Interview with Dr. Devasheesh Kamra: Rank 23 in AIIMS PG January 2016

Dr. Devasheesh Kamra has secured Rank 23 in AIIMS PG January 2016 session exam. He has done his MBBS from Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC), New Delhi.

Interview

Q. In what year did you pass out your MBBS (Completion of Internship)?

Ans. 2014.

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

Ans. 62.32%

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

Ans. In May 2015, I got AIIMS rank 240, PGIMER rank 173, JIPMER rank 48 and DNBCET rank 49.

 

Q. Could you please tell us something about yourself?

 

Ans. I am Devasheesh.I have done MBBS from Maulana Azad Medical College. My Dad is Retd Associate Professor. My mom is a housewife.I consider myself as an ordinary curious student who is willing to work.My biggest achievement what I consider is being a part of MAMC which led me to shape my dreams.

Q. What is the secret of your success?

Ans. I got the things planned in a correct way and with reasonable hard work I was able to achieve things. Every day in this year of preparation was allotted to some subject. When the results were not up to the mark, motivation by my dad kept me going. The role which he played for this entrance was tremendous. My mom also gave me a lot of support. I learned from mistakes and tried to improve every time. Evaluation is a key to improvement. DAMS All India Test Series helped me to correct my shortcomings. I had joined IAMS Foundation Course during my final year that build my basic concepts. After facing failures, I still kept going. Life is like a game of boxing, defeat is not declared when you are down, the defeat is declared when you refuse to get up.

Q. How was your internship?

Ans. My internship was considered in general very busy and hectic by many students.I was also of the same opinion. I gave up and thought I would prepare for PG Entrance after the internship. But results came and taught me a lesson. My batch was the biggest role model for me to start working then. As it is said when you accept your defeat, it becomes inevitable.

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

Ans. December of internship (2014)

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. As I was in the home with the full day with me, I studies 8-9 hrs every day and sometimes 10 or 11 but this is a subjective thing and varies from person to person. I focussed on completing my short targets on day to day basis. The bigger targets were then automatically achieved.

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

Ans. During the MBBS, I read theory books and stressed on standard texts but, unfortunately, I missed a few good books. Anatomy – BD Chaurasia and Grays for Students, physiology – Ganong, Guyton and Dr AK Jain (selected topics from each), Biochemistry – Harper, Pathology – Robbins, Pharmacology – KDT, Microbiology – Dr CP Baveja, Forensic – Reddy, ENT – Dhingra, Ophthalmology – Khurana, PSM- Park, Medicine – Harrison, Surgery – Bailey and Love, Paediatrics- Ghai, Gynaecology – Shaws, Obstetrics – Dutta and Orthopedics – Maheshwari.

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

Ans. During the final preparation, I went only for MCQ books
Anatomy plus Forensic medicine – Arvind Arora
Biochemistry plus Physiology – Arvind Arora
Pathology – Gobind Rai Garg
Pharmacology – Gobind Rai Garg
Microbiology – Rachna Chaurasia
PSM – Vivek Jain
ENT – IAMS notes
Ophthalmology – Ruchi Rai
Medicine – Mudit Khanna and DAMS Harrison Based Notebook
Surgery – Amit Ashish
Paediatrics – Arvind Arora
Gynaecology and Obstetrics – Bhojani
Anaesthesia – IAMS Notes
Orthopedics – Apurv Mehra
Psychiatry – Across and IAMS notes
Dermatology – Across
The most productive books were –
1) Ortho because of having many diagrams and photos.
2) Pharmacology and Pathology having many mnemonics and adequate coverage of recently asked topics.
3) Forensic Medicine
4) IAMS Notes of Psychiatry, ENT and Anaesthesia were crisp and easy to revise

Q. Which subjects did you focus on?

Ans. I gave equal weightage to every subject just that Medicine and Surgery I was not able to revise completely.

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 prepared a plan for 1 month, allocated different subjects the required number of days. I focussed on achieving daily targets. I made 2 -3 revisions. My plan remained the same, my results were getting better.

Q. Did you do any special preparation for image-based questions?

Ans. Image based Questions test your concept based approach and if you had read standard texts during MBBS, you don’t need to worry about them. I did not do any special preparation for it. While reading MCQ books, I was in a habit for online searching topics from standard sites like Medscape. They help you build concepts, the more you build your concepts lesser the things will be left you actually have to memorize.

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. During May AIIMS 2015, I got 240 rank. Although this might be considered good by many, but you don’t practically get anything. So I changed my approach from a Safe Approach to a Risk Taking Approach.
This time, I attempted 195 questions. As there was no reliable key available to confirm answers, I did not evaluate how many I got right, might be around 150…just a wild guess.

Q. Do think there should be a different strategy for preparation of different entrance exams like AIIMS-PG or PGI?

Ans. My strategy was to focus on NEET (As AIIMS has a low success rate). Except for the AIIMS previous years which we read for AIIMS, there is no difference in preparation in any exams. Also, the trends are changing to a lesser number of repeat questions and more Image based questions. A planned approach focusing on conceptualising things would be more fruitful. Revision is a key, without revising you can never expect much.

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

Ans. I joined IAMS Foundation Course in 2013, DBMCI Test and Discussion 2014 and DAMS test Series 2015. They do play a role, but thinking that just by joining these prestigious institutes your admission is guaranteed this won’t work. Actually the game begins after joining; you know the position of peers.B ut the ultimate thing that is going to benefit you is hard work and motivation.

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

Ans. My dad influenced me to take Medicine. He taught Biology to crack PMT to many students. I am proud to say that I am his favourite student.

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

Ans. It’s yet to be decided.

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

Ans. I got good ranks in May PGIMER and JIPMER, but I did not go for the counselling as I knew I won’t get much.

Q. What is your advice to future aspirants?

Ans. “If you can dream it, you can do it.” ~Walt Disney
Don’t lose hope, if you do it you are bound to lose.

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 will take the side of appearing in multiple PG examination till you get what you have dreamt. During this whole journey, I realised a few things. In the beginning, I was doing a lot of silly mistakes and easy fails. After giving my exams, my approach towards reading books also evolved and I gained more and more confidence. Giving exams is the best form of evaluation which not even the best of institutes can give. It helps in correcting and building your strategies for the future.

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