Basically you have to maintain a balance between studies and social networking.
Aniket Pandey
Lokmanya Tilak Medical College, Sion
BAtch 2017
I YEAR Topper
1.Congratulations on achieving such an amazing feat. Tell us a bit about yourself. Please also tell us your individual marks in each subject.
- Thank you so much. My name is Aniket Pandey and I’m a first year student at Lokmanya Tilak Municipal Medical College, Mumbai. I would not like to reveal my marks due to some obvious reasons.
2.So, when all of this is new and the rest of us are still busy figuring the head and tail of the subject,how did you tackle and master the syllabus?
- The main statergy which I used to tackle this vast syllabus was to take help of the internet. There are so many useful sites, channels and other sources which not only saves your time to learn any subject but also makes you remember them for a long time. For example, kenhub is an excellent tool to learn anatomy rather than memorizing stuffs from Chaurasia.
3.Did you have a set schedule, a time table that you stuck to? What were the daily hours that you put in self study ?
- I did really make a timetable but couldn’t stick to it for a long time. After long hours of college it’s really difficult to put in lot of hours for self study. But anyways I did invest atleast three hours daily for self study on working days and atleast five hours on holidays.
4.Is there any particular way in which you study or any special notes that you make? Maybe a different approach than what students normally do?
- I took a help in revising concepts. I strongly recommend everyone to make notes. Itll help in revision at the subscription for Dr. Najeeb’s lectures when my first year started. He is an excellent teacher. I made notes watching his lectures. Its of great end.
5.Do you have any tips on the Do’s and Don’ts of it? How do you manage to keep yourself motivated when studies start taking a toll on you? Are there any ‘distractions’ that actually help you in the process?
- There are a lot of distractions in this era of social networking. Basically you have to maintain a balance between studies and social networking. You can switch to some good sites like Quora instead of instagram. I watch Sandeep Maheshwari’s videos to stay motivated all the time. Quora is the only thing I’m too much active on. It helps me to learn some study hacks, General knowledge etc. So I keep learning even in my free time.
6.Also how important do you think is attending lectures in college? Considering half of the students are either busy on their phones or sleeping, does it really help?
- Attending lectures I feel is very important. When there is a ocean of syllabus to be covered, college notes really help you to know what is required. I mean there are lot of things which are not required to be known at our level, but we break our heads reading that. Teachers really help you to distinguish must know and desirable to know topics.
Write your answers point wise and try making it more appealing by drawing diagrams alongside.
7.Was there any help that you acquired while preparing for the exams? Like any visual aids any professional guidance? Or those little tit bits that the professors tell us but none other than the toppers pay attention to? Please share with us.
- As I already said, online tools was of great help. They help you to visualize the subject in a different way altogether and you remember them for a long time.
8.How vital is the Question Bank during exams? Does it come highly recommended or you advice thorough reading of the text and having confound knowledge of the subject?
- Question banks I feel helps the student in the last go. We get to know important topics as far as exams are concerned. But I recommend to have a complete knowledge of the subject. Read the entire text the whole year. Switch to question banks only when exams approach.
9.Could you suggest a method of studying or kind of discipline that should be followed during exam time?
- Exam time is used for revising stuffs. We have read a lot the entire year and generally retain a little till the end. So exam time should be used for revising concepts instead of learning something new.
10.What do you do to keep yourself kinda stress free? Go for a swim, go for a walk or just wiggle under the blanket and fall asleep or what?
- I log in to Quora for being stress free. You can’t study the whole day. You need some sort of break to prevent overburdening yourself. Quora was a great help for me. Knowing peoples opinions keeps me kinda stress free.
11.Are you involved in any extracurricular activities, be it sports, cultural or academics? How do you manage it along with your routine academics?
- I am yet to indulge myself in any extra curricular activities. I’ll definitely do the needful in second year hopefully.
12.Could you give some important pointers on Exam writing skills? And also how should one prepare for a practical exam? Any special tips for the people of your college who would be reading this?
- Write your answers point wise. This is the first thing I learned after my first terminals. We tend to write answers paragraph wise which goes unnoticed by the teachers most of the times. Write your answers point wise and try making it more appealing by drawing diagrams alongside. For practicals, follow your MUHS journal.
13.What is the one major thing that you would like to change in today’s curriculum?
- Today’s curriculum is all about memorizing stuffs and writing them in an exam. I mean at last we are gonna be doctors. We will be dealing with patients in our future. They are not gonna test our theory knowledge, instead our clinical and practical knowledge will be tested at that time which I feel is given less importance in our curriculum. I would suggest our university for conducting mcq tests thereby enhancing practical knowledge of ours.
14.So, do you have any parting thoughts? Like disclosing that secret mantra that you chanted or that special brand of energy drink you savored? Just kidding. Seriously though. Anything at all?
- Not really 😀
I do enjoy my Saturdays a bit watching movies with my family to reduce stress. That’s all.