AIPGMEE 2014 Topper Interview: How Elamvazhuthi got AIR 2 in AIPGMEE

Hard work and sincere dedication is the best strategy for any exam,” says Elamvazhuthi who has positioned himself as the second topper in AIPGMEE 2014. The topper, holding an MBBS degree from Madras Medical College finally selected the much sought after Maulana Azad Medical College to pursue MD in Radio Diagnosis.

In this interview with Careers360, Elamvazhuthi shares his AIPGMEE 2014 success strategy wherein he emphasizes on the benefits of systematic preparation and acknowledges frequent revision of topics as the best approach to crack the most coveted PG Medical Entrance exam of India.

Interview:

Apart from AIPGMEE 2014, which other medical PG entrance exams did you appear for? Which medical college did you finally choose?      

Elamvazhuthi: Beside AIPGMEE 2014, I took DNB-CET. I secured All India Rank 2 in AIPGMEE 2014 and 256 Rank in DNB CET.  Finally, I took admission at MAMC in MD Radio Diagnosis.

What was your preparation strategy for AIPGMEE 2014? Can you please advise some books to AIPGMEE aspirants? Please specify subject wise.

Elamvazhuthi: I studied individual complete subject wise Multiple Choice Question (MCQ) books only and revised that twice before going to AIPGMEE exam. It is possible to finish complete subject wise MCQ books within 6-8 months.  Hard work and sincere dedication is the best strategy for any exam.

ACROSS Volume 1 and Volume 2

·         Microbiology: Ratchana Chaurasiya

·         Pathology: Sparsh Gupta

·         Pharmacology: Sparsh Gupta

·         SPM: Vivek Jain or Aravind Arora

·         ENT: Sakshi Arora Or Shibbu George

·         Medicine: Mudit Khanna or Amit Ashish

·         Surgery: Pulse Publications

·         OBG: Sakshi Arora

·         Paediatrics: Aravind Arora

Please share your preparation strategy for pre-clinical, para-clinical and clinicalseparately? How much time did you take to prepare for AIPGMEE and how did you divide your preparation time amongst different sections? 

Elamvazhuthi: To be honest, I started preparing seriously after my internship. I prepared from AIPGMEE only for 6 months. I spent one week for vast subjects and 3-4 days for short subjects. I finished all subject wise MCQ books one month prior to the AIPGMEE entrance exam.  

               

What were your strong and weak areas? How did you prepare and what special efforts did you put for improving your weak areas?

Elamvazhuthi: Everyone will have difficulty in remembering all the subjects while preparation. Frequent revision of particular topic helps to remember the topics.

How did you manage your time at the AIPGMEE exam?

Elamvazhuthi: My plan was to attempt all the 300 questions at AIPGMEE. Firstly, I finished all the questions within 2 hours and left some questions for which I am not sure. I followed that up with attempting all those questions which were left. Finally, I checked all the attempted questions in the last 20 minutes.

One of the confusions every PG aspirant has to tackle is regarding how Harrisons Internal Medicine should be read. How did you deal with this?

Elamvazhuthi: If you have enough time you can read Harrison but I didn’t read Harrison. I read Harrison only for reference. Do not spend too much time on reading standard text books especially if you have less time.

How did you approach SPM? PG aspirants have always found SPM very difficult to memorise.

Elamvazhuthi: SPM is a very important subject for entrance preparation. Try to spend more time in studying SPM. Try to study SPM MCQ book thoroughly and attend SPM entrance classes. If you get any important points from Park just note that in the MCQ book itself. Do not waste time on reading all the contents given in textbook.

The new exam pattern contains image based questions like ECG's, CT scans, USGs, instruments and histology. What are your tips to PG aspirants to tackle these?

Elamvazhuthi: Do not worry about the image based questions. The questions will be only the basic in nature. Therefore, my advice is that aspirants need not do any special preparation. Try to study each and every concept by picture so that you can remember them forever. Just revise all the basic image based model questions in every subject just before the exam.