Dr. Sujith B S has secured Rank 2 in AIPGMEE 2016 which was held in December 2015. He has also secured Rank 94 in Nov 2015 AIIMS, Rank 96 in Nov JIPMER and Rank 83 in DNB. So he has been a topper in multiple exams. He has done his MBBS from Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences, Hubli.
Interview
Q. In what year did you pass out your MBBS (Completion of Internship)?
Ans. Mar 2015
Q. What were your MBBS percentage marks (aggregate or final year)?
Ans. Aggregate 69.5%
Q. What ranks had you secured in any previous PG medical entrance exams you gave?
Ans. May 2015 JIPMER Around 600
Q. Could you please tell us something about yourself?
Ans. Myself I am happy go lucky type of guy. I always try to be positive and believe in my potential. I am quite practical in my life and always try to be level headed both during my success and failures. My hobbies are Cricket and I am too much crazy about movies. Both my parents are doctors. My father Dr. B H Sreenivasa Gupta is a General Surgeon, My mom Dr B Sankara Lakshmi is an Obstetrician & Gynecologist. I have a very caring family. They are my strength. I owe a lot to them. I am blessed with really great friends. I credit them for my success.
Q. What is the secret of your success?
Ans. Hard work is the only secret of success and there is no substitute for it. But what’s more, important is be smart while working hard. Know your strengths and plan accordingly. Don’t over burden yourself. Try to stay calm and focused. Have a proper schedule ready for the whole month. I had a habit of making notes that really helped me a lot. Make concise and comprehensive notes combining both class notes and from other sources. During the last phase of preparation just keep on revising your handmade notes.
Q. How was your internship?
Ans. To be frank, I didn’t read for entrance during my Internship. I had most of the pleasant memories in my life during internship so I don’t regret much for that. But ideally, make sure you are thorough with at least first and second-year subjects by the time you finish internship because these subjects are the deciders. This will make your life lot easier during the preparatory phase. If u can manage all the subjects that’s really great.
Q. When did you seriously start preparing for the entrance exam?
Ans. I started preparing seriously after finishing my internship in Mar 2015. During my UG days, i was not the topper. But I was good in the subject during ug. With entrance point of view, I started preparing only after the internship.
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. I used to study for 10-12 hrs in a day. What’s more important is you carry that momentum till you finish the exams. I used to sleep for 6 hrs so that I’ll feel fresh and start the day with a clear mind. There is no any stipulated time. Plan according to your convenience. What I said above that’s maximum my body and mind could do. I could reach my targets in that stipulated time. Make sure you put your heart and soul during the time you study. Have reachable targets plan your study time accordingly which is feasible to your body and brain. But what I feel is a minimum of 10-12 hrs is a must.
Q. Which books did you read for the theory part?
Ans. I joined Bhatia Coaching classes at Bangalore. The staff there have vast experience in teaching. They used to cover most of the important theory aspects very well. While solving MCQs, I used to make a list of important topics for those I used to refer standard text books. I used to refer Robbins for pathology slides and Netter’ s for anatomy picture based questions. Go through USMLE Step-1 book you’ll get a fair idea about graphs and you’ll be able to solve graph based questions.
Q. Which books did you read for MCQs revision? Which revision books were the most productive and which were least?
Ans. The MCQ books which I personally recommend are books by:
Rebecca James for Biochemistry
Devesh Mishra for Pathology
Prithesh Singh for Surgery
Apurv Mehra for Orthopedics
Manisha for ENT
Arvind Arora For Skin, Anesthesia, Radiology & Psychiatry
Q. Which subjects did you focus on?
Ans. Focus more on first and second-year subjects and short subjects. I used to focus more on Anatomy, Biochemistry, Pathology, Microbiology and Short subjects. If your concepts are clear you can tackle most of the clinical scenarios and image-based questions.
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. My mode of preparing is Self Study. If you have a good group and if u are able to have a productive discussion that’s really good. It saves a lot of time and it will help you to understand the subject better. I used to make notes. During revision, i used to revise notes.
Q. Did you do any special preparation for image-based questions?
Ans. I personally didn’t have any different strategy. But for AIIMS and JIPMER concentrate more on Clinical subjects.
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. Have sufficient sleep before the day of the exam.Have proper breakfast. If not, u cannot concentrate on the exam. In AIPGMEE, I attempted all the questions. Keep at least half an hour, at last, to go through the marked questions. My score was 1407.6144. I don know exactly how many were correct.
Q. Do think there should be a different strategy for preparation of different entrance exams like AIIMS-PG or PGI?
Ans.
Q. Did you join any classes or test series? Was it useful?
Ans. I joined Bhatia Classes, Bangalore. I got to know what are the topics to be concentrated. Bhatia test series gave me good practice. I could analyse where I stand. Test series helped me to inculcate a habit of answering all the questions with same zeal and focus.
Q. Who or what influenced you to take up Medicine?
Ans. My parents inspired me to take medicine and moreover I was passionate to pursue medicine.
Q. In which field do you want to specialize in? why?
Ans. I like surgical branches and I am interested in Orthopedics.
Q. What seat have you been allotted in counselling? Did you join?
Ans. Counselling yet to start. Thinking to take MS Ortho in KEM, Mumbai
Q. What is your advice to future aspirants?
Ans. Work hard that’s the only way. Be confident and focused. Unleash your potential. Manage your time properly. Keep daily targets and keep achieving them. Work so hard even fate should ask you what does u want.
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. Definitely, I feel Prometric analysis is slightly Unpredictable. But definitely, it’s not illogical. What I felt is toppers are constantly the same in all the exams. That means definitely your hard work yield results. Instead of cracking head how the system works it’s better to do our part. Just put sincere efforts Success will follow you.
We are ending this interview with our hearty congratulations and best wishes for future to this talented person, Dr. Sujith B S.