Not everyone falls into success with their first try. In fact, very few of us do.
But he who rises up against obstacles and continues the race forward is the one who reaches the top.
All of us want to be successful by transforming our dreams into reality. But seldom do we realize that the holy grail towards success requires one to consistently work hard towards their dreams and their goals.
Dr. Shubhangi Jain had a desire to pursue her post-graduation from some reputed foreign university. But destiny had something else planned for her. After failing for multiple times to crack USMLE and getting a 5-digit rank in NEET PG, Dr. Shubhangi decided to give NEET PG a serious try.
But, how did she make it? From 33k to AIR 4941. Read Shubhangi’s story which makes us believe that it doesn't matter how small your beginning is, you can achieve great things and write your own inspiring story.
“Not So” Motivating Indian Education System
Born and brought up in Bulandshahr, a small town in UP, Shubhangi was always one of the top scorers in her school. She chose Lady Hardinge Medical College for her graduation. Just like any other MBBS student, she too wanted to be the best doctor, and used to ask doubts and study before every class. But gradually she went into escapist tendency after getting discouraged by the teachers and system, and had a hard time navigating how to deal with the big load of syllabus and collage.
Because of this, she could barely pass in first year and lost one whole semester in second year because of her illness.
"From the first two years you can conclude that I was a below average student. And that’s why my basics were weak."
She however, picked up some pace in third and fourth year and became an average student. It was during her final year, when she decided not to stay and study in India and therefore decided to prepare for USMLE.
Out with the old and in with the new
After preparing for 2-4 years for USMLE, when things didn't work out for her, Shubhangi decided to go for Indian PG. She started her preparation in late 2018 after joining a prime institute in Delhi. But once again things didn't go as she planned as the institute got closed just after few classes.
This time, she decided to study on her own instead of joining any coaching which anyways never benefitted her even during her USMLE preparation.
Its all about prioritization/ Its a game of prioritization
No one can finish entire syllabus. You are not supposed to study everything; You just got to learn the importance of prioritizing. Shubhangi had realized this in a very initial stage of her preparation.
“I read few blogs on medium by Pre-PG like "How to leap frog the competition.” It was very insightful, and I could see they were telling how to be smart about preparation.
Every day, I tried to gain by 2 questions making my way from under 20k to under 15k, then to under 10k and then finally to under 5k meaning from 140 Qs to 160 Qs to 180 Qs to 200 Qs correct”
Her strategy also involved covering difficult and important topics first and practice on their retrieval.
"Every single NEET PG topper practiced Previous Year Questions as it helped them to kept in touch with important topics and pinpoint subtopics and topics which tend to repeat rather than questions.
Pre-PG helped me to monitor this.
Because of their Previous Year Questions, PrepDNA, Preparation Index and their focus on important and lesser important topics, I can delve into subtopics questions to check whether what I have studied is of use or not."
She further emphasized on the significance of Pre-PG's daily practice in different subjects which helped her to know her preparation index in comparison to rest.
"This in turn help me to gauge your weaker/stronger topics.
On Pre-PG, you can choose to practice for each topic and subtopic.
General topic-wise practice gave me insight on what to prioritize in sub-topics or topics. Even in important topics, I used to prioritize."
Active Over Passive Learning
Dr. Shubhangi's daily goal, when it comes to practice, was to retrieve what she learnt rather than passive or rote learning. She mentions that Whatever you revise, don't revise it just by passive learning. Don't watch lectures just like a movie. Show some active participation by active learning either by teaching someone, by speaking out by yourself or by doing questions repetitively.
"I had a confusion of whether I am doing right or not by practicing only on Pre-PG and not using question bank of Prepladder, DAMS, bhatia or marrow. Especially marrow which is so popular and students practicing on that had a tendency to do question bank as modules and then do retrospective study.
Honestly speaking, that's not my cup of tea. That doesn't work if you don't have a pretty descent base especially for the first two years.
It is a patchy way of study and even you finish modules, you don't retain much in your head."
Power of Subconscious Habits
Stress happens when you do not give your best. As per Shubhangi, fear of worst-case scenario should be big enough to make you want to get up every time.
"Whenever I used to feel anxious or discouraged and hopeless of what I am going to do, then I used do few Pre-PG questions to get an idea of how much I know. My PrepDNA was increasing as I studied and this was like a mental boost to me."
Shubhangi couldn't stress more on importance of subconscious habits when it comes to NEET PG preparation. You are not fighting with exam just for 3 hours; You are fighting with it on each day of your preparation. Towards the exam the anxiety is high, and person's subconscious habits become lot more prominent. She dealt with it by revising daily which kept the load of end the revision low.
Dr. Shubhangi had hoped for a rank under 3000 and 4000 but when result came out, her rank was 4951.
She was bit disappointed but later got satisfied from that as well as she was happy with the fact that she did exactly as number of questions correct as much as she had hoped in best case scenario.
Dr. Shubhangi wishes to pursue further studies from a descent government collage in India. Pre-PG is proud to be a part of her journey and we wish her all the best for her future endeavors.