8 Tips to Prepare Hard Subjects

Hard Subjects

Every one of us is having a hard subject, which makes us feel uneasy. Whenever someone utters that subject’s name the daunting feeling and the fear and pain of that subject keep us pulling down and make us feel low. Whenever we have to prepare for that subject for any of our tests we try to avoid it as far as possible.

Ever wonder why that particular subject is hard for you. But easy for your other friend or your batch mates?

The main reason is your mindset towards that subject. Basically, we don’t have any interest in difficult subjects. But wait a minute think in a reverse manner. The difficulty of that subject is not letting you gain interest in that subject. It’s your no interest in that subject due to which that subject has been so hard.

It’s a bitter truth that the subject that seems hard to you is hard for you because of your own choice.

So, how should I correct it? How to bring it back on track? And how to gain my interest in that particular subject?

Don’t worry guys it’s never been too late for anything. I am here to share some of the best tips to prepare your hard subject.

But before going further I want to let you aware of the fact. The subject that seems hard to you is your weakest subject among all others, wonder why?  It’s because you didn’t give it the proper time to subject or we procrastinate its schedule 

8 Tips to prepare hard subjects

TIP 1:- Identify your hard subject

This is a prerequisite for gaining confidence in your difficult subject. First, you should be aware that which subject is your hard subject. There are some easy ways to identify it.

1. Our hardest subject is our weakest subject, as I said earlier.
2. We tend to avoid that subject. We all spare our difficult subject for last. We think that we will do it later when if we get time in the end.
3. We have very low academic attendance in that subject’s lectures. In the end, we struggle to pull it above the optimum attendance required.
4. We do not pay attention to that subject’s lecture even if we are present in class.

So, I think that these points will help you to pick out your hard subject/subjects. There may be more than one hard subject. Any subject could be a hard subject for anyone. Some feel like biochemistry is hard, for some students’ pathology is difficult. For some, there might be pharmacology, microbiology, or any other subject. It’s very subjective to say so don’t worry you are not alone.

 
TIP 2:- Cross The mental Barrier

So we have identified that which subject seems difficult. Now it's action time. The first and foremost action is to dump the previous mindset that this subject is very difficult and I can’t do it. Such thoughts act as a barrier for us to go ahead with that subject. These thoughts pull us back into our studies.

So, don’t ever think that you can’t master that subject because it’s very hard. Someone else is loving this subject then why don’t you? Get up and try to cross that mental barrier. The best way to do it stop procrastinating the study schedule for that particular subject.

Recommendations: -

1. Make a schedule where you provide a dedicated slot for that difficult subject daily.
2. Avoid all of your distractions so that you can focus on your subject completely.
3. Prefer the time will be that which will have fewer distractions like night time or early morning.
4. I would prefer an early morning time slot.

TIP 3:- Ease your way into it slowly

After getting mentally ready for it, the next work is to get comfortable with that subject. For that ease your way slowly into the subject. In short, take small baby steps to read that subject and start with the basics of that subject.

Consider yourself as a little child and teach yourself like a child. Start with little and basic concepts on that topic or subject. It will help you to lay a good foundation for it. Try to go at a very slow pace with your ease in that subject.

Recommendations:-

1. Don’t start with complex topics first. Start with an easy topic or I should say the easier one in the beginning. That the simple topic could be any topic from any random chapter.

Eventually, you will start loving the subject and will get yourself ready for some complex things.

 

TIP 4:- Sandwich it between the easy subjects

Easy and strong topics and subjects can help you to get victory over your hard subject. Put your hard subject study time in between the study interval of 2 easy subjects.

This will help your mind to get some time to process the information. It will help you to consolidate your memory. All these things motivate you to study your hard subject further.

 

TIP 5:- Correlate With other Subjects

Try to establish links with the subjects you like and have confidence. MBBS subjects are all over-connected with each other in many ways. You don’t have to do anything new. The only thing you need to do is to exploit this privilege as much as you can.

This will save you the majority of the time. Complement any hard and complex topic with some other subject’s similar topic. For example, you can mix information from pathology and medicine or you can mix information from pediatrics and medicine, and so on. There can be many combinations as per your choice.

This will help you to get some kind of orientation for your subject. This helps you to keep information in your memory for a long time. It will also help you to gain confidence

Recommendations: -

1. You can Link Pharmacology with Medicine.
2. You can link Pediatrics and medicine.
3. You can go with Anatomy and Surgery, pathology with medicine.
4. Pre-clinical subjects can also be linked like physiology and anatomy.
5. You can also link para-clinical subjects like pharmacology with microbiology, etc.

 

TIP:6- Have a Graphic Representation of your preparation

This is one of the most important tips which will help you a lot. Make a progress chart on a paper having different blocks in it. Color one block whenever you complete one topic.

Look at that chart every day, you will see that the number of empty blocks is reducing.  This will boost you up. This will reinforce the information in your subconscious mind that you are conquering over that difficult subject.

Believe me, your subconscious mind will help you in a very efficient way. The subconscious mind is like a baby who doesn’t understand words. The only thing it understands is graphics, visuals, and images. This progress chart will make it believe that you are doing well in that subject. Once your subconscious mind realizes that you are doing better, you will feel much more confident and enthusiastic about the subject.

Recommendations: - 

1. You can apply this tip to other subjects also. This is a very effective technique for grasping any topic easily.

 

TIP 7:- Help and Support

Seek the help of your seniors or friends or teachers. Ask them to help you understand the difficult topic. When we keep on reading and progressing the hard subject it saturates us. We start hating that subject. We start having a monocular vision of the subject. In short, your brain got fed up and stop processing any new and complex information.

So, in that case, take a break from that subject. Seek someone good at it and who can easily explain the complex things. Sometimes we need a different vision to look towards the problem. We might be lacking that vision, so there is no harm in seeking someone for help.

Sometimes some minute things can revolutionize the whole vision of the subject. So just go for any help without any hesitation.

 

TIP 8:- Regular Revisions

Everything is easy but required that things should be in our minds forever. Then only it’s easy for us. So, what is the best way to keep the whole bulk of knowledge and information in mind? The answer is simple, Revision … Revision… and Revision… Reading any hard subject is important to conquer that subject but revising that subject is a crucial part of sustaining our victory over it. So plan a good revision strategy. Give proper revision time to your subject. Not only to your hard and weak subjects but revise easy subjects also.

Revision is as important as sharping an old sword again. It makes the sword sharper than before. Same with revising the subject at frequent intervals.

you can check out my post on How To Revise Efficiently? This post will help you to plan a good revision schedule and it will also explain to you why it is important to forget things.

Recommendations: -

1. Create a revision chart to revise the topics.
2. The best way to revise any topic is to start teaching it to your friends. It will be a win-win situation for both of you.
3. Create short notes and flashcards for quick revision.
4. Don’t read unnecessary bulk of information during revision.

Conclusion

We all have some hard subjects. It’s not a new thing. But we should be aware that the subject that seems hard to us. It is hard for us because of our own choice and habits. The habit of procrastinating the subject and not taking it seriously. All these things enforces our subconscious mind to believe that this particular subject is very difficult and I cannot do it. It creates a mindset and develops a feeling of fear towards that subject.

But there is nothing to worry about. We all do mistakes. We all make some wrong choices. It happens with all of us.

Let have a quick look at all the tips that I discussed in the above article. Here I discussed a total of 8 tips that could help you conquer your hard subject.

TIP 1:- Identify your hard subject

Many ways have been discussed in the article to identify your hard subject. Hope you might find them useful.

TIP 2:- Cross The mental Barrier

Your mind is a powerful tool that can make you win in any situation. Don’t feed it with some negative reviews of anyone regarding the subject.

TIP 3:- Ease your way into it slowly

Consider yourself as a baby and start your subject with very basics.

TIP 4:- Sandwich it between the easy subjects

Continuous cycles of easy and hard subject study sessions will help you to not to get fed up easily. You can work constantly on your weakness as well as on your strengths.

TIP 5:- Correlate With other Subjects

Try to establish links and try to connect dots with other subjects. Our brain tends to retain connected information for a much longer time than just a single segment of information.

TIP 6:- Have a Graphic Representation of your preparation

Graphical representations and progress charts are a very important part of your preparations. This reinforces your subconscious mind to believe that you are doing better in your subjects. Eventually builds your confidence on that subject.

TIP 7:- Help and Support

Always seek for help and support from teachers or that subject expert for some complex topics. Sometimes some people can provide a new point of view towards that subject that can revolutionize your complete vision towards that subject.

 

TIP 8:- Regular Revisions

Revision is the key to retaining any subject forever into your memory.

 

These tips helped me personally and I hope that you will find it useful too.

NEXT Exam : Details and How should I start preparation for NEXT exam / NEXT Exam FAQs

What is the NEXT Exam?

NEXT Exam or National Exit Test is basically the substitute PG entrance exams like NEET PG, AIIMS PG. This exam also replaces the FMGE Exam i.e. Foreign Medical Graduates Examination, and its mandatory for every medical undergraduate student in India to pass that exam to get started with their Internship.

This exam will be under the regulation of NMC i.e. National Medical Council as per the NMC Bill 2019. This exam will work as a common exit exam for all undergraduates to get graduated as doctors. The pattern of the NEXT exam will be very different from the conventional NEET PG exam.

NEXT Exam Pattern

• NEXT exam will be conducted in 2 parts i.e. NEXT 1 and NEXT 2.
• NEXT 1 exam will be conducted at the end of the final year MBBS, MCQ based exam required to get into the internship, replacing the NEET PG exam that held after internship.
• The score of the NEXT 1 exam will decide your rank for PG entrance.
• The NEXT 1 exam will be 3 days long, having a slot of 2 hours pre-lunch session and a slot of 1-hour post-lunch session for 3 consecutive days.

 Day wise division of subjects will be as follow:-

Number of questions

Total Questions = 540

Marks Distribution will as:-

• NEXT 2 exams will be more likely to be a practical examination where your clinical skills will be tested.
• NEXT 2 exams will be conducted after your internship and its mandatory to get the degree and get the seat in PG if you have a good score in NEXT 1.

Quick through the executing process of the exam will look like that:-

Major Challenge

1. 3 days exam, huge mental pressure, and stress.
2. High-stakes exam, if unable to pass then no internship.
3. No status of supplementary exam yet.
4. The major focus is on clinical.
5. The biggest challenge is that the exam will be before the internship, which means no 1 additional year to prepare as students usually get in an internship for NEET PG.

Note: - The above scheme is proposed right now it’s not officially documented.

How to prepare for the NEXT exam?

So, this is going to be implemented (proposed) from the MBBS batch 2017 i.e. the for the very first time NEXT will in 2022, and right now the students who are in their 3rd year MBBS will face the exam for the very first time, and so do the 2nd year students will face the exam second time.

I am going to tell two different strategies, one will be for 2nd-year MBBS students and the others will be for 3rd-year students. There are 2 different strategies because the syllabus and marks distribution of the exam are not uniform we have got 3rd-year subjects essentially very important carrying the weightage of 60 questions each subject even the PSM will have the weightage of 60 questions but in the associated form with other subjects.

For 2nd year Students 

First thing first, for 2nd-year students the best approach for the preparation of the exam would be that you guys should complete your 2nd-year para-clinical subjects first along with their MCQs. After completing the 2nd year subjects start reading your 1st year subjects and get a good grasp on them and make strong concepts. This will help you at the end of your preparation and that method will save a lot of time of yours which you can utilize for solving additional MCQs and reading the subjects of the final year.

For 3rd year Students

For 3rd year students, you guys have to complete your 3rd-year subjects first with their associated physiology, anatomy, pharmacology, pathology, and microbiology and also other associated content with those subjects. You can’t afford to leave any of them and it would be better if you complete the subjects as you are having your exam, not in a year or more but as you are having it in the next 3 months it will help you to build a positive pressure and can help you to increase your efficiency. Close the 3rd year subjects completely and don’t leave them for preparation in the final year, believe me, it will be very hard to do it there the only thing that could be done in the final year is the revision of 3rd year subjects and revision of basic sciences as well.

You can check out this article How to revise Efficiently?  This article will help you to make a good revision schedule and help you to make a revision strategy suitable for you. 

FAQs related to NEXT Exam

1.) Will next be implemented on time?

Maybe maybe not, but in my point of view, I will prepare like the next exam will be implemented as it will give me 1 extra year if the exam does not happen.

2.) How should the 2nd and 3rd-year students approach this exam?

1. If I am a 2nd year student then first I will finish all the second year subjects, and get ready for the prof exam and in spare time either revise 1st year subjects or read 3rd year subjects Revising 1st year subjects means read the notes of 1st year subjects and solve MCQs This will help you to cover 10% of your exam syllabus.
2. Approach to 3rd year, ENT, Optha  PSM 60+60+60 they want time to do them well and practice questions with proper revision of physiology, anatomy, pathology, microbiology, and pharmacology associated with these subjects. Finish them.

3.) Should you be doing MCQs? 

Absolutely…sooner you start the better it is ….
Your final exam is going to be an MCQ exam. So start doing MCQs as soon as possible, if you spare time in 3rd year after completing the 3rd year subjects then start reading final year subjects 

4.) How to compensate for the loss of clinical skills during the pandemic?

Be in touch with college classes and pay attention to them. Use the content available on the internet
My suggestion: - I would make my theory strong and when lockdown overs then I will compensate for it.

5.) Can I skip some subjects for the Next exam?

2nd year and 3rd have a lot of time left for it. Why are you going to left the subjects? Make strong concepts … don’t skip subject.

6.) Should I make my own notes? 

If I were you then I will make my own notes, 2nd year and 3rd-year students make your own notes, still have time but if you that it is taking more time or your grasp and knowledge is same if you create your own notes then, you can rely on printed notes as well. 

7.) Do we go system-wise or do we go subject-wise?

My approach would in 2nd and prefinal year will be subject-wise with my target that I will complete all the 19 subjects in the final year and give myself 6 months for revision at least. Then in 6 months for revision, I will go system wise that will give me a real and proper integration. Once I have read all 19 subjects, now to integrate them and revise them in last will be fun and it will help you in answering the clinical questions which are being asked and it will you in answering the basic sciences question which will have the clinical touch.

if you need any tips regarding revision read the article on How to revise efficiently?

8.) When should I start solving grand tests?

I would do a grand test in 2nd year but ideally by the end of 3rd year when I have done doing all major part of my syllabus and submit clinical knowledge I gathered there is no harm in doing one grand test in two months. but in the final year it is necessary to do 1 grand test every month and in the last 6 months 1 grand test every 15- 20 days.

9.) How to approach 3 major subjects Medicine, Surgery and Obstetrics, and Gynaecology?

1. Medicine:- start reading medicine from ideally 2nd year if not done yet then 3rd year at least, and try to integrate it with pathology, it will help to correlate and make a connection with medicine and pathology and will help you to make your understanding better and by this approach, you can easily complete your medicine by the mid final year.
2. Surgery:- when you go for clinics, whichever case you get come and read about it and correlate it with obvious pathology, you will not grasp 100% of the concept but whatever 30-40% you grasp is additional knowledge for you
3. Obstetrics and Gynecology:- it is an isolated subject so you have to read from notes and textbooks for that, read standard textbooks, you might not read the textbook from cover to cover but whatever topic you read, do justice to them …

Takeaway Points

1. NEXT Exam is a National Exit Test that is proposed to be implemented from the year 2022.
2. The first batch that is going to face the exam is batch of the year 2017.
3. The exam will replace the conventional final year theory exam and PG entrance exams as well.
4. Students are required to pass that exam to appear in an internship also 
5. Very high stake exam with a lot of pressure and having many major challenges that I have discussed.
6. The exam preparation strategies discussed in the article are mainly focusing on going through with the subject of your current year first. After completing those subjects go for MCQs of them. Revision is the Key.
7. The strategies are a little different for 2nd and 3rd-year students because of the non-uniform distribution of the exam syllabus.
8. 2nd-year students should complete their 2nd-year subjects first then go for 1st-year subjects along with their MCQs.
9. 3rd-year students should complete their 3rd-year subjects fist then go for 4th-year subjects along with MCQs  
10. In the end, there are some FAQs related to the NEXT exam that I got from you guys on my Instagram @young_medicos

I hope that you have got answers to all your queries but still, you have any doubt just comment below I will definitely resolve your doubt.