcome it.

I attended all family functions. I carried my books with me, and the guilt of having enjoyed so much at a family function while preparing for NEET, in fact, motivated me to study harder. I never studied past 10 p.m. If I had to study more, I would just wake up at 4 or 5 a.m. and study, but before MBBS, I had genuinely never ever studied after 10 p.m.

Like I said before — ego, willpower, competitiveness. And also, the strong desire to make my parents proud and give them everything that they’re hoping for while they support me.

I used it A LOT. The last 4 days before NEET, I had shared so many reels with my friends, it’s weird when I look back. Mainly, I would prevent myself from doomscrolling by calling a friend. We would discuss what all each of us had studied, set goals for each other, and then question each other later. That helped me a lot.

Right time is 11th standard. But even if you start late, you can make it. I was so much more focused on friend groups, crushes, and “the last years of my school life” during most of 11th and 12th, as if I was making my own high school drama. Yet, with the right kind of study discipline, motivation, competitiveness, and willpower, you can balance and achieve the best of both worlds. My only fault was that I didn't really know anything except that I had to give NEET. I didn't know the “what next.” I would advise everyone to check that too (the non-medicos specifically). I didn't know how much I needed to score to get into which college, or that Manipal University was not the best college. I wanted to get into Manipal just because a friend had mentioned it. I scored 605, a score that would easily secure me a seat at Manipal. But that is when I researched and realized that I would much rather be at Cooper Mumbai than KMC Manipal.

A maximum total of 2 attempts.

A gap year is fine. Just one. I’m saying this because I have seen some really fine, brilliant minds, who cleared their MBBS with excellent scores in their 2nd attempt, securing a seat at a good government institution in India. Everyone should treat their 1st attempt as a do-or-die situation, but in the unfortunate event that they’re unable to clear in the 1st attempt, then they should go for a 2nd attempt only if they are sure that they will work twice as hard as they did the first time and make sure that they get in this time. Life in medicine is a long, tiring journey. More than 2 attempts, I would definitely not advise. And even if they want to choose a different career path after the first failed attempt itself, it’s fine. Cheap MBBS studies abroad also, I won’t suggest. Just take the example of the Indian MBBS students in Ukraine and please do not consider that as an option ever.

You’ll get what you want, as long as you believe and try your best.

Believe in yourself. And don’t lose hope too soon.

Physics = easy marks

Sweet, kind, diplomatic, intelligent, bright, self-motivated, bubbly.

I hope AI does not take over the world. AI as an assistant, with no human having to engage in labor or life-threatening professions, while also job opportunities for humans increase and poverty is eradicated.

I talk a lot. I do love talking about myself, I guess, as is evident in the long answers I gave to these questions.