Dr. Vaibhav Tandon has secured Rank 72 in AIIMS PG exam held in November 2013 for January 2014 session of admission. He has done his MBBS from GMC, Amritsar and is currently JR in Psychiatry department of AIIMS, Delhi.
Q. In what year did you pass out your MBBS?
Ans. Dec 2012
Q. What ranks had you secured in any previous PG medical entrance exams you gave?
Ans. Rank 60 in Aug DNB, Rank 91 in Nov DNB and Rank 184 in PGI
Q. What were your MBBS percentage marks (aggregate or final year) ?
Ans. 61.2 % Aggregate
Q. What is the secret of your success?
Ans. Secret of success is hard work in right direction..and the desire to succeed..but the biggest stimulus is the fear of failure..the fear should be such that it shouldn’t scare you but should stimulate you to work harder always…
Q. How was your internship?
Ans. Internship was good…i attended all my duties..had the chance to get coaching but didn’t go for it..I wanted to work in the hospital and read what i wanted to read and not just mcq books.
Q. When did you seriously start preparing for the entrance exam?
Ans. I started preparing seriously since Jan 2013.
Q. How many hours did you study each day?
Ans. I studied seriously from 9am – 5pm….these were my library timings and after coming back home i relaxed and read whatever i had done in the whole day..
Q. Which books did you read for the theory part?
Ans. During my internship i read theory extensively but that didn’t help me much because everything cannot be mastered..I read all the subject wise books during my second attempt…
during my MBBS I read foreign authors for Physiology (Guyton), Pathology (Robbins and Cotran), Medicine (Harrison), Surgery (Love and Bailey and abdomen and trauma from Schwartz)..rest all routine books which everyone is aware of…
Q. Which books did you read for MCQs revision? Which revision books were the most productive and which were least?
Ans. For MCQs revision I read only subject wise..and 10 yr papers for questions..never read the explanations of Amit Ashish and Mudit Khanna..
Across is least productive for Physiology , Biochemistry and short subjects….
It is beneficial for Anatomy and Forensic Medicine..
For other short subjects Arvind Arora (pulse publications) has come..all the books are very good..
For Ophthalmology and ENT, I read subjectwise but didn’t find them much useful…class notes from DAMS were useful…
For Medicine I didn’t read anything..relied on class notes and MBBS knowledge..
Q. Which subjects did you focus on?
Ans. First year, Second year and spm..and Short subjects..
Q. What was your strategy for the exam day? How many questions did you attempt and why?
Ans. I remained calm and attempted questions on a higher side…read the questions carefully and also the options..sometimes options are grossly wrong and only one is correct and the question can be answered even if the question is out of the blue..
For AIPGMEE and NEET think on every question and one can come to an answer..focus on the questions which everybody can answer..difficult and ridiculous questions do not matter.
Q. Did you join any classes or test series? Was it useful?
Ans. DAMS regular course…It was beneficial..they give good class notes and also give a direction to hard work..
Q. What is your advice to future aspirants?
Ans. Work hard..exam conducting body doesn’t matter..just focus on things which everybody knows.
We are ending this interview with our hearty congratulations and best wishes for future to this talented person, Dr. Vaibhav Tandon.