Story of Dr. Richa Mallick, AIR 247 in INICET July 2021
Why are you so afraid of making mistakes? Most of us are products of a rigorous learning environment that encourages ‘error-free learning’.
Keeping this fear in mind, many NEET PG and INICET aspirants do not like to give the test if they get bad scores. For many, regular tests are seen as demonstrations of proving your knowledge rather than a learning process in themselves. As a NEET PG/INICET aspirant, you should not be afraid of your mistakes. Why? Because when you think of the biggest mistakes in your life, they are also the reason behind your best learning moments.
These mistakes acted as the triggers which helped you to get in the right direction. The truth is that error-free learning is not doing you any good. It makes you cautious and afraid of taking the risk that may not turn out perfectly on the first attempt.
Ask Dr. Richa Mallick, who secured AIR 247 in INICET July 2021. This video describes her journey and how she was not afraid of making mistakes in mock tests.
Where it all began
Dr. Richa Mallick completed her MBBS from a government medical college in Tamil Nadu. After completing her internship, she decided to prepare for NEET PG. She was not at all prepared for the exam but decided to give the test to find out where she stands. In 2020, she got a rank of 87000 in NEET PG.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, her internship got extended for one month till May 2020. Now, when most of the learning has transitioned to online learning platforms; she completed her syllabus by finishing her video lectures and question banks. In November 2020, she sat for INICET, where she secured a rank of 5640. She was not satisfied with her rank because she knew that she could do better.
Overcoming Your Shortcomings
Dr. Richa started analyzing where she is going wrong. She realized that even though her fundamentals were strong, her MCQ practice was not at par. At that point, her brother advised her to subscribe to Pre-PG.
“In Pre-PG, we have so many features to strengthen our MCQ practice. One can take daily free tests where we can see where we stand amongst other students. We can take daily test, and see our weak areas and strong areas. And then work upon them.”
Apart from solving daily tests, the relevance of revision in NEET PG cannot be overlooked. Besides taking the regular daily test, it is also crucial to devise the right revision plan and adopt the correct revision techniques.
Dr. Richa found the revision section of Pre-PG of utmost importance.
“In the revision section of Pre-PG, those questions which we are doing wrong will come up every day. We can redo those questions and we can correct our mistakes every day.”
To make her preparation solid proof, Dr. Richa would make a schedule of giving tests daily. She would take time out of her routine to solve the questions, analyze them and correct the mistakes by referring to her notes again.
As each NEET PG aspirant’s strategy is different, Dr. Richa, too, utilized a different method to solve questions. She started giving previous years’ papers from the Pre-PG by focusing on one medical exam at a time.
Dr. Richa also benefited from the flashcards feature of Pre-PG. There are 10,000+ subject and topic-wise flashcards on Pre-PG which are designed to optimize your preparation for Medical PG exams. These flashcards are ideal for quick review and help you to retain important concepts for a long time.
Furthermore, Pre-PG’s discussion forum and study circle help you to connect with like-minded people. Dr. Richa used it to prepare and compete with her friends.
Learning From Mistakes
Self-discipline, when mixed with sheer hard work and robust preparation, can do wonders for every Medical PG aspirant. But, sometimes, one becomes lazy and procrastinate-either with learning or with MCQ practice.
Bur Dr. Richa had her method to overcome procrastination by solving the Pre-PG’s grand test every week.
“I made a habit that every Sunday I won’t have any other test. We can make a plan where we do the GT and analyse where we are going wrong, the whole day. And then accordingly, we can go forward with the subjects we have to do the next week. This will become a pattern.”
says Dr. Richa Mallick
Your daily actions will lead to habits that can transform your NEET PG or INICET preparation. Furthermore, she talks about Pre-PG video lectures, which you can utilize to strengthen your concepts.
However, for her, the best part of Pre-PG is the PrepDNA. She used the PrepDNA feature to improve upon the mistakes she was concurrently making.
“In the PrepDNA, we have subject-wise and topic-wise analysis. Suppose your one subject is very weak, it will be shown to you in red color or orange color to indicate how weak it is. Then you can select the topic and just do the workout.”
With Pre-PG’s PrepDNA, you keep track of your weaknesses and find out the progress you are making.
Dr. Richa started with a rank of 300 or 400’s in Pre-PG’s daily tests, but in the end, she was scoring in the top ten. This boosted her confidence and her ability to get good scores in the actual INICET exam.
Bonus Tips
Dr. Richa Mallick even shared some bonus tips. She says that every aspirant should have an effective plan of about 5 to 6 months in their NEET PG/INICET journey. Also, you should effectively study 10 to 12 hours a day where you must complete a major chunk of your topics.
In addition, you should also prepare in an interdisciplinary manner. It would be best if you combined some NEET PG subjects together and then give the test. For instance, if you are preparing for subjects like biochemistry, you can study pharma along with it and give the test of both subjects.
Also, to keep track of her progress, she would maintain a calendar to write her daily ranks and then try to improve those ranks.
Medical PG aspirants who track their progress every day know immediately when they have stopped making progress. This strategy works because it allows you to course-correct. Knowing your mistakes and figuring out what went wrong and why is the biggest factor behind the success of most of the NEET PG or INICET toppers.