Dr. Salman Shoeb Mapara has secured rank 157 in NEET PG 2017 exam which was held in december 2016.. He has done his mbbs from Grant Medical College and JJ Hospital, Mumbai.
Interview
Q. In what year did you pass out your MBBS (completion of internship)?
Ans. Is going on and will end Feb 27 2017
Q. What were your MBBS percentage marks (aggregate or final year)?
Ans. My aggregate is 70.89
Q. What ranks had you secured in any previous PG medical entrance exams you gave?
Ans. This is my first attempt
Q. Could you please tell us something about yourself?
Ans. I am a middle-class boy and was an average student in my college.my father is mbbs and mother is housewife. I did receive jrd tata scholarship in my 1st and 2nd year. I didn’t participate in any college quizzes but in college festivals i loved to help in and participate with all enthusiasm. I am very religious and very supportive kind of guy.
Q. What is the secret of your success?
Ans. I use five success mantras
1st-to pray to god
2nd-to hard work with smartness
3rd- talk to parents
4th- best friends and
5th-talk to yourself
I fell talking to ourself is important. As how much u have studied, ..how are u studying, all this thing u will come to know when u stand in front of mirror and ask at the end of the day to yours.believe me, u will come to know about ur prep wheather it is going to work or not.and it will keep u on ri8 track..”
Q. How was your internship?
Ans. It is heavy as our hospital is biggest and busiest in mumbai.but yes our residents are cooperative in that sense, they help me manage time accordingly so that i can study and work simultaneously..but yes some of the department in any college are as heavy and hectic that i cant even manage to sleep properly, in that case, coverup it in next other postings..that’s the game of time management..!!
Q. When did you seriously start preparing for the entrance exam?
Ans. I started seriously to prepare in my final 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. Depending on postings in some i studied 9 hrs/day and in heavy ones 6-7/day..in last 2 months it is 10hrs maxx..it varies with every1..i suggest to study only that hrs max in which u r daily quota of study is done… Ex- for anat max 12 days ..so accordingly look at u r speed,postings,time and understanding and go ahead….
Q. Which books did you read for the theory part?
Ans. Medicine– harrison’s vol2 and remaining few miscellaneous, skin, psychiatry and blood- from class notes & mathews
Surgery– SRB & few topics like burn trauma and breast from love and belly
Paeds– O P Ghai and lecture notes by Sushant Mane sir.
Obgy– Sakshi Arora for gynae and Dutta for OBS
Ortho– Maheshwari
Q. Which books did you read for the mcqs? Which mcq books were the most productive and which were least?
Ans. “1st year AA
Biochem- R James mam
Patho-Devesh Mishra sir
Micro- Apurba Sastray sir
FMT- Sumit Seth sir
Pharma – garg
PSM – Vivek Jain sir
Ophthal- Ruchi Rai ma’am
ENT – Manisha Budhiraja mam
Sx – Pritesh Singh sir
Paeds – Deepak Marwah sir
Med -class notes only and MCQ from Marwah or M. Khanna
Obgy – Sakshi Arora
Psy – Praveen Tripathi
Sa – DBMCI class notes and MCQ from AA
Radio – Rajat Jain sir
For all sub i read this and dbmci notes side by side..
See we cant scale any MCQ as most or least as its the prometric which scales it..so every mcq is imp be it a simplest or toughest..”
Q. Which subjects did you focus on?
Ans. 1st and 2nd year and PSM
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 studied topics which are high yield and in recent trends in a details..factual data and nonsense data like rare syndromes and scientist names i omit it out from my list…but yes imp 1 i revised..
I was able to revise 2 times before my exams.
I didn’t create any notes…
Unless you have a dedicated peoples in a group go solo..i did solo only..
Q. Did you do any special preparation for image-based questions?
Ans. No.. Class and lectures are enough..guide books do cover..its wastage of time to buy image book..instead of it see images in guide books and classes lectures and if u have time from-robbins , harrison and neena khanna(remember selected topics only not the hole book)
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. “i was all mindset that -whatever paper will be i have studied and god will do justice to me..i keep myself cool, stressfree and motivated till the end of paper…
I attempted all Q as no negative marking is there.
Q. Do think there should be a different strategy for preparation of different entrance exams like aiims-pg, pgi and dnb cet?
Ans. As there is difference..as aiims stress ophthal psm and pharma in details plus some numericals and physics is there. pgi is multiple ans type so it need to handle like that..but concept is same everywhere so clear concept will yield good result in these exams too.
Q. Did you join any classes or test series? Was it useful?
Ans. I joined bhatia class and there test series only.
Yes it is very much useful.
Q. Who or what influenced you to take up medicine?
Ans. My dad
Q. In which field do you want to specialize in? Why?
Ans. Md radiodiagnosis ,, i want to do more super specialisation in this as this is times demand and there are very few of them..
Q. What seat have you been allotted in counselling? Did you join?
Ans. Counselling is yet to start
Q. What is your advice to future aspirants?
Ans. Start preparing early…if u r pre final and final yr clear u r concepts rather than running behind mcq..clear u r concepts and work hard smartly.believe in yourself as half game of exam is confidence and positivity… U dont need to be a topper to crack neet but u need to be a smart hard worker,,,,as no lunches are free lunches..
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. “neet is best in the sense u have to give one exam and relieve all stress at once….yes there are multiple sessions but prometric ensures equality….whatever session u r in just do this things–read q and “”all 4 options””properly even though its panchat one…think and mark it down…don’t put pending and waste time on non sense factual q mark and move ahead…try rule out method…use concepts to crack 50-50 q,,,,
Remember image q have ans hidden in them mostly so “”don’t panic”” ….all the very best may allah bless u all….ameen!!!”
We are ending this interview with our hearty congratulations and best wishes for future to this talented person, dr. Salman shoeb mapara.
