Flat fell the question on to my face, "Are you going to prepare alone for the AIPGE? Do you think you can do it?" I said "Yep! I can do it". It was not that I was one of those over confident lot, rather it was my habit! I always studied alone in the cool confines of my room during UG, so studying in group was nearly an unknown un-trodden way for me!
They said "You might lag behind in completing the subjects in time". Those were two of my best friends and my batch mates in college. I replied "Let me try first!"
As usual, as I had been studying in UG, I started my preparations with theories from 1st MBBS. Boy! It was so tough, I used to get sleepy! It went on like this for a week or so... They came to see me. We had been studying same topics, so started shooting MCQs at each other. I fumbled, took more time and tried to recall what I had studied in that one week. I was disturbed with my situation, so I sat back and gave it a second thought, "Was it enough the way I was studying?
There were two main aims:
1. To complete the theory part twice before January.
2. To cram all the MCQs well at my finger tips.
I decided to join their group, as I was not satisfied with myself, the way I was studying. I thought "Why not go the way which most of people take as far as PG preparation was concerned?"
Thanks to them, I joined it. We were three now, studying in a group.
At the outset, it was tough for me to keep up pace with them. Probably I had read too much in the old saying "Slow and steady wins the race! I realised that the main problem in preparing for PG was time. I knew that you never have enough time to read all theories and MCQs, but still you have to do it any possible way!
Studying in group I found, that it helped me in more than one way! After initial feelings of being slow, I found that I was also catching up with their speed, that I was also able to read as many chapters in the stipulated time for theories each day.
We used to read the textbooks out loud, page wise. One of us would read one page and rest two would listen, then the second would read second page and so on. Doing this we were getting visual as well as well hearing experience of the text which I think had helped me in recalling text during the exams.
After getting a rank in AIPGE 2006 by God's grace, I think, reading in group helped me a lot in completing the vast lot of subjects twice in those few months. It did help me in completing and memorising MCQs, but the benefit I got in completing theory has been indispensable.
Note: Thanks vitamin_k for sharing his experience of group studies. RxPG invites other visitors also to write their experiences of preparation days, exams, success or failures! You can leave a comment on this article in Pre PG community forum in this thread http://www.rxpgonline.com/postt51557.html
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