AIPGMEE 2015 topper interview: Dr. Ranjan Patel, 1st Rank

AIPGMEE 2015 Topper – Dr. Ranjan Patel

PG Blazer: Congratulations on securing top ranks in the AIPG and PGI entrance exams! What is the secret of your success?
Dr. Ranjan Patel: Luck, blessing of my parents and well wishers and obviously the hard work.

PG Blazer: Could you tell us something about yourself?
Dr. Ranjan Patel: Basically I am from a village area of Odisha and have done my schooling from the local school and so my 12th also. I was doing MBBS in SCB Medical College, Cuttack, Odisha .

PG Blazer: Who or what influenced you to take up Medicine as a career?
Dr. Ranjan Patel: My father motivated me a lot.

PG Blazer: What were your aggregate percentage marks for MBBS?
Dr. Ranjan Patel: 70.1%

PG Blazer: How did you prepare during your internship period?
Dr. Ranjan Patel: Initially I was confused how to prepare, what to read, how to proceed etc. I asked my seniors who are currently doing PG about the way of preparations and it was very helpful. I started subject-wise guide along with AIIMS guide side by side. I kept 2-3 months for final revision at the end.

PG Blazer: Which were the various entrance exams you wrote in this session? What were the ranks you obtained?
Dr. Ranjan Patel: AIPGEE NEET-1, PGI Nov 14- 2, DNB- 2, JIPMER- 12, AIIMS- 49.

PG Blazer: What ranks did you obtain in your previous attempts? (If applicable)
Dr. Ranjan Patel: I was not eligible during AIIMS May 14 in which I had rank 162.

PG Blazer: What changes did you make to your preparation after your last attempt? (If applicable)
Dr. Ranjan Patel: Limiting the focus that means focusing on the hot topics for AIIMS.

PG Blazer: When did you start serious preparation for this year’s entrance exam?
Dr. Ranjan Patel: I started preparation after 2 month of initiation of internship.

PG Blazer: What was your study strategy?
Dr. Ranjan Patel: I was reading individual guides and if any doubt was there, I used to refer from standard text books.

PG Blazer: Did you make any notes for helping with your revision? Were they useful?
Dr. Ranjan Patel: I made small notes about only few topics, in fact very few topics. It is impossible to make notes for such a vast course. Still that little note book helped me to revise the doubt topics repeatedly.

PG Blazer: In your opinion, how much time does a student require for preparing for this exam?
Dr. Ranjan Patel: Time is not a main constraint… how much you are focused and how much you are revising your doubt topics that matters more. Still don’t waste the valuable times. Learn from every aspect…. Learn from duty as well as from books. Time should be productive one.

PG Blazer: How many hours did you study each day?
Dr. Ranjan Patel: 4-6 hours during initial time. Towards the end it was increased up to 8-10 hours per day.

PG Blazer: Did you have a timetable for preparation? Were you able to stick to it?
Dr. Ranjan Patel: Yeah I had. I made a rough plan for each subject and was trying to complete that during that periods. I think this thing gives you optimal time management for each topics. Give more times to hot topics and those topics in which it is easy to secure mark easily.

PG Blazer: What role did the internet play in your preparation?
Dr. Ranjan Patel: In clarifying some doubts. But it’s a dual edged sword. If you are addicted to FB, then it will ruin your time.. mind it.

PG Blazer: Did you ever doubt your ability to get selected in this entrance exam? If so, how did you overcome your fears?
Dr. Ranjan Patel: Nobody is 100% sure about his/her rank in the upcoming exam..so I was…still as I was securing decent rank in DAMS and Bhatia grand tests, I had a hope for. but really preparation time is a damn stressful time.

PG Blazer: Did you attend any classroom coaching? Was it useful? Do you think classroom coaching is essential for getting a good rank?
Dr. Ranjan Patel: No I didn’t join any classes….. I prepared on my own… I only did 2 demo classes of DAMS, that’s all.

PG Blazer: Did you attend any test series? If so, did you find it useful?
Dr. Ranjan Patel: DAMS and Bhatia grand test series.. yeah it was helpful….you can pick your weak topics and can make it strong..and it ll give you a rough idea of degree of competition and your position in the race.

PG Blazer: What were the subjects you focused upon?
Dr. Ranjan Patel: Anatomy, biochem, patho, pharma, micro, fmt, obg, psm and short subjects

PG Blazer: Which books did you read for theory?
Dr. Ranjan Patel: Anatomy – Chaurasia
Physiology – Ganong
Biochemistry – Satyanarayan
Pathology – one and only Robbins
Microbiology – Ananthnarayan
Pharmacology –KDT
Forensic Medicine – Reddy
ENT – Dhingra
Ophthalmology – Khurana
SPM – Park
Medicine – Harrison Principles of Internal Medicine – the ultimate book of MBBS.
Surgery – belly
Orthopaedics – Maheshwari
Paediatrics – OP Ghai
OBG – Dutta
Anaesthesia – guide Across
Radiology – guide Across
Dermatology – Neena Khanna
Psychiatry –guide Across

PG Blazer: What was your approach to Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine?
Dr. Ranjan Patel: I read it during MBBS. So I revised the main systemic part (cardio, neuro, endocrinology and connective tissue disorder) medicine from Harrison.

PG Blazer: Which books did you read for MCQ’s? Which ones were the most useful?
Dr. Ranjan Patel: Subject wise books:
Anatomy – Across
Physiology – Across
Biochemistry – Across
Pathology – pulse publication guide
Microbiology –pulse publication guide
Pharmacology – Gobind Garg guide
Forensic Medicine – Across
ENT – Sakshi Arora guide
Ophthalmology – Across
SPM – partly books and partly Vivek Jain
Medicine – only books
Surgery – pulse publication guides
Orthopaedics – pulse publication guides
Paediatrics – pulse publication guides
OBG – Sakshi Arora guide
Anaesthesia – Across
Radiology – Across
Dermatology – Across
Psychiatry – Across

PG Blazer: What was your strategy while preparing for AIPGMEE?
Dr. Ranjan Patel: Try to cover the maximum things that I could. Try to avoid the silly mistakes.

PG Blazer: Is there anything specific to keep in mind while preparing for AIIMS?
Dr. Ranjan Patel: Focussing on some hot topics which are must to read. Not to do mistake for the repeat questions, never.

PG Blazer: How did you tackle the PGIMER entrance exam?
Dr. Ranjan Patel: Firstly I marked the options question wise that is one by one. Avoid wild guess. And never skip questions. Try to look for all questions.

PG Blazer: How did you prepare for the image based questions?
Dr. Ranjan Patel: Net was helpful in this aspect.

PG Blazer: What was your strategy for revision on the day before the examination?
Dr. Ranjan Patel: Revised some imp. topics and had a good sleep.

PG Blazer: What was your strategy for taking the exam?
Dr. Ranjan Patel: Answer easy ones first and do the others in a second phase.

PG Blazer: How many questions did you attempt?
Dr. Ranjan Patel: AIPGMEE -299
AIIMS – 194
PGI – 245

PG Blazer: How many do you think you got correct?
Dr. Ranjan Patel: AIPGMEE -245
AIIMS – 140
PGI – I don’t know

PG Blazer: Which speciality are you interested in choosing and why?
Dr. Ranjan Patel: Radiology. It’s a cool branch as I’m and many things to do in this branch. People think of money when they think of radiology. But indeed peace matters more than money. Persue whatever captures ur heart. Thats it.

PG Blazer: What is your advice to future aspirants?
Dr. Ranjan Patel: Give your maximum effort what you can. Don’t waste valuable time. Try to take advantage from seniors regarding preparation issue. Its a race. You will win if you will, but don’t expect a win without truthful effort.

PG Blazer: Please give your comments / suggestions regarding PG Blazer.
Dr. Ranjan Patel: It’s a site that helps the PG aspirant in an inspirational manner. I am thankful to PG Blazer from where I could get inspirations and way of preparation.

PG Blazer: That brings us to the conclusion of the interview. Best of luck for your future endeavours!