Transcription
Those carefree days! Unlimited time for everything. Lots and lots of trips. Participating in each and every college event, be it culturals or sports. The first thing on my mind was: Should I start studying now? Or should I start studying later? Or should I start studying for PG? And what not! Damn, I miss those days. Third year—no wonder why it's called the honeymoon period of medical life. It surely deserves to be called so.
Having said that, I have been getting a lot of DMs in my channel regarding how to study for third year. And because I have recently finished my third year, I thought I'll make a video to help all of you. So, hi, hello, welcome back! I'm Prashi Kaviri. I'm a five-year medical student from Bangalore, India. In this video, I'll be talking about how a student should approach and study each and every subject in third year to get their best and to score very well in third year.
Now, as I told you, there's lots and lots of time in third year, so don't take it for granted. Just make sure that you enjoy and, you know, make a lot out of it. But at the same time, from the beginning, make sure that you try to build your concepts. So, I used PrepLadder in my third year. I used it for three subjects: ENT, Ophthalmology, and PSM. And I made my own notes while, uh, you know, watching the videos from the beginning. I didn't fuss about studying textbooks from the beginning. My aim was just to finish the video. PSM by Dr. Bubek Jains was so good; I could make my own notes. And because the videos were so crisp and concise, it helped me a lot to remember easily.
After I made videos, I made it a point to solve some of the MCQs, and also all the MCQs, but wherever I could, I tried solving like 50 percent of MCQs from all these three subjects. One best thing about all the MCQs is that once you click answer, you will get a detailed explanation about the answer. This makes your concepts even more stronger. Now, for example, if you have clicked a wrong answer, that's completely okay, because you will know where you went wrong, and those explanations will help you revise the concepts better. That will cement the concepts in your brain. That gave me a grip over the subject, and I seriously started reading textbooks the last two months before exams. And because my concepts were very strong, it was very easy for me to read the textbooks. It was like a cakewalk for me.
Okay, now, having said that, third year is one time when you have ample time. Make sure that you do all the crazy stuff possible and enjoy a lot, because you're not going to get free time like this in any other years. Okay, but don't go off your limits. Just make sure that you study here and there, build your basics, and uh, third-year subjects are very, very easy to study. And if one wants to score a distinction, third year is the year, because the subjects are very light, you have lots of time, and you can easily study and score a distinction. Uh, but remember, if you haven't scored a distinction, it's not the end of the world. And in this video, I'll be sharing with you all the secret to what I did in third year and how I scored a distinction. I hope this helps you all.
Now, coming to individual subjects, I'll talk about PSM first. PSM is one of the most vast subjects in the entire medical. Okay, so what happens is that a lot of students find it extremely boring, and in, they just don't read it the entire year. Don't do that mistake. As I told you, watch videos for all the, you know, chapters in PSM, and just before the exam, when you have like two months, read from the textbook. Or if you are somebody who likes to read, then Park is a book for you. Start reading from the beginning. So, I've made two separate videos: one about how to read from Park, and the other about how to finish the entire syllabus of PSM in 10 days. I am 100 percent sure they're very, very effective if followed properly. I'll leave the link of both the videos in the description box below. Click on that, go watch those videos. I have covered everything in the videos about the books, about how to approach the subject, study tips, how to remember the subject, and everything that a student wants in third year. So make sure that you go and watch those videos for the same.
Now, coming to practicals. Everything practical is going to be very, very general and easy. One thing is that they're going to give you some social clinical social cases, and you need to study that thoroughly, because if you do that well, it carries like 40, 40 marks. So if you do that well, you're going to get an upper edge. So there will be ANC cases, PNC cases, newborn cases, and all the fever-related cases, hypertension, diabetes, and all that. You can cover most of it from the PSM textbook, but for ANC, PNC, and Puerperal sepsis, I suggest you to go read the textbook from the actual—find your textbooks—because when you read those topics properly, you will have a grip on those topics. Apart from that, viva is going to be general, and they can ask anything from anywhere. Just make sure that you read the question paper and go just before you go to your viva, because there are a lot of chances that they can ask similar questions, and you shouldn't miss that at any chance. And one thing that every examiner is going to focus on is the national immunization schedule. Don't miss it at all. Let it be there on the tip of your tongue. Yeah, I think that'll do for the subject.
Coming to the second subject, I'm going to talk about Ophthalmology. Now, Ophthalmology was my least favorite subject, and I did not get a distinction in Ophthalmology, but it's okay, because I did not put in that much effort, also. It's just because I was not interested. Starting off, the thing is I started studying Khurana from the very beginning, okay, but then, uh, after I read Khurana, I just realized that I couldn't recall things, so it did not interest me, and so I just did not study it. But uh, anybody who's reading Khurana, you will know that the topics are very, very volatile, and there are lots of places where things go above your head, and you're just like, "What am I going to write now?" Things like—let's take open-angle glaucoma. Now, he has explained it so much, and if it is given for a five-marker or ten-marker, one person will not know what to write, because there is so much. I think one person can literally fill the entire answer booklet with just that answer. So one thing that I want to suggest to everybody is that make notes for all the big, big chapters. Like, make your own notes for, like, glaucoma, for neuro-ophthalmology, for retina, and for cornea maybe, because it's going to help you like anything. These are very big, okay. So just before the exam, you have one single day, you can't revise everything. Instead, if you have notes where you have written all the ten-marker questions and five-marker questions, if you revise that, you will cover all the three-markers also. It's going to save you a lot of time in the exam as well as when you're revising. So I suggest everybody to make notes at least for these four topics, because they're very, very huge and difficult to revise just the day before exams.
Now, coming to practicals. If you know the proforma well, you can do like wonders in your exam. So make sure that you learn the proforma well. And when you go for your clinicals, see as many cases as possible: all the cataract cases, all the ulcers, the fungal ulcers, the hypertensive retinopathy, pinguecula, all these cases will be kept for your exam. And once if you have seen a good number of cases, you will remember the findings properly, and in the exam, the final exam, there's no way that you're going to miss it. So make sure that you go and see all this properly. And one place where you will have to focus a little more is about the instruments. I know it's a lot confusing for a lot of students, so try to make a separate PDF for the instruments and go through it three to four times, so that everything will stay in your head, uh, and you can just, you know, answer all the instrument-related questions in the viva.
And now coming to the next subject, I'll talk about ENT. So ENT was my favorite subject in third year, or just that the book was so good to read. I used the book Dhingra. The thing is that the book is like a storybook, okay. Once you start reading, and if you like the subject, you can read the entire book in two days mostly, and it is so easy, and everything makes sense. So ENT was my favorite subject, and I loved reading it. And uh, the thing is, in practicals, if you know the proforma well, you can do very well in ENT. And then at the end of the textbook in ENT, they have given the operative procedure of all the various operations, and they're given in a very concise manner. So if you go through it once, it is going to be very helpful in writing every answer, and in the practicals, if you have read the textbook once properly, you can answer all the questions and all the practical-related questions very well, too. Apart from this, for instruments, as I told in Ophthalmology, make a PDF and go through it three to four times, so that you can remember it very well. And all the important questions that will be given in your practicals are: Asom, CSOM, DNS, atrophic rhinitis, tonsils, adenoids, etc. Just read this properly, so that you will have an extra edge in all these topics. Okay, so coming to the last subject, that is Forensic Medicine and Toxicology.
So the thing is that when I was studying, I had this subject in second year. Now, with the change in syllabus and change in curriculum, I think all of you will be having it in the third year. The subject is good, but the thing is a lot of people will feel like it is just general knowledge, it is so general, I'm not a medical student, and all that, and end up not studying. Don't do that mistake, because it's a very, very easy uh subject, and relatively easier to score also. So if you just give it a blind reading once, it's just like a newspaper—you're going to remember it, and you can write exactly the same things on paper, and it will fetch you more marks. So the book that I used was, case I am ready in the beginning, but the book is very big, okay. The actual one; I was not—using synopsis, I bought the actual one, I don't know why—but just one day before the exam, I just realized that I had a huge chunk and I couldn't finish it at all. That's why I switched to Sal Singh. So uh, just imagine somebody who was studying this book the entire year, and one day before the exam just switched to Sal Singh. But then, um, I completely love the decision that I took one day before the exam, because I know exactly what to write in the paper. I put all the necessary diagrams which are there in the book, the flowcharts, everything, and I think I scored around 80 in that paper, and I'm really super, super proud of me for reading that book even today. And coming to practicals, if you know all the certificates, if you know born age estimation, if you know the osteology part of it, if you know all the spotters, your practicals is going to be a real cakewalk. Don't neglect toxicology at all, because in our paper, toxicology came for 40 marks. Okay, mostly it is uh having a weightage of 20 marks, but uh, you know, for your good luck or bad luck, if it comes for more marks, then you shouldn't get less marks in that, no. So I always advise these people to read toxicology, because the content is so less that you can read and finish it fast. Don't take a chance in toxicology. Okay.
That's all for now. I think I've covered all the points regarding how a student should approach third year and how he or she should study in third year. I think these points will help all of you if you, you know, follow all this correctly. Distinction is not a very hard thing, and as I told you, distinction is not the end of the world, or if you don't get a distinction, that is also not the end of the world. Just keep studying and enjoy the process of studying, and uh, subscribe to my channel if you haven't already, and share my videos with your friends who like content like this. I think it will be of help to somebody or the other out there, and um, if it's helping somebody, it can motivate me to make more educational videos like this and help people. Uh, yeah, that's all for now. Enjoy your third year, make the most of the memories, best of the memories, and make sure that you make your basics strong from the beginning, or study well and clear off your third year with flying colors. That's all for now. Until next time, bye.