TLDR;
This interview features Dr. Basili conversing with Dr. Pushan, the NEET PG 2025 rank one holder. Dr. Pushan shares his preparation strategy, emphasizing the importance of making handwritten notes, solving QBank questions early, and sticking to one source for preparation. He also discusses how he overcame plateaus in his scores by reviewing grand tests thoroughly and revising his notes.
- Started using Marrow in the second year of MBBS.
- Made handwritten notes and solved QBank questions.
- Overcame score plateaus by reviewing grand tests and notes.
- Believes in sticking to one source and having faith in oneself.
Introduction [0:39]
Dr. Basili congratulates Dr. Pushan on achieving rank one in the NEET PG 2025 exam. Dr. Pushan expresses his surreal feeling about the accomplishment, mentioning he has checked his results multiple times. He is a 2019 batch student who completed his internship in March and is from Shiram Chandra Medical College and Hospital, Odisha. He started preparing seriously in mid-January of this year, targeting the INI-CET exam in May and then NEET.
Journey with Marrow [1:53]
Dr. Pushan started using Marrow in his second or third year of MBBS. He watched videos, went through the books, and solved QBank questions as the subjects progressed. In his third year, he would finish the lectures first, then go through standard textbooks, and solve Qbanks to get a feel of clinical questions. He also finished a few final year subjects in his third year itself. He stuck with Marrow because he found the faculties great and the QBank helpful. For a subject like ENT, he would watch the videos, read Dhingra, and solve Qbanks.
Revision videos [4:13]
Dr. Pushan didn't watch all the revision videos, but he did use them for subjects like anatomy, which he had forgotten. For subjects he was confident in, he stuck to his notes.
Making Handwritten Notes [4:47]
Dr. Pushan made his own notes and added information from previous year questions and related facts. However, 95% of the information was already present in his notes, so he didn't have to add much.
How to make the notes concise? [5:28]
To condense his notes, Dr. Pushan would read them quickly and then do a custom module of previous year questions for that subject. This helped him filter out the important PYQs and mark them properly. When revising, he would mainly focus on the marked areas unless he got something wrong in the grand tests.
Revision strategy [7:27]
For revision, Dr. Pushan used revision videos for subjects he felt he needed to, especially if the main notes were too much or he had lost touch with the subject.
Approach to QBank [8:00]
He reset his QBank at the start of his internship and solved around 300-400 modules, focusing on PYTs. His notes were highlighted towards PYTs and PYQs, and his question bank was reviewed again towards PYTs and PYQs.
Giving GTs [8:36]
Dr. Pushan started giving grand tests sporadically in his second and third year, then started giving them regularly towards the end of 2024, initially once a month and then once every two weeks.
Breaking GT plateau [9:12]
He faced a plateau where his score was stuck at 130-140 corrects for one and a half months. To overcome this, he went back and read his source material properly and reviewed the GTs thoroughly. Reviewing GTs and identifying topics he was getting wrong helped him break the plateau. The jump in scores was gradual, with an increase of 10-12 questions each time. He attributed this to revising his notes and reviewing the grand tests in detail.
Importance of reviewing GT [11:35]
Dr. Pushan overcame his second plateau by reviewing the grand tests in detail. He would take a notebook and write down everything he had gotten wrong and mark questions as "guess correct" if he needed more information. He would review these notes before every GT.
Subjects that helped understand the other subjects better [14:47]
Dr. Pushan believes that final year subjects like medicine, surgery, OBG, and pediatrics helped him understand other subjects better because they assimilate all the information from the first and second year subjects.
Advice to Aspirants [14:50]
Dr. Pushan advises new Marrow users to make their own notes, do QBank questions early, and believe in themselves. He recalls writing "175 corrects and 20 wrongs" on a paper and keeping it in his drawer, which manifested in his actual score.
Importance of sticking to one source [17:11]
Dr. Pushan advises sticking to one source for preparation and finding a balance between increasing less notes to a higher quantity or trimming down larger notes. If your GT scores are increasing, you shouldn't fall into the FOMO trap. He emphasizes that the way you're getting the correct answers also plays a role in judging your preparation, not just the absolute marks.