Dr. Ashish Markan
Dr. Ashish Markan

Dr. Ashish Markan has secured Rank 63 in AIIMS PG July 2014 session which was held on 11th May and results were declared on 15th May 2014. He has done his MBBS from GMC, Patiala.

Interview

Q. In what year did you pass out your MBBS?

Ans. 2013.

Q. What ranks had you secured in any previous PG medical entrance exams you gave?

Ans. Rank 1200 in AIIMS PG Nov 2013 session, Rank 979 in PGI Chandigarh Nov 2013 session, Rank 297 in PGI May 2014 session and Rank 5910 in AIPGMEE 2014.

Q. What were your MBBS percentage marks (aggregate or final year) ?

Ans. 68.9%.

Q. What is the secret of your success?

Ans. Cracking entrance exam like AIIMS requires a lot of hard work and sincere dedication. It was my love for the subject which helped me reach my goal. I studied daily and followed a regular routine. I had joined DBMCI foundation batch in new final year. My basic strategy was to finish all the notes given in the class side by side.

Q. How was your internship?

Ans. Internship was not so hectic but still we had regular postings. Few departments were pretty hectic where as some were pretty cool. Overall I could spare time for my studies with my main focus on MAY AIIMS exam.

Q.  When did you seriously start preparing for the entrance exam?

Ans. I always focused on theory during my prof years keeping in view that efforts put in prof years would definately help me in solving MCQs during my internship. I kept revising things in prof years and re-revised them in internship.

Q. How many hours did you study each day?

Ans. No of hours was never fixed..during duty days it was less..after internship i studied about 9 to 10 hours daily for 4 months targeting MAY AIIMS.

Q. Which books did you read for the theory part?

Ans. This part is really important as textbooks lay your foundation during the prof years.I would recommend my juniors to read the following textbooks during their prof years.
1 prof :
Anatomy: K.L. MOORE
Physiology : GUYTON (+ few chapters from AK JAIN)
Biochemistry: SATYANARAYAN + LIPPINCOTT
Pathology: ROBBINS AND JUST ROBBINS (this book is a must)
Pharmacology: KATZUNG plus KDT
Microbiology: Ananthanarayan
Eye (Ophthalmology): PARSON
ENT: DHINGRA
SPM: PARK
Medicine: HARRISON
Surgery: LOVE N BAILEY(for git and urology),rest from MANIPAL SURGERY
Paediatrics: OP GHAI
Obstetrics and Gynaecology: SHAWS AND DUTTA

Q. Which books did you read for MCQs revision? Which revision books were the most productive and which were least?

Ans. I studied all the subject wise books mainly pulse publications one…
ACROSS for short subjects except Radiology, Sumer Sethi’s TEXTBOOK for Radiology, SAKSHI ARORA for ENT and Obstetrics and Gynaecology. I found all the books useful.

Q. Which subjects did you focus on?

Ans. Mainly 1st year and 2nd year subjects plus SPM.

Q. What was your strategy for the exam day? How many questions did you attempt and why?

Ans. I had planned to attempt more than 190 questions, remain calm and trust my instincts. It was not that i knew all the questions. I was sure of 130 questions, had doubt in 2 options in 40 +questions and marked them all. Now in the last half hour i was left with 30 more questions in which either i had no idea or a very vague idea. I then read all the 30 questions again and selected 20+questions where i cud make a guess and had a chance to get them correct…so i attempted 22 more questions and in total attempted 192 questions.

Q. Did you join any classes or test series? Was it useful?

Ans. Yeah i joined DBMCI foundation course and it helped me a lot in planning my line of action.

Q. What seat have you been allotted in counselling? Did you join?

Ans. No I didn’t attend the counselling as i never wanted a peripheral college. Always targeted for MAY AIIMS.

Q. In which field do you want to specialize in? why?

Ans. I want a surgical branch. Most probably General surgery or ophthalmology. Getting either of them in AIIMS would make me happy. I am not that rigid in my thoughts.

Q. Who or what influenced you to take up Medicine?

Ans. I always wanted to be a doctor…no one in my family is a doctor….it was always my own desire to pursue medicine.

Q. What is your advice to future aspirants?

Ans. Study hard, trust yourself and remain calm. Last 2 months before the exam require a sincere dedication for the ones in 2nd year. Do join foundation batch. :-)

Q. Indian PG entrances are highly competitive, so to crack them students end up in appearing for multiple PG exams with some of them having same exam with different slots and papers , please extend your views on this and their pros and cons of appearing in multiple PG entrances.

Ans. Different exams require different strategy, exams like NEET and DNB require lot of cramming and learning useless facts, getting a rank in NEET is actually luck based. Whereas aiims exams require a quality input with a proper strategy in those 3 hours.

Rank 63 in AIIMS PG July 2014 session makes Dr. Ashish Markan an ideal example for doctors who feel disheartened by their ranks in AIPGMEE and feel that exams like AIIMS PG are uncrackable for them.

We are ending this interview with our hearty congratulations and best wishes for future to this talented person, Dr. Ashish Markan.

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