Transcription
Hello everyone. This is Dr. Al Gupta. I did my undergraduation from AIIMS Delhi, following which I did my MD in Pediatrics, again from AIIMS Delhi. I'm now pursuing my SS, that is super specialization in pediatric oncology, again from AIIMS Delhi. Now this video is meant for all people who are currently in their third professional year, third Prof, that is your ENT, PSM, and ophthalmology Prof. A lot of you, after I made the videos on the first and second Prof survival guide and how to choose your resources, requested a video for the third Prof. So here it is. I'm going to follow the same format that I used in all my videos. First, I'll talk about the books that are important. Second, I'll talk about what are, as far as online platforms are concerned, videos are concerned, which are good videos which can serve as an adjunct to the all-important standard textbooks. Third is how do we align these books and videos together. Okay.
Now, a word of advice: what this video is not. Because third Prof is ideally the best time to start your NEET PG preparation, this video is not a NEET PG preparation strategy video. Why? Because I'll actually make a separate video for that. All right. And this video is not on how to do fourth Prof and third Prof as well, which a portion of you should do, but it's not like you shouldn't, but that demands a separate video. This video is an isolated third Prof subjects: which books, which teachers, which videos, how to do those books and videos together for the maximum impact, both from your Prof and your NEET PG point of view. This is that video. How to go about a three-year strategy, a two-year strategy, what if next year happens, NEET happens—this is not that video. Okay. Now let's begin the discussion.
As far as books are concerned, we know the books. Books are, in fact, the easiest to gauge here. PSM: Park, no doubt about that. Ophthalmology: either Khurana or Parsons. Now I personally preferred Parsons, reading Parsons. But there's a problem with Parsons. The problem with Parsons is the same as the problem with Guyton: easy to read like a storybook; you don't remember jack when exam comes, and you're not able to form answers. That is the problem with Park, which is the reason you might end up taking up Khurana, which is a perfectly valid option in my opinion. Khurana is also a decently written book. All right. My advice would be to read Park for better understanding and then go to Khurana from your exam point of view. See your past university papers and see how you can write the answers from Khurana, but try to read Parsons. As far as ENT is concerned, Dogra is definitely a really good book. And for forensic medicine and toxicology, I'll actually recommend a radically different book that you might have actually ever heard. It is out of print because it was sort of restricted to in and around Delhi, but in my opinion, it's a gem of a book. It's a book by Dr. R.K. Sharma. It is a perfect blend between being a review book—it's not a review book, by the way—it's a textbook, but it is concise enough. In fact, the name of the book, the book was Concise Forensic Medicine and Toxicology. He made a textbook; he made; he made it concise enough. Dr. R.K. Sharma, he was a former HOD here at AIIMS. He made a concise textbook. It; it; it does not have that review book feeling, pointwise, no, no, no. It is a textbook, but it is concise enough. It; it made me like forensic medicine a lot. All right. Reading Parikh Reddy tends to get a bit boring. Forensic medicine by itself is a very interesting subject. Try reading Dr. R.K. Sharma. I'll give you the link where you can find the PDF of this particular book. Otherwise, obviously you have Bawa's, Roy, whichever book you're using, that works perfectly fine.
Now, as far as online and offline platforms are concerned, if you're going to start your preparation for NEET PG, amongst offline platforms, you have DAMS and Bhatia. My personal preference: Bhatia. Two reasons I like Bhatia more: it's TND more; second, my wife teaches there. A lot of you might know that Dr. Divya, my wife, she is a Pediatrics faculty at Bhatia. So there, again, I can't say DAMS even if I want to. It's Bhatia, and personally also—jokes apart—I like Bhatia more. Now, as far as online platforms are concerned, again a sort of a star rating. As far as PSM is concerned, if you take the major players: Dr. Mmit, Dr. Tanuja, and Dr. Vi from Marrow prep and Cerebrum, the best faculty obviously is going to be, in my opinion, Dr. Mukit, closely followed by Dr. V.I. Jen. Some people might like V.I. Jen more; some people might like Dr. Mukit more. I personally feel that Dr. Vijan is a better teacher for the non-conceptual and the factual parts; he makes those things interesting, while Dr. Mukit is a better teacher for the conceptual parts, which is the reason I've rated him a bit higher, and that's why I placed him higher. As far as ENT is concerned, only two teachers and only two really good teachers: one is Dr. Rajiv Dawan from Dral, and the other is Dr. Manisha. Both of them excellent teachers—chef's kiss—either of them you can consider taking from, studying from, or whatever it is. Now, as far as ophthalmology is concerned, again I would say that Dr. Ruchi from PrepLadder and Dr. Utab Bansel are actually together in my view. What I personally feel is Dr. Ruchi makes better notes; Dr. UTS Bansel technically teaches better conceptually. I've actually personally attended a three-day offline class of Dr. UTS Bansel, and I love that he, how he starts from neuro-ophthalmology, which are basically more conceptual parts of ophthalmology, and then moves towards the more factual parts of ophthalmology. All right. Again, you can, in my opinion, both are equivalent; some strong here, some strong here. If we take all these three subjects into consideration—I'm not taking FMT into consideration, the reason why is because I feel FMT-wise you just need to do Dr. R.K. Sharma yourself; you will like it.
Overall, let's be honest, for third Prof, the best platform for third Prof teachers per se would be Marrow. Now, how to approach third Prof? Again, this is for your Prof examination and a little bit of PG prep—not a proper NEET PG preparation strategy video. This is not that, again reminding you. Now, when one of my juniors, I talked with my junior, like, you know, how are you using Marrow? She said something very unique to me, which is the reason I wanted to make this video also. She said something on the line that Marrow is meant for toppers. This was both her praise and a bit of a question also. What she essentially meant was was that it's fully possible for a lot of students to get overwhelmed with the content that is present in Marrow, that you might have this desire—not desire—you might feel the need that you need to watch all the videos, you need to do all the Q bank, all the 20,000 questions, and need to do all the tests in order to get a rank in NEET PG. This desire is what is called as FOMO. It's easy to get overwhelmed; it's easy to get in the fear of missing out of doing everything that is there. This is why I'm making this video: don't do that. It is the best platform, but use it according to your own needs and how that platform gives you the best results. All right. We are not bound to the platform; the platform is bound to us in some way, right? So use the platform best. It's the best platform; platform; it's a really good platform, no doubt, but use it properly so that you get the best result and the desired result out of it. All right. So how do you approach it? Now, how do you approach it from a PG point of view? Another, like I said, separate video, but from an Prof point of view, all these subjects, I'll start with PSM first. Now, PSM can easily be divided into three broad categories: okay, epidemiology and biostats, disease and its programmatic management, and the rest. Okay. And I think all three are 33, 33, 33%, uh, uh, from, you know, in Park as well. First thing: go for main videos. At third Prof, you have ample time; you can actually do main videos. Don't take shortcuts at this point of time, which is your revision videos, that is meant for someone who's in internship who doesn't have time because internship can get hectic. You have time in third Prof; try to go for main videos, especially, especially, especially for epidemiology and biostats. It's one thing that requires a lot of conceptual understanding; it's one thing which is asked very frequently in NEET PG, especially your biostats and epidemiology, and you won't get any understanding from revision videos. Try to watch the main videos. Dr. Mmit has done an excellent job explaining biostats; go for that, really good understanding; go through the videos; understand the, from the videos; read Park, and you will be; you will be set right. So this is as far as epidemiology, biostats, and disease and programs are concerned. For the rest, I will actually advise you: it's okay if you skip the videos also; it's actually okay; you don't need to watch each and every video; in fact, you don't even need to read Park also; it can get overwhelming; the Park also can get boring and overwhelming. What is there in the notes in Marrow also? It's actually more than enough from an end Prof point of view as well. Just go through your past five years university paper; whichever thing is missing, you can supplement from Park, but overall I would say you can actually skip this part. This rest part is the reason why PSM is infamous, in my opinion. PSM is not that bad a subject, uh, especially the epidem, the disease parts is actually good; you should read Park and should watch the main videos. For the rest part, just go through the notes and you'll be sorted. Just see the past five-year questions, and you will be sorted. In fact, this is the; this rest part is the reason why a lot of people hate PSM; otherwise, it's not that bad of subjects, uh, my personal view. If you start hating it from the beginning itself, uh, it sort of becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy where you keep on hating it more when you actually do the non-interesting and the boring part of PSM, right? So remove that part of PSM; do main videos for the, the rest; read Park properly; you'll enjoy PSM. For the rest, from exam point of view, just do the notes; not, no need to read Park also; no need to do the videos also. Okay. That is as far as the PSM is concerned. As far as ENT, ophthalmology is concerned, assuming you're taking Marrow, Dr. Manisha, Dr. Dawan have done an excellent job; watch the main video; see the notes; try to read the textbook; go to the main textbook and, you know, read the textbook; read it fast; even if you don't understand, doesn't matter; go through the main video; now you will understand; and then read the textbook again. This way your textbook reading is also done; this way your videos are also done; and you'll get a distinction if you're able to do it properly. Definitely both of them are taught ENT and ophthalmology in an excellent manner. A small word of advice here again. Now; now, uh, ENT and ophthalmology are actually minor or short subjects as far as your entrance exam is concerned, which basically means that they do not have more than three to five questions in the actual exam, while their notes here are really good and they have explained in depth, which is excellent from a third Prof point of view; they can get overwhelming in internship, which is the reason today itself I'm going to advise you that please, for these two subjects, ophthalmology and ENT, solve the previous year questions now in the third year itself and solve custom modules based on the previous year questions. This will give you an idea of more important topics and less important topics. From the more important topics, try to create, from 500 pages, from 150 to 200 pages of your own concise notes. Otherwise, when you go into internship and trying to read from these notes again, you will get overwhelmed and you'll feel that these notes are useless and they're bulky. You should now itself try to concise them. These notes are excellent; they provide you an excellent conceptual understanding in the third Prof. During internship, either use the revision videos and previous year questions to trim down these notes or today itself solve the previous year questions; use custom modules and Marrow in order to trim down these notes. Okay. So this is how you can approach third Prof: get distinction in each and every subject or at least good marks in each and every subject. PSM, the main one which troubles everyone; the rest, just do the notes. For the rest, do videos and Park; get a good understanding; enjoy PSM. ENT, ophthalmology: the videos; read the textbook fast; videos; understanding; read textbook again; you'll be done. But just a small word of advice: solve previous year questions and custom modules and at the same point of time, concise your notes. This will help you avoid FOMO in internship of the bulkiness of the notes. The notes are excellent; the understanding becomes excellent, but try to concise them at the same point of time, today itself. This is how you can actually use Marrow in the best possible manner in your third Prof. Uh, I hope you enjoyed the video. I'll make a separate video related to how to approach PG preparation using Marrow or using another platform in a proper manner in some other, some other time, after a week or after three, four days. But how to approach these subjects and how to use Marrow—this is from my side. Thank you, and have a nice day.