Author: pearllysun, Posted on Saturday, June 27 @ 06:02:33 IST by RxPG  

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There is hardly a sincere post grad seat pursuer who has not had moments of self doubt and introspection when sitting in from of the web wondering to themselves if this indeed was the best use of their time. Anvita Pauranik (Rank 1, AIPGE 2009) told us that she took "digital sanyaas" for an year. Rahul Hegde (Rank 22, AIPGE 2009) advocated careful use of internet to supplement knowledge. Ajit Goenka (Rank 1, AIIMS 2007) stressed on the fact that internet can be a double edged sword. The fundamental question is can the resources on internet match or make up for the traditional sources like age old wisdom and age old notes passed on by seniors, coaching classes, like minded study group and question bank and books? What if one doesn't have the traditional means? Will it work? Can a person score a top rank without having access to traditional means or choosing not to use this but make the world wide web their peer group and resource? Why wouldn't anyone have access to this you ask? Lets picture who would this be. Ideally such a person would belong to the first batch of a brand new medical college in a very small town far from any traditional educational hub. Can we find someone like that to ask how they did 'it'? Fortunately we did!

Its a pleasure to introduce to RxPG, Dr Shailesh M Prabhu (RxPG ID: Tinwintin; scrapbook) from the first graduating batch of S. Nijalingappa Medical College, Bagalkot, Karnatka who secured rank 23 in  AIPGE 2009 and Rank 1 in AFMC, Pune 2009 without access to any of the traditional resources. In addition his rank in Karnatka CET was 12 and AIIMS Medical PG Entrance Exam was 198. Read his complete interview to know how internet can be a game changer for people who are traditionally disadvantaged in the highly competitive world of post graduate medical entrance exams. As they say, not anybody with a bow and arrow is an archer.

RxPG: Congratulations on your all round success in medical postgraduate entrance exams this year. Topping AFMC and getting rank 23 in AIPGE are no mean tasks, especially when you are up against thousands of other hardworking and committed PG aspirants. What is it that gave you an advantage over them?

Dr Shailesh M Prabhu: I feel the sheer determination to do it egged me on to give my best all year long. On top of that some smart reading gave me that edge over my peers.

RxPG: It looks like smart reading is in fashion this year. Rahul Hegde, AIPGE rank 22 also talked about "smart study" in his interview with us. Would you like to tell us more about it?

Dr Shailesh M Prabhu: Reading smart is the key for the AIPGE exam. I improved on my rank of 11,000 in AIPGE 2008 to 23 in AIPGE 2009 by reading smart.

RxPG: Did you work during your preps?

Dr Shailesh M Prabhu: No

RxPG: Well that reflects on the strength of your resolve to be successful. But taking an year off work for PG prep can be tough, both emotionally and financially. How did you manage support for yourself during this period?

Dr Shailesh M Prabhu: My parents were very supportive towards me all year long. It is quite difficult to just study all year long without working. When you see your peers in different professions bringing in the money for their families, you can feel pressured. That’s why I am really grateful to my parents for everything.

RxPG: What about your friends? Some aspirants can see them as a distraction during preps. How did you feel about them during your preps?

Dr Shailesh M Prabhu: Friends played a vital role too! It’s a tough period. You need quality friends to understand what you are going through. Sometimes you will see a friend in despair, guide him and encourage him and the favour will be returned to you in someway from someone when you are in despair. I would like to thank my friends for listening to me whining about the entrance and still not complaining.

RxPG: So success is not only about studying hard. Cultivating support around oneself is crucial. This brings us to our classic "Oscar winning speech" moment. Whom would you attribute your success to?

Dr Shailesh M Prabhu: It's actually a "small" list. First and foremost GOD for being around through thick and thin, then my parents for being so supportive and caring, friends whom I bugged all year long and who were nice enough to be nice to me (Shweta, Sangoli, Pundalik, Virupaksh, Satish, Vijay, Mahesh, Tmu, Varun, Anshul, Naveen, Ashutosh, Sachin, Shreyas), RxPG website and community for all the help. And finally "me" for studying after all.
 

RxPG: So when did you seriously start preparing for these exams?

Dr Shailesh M Prabhu: I got studying right after I got into internship. Bu I felt I didn’t really know what to study and how to study until I got off internship. Moreover my medical college (S. Nijalingappa Medical College, Bagalkot, Karnatka) was new and I didn’t have seniors to guide me. This is where RxPG really helped me. Seniors in RxPG forums were kind enough to give an exhaustive list of books they read and that put me right on track.

RxPG: Good to see that RxPG could help to fill a gap left by lack of seniors in your college and in a way put you on an equal footing with graduate from other colleges. It is proving to be a great equaliser.  Recipes for success in any exam, that was formerly privy to some traditionally successful hubs is being made available to all with massively interactive forums on this website. Do you have any more insights about how wonderful community at RxPG is helping medical students and doctors all over?

Dr Shailesh M Prabhu: RxPG, as I see it, has been the connecting force that binds all medicos all over India, it being the single largest website for medicos. Not only the views expressed in RxPG forums broaden your outlook towards medicine, it is also an outlet for frustrations, joy and creativity. I would hope that one day every medico all over India would start interacting here.  That’s when we all would learn so much more about the health problems in India, our views would broaden even more and together we will be united. As a united force we can fight so many issues that plague our profession. RxPG might just help us do all that.

RxPG: We admire the nobility of your vision and sincerely hope that it would come true sooner than later. Can we also ask what on RxPG helped most in your preps?

Dr Shailesh M Prabhu: RxPG helped me in providing up to date information regarding entrances. The valuable interactions with some really kind seniors, esp. Kavish, and friends I found here (manowar, aryakid, hilac, dilpreet, neemhakeem and so many more) really helped me in my preparation for the entrance exams.

RxPG: You earlier said that you prepared seriously for almost an  year? Is that enough time for an average PG aspirant to get a decent rank?

Dr Shailesh M Prabhu: I believe that to get a good rank 8 months of exhaustive preparation is required. This period is vital to cover up your weak subjects from undergraduate days and learn all the new topics that are needed for medical PG entrance exams.

RxPG: Covering weak subjects and learning new text would require reading the theory. Which textbooks did you mainly rely on for that?

Dr Shailesh M Prabhu: I read textbooks for only a few important subjects like Robbins' pathology, Ganong's physiology, Lippincott's biochemistry, Schwartz, Harrison, Ajay Yadav etc.
 

RxPG: That's quite a selective list of books. Are these also the subject you focussed on?

Dr Shailesh M Prabhu: I concentrated a lot on pre and para-clinical subjects. Biochemistry, Pathology and SARP were something I spent a lot of time with.

RxPG: Were you also selective with the MCQ revision books? If so then which were your top two MCQ revision books?

Dr Shailesh M Prabhu: I feel Mudit Khanna for All India PG Entrance Exam and Amit Ashish for AIIMS exam are really two charm books for the entrance and they help you like no other book can. These are the two books you have to be thorough with just to have any fighting chance in the entrance exams. Every single line in them is so important that it could well be the next MCQ.

RxPG: Any other books you found useful in PG preps? 

Dr Shailesh M Prabhu: Other books that really helped me were Gobind Garg for Pharmacology, it is one awesome book. ACROSS SARP is a neat book. Amit Ashish Medicine and Surgery is your roadmap to these vital subjects. Rachna Chaurasia for Microbiology and Sakshi Arora for OBG gives you that edge in the exams!

RxPG: It appears that you did your research well before formulating a strategy for the exam preps and also used a lot of common sense. ######strategy for the actual AIPGE exam day as well?

Dr Shailesh M Prabhu: My concept about AIPGE exam was straight forward. The topper of the exam gets a percentage of 70%. That is about 210 right answers out of 300. If you forget about negative marking for a moment, you would realize that you can actually leave 90 questions if you are sure answers. Ninety questions are a lot when you go in fully prepared for the entrance.

RxPG: But what about repeat questions? Did you take them into account while deciding on your strategy?

Dr Shailesh M Prabhu: If you scan through the papers you will realize that around 240 questions are from repeat topics. Note that I am talking about "repeat topics" and not "repeat questions". So master these repeat topics by knowing every bit about them. I saw my peers doing this collective mistake of going for the remaining 60 new topic questions, ending up reading everything diffusely and messing up the repeat topics too.

RxPG: You started early. You created a solid foundation by focussing on patching your knowledgebase first. Then what happened with revision? Did it also go according to your plans?

Dr Shailesh M Prabhu: I wanted to start revising from September as I heard that it is an ideal time. But I could manage to get on with revision only in middle of next month i.e. October. My advise to future aspirants is that don’t keep reading new topics after October unless those topics are really important. Just focus on revision. Ideally you should finish your revision before November AIIMS PG Entrance exam as it is a good dress rehearsal for AIPGE. Also that exam would make you aware of potential  mistakes that can creep up, well in time before All India PG Entrance exam.

RxPG: Good advice. You said something which has been said several times before by the toppers we feature on RxPG, so it must be really important. Was there any strategy for the exam day as well?

Dr Shailesh M Prabhu: I hadn’t gone with a fixed idea of how many questions I would attempt because I had decided beforehand that I would decide that after having a look at the paper. If the paper was to be tough I would have taken that many less chances because then negative marking would play a very important role. I was conservative and attempted around 285 questions.

RxPG: So again judicious use of logic seems to form the backbone of your strategy. But doesn't the fact that one has to give multiple exams makes it difficult to hold on to a single strategy?

Dr Shailesh M Prabhu: I feel it’s a good thing we have multiple entrances, because a single day should not judge our efforts of one full year. Anyone can have a bad day. Appearing for multiple entrances is a good idea cause it gives you that many more chances and that many more choices.

RxPG: So which other medical postgraduate entrance exams did you appear in?

Dr Shailesh M Prabhu: I appeared for 6 medical postgraduate entrance exams in total i.e. AIIMS, PGIMER, AIPGE, AFMC, KCET and COMDEK.

RxPG: Out of these six medical postgraduate entrance exams, which one did you like?

Dr Shailesh M Prabhu: Definitely the exam which attracted me the most was AIIMS.

RxPG: Why AIIMS?

Dr Shailesh M Prabhu: Isn't it every Indian medico's dream to get into AIIMS.

RxPG: And exploiting such dreams has unfortunately become a big business for some, especially the postal and classroom coaching industry. There are so many around nowadays that a starter can easily get confused for choice. One way to make that choice is to emulate what toppers did. So which one did you go to?

Dr Shailesh M Prabhu: I didn't attend any coaching and neither did I feel at any point during my preps that I missed out on them.

RxPG: That must be one tough decision! Would you like to explain your rationale behind this decision?

Dr Shailesh M Prabhu: We are not studying rocket science that we need someone to explain it to us. It is only some facts and some common sense. That’s all medicine is about.

RxPG: But still an average medical PG aspirant needs to learn a lot in a single year. Don't you think that coaching classes might help some to speed up that process?

Dr Shailesh M Prabhu: You sit with your books and you can learn whatever your want. The internet is a blessing in this regard.

RxPG: Internet is featuring again in our conversation. Would you be able to give some tips to our readers about how to use it effectively in their preps?

Dr Shailesh M Prabhu: Internet is a blessing when used conservatively. All the information you want is at your fingertips without having to flip through indexes of bulky books (courtesy Google books). Whenever you feel that a topic has not been well explained in the books or not adequate feel free to search and you will get your concepts right. The internet is like having private teachers from around the world to teach you. Use it well.

RxPG: Can it completely replace the need for coaching classes?

Dr Shailesh M Prabhu