Dr. Avirup Majumdar has secured Rank 342 in NEET PG 2017 which was held in December 2016. He has also scored rank 342 in AIIMS November PG 2016 and rank 229 in JIPMER PG November 2016. He has done his MBBS from North Bengal Medical College.
Interview
Q. In what year did you pass out your MBBS (Completion of Internship)?
Ans. 2015.
Q. What were your MBBS percentage marks (aggregate or final year)?
Ans. 69.90%
Q. What ranks had you secured in any previous PG medical entrance exams you gave?
Ans. AIPGMEE 2016 – Rank 4391
Q. Could you please tell us something about yourself?
Ans. I have done my MBBS from North Bengal Medical College, Siliguri, West Bengal. I have been a consistent student throughout my MBBS career, secured good ranks in departmental quizzes. I was the Senior Class Assistant (prosector) in Pharmacology. I come from a non-medical family; my father is Retired Insurance Officer, Engineer .my brotEngineer.I used to play Tabla and drawing was my hobby. Im a fun loving guy, love to read good novels, hanging out with friends.
Q. What is the secret of your success?
Ans. In one word “FOCUS” . The most important mantra of my performance was Perseverance . The zeal of securing a good rank and consistently taking it to the end made my ranks possible. I kept almost the same amount of energy throughout my preparatory phase, trust me it is difficult but it is definitely POSSIBLE.
Q. How was your internship?
Ans. Internship in my college was too hectic. In peripheral colleges like ours, there is a lot of workload on Interns and Housestaffs, because of less number PGTs and senior doctors. I could not study during my internship and so didn’t sit for the entrance exams that year.
Q. When did you seriously start preparing for the entrance exam?
Ans. As mentioned, I didn’t attempt PG during my Internship. I joined Housestaffship last year in Department of Chest Medicine. I started reading from that period but I knew my preparation was not upto the mark as I had difficulty managing my duties and focussed study. I started focussed preparation from April this year.
Q. How many hours did you study each day? How long do you think students need to prepare for cracking PG medical entrance exams?
Ans. I seriously didn’t have any rigid time table. I used to read late at night, early morning studies is not my cup of tea. In the initial phase it used to be around 10 hours approx. Last 2 months it was upto 12 hours maximum.
There should not be any fixed hours of study, its absolutely individualistic. No matter how long it takes, one should cover as he/she is supposed to complete on that day. It should be target-oriented, not time-oriented.
Q. Which books did you read for the theory part?
Ans. Seriously speaking I had little time to read theory part of all subjects. I read them very often for references.
Harrison’s Internal Medicine should always be the mother book.
Q. Which books did you read for the MCQs? Which were MCQ books were the most productive and which were least?
Ans. Anatomy – Arora
Physio, Biochem, FSM – Across
Medicine – Mudit Khanna
Surgery – Amit Ashis
Radio – Sumer Sethi
G&O – Sakshi arora
Ortho – Apurv Mehra
Short subjcts- Across
Peds – Taruna Mehra
Patho, Pharma – Garg
Micro, ENT- Rachna Chaurasia
Plus questions of previous years’ AIIMS and AIPG
Q. Which subjects did you focus on?
Ans. All the 19 subjects are important.. but obviously the big ones like Medicine , Surgery, G&O , Patho, Pharma.. Short subjects like FSM, Skin,Psychiatry, Micro, Biochem are equally important and differentiating.
Q. What were your study methods? How many revisions did you do for each subject? Did you make any changes in your study methods in your recent attempts?
Ans. I had no class notes, I used to study on my own from the MCQ books i had. I used to make notes on every useful update I got . DAMS Exclusive Club on Facebook was quite helpful in this regard. Initially I took one subject at a time and finish it completely but later when things would slow down, I made a change..I used to take one subject and when it got slow I shifted to another subject and come back to it later on. With this I improved my speed quite well. I could revise the whole syllabus twice before the final exam.
Q. Did you do any special preparation for image-based questions?
Ans. I attended DAMS DVT classes for images.
Q. What was your strategy for the exam day? How many questions did you attempt and why? How many do you think you got correct?
Ans. My strategy was to keep my brain calm so that it can perform at its peak level. Good sleep , light breakfast and an empty bladder and rectum are must.I attempted all questions in NEET. Around 220-230 must have been correct.
Q. Do think there should be a different strategy for preparation of different entrance exams like AIIMS-PG, PGI and DNB CET?
Ans. PGI is different. I don’t know much about it as I didn’t appear for it.. For AIIMS , focus should be on conceptual and image-based questions . For NEET and DNB one-liners are more frequently asked, images are asked less often in these exams.
Q. Did you join any classes or test series? Was it useful?
Ans. “Yes. I joined DAMS Online Test Series this year. I attended DVT classes by DAMS.
Yes of course, giving regular subject wise tests and grand tests, tracking the marks obtained, pointing out the weak areas and working on it was my core strategy. DAMS DVT classes were also useful specially for images as asked nowadays in AIIMS exams.”
Q. Who or what influenced you to take up Medicine?
Ans. My own choice to become a healer.
Q. In which field do you want to specialize in? Why?
Ans. “General Medicine
Because it is the only subject which covers everything, the mother branch of medical sciences. Your thinking domains are limitless in Medicine.Its difficult to describe Medicine in one word..”
Q. What seat have you been allotted in counseling? Did you join?
Ans. Not alloted till now. Last year I was alloted Diploma in Ophthalmology which I declined.
Q. What is your advice to future aspirants?
Ans. Keep up the flare and hunger inside you. Don’t get too uptight, it is not the end of everything.It is necessary to relax a bit, but don’t get off the track either. Stay focussed, stay healthy, think positive. Success is sure to come.
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 the 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. I support single exam NEET wholeheartedly.
We are ending this interview with our hearty congratulations and best wishes for future to this talented person, Dr. Avirup Majumdar.
