Hi buddies. I am posting my experiences (secrets) in preparing for PG entrance
exams. I am giving a detailed picture which may not be useful for all, but it
might help you to assess what you need! At the outset, I would like to say that
those who are at the verge of exams should not take too much advice. Already you
might have prepared the bulk. Keep going with that. It is not beneficial to
change the strategy at this crucial moment. Just take few words of confidence
and support from your well wisher and pray to almighty. In this article, Id
stick only to AIIMS and AIPGE MD/MS Entrance Exam preparations. For all
purposes, preparation for both remains the same.
WHAT TO READ?
It is the first question arising in everyones mind before embarking on a
year of preparations. Given the myriad of literature available to help you in
your preparation, a sound plan to approach the preparations is essential. Let us
look and weigh the pros and cons of different strategies.
Types of reading material available:
1. Explanatory Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) books
2. Only Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) books
3. Notes and High yield books.
4. Text books
5. Other materials
6. Mock Tests
Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) with explanations.
Most useful books in this category are Mudit Khanna and Amit-Ashish. You
should read them at least thrice. First reading should be a through one and one
should go through all the references. In the second reading just read the
explanations and in third read only the important facts that you have underlined
or highlighted in first two readings. Whether you believe it or not, it is
possible to get a decent rank with just this alone, but you should have gone
through all the references given there.
Only Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) type of books.
A lot of such books are available in market. Both Pulse and Cross are
equally good. Read them after you have mastered subjects, so that you can
pinpoint errors and assess yourself.
High yield notes
These are required for smaller subjects. Paras and Ramgopal are acceptable. SARP
series has lot of errors, so it can be difficult for first time users
Textbooks
I belong to anti-textbooks community. They are for your knowledge, you
can't answer entrance exam questions with this knowledge. You can use them to
read chapters of which you know nothing. Otherwise they are useful only to
understand difficult parts.
Other materials
If you think you are well versed with all these, you can go for PRE-TEST
series. In the recent past , lot of questions were repeated from this series but
at present it is not the case. But still they are useful to improve your
understanding, guessing skills and to get an edge over others. Once you have
mastered the main subjects you can go through Ramgopal, ROAMS. They give details
in a nutshell and that will be useful to recollect things that you have learned
here and there. Apart from these, notes of various coaching classes are useful
but dont read many. Stick on to only one.
Mock tests
These are very crucial to assess your ongoing performance. Dont miss
them for want of time. Attempt as many as possible.
GENERAL READING SUGGESTIONS AND RECOMMENDED BOOKS
Note: Subjects marked with * signify that I didnt read any separate book
for it.
Anatomy*
Physiology
Ganong's Review of
Medical Physiology is a must. No other go.
Biochemistry
Harper's Biochemistry:
Genetics, proteins n amino, enzymes, electron transport
Lippincott's Biochemistry:
DNA, RNA, metabolic cycles
Pre-test Self-assessment and
Review: Biochemistry and Genetics by Catherine Wenz Johnson: Since it is a
bit difficult subject, it is worth going through this book.
Forensic Medicine*
Microbiology
Ananthanarayanan: Easily readable. Concentrate on morphology, biochemical, any
typical features.
If you have read infection in
Harrisons Principles of
Internal Medicine that is enough.
Pathology
Robbin's Pathologic
Basis of Disease: Inflammation, necrosis, immunology. Neoplasm,
staining in general pathology section. Systemic pathology is not very useful..
Pharmacology
diffi to read KDT and remember.. go for high yield notes..
read Harrisons Principles of
Internal Medicine table on adverse effects.
Preventive and Social Medicine
Park is essential.
Browse through net for latest facts . 3 or 4 questions are asked every year.(
WHO website)
Ophthalmology
Either Basak or Khurana as the mainstay.
Parsons Diseases of the Eye
only for reference.
If time permits go for
Clinical Ophthalmology by Kanski.
ENT
Easily scorable. Dhingra is enough.
Medicine
Harrison's Principles of
Internal Medicine- to read or not to read? It is better if you have started
in your final year. Otherwise it is difficult. You can read important topics
like Heart, Nephrology, Neurology, Haematology, AIDS etc
Surgery
Easily scorable.
Bailey & Love's Short
Practice of Surgery
Short cases by Das.
Time permits- Schwartz
pretest
Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Again it is a scoring subject. Dutta and
Gynaecology by Shaw are
enough.
Refer to Williams
Obstetrics for controversial topics like breast feeding, IUCD, OCP,etc
Paediatrics
Ghai is the mainstay but mostly questions are taken directly from nelson.
Nelson Textbook of
Paediatrics is worth going through. Topics like hypospadias, undescended
testis, cleft lip, PEM, vesico uretheral reflux, development, jaundice, neonatal
hepatitis etc.
Biostatistics
No need to read separately. Go through
Harrison's Principles of
Internal Medicine first chapter.
Pretest is very useful..
Anaesthesia
Small Ramgopal.
First 400 pages of Lee's
Synopsis of Anaesthesia
Radiology
Small Ramgopal.
I was thinking about reading
Aids to Radiological
Differential Diagnosis by Chapman, but time was not there. It s a worth try.
Dermatology
Harrison's Principles of
Internal Medicine enough.
Roxburgh's Common Skin
Diseases is good to read.
Even though I have mentioned text books, I used them only for back reference.
But I think I was doing fairly good in my under graduation. That helped me a
lot. So if you have missed that time, then you may need to go through the
textbooks. Go through these suggestions patiently. I might have missed many but
I am open to answer your queries if you believe it is useful. I would continue
about how long to read daily, total months required for getting reasonably good
ranks and important topics to concentrate, impact of repeat questions.
HOW LONG TO READ ?
Great individual variations.. my advice will be spare at least 6 to 8 hrs for
sleep. That s more important.. without adequate sleep, whatever you read ll
become waste.. dont sacrifice sleep for anything. Read at least 8 hrs a day .
if possible increase to 10 hrs. I think that is more than enough. Start
gradually, then slowly increase to your maximum ability. Then gradually decrease
as exams are nearing.. dont read too much near exams. It s not possible to
retain a lot near exams.. last one month, dont read anything new. Do only
revision of what you have learned so far.
TOTAL TIME SPAN:
If you seat properly and continuously without those duty doctor jobs, it s
possible to crack a good rank in six to seven months, assuming you have done
fair enough during your under graduation days. Otherwise it may be ten months or
so.
REPEAT QUESTIONS:
One of characteristics of Indian exams is more than 50% are repeat from previous
questions. It s important that you are aware of this fact. So, most crucial in
your preparation will be to answer those repeat questions without fail. If you
fail in that, however hard you have prepared, you might have answered difficult
questions correctly. But that doesnt matter. you would be pushed down in rank
list. So. Please dont underestimate repeat questions as easy. Pay utmost
attention to them.
MOCK EXAMS:
Again I am stressing on mock exams. Please spend one or two days in checking
those answers and assessing where you slipped. Whether it is a lack of knowledge
or you didnt give proper attention, always try to correct yourself.
I think I have gone little out of main topics. Anyway I have given what is
possible out of me. You should adopt this and adapt it to your own strategy. If
you have queries or you dont understand any, you are most welcome to post in
this thread in have started
in RxPG AIIMS forum. I would be happy to reply to everyone at the earliest.
Again friends, good luck for forthcoming entrance examinations.
Note: If you are benefitted by this excellent article by Subra, please consider submitting your own experience of preparing for entrance examinations here http://www.rxpgonline.com/submit.html
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