How Not to Crack NEET PG: A story about how I wasted a year of my life and my plan for a grand comeback.

Hi, welcome to Off the OR, and I am your host Dr. Shounak. I completed my MBBS from IPGME&R and SSKM Hospital, Kolkata in 2023 and currently preparing for the NEET PG. That's enough intro about me for now. This blog post is my reflection on the mistakes I have made in the past year and I didn't crack the pg entrance and what is my plan forward.

After I graduated I skipped house staffship to study at home and to crack pg in one go. And it didn't happen, and 23rd August 2024 would remain as one of the most painful nights in my life. Anyway I didn't study properly and didn't get a chance. But I am good now. I am on a recovery plan, this blog post would be a reminder to myself in the long run.

"There is no greater harm than that of time wasted." ~ Michelangelo

Well, I have learnt it the hard way. Tldr, it was my addiction to phone, specially YouTube and Twitter.

A little background

I was never an extraordinary student during childhood. I always loved Physics and Math. But I also liked the idea of seeing patients. So I chose to be a doctor, but I always have a soft spot for physics and engineering in my heart, which was the problem tbh. I started studying seriously from class 9 and cleared NEET UG in the running batch itself in 2017 NEET (unreserved category). And I joined SSKM.

The UG days ( Small mistakes accumulate)

I hated anatomy biochemistry, was neutral and loved physiology during the first year. Also for the first time I got my mobile phone and uninterrupted access to the internet. And I quickly got addicted to YouTube. It began with some awesome science youtube channels like Smarter Every Day and Veritasium. Watching YouTube was easier than studying. And I got sucked into the YouTube algorithm. And that began my downfall.

From second year, I usually did not attend the lectures (they were boring to be honest). I used to spend half of my college hours in the wards and half in the carrom room. Yes I love the Wards. And I was blessed to meet some awesome PGTs there specially in the medicine and surgery. Most of the things I know are from them.

I developed the bad habit of solving the 10 years and passing the professional exams with mere 64-68 % marks, and never shoot honours or studying the standard text books. And it continued, till final year. This harmed a lot. I didn't understand it then, but I feel it now. So if anyone is reading this and are studying Please Study Standard Textbooks.

But, in day to day practice my ward skills and knowledge I acquired there helps a lot, a lot. So my second recommendation would be Never miss a ward posting, even for a day. Skip boring lectures and spend that time in wards, it will help you big time. Do cover that topic from a good book and ask seniors.

During internship I was a dedicated intern, and I didn't study at all. But I have no regret during internship. That was the best year of my life so far. I attended a lot of patients assisted in a lot of OTs. Yes for example I assisted as S2 in 51 c-sections. I got to do BTL, rectus closure, Abd drain fixation, and about 30 minor ots as s1 during my obg posting. In the surgery posting, I got to do one fibroadenoma breast as s1, and lots of minor ots like lipoma as other. I even got to apply a GI stapler in the surgical trauma posting.

And after ending my internship with a bang, I decided to skip my house staffship.

So what went wrong

I destroyed myself, with the help of YouTube algorithm.

• In second year I got addicted to science youtube (and I still am) and that took my interest to Tesla, SpaceX and other stuff.
• During 3rd year, COVID time, YouTube decided to flood my feed with love stories from filter coffee. And I also could not resist and wasted 10 months in a failed online relationship, and didn't study.
• During final year, I got stuck with Stock market algorithm and for some reason, learned value investing and etc, and again didn't study well.
• During internship, I was so busy, nothing much happened.
• Post internship, I stared to build a website for professional purpose, and I built one my self at www.drshounak.com. And I got stuck into that engineering thing for the next 14 months. After that website I thought about starting a medical blog. And I got stuck into the YouTube algorithm again. In the next 14 months I wasted my time learning WordPress, blogging, and then basic HTML (code stuff) and Python. And the whole time Marrow was crying in a corner (I took marrow subscription during my 3rd year. And in the next 4 years finished only medicine, OBG, Eye and ENT!!!). Yup, in this 14 months, I failed to complete even 1 subject properly.
• I was also addicted to Twitter, for some reason. It made me anxious, angry all the time, for no apparent reason.
• Chatbots like openai and Claude, helped me write a lot of code, and It didn't help either.
• So at the end during March April 2024 I was wasting 5-8 hours a day and 2-4 hours a day on Twitter.

Yes, it is unacceptable, and with these distractions i.e. from YouTube addiction, Twitter addiction, to my Tech blog, writing codes and share market, I lost my focus, wasted a lot of time, and eventually an entire year. I didn't practice Qbank, didn't gave a lot of tests, revision was out of sight, and syllabus was not finished even by 40%. And thus I wasted a year of my life. The only useful thing I made during that time for myself was an app (PgPrep.in) to track my daily studies (like a digital diary), and it showed me my flaws objectively.

My plan for recovery

I have been on my recovery journey for almost 1 month now. I started it from the moment I saw the disastrous result, and some of my friends, who actually worked hard got chance. I felt a physical pain and, started my recovery plan, then and there. Hopefully it will be fruitful. And I wrote this quote on my notebook;

"Failure is not the pillar of success, hard work with smart decisions is. Failure is just a possibility when you work hard, or the outcome when you don't. The harder you work, the higher your probability of success becomes. Work hard and you may fail, but you will learn from that failure and will achieve success. But relax and you have failed already." - me (Dr. Shounak)

So what is my actual plan? So I have been following these plan below for the last 30 days successfully, and I haven't missed a single day yet.

1. It's been 30 days since I stopped watching YouTube and using Twitter and I have not used them even for a single second. Also leaving Twitter actually elevated my mood by a lot. I did experience some withdrawal symptoms, but now I don't even think about it. I study and walk in the room, watch outside and sometime go for a 10 minutes walk. Also I have not used any social media for the last 30 days. I plan to not use them (I am determined) till I get a seat.
2. I have stopped, all other distractions too, completely, and this is my first time writing in a long time, and will be my last before I get a pg seat.
3. I am building my base properly, yes I have started from the first year subject and watching Marrow videos and making my own notes. I usually watch at 1 to 1.5x speed as I am writing things down. Writing my own note is actually magical, and I retain more, I focus more, I only write things I need to revise, so the note is actually consise. Also it take a great effort to sit for long hours with pre recorded videos. Think as if you are attending a live class of 10 hours a day. And sit down and listen. It is possible and I am doing it. And in the last 30 days, I have completed watching all the videos of Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry including notes, about 50% of the Qbank of those subjects, all 3 PYQs, and gave 1 class test for each subject. And I'm and half done with Pathology.
4. I know Marrow is vast but for a good reason. It is needed to actually understand the topics, and apply them in your clinical practice too. I love Rakesh sir. Loved Rohan sir, and surprisingly loving pathology and Ila ma'am. Doing only DVT or BTR or Marrow revision video may give you a sense of satisfaction, but it is not enough if you have not studied the main videos or grand books during ug days. Those will cover 50% of the questions in 15% of the time, but works only if you know those things previously.
5. I am also solving atleast 100 MCQs every day mostly from qbank and PYQs. I solve them, bookmark them properly, add important explanations to my notes. It takes time, but not a lot. I want all of you to read this Marrow Qbank Manifesto.
6. I also try to revise old things for atleast an hour every day, although I can't consistently do it yet. Revision is harder than I thought.
7. I have also planned GTs every 12-18 days (basically after one large or 2 small topics end). And I have already given the first 2, not good marks, but I gave anyways.
8. After finishing every subject, next day I revise the entire subject and give a class test or swt and next day GT. So basically, during study I plan to revise twice within 1 month of finishing that topic. While solving qbank ( I am trying to maintain a 2-3 day delay between topic read and qbank solved) for the first revision, and after end of a subject for the second revision, I have also kept some dedicated revision days, for example, revision 1st year after finishing 3rd year. But this revisions are short, birds eye view, mostly to increase my retention.
9. With this schedule I plan to finish the complete syllabus by the end of January. And my last 1 month experience says, it is going to be solid study with relatively good retention, provided I maintain this same dedication to ward study, and I believe in myself.
10. After that I will do 2 more proper revisions before INICET, I don't know when the neet 25 will happen (probably NBE doesn't know either).
11. I am mainly studying from Marrow, but I also plan to do DAMS DVT, DQB and Test series. Wish me luck.

Here are some graphs of my study from pgprep.in

Conclusion

During internship, I loved both Medicine including Paediatrics and Surgery including Obg OT. But if you ask me I would choose the OTs over the medicine ward. I spent 12-13 hours continuously assisting c sections, rupture ectopic one after other, and didn't feel a thing. So I want to be a surgeon (you probably guessed that from the blog name too). I know I wasted 1 year, but this time I am determined. I am studying almost like a psycho now. No socials, no entertainment ( I have stopped listening to music too), no recreation. Let's see what happens, I may not get a chance again, but I would not regret that. Anyways, a long way to go for me. If you read this, and want to know whether I get a chance or not, subscribe, I will post the next update after the result is out, for now, bye, I have a lot to study today (I wrote this for an hour almost) , also today is my birthday. Anyways bye, and wish me luck and strength. Have a nice day.