A beautiful lie has lovingly wrapped its tentacles around all of us- a comforting

excuse perpetrated by society for all things left incomplete.

Do you know what that is?

It is the belief that an interest is required to go about any task at hand, whether
difficult or easy - a notion that emphasises more on the �love for the work� part
than on the actual work and the interest it generates.

REFUSE TO BELIEVE IN SUCH A MIND NUMBING EXCUSE TO NOT DROWN YOURSELF IN WORK.

The truth is that interest comes after we spend long hours at something, at a goal
that seems too abstract. Yet do we continue, yet do we keep striving for mastery
and one day we unexpectedly find that we have grown to love that which seemed so
frustrating at the part.

All worthwhile things in life are bound to be frustrating and tiring for a very
long time, for it is the bitterly hard journey that allows us to gauge the
intensity of sweet results.

Accept that chemistry like all other sciences is bound to be hard and frustrating
at the start and then persevere.

The equilibria questions will confound you, the endless chemical bonding problems
will drive you mad, but yet persevere. Keep throwing yourself at this mountain of
work and some day you will find that the mountain was but a rock in the valley- not
that the mountain has shrunk but you rather have grown taller in endurance.

Keep persevering because that is now the mantra of success by modern day thinkers -
How much grit do you have?

Whether do you have enough strength to go on when all interest has deserted you
will determine how far you go in life.

One fine day, you too will wake up to find that the dreaded monster has become a
cuddly teddy bear to keep close to your heart. For me, the moment I finally found
true love for chemistry was in the last few months of preparation when finally all
the dots connected.

But the view of the beautiful big picture, of the grandeur of its everyday
applications was only possible due to the thousand hours I put in mastering it.

Do the same and you shall find a deep interest in any subject that you dread.

What should we keep in mind while falling in love at the age of 18?

That You should ABSOLUTELY not fall in love, if you are a general category student
in India hoping for a great college and with no family business/political
connections. If you are in love, stop immediately or you strongly risk a poor
academic performance that will keep cascading as you try to get hold of your lost
time.

Get your statistics right first, latest ones please.

Say you are right at the blossoming of your youth, standing on the verge of
entering the beautiful life of independence. Behold the entrance exams.

Do you want to study in IIT ? - You are competing for less than 10 thousand seats
among 13 lakh candidates.

Do you want to study in any government Medical college? - You are fighting for less
than 40,000 seats among 12 lakh candidates - NEET 2017. Make that less than 5000 if
you want a college ranked under 20 nationally (akin to IIT).

Do you desire to study law in a prestigious Indian university? - You are struggling
for 2000 seats among 50,000 candidates via CLAT.

Oh, so you didn�t crack any of the entrance tests because you fell in love at 18
and couldn�t focus. So you wish to crack UPSC after getting a random degree from
the local college. Too bad the competition is even more fierce - less than a
thousand seats amongst 11 lakh candidates.

Oh damn. You couldn�t fulfil your dream of becoming an IAS officer even after
multiple attempts.

You finally decide to settle for a good government job, via SSC CGL. You will have
at last a good grihastha life. Well sorry to say, you are hoping to get less than
10,000 vacancies amongst 15 lakh aspirants.

This is not love

Popular cinema leads one to believe that love is about dates, dinners, movies
together, handholding at sunsets, buying gifts (and that too with parents� money).

This is but romance, a very very tiny part of love.

Love is not an involuntary activity. It is a slow, careful, measured journey of

care and respect for an individual regardless of their virtues. Notice the word
�slow and measured�. It is a deliberate construct of the waking mind, not a
subconscious entity (like infatuation).

Why do I say regardless of virtues ? Say you �fell in love� with the voice of a
singer. However, in an accident he got his recurrent laryngeal nerve injured and
his laryngeal muscles were thus paralysed. In simple words, he lost his voice.

Because you had fallen in love with a virtue, and that virtue does not exist now,
hence your obsession should end with him, logically .

Say you fell in love with a gentleman, one of beautiful charms and chivalry. He
suffered a stroke and became paralyzed from the neck down (or he became epileptic).
Because you had fallen in love with his chivalry, and that chivalry is lost now,
hence you logically must abandon him now.

A simple test of love

Say you are a guy who thinks he is truly in love with a �princess�. Ask yourself
the following.

Your maiden got ill and shit on her bed in her clothes. Liquidy fecal material is
dripping across the sides of her bed. Her clothes have turned a distinct yellow and
the odour is but a killer.

Can you without second thoughts, pick her up, wash her trunk and glutes, change her
feces ridden clothes and change her bedsheet ?
Be honest sir. Unless you are married long term or a parent to a child, this
scenario is nigh impossible to execute.

If you have never seen what it is like to change clothes of a diarrhoeal and bed-
ridden person, take a walk to your nearest government hospital.

What is true love then ?

True love is then �cleaning shit and continuing to care & respect for that person�.

You can only experience this at the end of your honeymoon period of any
relationship.

At age 18, fall in love with your parents instead.

Care for them like you have never done before. Cook for them, fulfil their wishes,
understand their needs, interpret their words in the best possible manner, stop
frowning at them, don�t cut their calls, don�t be impatient with your mom when she
asks everyday what did you eat.

I have done a lot of things in my life till now - travelled extensively, lived
abroad, been a national level quizzer and one of the few national winners of CBSE-
Katha workshops. I have read hundreds of novels, have been in love (and left). I
have trekked, have done the highest altitude paragliding (available to commoners)
in the world. I have yearned to follow the call of the wild.

Nothing has given me as much happiness as seeing the pride in the eyes of my
parents (both of whom are doctors) when by the grace of almighty I achieve
something as a medical student.

I remember his extreme elation at my ranks in medical entrances Alhamdulillah,

considering I did a local coaching.

I felt the joy in his voice when I told him recently I was awarded with the gold
medal for best student in anatomy in my college. His voice quivered a bit and he
said - bahut badhiya beta (well done, my lad).

To me now, making your parents happy is the greatest love that you will ever have.

How do the MBBS students feel during their college? Do they recommend it to the
current medical aspirants

Feeling is a very subjective term. It is certainly not as if one stops having a

myriad of emotions after entering a medical college.

Two months after admissions into the MBBS course at KGMU, students were asked by
Dr. Jyoti Chopra (one of the finest teachers) that how many regretted joining MBBS.
Nearly 80% of the hands were raised in the affirmative.

Most of my batchmates complain of information overload, of extremely regular tests

and vivas designed to make you feel like Jon Snow, of feeling dumb (where they once
were the toppers of their respective cities).

The phrase often used is �drinking from a hose pipe�.

Thankfully, I usually never had to whine about how hard the course is because I
fully knew how it would be.

As a medical aspirant, I want you to understand the truth. Let the following
statement sink in deeply into you -

�Moderately performing or acing in your medical college will require you to live
the same lifestyle that you had during your PMT days. You will crack postgraduate
entrance examinations, with specialisation of choice, only after that grim and toil
of 10 hours a day of studies.�

How to get a feel of the course

Visit a government medical college and stay with a final year or intern for a day.
Shadow them quietly and observe how they juggle classes, postings and self study.
Then, after having seen the horrific routine, shoot that inevitable question
whether they practice it every day. The answer would be in the affirmative.

(In the United States, pre-medical students often have to shadow physicians so as
to gain a feel of that lifestyle so that they know what they are venturing into and
thus don�t drop-out of graduate school)

I grew up with both of my parents as professors in one of the consistently ranked

in top 20 medical colleges in India (currently 8 as per India today) - JNMC, AMU.

For the last 20 years, day in and day out, I have seen their same routine of
getting up at 5 or 6, studying for the day, leaving at 8, coming back at 4 pm and
then studying a solid two hours in the evening. It is as if an unbreakable sacred
ritual, that after the evening tea, the entire family sits down to study in their
respective rooms.

My dad retired last year and yet he spends his days reading, gardening, publishing
academic papers. Sigh, he is the first person from surgery department from AMU to
complete his PhD, the defence of which took place after retirement.

My Granddad is 87 years old and still has a thriving practice. His eyes water on
prolonged reading but still he manages to read Hutchison every day. When last year,
the 19th edition of Harrison (the Bible of Medicine) was released, he got it the
same month itself.

Are you getting the point, ladies & gentlemen? You will be studying everyday
without fail if you wish to deliver quality patient care, without sacrificing on
any of the protocols.

So consider all of this before you, wishful young mind, venture into MBBS, hoping
to become a cardiologist or a neurologist. If you do not desire to be a student for
the next 12 years of your life, if you think it will be too much for you to give 2
more exams like PMT (NEET-PG and then for D.M./M.Ch.), kindly go to IISER, IISc.
You will have a fulfilling life there too, as some of my friends did.

My feelings

Because the course is designed to be hard, to mould future doctors in stress

management, because it is constructed to have an extremely steep learning curve,
hence I perceived it to be hard in the beginning, especially anatomy whose
terminology was difficult to take in.

As the months have rolled past, it has become easier and easier.
Memory is but a network of synapses or connections if you will. It takes time to
lay down the fundamental framework but once it has been laid, once you have learnt
the basics, it becomes easier to fill in the gaps in the network and add to it from
the sides.

What especially made it easier was completing a lot of my course material in

advance in the festival holidays in between. Classes then became a review material
for me, especially in physiology.

Hence, I now enjoy my course to the fullest. I learn at my own pace and don't
bother about exam preparation. When one has studied for PG preparation, University
exams seem easy to him.

Prologue

I am finally taking the plunge (even after having profs at the end of this month)
to answer what books to read in 1st year.

�Best books� is a subjective phrase since best is defined by how ably that tool
helps to get the task at hand accomplished. This answer will be focussed more
towards USMLE.

The best list of books will be slightly different for USMLE as compared to NEET PG.
I spent more than a 100 hours to research (on student-doctor-network, RxPG etc) on
what would be the best because I was obsessed. Currently on quora I don�t think
anyone will have more books than I do, for first year because I wanted to
experiment and see for myself the different writing styles and what suits me the
best. (at least 4�5 per subject and pdf of every renowned title). I still haven't
planned fully to give AIIMS PG or USMLE but I am currently preparing for the
latter, hoping to give it at the end of 2nd prof.

Finally invest in good books (instead of iphone, zara, gucci bags, rayban,
avenger/harley/royal enfield). You are in medical profession. Your worth (aka
�bhokaal/raula�) is the sum of your clinical skills and your knowledge, not your
material possessions which you are anyway buying with your parents money. Good
books cost money but still go ahead and buy that 2300 INR book of histology because
you will one day grow up to love it.

How to select books for oneself

Do not make the mistake of buying books after reading its amazon reviews or hearing
it from seniors. Take a good look before buying, preferably from a physical copy.
Some of my friends love glossy pages while I do not (because they make annotating
difficult as the ink spreads)
First identify your learning style - Are you a visual reader ? Do you hate reading
paragraphs of text or are you okay with no illustrations for pages? Do you read
very fast or do you go slow, absorbing things in first time itself and don�t
require the same thing to be explained in three different statements with change in
language? As an example Guyton Physiology is suited to the former fast readers
because of its lengthy text while not for the latter because it repeats too much.
Remove your biases - the most renowned books may not be the best for you. Just
because you hear seniors raving about BDC does not mean it will do wonders for you.
Book Editions matter in subjects where processes and molecular interactions are
involved. So it is okay to buy if you can�t get the latest edition of moore�s
anatomy (because gross anatomy has been covered by observing via naked eyes and
microscope a long time ago) but obsessively try to buy the latest edition for
Biochemistry and Physiology so that the books remain relevant. Exams use only the
latest editions as reference and AIIMS PGI always love to ask the latest questions
from biochemistry.
Make amazon your best friend. Take prime membership if you live in a metro and you
will be happy as hell with their service. Before buying, call the biggest book
seller in the city to compare the prices with online always. Flipkart stores very
few medical books and often jacks up prices (and then shows discount).
Read the standard books. Do not go in for shortcuts. You can take a shortcut now
but any PG exam will not forgive you for it. Its questions will be greater in depth
and vastness than your university exams, always.
Know thine enemy. Know that the exam pattern of AIIMS PG has been steadily shifting
for the past few years towards USMLE style with case based questions and two step
reasoning. 65 questions out of 200 were image based in AIIMS MAY 2017, akin to the
USMLE, which focusses a lot on ECG, CT, MRI, X Ray, Pathology photos, dermal
conditions etc. This is a lot like how the exams have evolved for a medical
aspirant (compare the factual nature of CPMT to NEET UG).
Your mental level matters, and it grows as you keep progressing. Everybody on Quora
acknowledges without a shred of doubt that �Feynman lectures� is the best book for
physics. Why don't we then prescribe it to the school going children. It is because
their mental level is not yet enough to grasp the entire book in their given time.
Sure give them a few years and they will master it. Same holds true here. You can't
expect it to barge in, understand ganong in one reading without having any proper
knowledge of integration of systems. Of course it is an amazingly condensed book,
but it is not suited to be the text for first time learning. After you have covered
the syllabus for first year, come back and read ganong and you will then appreciate
it better, instead of thinking medical school is very hard. It is not, it just
doesn't allow shortcuts to hard work. You just have to go through a primary text
before moving onto ganong.
My Recommendations for First Year (more focussed towards USMLE)

Take a deep breath. Yes my recommendations may seem a bit too much and your friends
may even mock you but remember that your opponent is quietly training. Read below
for some motivation.

Ahmad Ozair's answer to To crack AIIMS PG, should I work from the 1st year of MBBS
or can I pull it off afterwards?

If you are in a college where teaching is by powerpoint, don�t try to copy the
entire presentation. Listen more, write less. There will come a time to reverse
this, but not now.

Get the Kaplan Step 1 entire set from day one(I did so). Buy of previous year i.e.
2016 at around 7000 INR. These comprise all the subjects of 1st and 2nd year except
the Indian related part of PSM. These lecture notes are far superior to anything
you make in class and are designed to be annotated. The notes are in sync with
video lectures and hence you don�t have to write anything, just listen intently and
then revise using the notes. What they explain is gold. Nobody comes above kaplan�s
explanation and integration of metabolism. Annotate them and cross link (e.g.
anatomy info in relevant physiology part at the side of kaplan and you will stop
forgetting)
If you don�t want to spend 7000 for this, then get BRS series for physiology and
for biochemistry at least. You need that to revise awesomely well.
Get the entire Pre test question bank series for anatomy physiology and
biochemistry. This has USMLE style,case-based questions which you can�t solve
unless you have integrated physiology with biochemistry. I strongly predict that
this is how some questions will be asked in Indian medical entrances after 5 years
(as India is trying to catch up with the west) - earlier they used to ask such
factual rubbish questions that you would be amazed - numerical values, redox
potential of potassium, number of neurons in olfactory mucosa etc.
Physiology

Costanzo Physiology (either the 5th or 6th edition will do) is better than guyton
and ganong in pedagogy. Before someone is enraged by that statement, relax and read
costanzo first. How it introduces concepts is matched only by that book I read in
class 12th (campbell biology). Why not Ganong is that it throws at you a truckload
of information, which is difficult to take in for a novice. Sure its factual
information is great for NEET PG but USMLE will test you on how well you understand
something,how systems are linked. Couple that with BRS physiology review (written
by same writer Linda Costanzo) and you don�t even need to make notes.
Why not guyton is that the book is less of medical physiology and more focussed on
experimental approach. The text is low yield - you spend one hour and walk away
with little to show because guyton repeats statements and talks in vague terms -
there are factors that are responsible � (oh hello tell me what factors - then I
look up in another book and find it and hate guyton for not including it after
telling about it) - if you really want, read cellular physiology and CVS from it.
Some people will say that they love it - each to his own opinions then. Guyton is
so lengthy that most people don�t finish it fully.
Anatomy

Go for Gray�s anatomy for students without hesitation. No book has better, clearer
diagrams that convey a structure in its entirety. Its illustrations are now being
given in PG as image based questions.
Have a pdf of Moore�s Clinically oriented Anatomy (read its blue boxes). That book
is heavy and great but takes time to read. However you should look up these
legendary blue boxes for they convey a sense of the reason why must I study all
this anatomy. Moore�s is the standard text for medical students in USA (yes I mean
the dream colleges of Harvard and Stanford - at least that is what the students
write on forums)
Atlas is purely a personal choice. Netter is renowned and used universally but it
has diagrams not photographs. Real life photographs are given in McMinn and in
Rohen (choose either one or borrow from senior)
Either of Langman�s embryology or Moore�s embryology will do. Langman is the
reference for AIIMS PG and Moore for USMLE but both are essentially amazing. They
explain birth defects like nobody does. Watch David Seiden�s (of Kaplan) embryology
lectures as he focusses less on what structure forms what and more on why the body
looks that way it does (great for personal understanding). Couple this with
animations of Moore�s embryology and you are good to go.
Go for Ross atlas and text of Histology 7th ed. http://www.amazon.in/dp/1469889315
It outclasses difiore�s and wheater�s (of course leaving IB singh far back in the
dust). I am not recommending BRS histology even though its text is great because
its coloured version is just not available in India (I have tried my level best).
Biochemistry

Buy Harper Review of Biochemistry. Strengthen your biochemistry by watching a lot

of kaplan/najeeb lectures. If at all get a photocopy of kaplan biochemistry because
it is amazingly well written - boils down everything to the key. Most people hate
biochemistry because their vasudevans are simply not written to appreciate
biochemistry. You are not studying chemistry for a degree that you need structures
of every molecule. You need to see how things tie into the clinical side - why
deficiency of two different vitamins manifest as one common presentation. Why we
give vitamin K injections to newborn even if breastfeeding mother� etc.
I hope you are not intimidated much by these lists. Yes it does make a lot of
material (but then If I can complete all of these and more, why can�t you) but have
faith. Go slow but steady. Devote 2�3 hours at least every day and you will master
it. If you do and then repeat the same in 2nd prof, nobody can stop you from
getting a 99 percentile in USMLE step 1.

P.s. On an unrelated note, I found out all of these myself and I did not have any
senior to tell me all these things (most kept saying me to repeat the stupid
medical literature or kept asking me like didn't you fall for a girl till now?). I
am taking out the time to write this to help you, especially for people studying in
some GMC who don�t know about some of these books at least. I have written this in
the hope that you, who comes across the news daily of people getting killed by
�Muslim� terrorists, doesn�t start hating muslims. Most of us are normal, kind
people and we are equally horrified by the Amarnath incident as much as you do. I
hope that my answers and my help contribute to the belief that muslims are good
people too and that they despise terrorism with the same intensity as you do. Jai
Hind.

Edit- The most beautiful part about MBBS is that you depend more on books and less
on teachers for theory and hence even if you don�t get the best teachers (missed
going to Harvard). You can still read the best books and compete on an equal level
as the Harvard students. That in itself is extremely uplifting for me.

Edit 2 - If you manage to note the things that are told by your residents and
teachers, you can completely forego any exam pass book in physiology and
biochemistry and ace your college with these books and class notes alone. These
will cost approximately as follows. (prices will vary depending on online sale days
and local prices)

Kaplan - 7000 INR

Harper - 900 INR

BRS Physiology and Biochemistry - 800 INR

Pretest Series - 1200 for anatomy, physiology, biochemistry total (can buy
separately too)

Ross Histology - 2300 INR

Langman embryology - 700 INR

Netter�s Atlas - 1500 INR

Gray�s for Students -2200 INR

It depends on how much you desire to neglect your internship. Welcome to the world
of adults, where everything is relative and all colours are but shades of grey.

PG entrance, especially to the top institutions, is becoming even more difficult as

the years pass by.

The number of postgraduate seats both in older and in newer institutions are
increasing. However, the number of undergraduate seats has increased at a much
faster rate. For instance, you are still competing for an under 100 to get a good
clinical branch in AIIMS Delhi, while you have two lakh to compete against (which a
few years ago was 1 lakh) These two lakh already are the cream, having beaten the
pre medical exams.

To be the creme de la creme, you just have to put in 10000 hours of self-study and
at least 5000 to crack PGMEE. It is but your choice whether you desire to spend
your internship learning clinical skills and patient management or to utilise it
for cramming Arvind Arora/Amit Ashish in a corner.
I have a simple analogy of mine - the tale of two trees.

There are two saplings which one has to grow in MBBS. Both of them require daily
watering, tender love and care for years to transform them into mighty young oaks.
However you can only water one of them at a time.

One tree is of your theoretical knowledge (learnt via lectures and self study) and
the other of your clinical skills (learnt via clinical postings and internship
training).

If you choose to neglect the sapling of factual learning, if you do not do justice
to the rigours of the four and a half years of academics, then you will have to pay
attention to that sapling of theory in internship instead of tending to the tree of
skills. Then, when you are awarded your MBBS degree, you will found yourself as a
bookish student, afraid of crises, afraid of talking to patients, lacking basic
skills, certainly not a doctor per se.

You will have to put in the hours watering those saplings. It is your choice
whether you do this in MBBS itself or take two or three drop years.

I will merely speak for myself since I cannot gauge the true level of preparation
of students of other colleges.

I am a first year MBBS student and I have maintained the same level of work ethic
that I had before medical entrances.

I have put in 1000 hours of self study till now (apart from more than attending
1000 hours of lectures/labs). I do flashcards while I wait in lines, between
classes, during commuting. I have finished multiple question banks related to first
year (including pretest anatomy and pretest physiology). Humbly saying, I am my
college's representative from 1st year in all pre clinical inter college quizzes
(only because I have read at least three books in physiology, two in biochemistry,
all of them standard texts or PGMEE reviews). I have solved hundreds of case based
questions, have started learning eponymous and pathognomonic signs and watch
Kaplan/Najeeb/kenhub lectures when I eat/sleep/change clothes. I have read
immunology from second year books. My physiology books are annotated with
pharmacology correlates. Hell, I keep pocket books in my toilet.

It would be delusional to believe that there won't be a difference between me and

the person who only studied the Satyanarayana which his senior marked for him
(important topics) in first year.

I wholly accept that this doesn't guarantee me a great rank. But it is a start and
it is better than all others in my college. This gap will grow bigger in the coming
summer vacations, I assure you. I will finish pathology from pathoma and
microbiology from sketchy micro Inshallah. Perhaps baby Robbins too before college
session starts.

In every college, I know of one two people like me who realise college life is a
showy myth, who put in the toil ruthlessly day after day, not comparing themselves
to the lethargy around them. All of them are training hard for AIIMS and beyond
(mastery in their domains). Your chances would be slim against such people in AIIMS
pg.

Remember, while you are resting, your opponent is training and when he & you shall
compete, he will be the conqueror.
Harsh words may seem mean, yet they are crucial for holding up a mirror to someone.

No, this is not in any way a good score.

A 51 percentile indicates you were better than 51 % of the people who sat for the
AIIMS exam. Assuming 3 lakh people sat on it you were better than 1.6 lakh
approximately.

That means there are 1.4 lakh people with a score better than you.

This just shows you are in the majority, the centre of the bell curve.

Stop deluding yourself. Put in 10-12 hours of study everyday.

I am in college and I have done the same since the start of MBBS course.

10 hours of super focussed study, without a phone in hand, without the distracting
thoughts (if you are a guy) of girls, cars, bikes, entrepreneurship, TV series,
marvel�s CMU etc.

Join Allen test series from August. Achieve the top 1000 rank in it consistently.

Don't kid yourself by remaining in a vacuum that what you did was enough. The world
is harsh, especially to general category medical aspirants. You need more than a 99
percentile to secure a seat in any of the new AIIMS.

Practice so much that in the eyes of your compatriots you become an ideal.

his is too much.

You are not giving the IIT JEE advanced or preparing for NSEP.

You need agility, not the practice of doing supremely tough questions.

When you will sit im the exam, you will realize how quickly time flies .

One is unable to calculate even the most basic of problems because of tension.

As Bruce lee said - I fear not the man who has practiced a thousand kicks, but the
one who has practiced one kick a thousand times.

Practice from ncert and aakash modules or Dc pandey. Choose only one out of the
latter two or you risk redundancy.

Finally avoid HC Verma at all costs unless you are trying for aiims. Even then too
its reasoning questions are the important ones for medical entrances not its long
convoluted problems of flying bikes and racing cars. It is a book written for JEE
advanced level physics.

First finish your coaching notes at least 10 times (yes i mean it - every chapter
at least 10 times). Along with that keep slowly practicing modules.

You are good to go.

Focus on accuracy and speed, not on extremely difficult question.

Cutoffs are rising every year while paper difficulty remains the same.
I attended the Orientation cum Selection Camp (OCSC) for IBO in 2016, by the grace
of Almighty.

Prologue

Before I begin, note that I did not have a mentor to guide me for the same. I was
the first person from my city (in all probability) to qualify and visit the HBCSE,
TIFR for an OCSC. I got my Campbell (oft called the bible of biology) in 11th
class, as a used copy from New York, since in those days it didn�t sell on Amazon.
I prepared alone with no fellow person even knowing what INBO was or what was
campbell. My teachers were absolutely clueless about its preparation.

OCSC 2016 was held from June 1 to June 10. The dates are as clear as yesterday to
me, for I sacrificed my AIIMS exam preparation just to go there. I stopped revising
physics and chemistry after NEET 1 and solely focussed on advanced level genetics,
animal behavior, biostatistics (read a book for each of these subjects separately
apart from completing the behemoth of campbell twice). Perhaps this is the reason
why I missed AIIMS Delhi by 1�2 questions. Almighty knows best.

There are events that influence you and then there are experiences that transform
you as a person. OCSC is one such memory for me.

I will divide my experiences into 4 - the labs, the lectures + group discussions,
the final theory paper and the non academic aspect.

Note that I attended NIUS 2016 also and hence some things might be mixed up, but
essentially both have a lot of overlap.

25 students in total came for OCSC out of which half are now in AIIMS/MAMC. Such
was the level of rigour. I especially remember the AIIMSONIANS Dyuti Shah (AIR 6),
Ira Pachauri (AIR 11), Lajjaben Patel (AIR 3), Ekansh Goyal (AIR 9), Mridul Sharma
(AIR 5) and an 8th class student who had read campbell at such a tender age only.

The wonders of Hands on work

Be it any school in India, lab exposure especially in Biology is limited to
Spotting, cutting up a few leaves and doing a bit of scut work. For most of the
students, the theory read in NCERT merely remains an abstract thought.

One gets to work with the equipment normally available only to post graduate
students and researchers.

OCSC materializes all of those theoretical concepts to give one a true taste of the
joys of working in a laboratory. This post lunch experience of 4 hours is however
intensely exhaustive and drains you of all the energy you get after enjoying their
sumptuous buffets.

The botany lab involved sectioning of roots, stems and leaves to observe under the
best of microscopes which students can get their hands upon in any Indian
institute. (I am today in one of the top 10 medical institutes in India and trust
me, I never get access to one half as good as them)

One also got to experience the intensely lovely act of isolating DNA from a leaf,
then purifying it and finally running it under gel electrophoresis with Ethidium
Bromide.

Gasp, yes I said Gel Electrophoresis. I wish you could imagine the adrenaline rush
the 25 students who attended felt at their first chance to do it completely by
themselves. From preparing the gel to carefully adding the carcinogenic EtBr, the
students did it all under the watchful eyes of the two legends - Prof Rekha Vartak
and Anupama Ronad ma�am (who prepare the INBO and OCSC paper every year)

Throughout the OCSC you will find a strong focus on evolution and classification
and this reflected in how frequently tested were the students on using dichotomous
keys to classify species and subspecies.

We also had to conduct a fantastically in house designed experiment on plant

transpiration, the key to which was meticulous checking of tubes for leakage. Many
a students struggled with it.

Students also got to grind leaves, wash them in alcohol and pass them through a
filter paper. They then checked for plant photosynthesis.

(In some other years, students got to do chalk chromatography and drawing floral
diagrams of leaves after observing under microscope )

The Animal Sciences Lab

To be Continued�

(This is going to be a long long post and I hope to write it in parts. I will do it
faster if I receive encouraging words - true blue medical students have little time
to do so much of writing)

Remember, true love for learning will come only after you have proved yourself
worthy for it with a thousand hours of study.

Disclaimer - The reader is requested to read this answer in the light of the fact
that this is one facet of a medical student and the views written below are
certainly not echoed by most of my batchmates, whether from my medical school or
any other.

I began college life at KGMU in 2016, fresh out of 10+2, with a heart that seemed
to be engulfed with a bloom of myriad emotions as if it was spring.

Enthusiastically did I participate in the extra-curriculars in the first 6 months,

winning alhamdulillah the award of Mr. Fresher, enjoying the ferocity of debates,
getting reprimanded by the vice chancellor for shouting on the mic (hey, I was wild
and free), hanging out with friends, writing Urdu poetry etc.

Yet inside I was restless.

As time passed, I began saying no to these events, began refusing the offer of just
chilling out at the corner coffee-shop. The unease grew by day & by night and I had
to say no, even to performing in the college physiology day.

Sure, the adrenaline rush of stage performances and rides in water parks was great
but the enjoyment was ephemeral.

As the year draws to a close, I can only conclude, true �enjoyment� stems from an
act that does justice to one�s time on earth, true happiness erupts from mastering
your own field. The mastery in itself lends oneself a contentment difficult to be
described from the realm of words
I found true joy in learning in greater detail of the human body than my fellow-
mates.

Where my batchmates have difficulty reading one thick textbook in physiology, I

have completed 3 of the same. Where they are okay with not knowing the therapy,
diagnosis and management of the few diseases we encountered in our non-clinical
studies, I eagerly devour up all the pharmacology and pathology I could take in,
with osmosis videos being of special help.

I yearn to know more and I enjoy immensely the process of absorbing new knowledge
that ties into my past learning. Simply put, I live for those �Aha� moments while
reading the textbook and coming across an unforgettable line.

Even though I am pressed for time, yet I compress all my daily activities so as to
make time to read the classic �The ECG made easy�, even though I am in first
professional year, while the same book is to be read in the final year. I love the
freedom that college life imparts me, the liberty to choose your own path of study.

Thus do I enjoy reading �Pulmonary pathophysiology� more than going to a movie

experience with friends, even though I was a movie buff once. 3 hours of cinema can
never provide the same satisfaction that learning of a new drug or a new test does,
especially when one reviews his day before going to sleep.

So yes as an MBBS student, I enjoy college life, even though it means studying 10
hours a day in toto for me, whether it be an exam leave or winter vacations.

Its especially delightful when one gets to score above the top students of AIIMS
Delhi in an all India quiz. The KGMU first year team, with yours truly as a member,
was the runner up in the 12th National Physiology Quiz (2017), with the KEM team of
second year being the winners. Those endless hours of quietly poring over guyton,
ganong and BRS seemed to be worth it.

P.S. On those weekends when I am feeling extra generous, I cook loads of biryani
and invite my friends for a sumptuous lunch. Being a host is also super enjoyment
for the nerdy me.

TLDR - KGMU is far better than AIIMS Bhopal in most aspects. There is no brand
AIIMS other than that of Delhi since 19 other AIIMS will be functioning by 2020.

College Rankings

For many people, the most important criterion are national rankings (Although I
have a plethora of reasons for the obvious superiority of KGMU)

Career360 2016 rankings - KGMU (Rank 5) > AIIMS Bhopal (Rank 44) - Top Medical
colleges in India
Outlook 2016 - KGMU (Rank 5) > AIIMS Bhopal (Not in the top 20 list)
India Today-Nielsen 2016 - KGMU (Rank 8) > Aiims Bhopal (not in the top 20 list)
Top 20 Medical & Dental Colleges In 2016
Background

I had the good fortune of attending both colleges. In 2016, the AIPMT stood
cancelled due to restart of NEET and a lengthy court battle ensued. This led to
numerous delays and finally NEET 2 was scheduled to be held later in July, the time
at which most medical colleges would have normally started their MBBS course.
However, AIIMS was far removed from the story and it did not come under the purview
of NEET.

As I was AIIMS 110 ranker, by the grace of Almighty, I had access to all other
AIIMS except Delhi in the 1st counselling.

I joined AIIMS Bhopal having read so much about its brilliant academics on Quora
and on other sites. Glowing reviews by Ijya Pandey and others of AIIMS Bhopal had
led me to the belief that soon AIIMS bhopal will emerge like the Lee Kong Chian
School of Medicine, Singapore (a new establishment that soon was crowned the 2nd
best in Asia); soon AIIMS Bhopal would be at par with AIIMS Delhi.

Boy, was I in for a great delusion - the student-faculty ratio was abysmal;
appointments of professors were absent; there was no emergency facility; Obs-Gyn
was a minor OT; corruption was rampant internally; the level of infrastructure was
pathetic. (and I have substantial photos to corroborate the same); construction had
halted; clinical training was functionally broken.

I WAS DEVASTATED - WHAT A LIE IT HAD BEEN.

A month had passed in that dreadful college and then thankfully, there happened the
delayed NEET counselling. I got KGMU both via All India Quota (NEET RANK 454) and
UP state quota (state rank 49). I also got St. John�s Medical College (Rank 19)

I was advised personally by the HOD Physiology at AIIMS Bhopal multiple time
(Mishra Sir- God Bless you for telling the truth) to leave AIIMS Bhopal for my own
benefit.

I remember him giving me a ride to me and another of my schoolmate who had also
been selected to AIIMS Bhopal while we were going to the hostel from college. In
his own words - �If I had a daughter in your position, I would not have hesitated a
second in sending her away from this pseudo AIIMS to St John or KGMU. This AIIMS is
a lie. Only because of AIIMS act, it doesn�t need MCI Inspection. There are
colleges better than this in Bhopal which are standing empty only because MCI
hasn�t given them permission. Leave this college if you have a shot via NEET�.

(Remember the thing about home residence of daughter and being a dad)

When my mom went to meet him, he himself told her - �4th year students here can�t
give an intra-dermal injection. Such is the level of clinical training�

Currently, I am deeply satisfied to be in KGMU.

Why do I claim to have a far better perspective of College reviews than most Indian
medical students ?

I have attended both Pseudo AIIMS and KGMU.

Both of my parents are professors in JNMC (AMU) and I had an insider view of the
working of under 15 ranked college from my childhood. (AMU is also far better than
AIIMS Bhopal both subjectively and objectively via national rankings).
My Mother, ex-HOD of anesthesia at AMU has been to MCI Inspections to colleges like
St John�s (Outlook 4th rank)
Both of my parents are active academicians and have been external examiners to
numerous colleges like AIIMS, MAMC, KGMU, IMS-BHU (leave alone the other state
colleges- I have stopped counting)
An extraordinary level of networking on my part has ensured that I know of the
student view on many medical colleges while the the students of my parents which
are faculty at many further has given me the insider scoop. The current HOD of
General Surgery at AIIMS bhopal is also a student of MY DAD.
That established, I will now proceed to analyse critically both colleges in every
aspect. I will be focussing on the MBBS course only as PG is even more lacklustre
in Bhopal with no M.S. currently.

College Infrastructure - The story ends here. Period. KGMU simply has the most
beautiful college campus across all medical colleges in India, without
exaggeration. While in AIIMS Bhopal - even the central campus road was just mud and
gravel when I left it.

(our registrar and VC office, as seen from the top)

(our exam office and IT room)

Here in KGMU, departments have separate buildings, for instance Pediatric Oncology
department has a full building for it in the campus (and oh! there is not even such
a department in AIIMS Bhopal)
Faculty - KGMU has one of the best student-teacher ratios in India while the
condition in AIIMS Bhopal was such that surgery department did not have a professor
there. The only departments where they had more than 5 faculty members were their
pre clinical ones.

Hostel food - one of the only two place where AIIMS bhopal is better because they
hired a private contractor for the food.

Research by Undergraduates - A bit better culture in AIIMS Bhopal. However,

teachers are very willing to mentor students in KGMU. I have myself applied to ICMR
in 1st year.

Local Destressing Outlets - Both Lucknow & Bhopal are beautiful cities with good
food and good life.

Student facilities -

Library - The finest library in all of UP medical colleges is of KGMU, while there
is no central library in AIIMS Bhopal (only a small reading room). I went to the
dean there to complain about this and he said - �Son, everyday I look outside my
office window, at the library building being constructed . Each single day, a
worker comes, installs one tile and then goes. You tell me now how long will it
take to build a library at a rate of one tile per day.�
Bone sets -KGMU students get bone sets issued for their entire first year. I have
my personal set of bones which I love to colour, take with me while travelling,
feel its bony landmarks a million times - the importance of bones can not be
overstated. AIIMS Bhopal has no such facilities (in fact most colleges do not. It
has been made possible in KGMU due to availability of 80�100 full bone sets)
Problem Based Learning - PBL Sessions from the very first year make it a joy to
clinically apply knowledge from the start.
Student Bonding -I find an omnipresent great camaraderie between seniors & juniors
(which was lacking in AIIMS Bhopal) - Once a Georgian, forever a Georgian. One
always finds help and support from seniors, depending on who you ask. Failed an
Exam? Some seniors will de-stress you out while some will teach you personally.
Most will love to share resources with you.
Equipments in Labs - Both KGMU and AIIMS Bhopal are on par. It is a falsehood to
assume that regular students would be given formal practice on specialised
equipments in AIIMS. The curriculum is the same, only the labs in AIIMS Bhopal are
shinier (well, new tiles, duh). Step into my haematology lab and you will stamped
on the washbasin - Baird & Taitler London. And you will be filled with a sense of
awe that you are in fact a part of history.
Faculty - Equally good Professors in both colleges are present. However, there are
far less teachers in AIIMS Bhopal because of multiple reasons.
Anatomy Museum & Gallery - Largest anatomy museum in all of Asia is of KGMU while
it is the only medical college in India to have a complete gallery of the human
body in MRI, 3D CT, conventional 2D CT. AIIMS Bhopal just had a few models on the
side shelf in the corner.
The Art of Clinical Medicine � It is a fact well accepted that KGMU pass outs have
a stronger clinical sense than most other medical graduates as a consequence of the
college�s emphasis on clinical postings and the learning therein. AIIMS Bhopal and
other colleges of the ilk lack such a strong clinical training programme due to
lack of enough residents and teachers in clinical subjects.
Future Prospects for students- It is oft said that once a student starts studying
SINCERELY at KGMU, he is committed to the college for life since the institution
absorbs its best students for post-graduation and super speciality training. KGMU
with its fantastic array of DM/M.Ch. Courses (especially related to those of
surgery) easily beats AIIMS Bhopal who doesn�t even have an M.S. course (leave
alone super speciality).
I haven�t talked about student fests and college fees because they are on equal
footing in both colleges.
On an ending note, here are some photos of AIIMS Bhopal that I took before I left.
(all of 2016 only)

Back of College

Front road of college

Front View of College

Construction in stasis

Campus tour continues - we are still in the college campus

A Close up of how much stray animals love AIIMS bhopal

I Hope that convinces you.

Time stops me from writing further. However, I have detailed interviews of class 3
& 4 employees of how poorly the college construction is going on - from
electricians to security guards - all had a story to tell.

The company in charge of their campus road was the same that built the Kolkata
flyover which collapsed. Since owner has faced legal charges from then on, work on
the main road even had stopped.

P.S. They finally managed to build an auditorium there at the end of 2016. well it
didn�t even have proper seats when I left before it could get completed.

P.P.S. If photos are not sufficient for any, I have a detailed video also of AIIMS
bhopal in all its unconstructed glory.

Come to KGMU and behold its convention centre, its registrar office, its VC office,
its modern teaching block, its anatomy department with your own eyes. They must be
seen to be believed that medical colleges can be so lavishly built.
On an ending note, the brand of an institution isn�t a guarantee of its quality.
Hence, the tag of AIIMS does not make a certain medical college in Bhopal amazing -
It remains to be seen how good training are they imparting to their doctors (which
shall be evident only after the passing out of a few batches).

Remember, before you think of joining pseudo AIIMS for the name Aiimsonian, think
of the fact that students in 19 other colleges would be calling themselves the
same, hence effectively diluting the prestige of the name.

However, there is and was only one KGMU, going strong with a hundred batches having
passed out of its hallowed halls.

Introductory comments

I have secured, by the grace of Almighty, all the three gold medals for highest
aggregate in each subject along with gold medal for highest total (to be given
later) in the professional exams (profs) conducted by King George�s Medical
University for students of 6 colleges in UP, including my own KGMC. Hence, this
little soul �might� be appropriate to answer this question. However, I am
establishing these credentials not to brag but only to make the reader�s mind be
receptive to advice, since it is well known the difference between receiving same
advice from two sources with differing credentials.
In my 1st prof, we had complete MCQ pattern in KGMU. However, I will attempt to
make this advice valuable in a generalised sense.
Defining competence is crucial. In purely subjective exam, competence is seen by
teachers as the ability to write well presented, comprehensive answers (usually to
expected questions from a small question bank sadly).
My criteria for competence would be three-fold - (A) Being able to solve 90% of
standard MCQ from the latest Arvind arora/across (B) Being able to teach any
classmate any topic - anatomy with revision beforehand and Biochemistry/Physiology
without having revised before teaching. (C) Being able to enjoy all of the three
subjects (point to be explained later)
Note that I have not defined competence as completing the syllabus 5 times, which
would make competency a static entity. Treat expertise in medical science as a
dynamic being, for which regular effort has to be put (SIDE NOTE- this is also true
of love). For instance, I considered myself competent in anatomy a month ago.
However, I would not certainly consider myself as competent today because I have
not thoroughly revised it since then (the end of my profs) and have been studying
second year subjects. (Be your harshest judge with regards to academics)
The association between hours and competency

Multiple people on Quora love to state that hours mean nothing, while parents of
some of the readers will say- son, work 10 hours a day. One would also encounter
the 10,000 hour rule if one has read Malcolm Gladwell. I would like to offer a more
balanced perspective on this.
The number of hours studied is a surrogate for your voyage on the road to attain
mastery - how good of a surrogate you make it to be, depends absolutely upon you.
Example from anatomy - Some of my batchmates used to spend hours in rote learning
lines from BDC, especially the muscle attachments and fire them away like a parrot
in the day to day vivas. This may SEEM to be a good strategy in day to day exams
but one that will be of little use in final exams due to massive amount of material
to rote learn. Here, the hours will not correspond to attainment of competence.
Example from Biochemistry - Some of my batchmates used to dislike it and hence,
approached it the way most NEET aspirants approach inorganic chemistry - something
to be memorized one month before exams. This is also the view espoused by most of
the seniors. The time that they put mindlessly memorizing enzymes and reactions for
class tests is probably not of much use for long term retention.
For me, hours were a daily goal because I had previously ensured that nearly all of
my study hours contribute to long term retention. If this prerequisite is
fulfilled, then the number of hours becomes a good metric as a daily goal and then
consistency becomes the next objective to fulfill
I studied for 5 hours approximately on weekdays after class and 6�10 hours on the
weekends. Of course, there would be seasonal variations - participating in quiz to
be held a month later would make me feverishly efficient while just after the same,
would put me a bit more at ease. I did not sacrifice my sleep during exams,
sleeping at least 6 hours regardless of the dangerous examiners to be faced,
regardless of whether I had revised every bit of anatomy or not.
Making each hour count

Below is the strategy I followed and the tips I have to offer after an year of
MBBS. Do not worry if it becomes extremely hard to apply all of them. They will
slowly grow on you.

Rome wasn't built in a day.

A) Change your perspective about first year subjects -

The brain has a tendency to retain information for a task until the completion of
the said task. If you study keeping in mind solely the class test or the mid
semester exam, you will find that information you had laboured so intensely upon
the month before has evaporated suddenly as soon as a day has passed after exam.
This is extremely common after 1st professional exams as in students forgetting all
the anatomy upon which they bestowed 50 to 70% of their study time (SIDE NOTE -do
not test your seniors on their anatomy knowledge or else they will be angry).
Gandhiji wasn�t kidding when he said �Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as
if you were to live forever�. You, the mighty reader, should read and memorize with
the understanding that these basic sciences will be essential throughout your life
(at least till your PGMEE for the exam driven). If you have difficulty in believing
that, let me present the fact that for a residency training in US, arguably having
one of the most structured medical education, the USMLE step 1 score is the most
crucial metric, not the USMLE step 2 CK (Crudely speaking, Step 1 tests basic
science subjects of first two years and Step 2 CK tests the clinical subjects.)
You, the Quoran, far more informed than the average medical student should know
that the healthcare delivery is far more done hands-on by the nurses in USA,
Australia (compared to India) while the doctor serves more of a leader who decides
the course of treatment, the management plan. As the nursing staff in India becomes
better trained and takes over much of the low expertise work from the doctor in the
upcoming future, the role of a doctor, especially when dealing with informed,
affluent citizens, will also comprise of delivering medical education. (Of course
this will not be applicable if you work in a peripheral GMC, understaffed and
overworked). It is common in US to explain to the patient the rationale behind the
treatment (for which you need to explain him normal anatomy physiology too) and why
it is recommended in that scenario over the alternatives - such an approach will
come to India too, sooner or later. Hence, a firm grasp of basic sciences will
serve you throughout your life.
Therefore, study not with the subconscious idea (thought at the back of your mind)
that you somehow need to pass first year anyhow to get to para-clinical and
clinical subjects, suited to a �real doctor�. You will need them your entire MBBS
(yes even biochemistry too) and perhaps later too.
(B) Have the Right mindset towards academics

My dad has counselled me from time immemorial, �Son, you have to go through a
subject at least 10 times to remember it�. This is especially true of the standard
textbooks such as robbins. For UG level, physiology and biochemistry should be
completed at least 5 times completely before exams in the correct manner so as to
remember most of them. For anatomy, spaced repetition is absolutely crucial - see
Ebbinghaus retention curve below.

Most students sadly, read once and then forget. They feel humiliated in the day to
day vivas when they are unable to answer residents. They feel hopeless and believe
they are not cut out to be medical students. Thus they study even less and a
vicious cycle begins.
Hammer the concept of ALD-IASD in your mind - Asher Nitin's answer to What factors
or qualities should a medical student have or develop in order to become a great
doctor?
You, the reader must understand that innate grasping power plays a very small role
in medical studies. Grit and perseverance are the key ingredients of this recipe.
Hence, as per Carol Dweck�s advice, adopt the growth mindset.

(C) Set your Priorities right

My own priority list, and the one I personally recommend to my college juniors is
S2-E2 � , which goes as - Study > Sleep > Eat > Exercise. (This merits another
answer as to why this priority list only)
You are not an engineering or an arts student that you will have to have a
portfolio at the end of your graduation. Your success will be majorly determined by
your performance in PG entrance exams, whether you like it or hate it. As some of
you may know from ground reality, a postgraduate from AIIMS will attract patients
to his practice just by the AIIMS tag (with good reason though). In any scenario
still, a medical student will have to keep giving merit based exams throughout his
youth (NEET PG, NEET SS, then probably recertification), unlike an arts graduate,
where a polished CV counts. Hence, I will categorically state that all the student
politics (unions and committees), the rallies taken out by MBBS students, the
extra-curricular activities are for your own relaxation and recreation alone. Do
not be fooled into thinking that putting hours here will earn you any brownie
points in your clinical acumen.
Sleep is crucial to make your waking hours productive. Hence, if you deprive
yourself of regular and deep sleep, your 1st priority, i.e. studies will be
drastically affected. The time in slumberland is the time when memory consolidation
occurs (transfer of STM into LTM) and the time when brain reorganizes and sorts
information received throughout the day. Hence, you should sleep instead of late
night, drowsy studies or midnight talks with members of the opposite gender. Ignore
any Quora answers about how deep conversations only occur at night.

Maintaining health is crucial and any carelessness on this part will only serve to
have a burnout early. Remember this is a marathon, not a sprint. (Explained in
point E below)
Do not delude yourself by going to movies and parties every weekend and telling
yourself that this is crucial for networking/bonding. Some of the friendships that
you make in MBBS will end as soon as MBBS ends. Furthermore, networking plays
little role if you are in peripheral GMC as very few of your batchmates will
someday reach positions of influence. (This can be understood by talking to people
who passed out at least 10 years ago). Interestingly, these very people, the
ambitious ones, avoid distractions a lot. Choose your close circle of friends (3�7
people) and have a strong bond with them and this will be enough to provide all of
the advantages of friendship, with none of the harms of excessive socialization.
I strongly advise you to restrict yourself to at most one social media outlet (at
best, none). I find that Facebook, even with the most curated of feeds distorts
priorities and breeds the notions of endless comparison. Looking at studs driving
harley davidson, of people uploading endless selfies and earning immense
validation, your subconscious mind starts believing more in material things and
less on studies. This does affect dedication towards academics, the one thing that
ultimately is crucial for all medical students across the globe.
(D) Activate Beast mode, judiciously
Merely gazing at the pages of Ganong in a melancholy mood will do you little good.
You need to study at optimal efficiency.
All of you medical students know your level of 100% output, which you achieved a
month before the NEET. That is your benchmark for comparison, at least for the
first year (may you surpass that too, like I did). You should probably exercise or
go to sleep if you are operating at below 50% efficiency after a long study
session, signs of which may be - intense desire to check whatsapp, feeling of
saturation etc.
My beast mode is activated in the morning, but for some of you it may be the clutch
of the night - figure that out and stick to it. Regard that turbocharged time as
sacred and allow no one to disturb it. Do NOT use that time for completing
histology manual (see point D), instead utilize it for soaking up Harper, Ganong
which require a lot of effort per page due to their condensed nature.
D.) When regenerating, do scut work

Medical students in India, let�s face it, have to complete a lot of menial work in
first year. Not only their own manuals, but the files and case sheets of seniors
must be done too.
Make all of this low priority. Attempt to complete them as fast as possible. This
is one mistake that I did in my first year that I devoted ample time to them, which
was in hindsight useless. Such tedious work will keep being present throughout your
medical education. Understand and apply the Eisenhower decision matrix.

(E) Ensure that you are in the pink of your health

One may be the greatest student in India, but if he is afflicted by a disease that
takes months in recovery, then he should say goodbye for the months he was in a
diseased state. Study efficiency per hour is extremely low when one is unwell.
Put in a different way, a ferrari requires a lot of maintenance to continually
perform at its top speed. As my mom (also a doctor) says, �You have to take care of
this machine to utilize it to its fullest capacity�.
I was brought down by a severe case of Hepatitis just after the NEET exam. Till
today, I am thankful that it happened after the entrance exam, not before or else I
would probably not have been sitting here, writing this answer.
For college students, especially hostellers, it is understandable the desire to
have outside food every day. However, keep some basic tips in mind. Having street
food that is deep fried (hence killing a lot of microbes), ensuring that you only
enjoy Pani Puri/Batasha at a hygienic place, not drinking any water outside that is
not purified will go a long way in ensuring you are disease free. Do understand
that a small food corner that gets a lot of visitors will always have far fresher
food than a high class restaurant which is less frequented. (I once met on train a
guy who used to supply ready made tikkas to mutliple 5 star hotels in Delhi - since
then, I prefer food prepared in front of my eyes).
If your mess food is really shitty, seek out a tiffin service. Many people forget
to consider this option.
Ensure you have proper immunity and no deficiency problems � take vitamin & mineral
supplements regularly. There is no shame in accepting that mess food is really
pathetic when it comes to delivering a balanced diet (GMC in North India have
potato every single day without fail). Furthermore, few medical student can conjure
up enough time and effort to buy and eat a variety fruits everyday. Hence, you
should throw a brick at netizens who espouse a life free of �those Meds�, living an
organic life. Gimme a break, organic is costly and scarce in many towns. A far
better option is to gulp a teaspoon of EVITA syrup every day.
Sleep is crucial for health too, with humongous amount of scientific evidence
advocating its role in controlling obesity and boosting immunity.
I used to have the wrong notion throughout my first year that exercising takes away
from my study time. However, when Tim cook, the CEO of the most valuable company in
the world (Apple) can find the time to exercise in the morning, I am sure we can
all squeeze half an hour out of our busy schedules every day to play a sport.
(F) Have a conducive study environment

I find studying supremely difficult in hot and humid climates with sweat streaming
down every bit of my body. Most people in North India face a similar problem.
Unlike most of them(hostellers), I have access to air conditioning on account of
being a day scholar. I would strongly recommend utilising any possible spot in your
college that has AC facilities - Reading room, canteen, empty lecture theatre, AC
canteen etc.
Get a desert cooler for your hostel room for dual benefits of supreme cooling and
the appliance generating a lot of white noise (which drowns out the hum-drum of
hostel). (I wish colleges would allow hostellers to install AC, like AIIMS Delhi)
Do not have a stinking, disorganized room filled to the brim with dust because such
an environment is detrimental to studies. Being chaotic is okay, being dirty and
malodorous is not. (See steve jobs� room for instance.)
(G) Enter a state of deep learning and focus (state of FLOW)

Thinking to cram without understanding is a very poor strategy and does not yield
long term results. Do not attempt to cram anatomy thoughtlessly. First understand,
think about its functional aspect and then memorize the important information, the
stepping stones. Not all must be memorized directly- some information can be built
on the spot (even in viva) by remembering a key set of principles or mnemonics e.g.
brachial plexus, coagulation cascade.
Keep your phone away in the cupboard in silent mode when you study. Avoid the trail
of destruction paved by the beep of whatsapp notification which hurls one down from
the path of truth (i.e. studies) to the path of ignorance (chatting happily with
the opposite gender with nary a care in the world). I personally have disabled all
the beeps in my phone and my phone notification bar does not display any messages,
emails or whatsapp notifications.
Attempt to be in as few whatsapp groups as possible - the more are they, the
merrier is the devil. Mute all of them and deal with them in one go at a time,
instead of checking them every hour.
Group study is usually perceived to be good on Quora. My personal experience says
otherwise (and I have a large data set in the background for the people who wish to
shout statistics). Boys for instance, start with a sincere discussion, but after an
hour, the conversation gets degenerated to topics regarding girls, bikes, youtube
videos, Game of thrones, next movie outing etc. (SIDE NOTE - I find no gender
differences in gossip level - my male batchmates chatter equal to my female ones,
albeit the topics may differ). Also, there is one group comedian that distracts the
mood constantly, as if his life depended upon cracking jokes every 10 minutes.
However, the only time group study is useful in most colleges is just before exams
when all and sundry are in mortal terror of failing.
Study alone and utilise all the study tactics that you can (I may try to explain
this in a separate answer if enough requests come)
Attempt to talk to yourself when studying. It is easy for the brain to read without
actively reflecting upon it. However, when the brain has to vocalise a meaningful
sentence, it must organize the herd of ideas into a coherent entity.
Daydreaming disrupts flow state, most common aetiology of which is being in
love/LDR/infatuation. Until you attain a PG seat, consider all romantic love
blasphemous. Also, it takes extreme willpower to hold yourself back from constantly
talking with that person if that person is available too - if you deplete your
willpower in this alone, how will you retain it for studying for long hours of
toil. Remember that willpower/self control is a reserve that gets depleted
throughout the day and is recharged only by sleep. Each act that you have to resist
doing depletes willpower pool - stopping studying, gossiping, video gaming, binge
watching TV series, being in �love� etc. (see picture example below). Read the
following answer if you are in such a state. Ahmad Ozair's answer to What should we
keep in mind while falling in love at the age of 18
(H) Finally, derive deep joy from learning

I will recount 2 personal anecdotes that illustrate how the knowledge that I
studied only for my own benefit (and was a bit too advanced for exams) came flowing
out of my mouth with ease, when it was a moment to shine in front of examiners.
However, what I had crammed failed me in moments of anxiety.
In one of my internal vivas, the line of questioning turned to the factor
stimulating erythropoietin release. I then had a long moment of glory where I
explained to the professor regarding oxygen sensitive enzymes HIF1 hydroxylase and
how HIF1 survives in conditions of hypoxia and goes onto transcriptionally
stimulate the EPO gene and genes for VEGF and glycolysis. Needless to say, she was
mightily pleased. In my prof viva, the external examiner from AIIMS Bhopal kept
increasing difficulty level with each question answered and we finally reached the
topic of supraspinal anti-nociception (i.e. descending pain modulation) and I
mentioned how stimulating Peri-Aqueductal gray matter can be utilized for
controlling pain and role of cannabinoids, enkephalins, serotonin in pain pathway.
The examiner smiled and then asked me which books was I reading.
However, in my anatomy end semester viva, I was asked insertion of the peronei
muscles and I went into thought block. Though it was extremely embarrassing, yet
there lay a deep lesson for me.
The state where you derive true joy from self study will take a long time for some
of you to reach, but the heavenly peace that may be attained is beyond the realm of
words. I hope that you, the reader, attains this state of niravana soon.
Keep enjoying medical science. This discovery phase of academics will never return

(Final advice- Try to listen to less advice from seniors and read less advice on
Quora that this phase of youthful enjoyment will never come again. My counter
argument is, this phase where you can push yourself to the extreme will never come
again too. Speaking as a nerd, the older I have grown , the more do I enjoy life.
My childhood was all about peer pressure to enjoy and engage in meaningless stuff
like celebrities, video games etc. Today I find my life full of purpose - I pray
that you find your own filled with meaning too.)