Preparing for NEET from Home

NEET PG entrance exam or the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for postgraduate admissions is one of the toughest examinations in India. Various coaching institutes guide the candidates preparing for this exam. But every individual may not have the means or resources to join a coaching institute. So, the question arises whether it is even possible to prepare for NEET PG 2021 at home or not? The answer is, “yes, it is possible.” But this will not be easy; it will require a lot of hard work and dedication.  

NEET PG 2021 requires you to revise everything you have read in the past 4.5 years of your MBBS degree course and everything you learned during your clinical rotations. So, tighten your seatbelt because this will be one hell of a ride, and be ready to put in a lot of effort. Now that it is established that you can crack NEET PG without offline face-to-face coaching let us shift our focus on how to prepare for NEET PG at home? The answer to the question has been explained in multiple steps below. The prep tips mentioned here are recommended by professionals and toppers and help you develop your NEET PG preparation strategy. So, let us start. 

Go through the syllabus and exam pattern. 

Before you curate a battle strategy, it is imperative to know everything about your enemy, and in this modern day and age, you can find it all on the internet. Therefore, the first thing you must do is go to the official NEET-PG website, read the released statement describing the syllabus and the exam pattern. Going through the exam coverage does not mean only reading the topics’ names; to complete this step, you must know what topics and sub-topics are included in the NEET PG 2021. You must go through the exam pattern to understand how much time you will get for each question, how many positive or negative scores you will get per answer, and whether the exam will be held online or offline.   

What is the weightage-based differentiation of topics? 

Not all 19 subjects are equal, be it from the content standpoint or their weightage in the exam. When the subjects are not equal, giving them equal time and equal energy can be catastrophic, and that is one situation we must avoid. That is why you should look at the weightage of each subject and accordingly divide the amount of time that you can spend on each. When making your plan, you can club together multiple topics usually asked together and are correlated. Like physiology and pathology go hand in hand, so clubbing them together will help you learn more as you can relate the two of them.  

Get a Timetable

The primary benefit of joining a coaching institute resides in the fact that they out you a schedule and make a plan for you to follow; when trying to prepare at home, one must do these things by themselves; they must give their day a structure with a planner and not just go with the flow. Now, not everyone can plan for themselves and follow it, not everyone is gifted with the ability to create a well-rounded timetable; but luckily, we live in a time where toppers and experts make and post such schedules online for free, you need to search for them, personalize them a little to fit your lifestyle, and you are good to go. 

Finding the right resource 

Preparing for NEET PG demands investment, whether you join a coaching institute or prepare from home. You need to decide how much you can invest and use that money efficiently enough to arrange for all the best possible resources. There is an ocean of resources available for you to choose from; multiple online coaching apps, an uncountable number of books, books that only have previous year questions, and books that were written only for revision purposes.  

Mock tests and Test series 

Whether you study from paperback books, or pdf on your kindle or watch videos on your phone and tablet, one thing that cannot be stressed enough is the importance of giving multiple mock tests, be it the entire syllabus or subject-wise, both have their value. Sign up for a series of tests to prepare for NEET PG 2021 at home. Do not just rely on sample papers. Mock tests enable you to work in real-time and help improve efficiency, speed, and accuracy. Make this a rule to appear for a minimum of two mock tests weekly. 

Regular revisions 

When you look at the coverage of NEET PG, it reads 19 subjects and over 700 topics, and no individual can cram up all this information and say that they remember it all. So, therefore, you must make notes and highlight things to have quicker revisions when you are studying. So, in your plan, in a week, you can put six days of learning and one of just revision and MCQ solving; this method will improve your knowledge and remembrance of the topic.  

Find time for extra-curricular activities  

If you ever hear someone talking about studying medicine and especially the preparation for PG, they will tell you to forget about everything and just study day in and day out. You may even find some articles asking you to study for 18 hours a day, now that might be a possibility in the last week, but beyond that, such a plan is nothing but a recipe for failure. 

You should study 10-12 hours a day, but you must find time to do things that help you relax during the rest of the day. Go for a walk, workout, watch a movie, create art, or go out to eat, but do something that lets you take some load off and away from books for a while.   

Whether you are preparing at home because of a personal choice or because you have no other choice, the fact remains the same. It requires extremely hard work and dedication. There will be days when you will get overwhelmed and feel like giving up, but you must steer the ship back on track to reach the shore—all the best with your exam.