Topper in MBBS goes to which branch

Being a topper in MBBS is a dream of many students. Most of the students who are doing MBBS were toppers in their classes when they were in school. But the reality comes in front during MBBS and especially during exams time. During viva time to be very precise. Haha...

Many of us joined the medical college with a dream of either being a "Cardiologist" or a "Radiologist" or a " Neuro-Surgeon" like doctor strange. But how many of us are actually getting our dream true?

So, In this quick article, I would like to explain "Topper in MBBS goes to which branch". This question is really very subjective. As it completely depends on one's own choice and field of interest. Although you must have great merit to have an ampul number of choices. But, Let's assume that you are the topper of your batch and your NEET PG/ NEXT score is quite impressive too. So, now what will be your thought process? 

From a topper point of view, He/She would go for their field of interest in my opinion. But there are other factors that a topper could consider, like: -

Workload 

This is one of the most considered factors for choosing a branch after MBBS. As we all know, India is a very populated country, and here the condition of Medical Residents is not very good. They are being asked to work for 72-84 hours without rest in government setups. So, the topper definitely might choose a branch with a low workload and very few and low emergency calls. 

This criterion is being fulfilled by the branches like " Dermatology" and "Radiology". They are relatively less workload and few emergency calls. Although radiology may have a little bit more workload. But both the branches are being liked by toppers. 

And we can see that by analyzing previous years' trends of medical pg counseling and choice filling. In the past year, there has been an increased interest in toppers for Such branches due to which these branches have a very high cutoff in every college.

Money 

Although money should not be the primary factor for choosing a branch. But many students consider money too. And there is no bad thing that you consider money, after all, money is necessary for a good life. 

The Branches Like Surgery, Orthopedics, Medicine, Anesthesia, Emergency Medicine are very good paying branches. And many toppers go for them too.

Scope of Research

This what a topper always wants to do. Many toppers want to indulge themselves in research work and all. This is because research work and publications make you very famous among the community if it goes well. 

Branches like Community Medicine, Medicine, Surgery, Opthalmology, Pediatrics, OBGY have endless scope for research.

Safety 

Nowadays this factor is gaining importance. Nobody wants to get beaten just because of something wrong happened with the patient. I agree that some doctors do gross mistakes that lead to complications. But not every time for complications and death of a patient the doctor is responsible.

As there are chances of increasing violence against the doctors so many toppers prefer to opt for a safe branch with less patient interaction.

Branches Like Radiology, Dermatology are preferred by toppers. It has also been seen that sometimes these top rankers go for non-clinical branches.

Respect

There is a general dictum in India that Cardiologists, Surgeons, neurosurgeons, etc. are more respected. So for having a good status in society and in family Students also choose such branches 

Intrest 

Above all that I have discussed is just based on my assumptions. But this the major determining factor that what a student will choose. This factor is applicable every time. If you are interested in a particular field then it doesn't matter that how much workload you are going to have there, how much money you are going to earn, what is the scope for research, and the criteria for safety and respect.

The thing in which you are interested will keep you happy forever. This will be your job in the future and I feel that we should take our occupation as our hobby.

Summary 

So after that long article if you are still reading this then I am very thankful to you. From Here onwards I won't consume most of your time. So to conclude " The branches that are being Chosen by MBBS Toppers" are; -

• Radiology
• Dermatology
• Medicine
  
• Surgery
• Orthopedics
• OBGY
• Pediatrics
• ENT
• Opthalmology 
• Community Medicine 
  

Should I read Harrison in MBBS?

 How many of you guys love medicine as a subject?

If you ask the same question to me then I will say that I like the subject a lot. But it doesn't mean that I am going to read the medicine the whole day. and By reading medicine the whole day I mean reading Harrison. You guys might be aware of the fact that Harrison is considered "The Backbone of the Med School". But is it really worth reading whole books cover by the cover if I am just doing MBBS?

I use to get a lot of queries from a lot of medical students that whether they should start studying Harrison from the beginning of their clinical subjects to get a strong foundation. I would simply like to say No to this approach. Yes! you might be surprised to hear but it's not the best way neither the second-best way. 

See, Harrison is a huge book. It's an ocean of vast knowledge where everything is very expanded and linked with each other. You will need a lot of time to just read every like of the book by heart and most probably the double of that to learn every line of it. But then what about the other 18 subjects of your MBBS. Who is going to complete them?

Here in this article, I am going to talk about the benefits and the issues that you will face if you are going to read the whole Harrison during your MBBS by heart.

Note: - I don't want to discourage anyone from completing that book, it's a wonderful book for medicine. I am just putting my views regarding some very common queries which people ask. Here I am going to tell most of the things in the Indian Medical Colleges Context, but they might be helpful for others a well

Issues

• Time Consuming: - Harrison is not a review book. It's a textbook and the Big one. It is having more than 4000 pages and the font size of that book is also very small that makes the book very lengthy. It will consume a lot of time if you go through the book line by line to understand one thing. If you will give whole of your time to medicine only then how you are going to complete rest of your subjects for exams.
• Very Vast: - For me, Harrison is a reference book and I use it for gathering information about some topics that I don't understand from my other books of medicine. It's too vast and too lengthy to even complete a single topic from it quickly.
• Hard to Write Exams with Harrison: - Let's say you have read the Harrison before your exams successfully, but the main problem comes when you are going to write answers from that knowledge that you gained from the book. Why? because you have read a lot of stuff in the paragraph manner and you don't how to represent the stuff in your answer sheet. Also, you will have a lot of information regarding something that might be very relevant according to you and you want to write it in your answer paper but, but, but you have limited time and you have to complete all the answers.
• Lack Of Time for Other Subjects: - So guy it's very obvious that if you like medicine then you are dreaming to get a PG seat in Medicine. You might also know that the cutoff for Internal Medicine in India is very high. If you think that you can end up with a very good rank by just reading medicine then it's not true. You have to work on other major subjects like Surgery, Obs Gyne, etc. also. With medicine alone, you cannot get a good rank. You have to plan accordingly and give proper time to all other subjects also.

 Benefits

• Good Concepts: - If you will somehow manage to complete the Harrison during your MBBS then literally you will be having a very good conceptual knowledge regarding the physiology of the human body and the pathology of the diseases. Things will be very easy for you and definitely, you will become very good at history-taking as well.
• Good Integration with Other Subjects: - As I said earlier, Harrison is a vast ocean of knowledge and everything here is very expanded and integrated. So if you will complete it by heart then your understanding of other subjects will also improve and you will able to integrate subjects with each other.

Completing Harrison is a really very challenging task especially when you are an MBBS student where you have to complete the rest of the other subjects in a limited time. I am not saying that it's impossible to complete it. I just want to convey that it's not necessary to complete the whole book in UG. You will be going to get admission in MD Medicine and that would be the best time to read and complete Harrison.

By this article, I never meant to discourage anyone to complete the book. I just presented my thoughts, I just want to tell you what I feel should be done. 

Harrison For Competitive Exams

As far as NEET PG or NEXT is concerned I really don't find any need to read Medicine from Harrison. The strong explanation behind it is that when we prepare for any competitive exam we should pay more attention to revisions and crisp study materials. In the end, the thing that matters in the exam is your speed and accuracy, yeah definitely knowledge also but what would you do with that knowledge that is not relevant at your level. 

Choose the weapons that will help you in war, Not that which you can't use at the right time.

So, I would like to say that rather than going with the bulk of knowledge pay more attention to revision strategies. Here is one of my articles on "How to Revise Efficiently" if you want to know about some revision tricks.

If you want to know more about the NEXT Exam the here is the Article Link.

 

If you have any queries feel free to comment below and Keep me Supporting.

NEET PG Ophthalmology Practice Quiz

Comment below if you want such more exciting and interesting quizzes.

Hope you will love the questions 

Common Mistakes Done By Medical Students!

 

We all are humans, right?

So it's very obvious that we will do several mistakes throughout our life. Doing mistakes doesn't mean that you are imperfect or have some fault. In fact, it's good to do mistakes to learn something and to gain mastery in any particular field. 

Those who learn from the mistakes are considered good learners. But our life span is not long enough to learn everything from our own mistakes. We should have to create a habit of learning from other's mistakes. That the most effective way to be the best as soon as possible in any field. That's why people use to read the biographies and autobiographies of great personalities.

I have done a lot of mistakes during my initial years of med school. I want to tell make you guys aware of these mistakes so that you could have any basic idea that what should not be done in medical college if you want to be the best doctor. I believe in learning from a person who has done a lot of mistakes rather than a person who has done something in a single attempt. Why I am saying that? Because a person who failed in some task several times know many ways that could ruin that task and you could get a lot to learn from that person. But who got success in that task in single hit don't know any other way and could not teach much. 

So let's dive into the article where I have mentioned the most common mistakes which many of us use to commit. These mistakes might be unnoticed by many of you. Trust me if you start working on these things then definitely you can make a remarkable improvement in yourself.

Mistake 1:- Spending a Lot of time on Social Media

Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, Snapchat, etc. 

I know that we all are under the influence of these apps. If I say that we are addicted to them then it would no be wrong. Isn't It? Just check your whole day's screen time and the total time spent on these apps. I know it's very hard to stop using these apps from today. We can't completely leave this habit, but we can reduce it. 

I was myself was very addicted to the Instagram reels and I realized that it's not only sucking my time but also my energy. I figured out a way to reduce the usage of my smartphone and I really found that way very effective. I used to keep my phone on Do Not Disturb mode so that no ping message or notification sound could distract me and keep my phone away from my reach least for 2 hours daily. And then I keep on increasing time. This method might help you but if don't then you have to find another way that suits you.

Mistake 2:- Procrastination

Ahhh! Procrastination, this is a very common thing that we generally tend to do every time. We should study daily but we procrastinate, we should complete our assignments on time but we procrastinate, we have to do something but we procrastinate, etc. There are many moments where we simply procrastinate our work because we don't want to do it right now. But have you ever thought that in the end, we have to do it by ourselves then why not now? There might be a chance that we don't have time to complete that task in the future. 

So, what to do to get rid of this problem? Generally what I use to do is, I tend to complete my daily task on the same day and try to not left them for the next day. But yes it never happens and for that, I reserve a day in a week especially a weekend where I complete those remaining tasks.  

Mistake 3:- Bunking Lectures 

Med Schools Especially in India are full of lecture classes with a mandatory attendance count of 75% in theory. And many of us don't like to attend lectures daily, even we don't have to attend the lectures daily that's why we get a relaxation of 25%. But I think that not attending lectures is really a big mistake for every student because what you could get from class can't get with self-studies and reading books alone. 

Secondly, I think we should reserve our holidays for last so that we can get time to prepare for our exams in the ending when your college is not giving you the preparatory leaves. If you have less attendance than guys you have to struggle a lot to make achieve that 75% criteria. 

Mistake 4:- Not Making Notes 

Medicine is a huge sea and you can't read from a book every time. Just imagine that you are going to face an exam in the next 2 days and still a major chunk of the syllabus is uncovered. Will you be comfortable with a book during that time? or Would you be able to complete all things from the books? It's too difficult to do it if you don't have notes. Making your own notes makes you feel confident about the topic and also reading from your own notes tends to retain the information for a long time.

So, I advise you to make your own notes because, in the end, these notes will definitely be your savior during your exam time.

Mistake 5:- Not Attending Clinics 

Clinics are the most important part of your medical program. You are in the medical college because you want to be a doctor and a doctor treats patients. If you never interact with the patients then how you are supposed to be a good doctor? 

There is a famous quote by the Father Of Modern Medicine "William Osler" 

 He who studies medicine without Books Sails an Uncharted sea,

 But who studies medicine without patients does not goes to sea at all...

So just go to Clinics, interact with patients and learn something. Try to make every day productive. Clinics teach you many things that you could not learn with books simply. Nowadays the entrance examinations are more clinical oriented which means you must have to have a very good clinical knowledge. 

Mistake 6:- Not Getting Proper Sleep

Proper sleep is something that you have to lay stress on. If you don't take adequate sleep of 5-6 hours daily then how your brain is supposed to work properly and how your body is supposed to maintain normal balance. Come on guys we are medicos and we know the importance of proper sleep. Our all body activities, hormonal secretions, and brain processing somewhere depend on good sleep and proper rest. 

I agree that we have to burn the midnight oil during our exams but does it really necessary to stay up for the whole night. No, definitely not if we keep on learning daily with propr revisions them we need not stay up for the whole night. Even a good sleep is necessary before your exam to let your brain work and process the information properly.

If you become careless about your sleep habits then you will land up with some metabolic problems in your future. We want to be a doctor to treat the patients not to become the patient.

Mistake 7:- Lack Of Physical Activities and Workout 

I know that there is a lot of burden of studies in med school. But we have to have some time for some physical activities like any sports or workout or even a walk at least. This is necessary for your body to work properly. Physical activities not only let your work properly but also make you feel and relieves stress. 

I am not saying to have very extensive physical activities but at least some amount of physical is necessary. It will help you to keep active and fit. Also will help you to tackle many metabolic disorders in the future. 

Summary 

So here we are, I would like to conclude this article. All the above points mentioned are my personal experiences. I have done committed all those mistakes someday or any. But I don't want anyone of you to repeat these mistakes because believe me it will very difficult for you if you do commit these mistakes. 

I just want you to learn something from my experiences. Hope that you would be able to tackle these problems. 

If you are having any other problem then just comment below and I would definitely help you out to find an appropriate solution.

 

How To Study Anatomy Efficiently ?

Hello Young Medicos, so here we are with a new blog article on how to study Anatomy efficiently? I am getting a lot of questions regarding anatomy. Many new medical students are worried about Anatomy. It's very obvious because it's a very volatile subject. It has many jargons in it that itself take 2-3 weeks to get used to them. But Guys let me make me think very clear, if you start understanding anatomy then it will be a very easy and most interesting subject of the first MBBS. 

So, first thing first, as we all know that anatomy is the study of the internal architecture of the human body at both gross and microscopic levels. So, I would like to advise you not to study as a subject but study it as you are reading it to know about yourself internally. Start developing interest in the subject. I know that many of you will not agree with me about starting loving anatomy. here is a blog of mine regarding " How to prepare the hard Subject" I hope it will give you some orientation regarding how to approach the hard subjects. 

Why Anatomy Is So Important?

Anatomy is the foundation of many clinical subjects. Anatomy is the foundation of Surgery, Radiology, ENT, Ophthalmology, Orthopedics, and many other clinical subjects. If you are weak at anatomy then definitely you will end up struggling with these clinical subjects. It's the subject of basic science that covers many aspects of Surgery, without knowing the normal anatomy of the body how a Surgeon is supposed to do corrective surgery. 

You can not ignore Anatomy if somehow you managed to pass the subject in your first year without a good understanding of anatomy then this subject may haunt you in your final year. At that time you will not have sufficient time to start anatomy from the beginning. 

Let's get back to the topic, in this article I tried to convey most of the effective ways that could help you to get comfortable with anatomy. I personally tried these methods when I was in my first year of med school and it helped me a lot. So, without wasting the time let's get started.

Read from One Book only

Many of the students generally tend to refer to a lot of books for one subject. This is the worst strategy for understanding anatomy. You have to aware of the fact that you just don't have the anatomy to study throughout your first year. You can not give the whole of your time to anatomy. I admit referring from multiple can make your concepts crystal clear but it will consume a lot of time. Your standard textbooks like B.D Chaurasia or Vishram Singh are more than sufficient to learn anatomy and make good concepts. You need not refer to Gray's Anatomy every time it just consumes a lot of your time and energy. Just stick with one book till the end and you will get a good result. 

Attend Anatomy Lectures Regularly

Okay Okay, I know it's kinda hard to practice it in reality because many times anatomy lectures are very sleepy. But if you want to learn anatomy by heart you have to attend lectures. if I speak about myself, I was not very consistent in attending lectures but later I realized that I had done a huge mistake. I don't want to let you repeat the same mistake. If you don't like attending the lectures then you can go for some online lectures available on youtube or you can buy the lectures from platforms like MARROW or Prepladder. 

Try to Go through the topic before going to Dissection

Probably the best and effective way to learn anatomy is first to read it from textbooks and then apply your knowledge in the Dissection Hall. Humans are visual learners and our brain learns quickly after watching something. After reading the topic and then performing its dissection on human cadaver make your understanding better and you could retain the topic for a very long time.

After that, I don't think that you need to cram the things and have to worry about the exams.

Learn With Diagrams 

As I said earlier, we are visual learners and anatomy becomes very easy if we learn it with diagrams. with the diagram, we can get the actual view regarding the structures. I usually learn to draw the diagram first with all labels so that I could get a fair idea about the topic and then I proceed into reading the theory. This method helps me a lot and makes the anatomy very smooth and easy-going. 

Initially, you might face some problems but eventually, you find that this method is very effective and helpful.

Do regular Revisions  

As being humans our mind is programmed for forgetting things. The best thing we can do to tackle this is regular revisions. I have created a post "How To Revise efficiently " where I have explained details about everything and how regular revision works. you should refer to this amazing post. I have explained the scientific basis of forgetting and the classical forgetting curve. I hope that you will like that post as well.

Conclusion

For many students, anatomy seems very difficult. In this article, I have discussed anatomy and how to learn it efficiently. I discussed that why this subject is so important and how will it affect your academics if you don't take it seriously.

There are some of the very effective ways in the articles that helped me a lot while learning anatomy. I hope that these tips will help you a lot a well. 

If you like the article just drop a heart emoji in the comment section below ...:)

5 Things That You Can Do in Medical College.

The medical college is the one of the biggest achievement in many of us lives. Especially when the college is government. And I know that this year it's quite late for a new batch to start with MBBS IST year. But guys don't worry you will get used to the hectic schedule of MBBS life. But trust me guys if you start enjoying everything then you will defiantly love your MBBS life.

Here in this article, I would like to share that what other thing or hobbies you could develop during college life. These things could be beneficial for you in a long run. Here now, I am just writing a short article with the 5 best things that you could do. I hope that you will like my ideas.

And if you want to know that what you can do after MBBS you can read my article on "Career Options After MBBS" 

Start a medical blog

Blogging

So, you are going to be a medical professional. Soon you will have a lot of knowledge and information regarding the human body and every related thing to the medical field. So the best way to utilize knowledge is to start a medical blog. The medical blog is the simplest and easiest way to share your knowledge. It will provide you a good platform and exposure. With a medical blog, you could also improve your writing skills and knowledge as well.

And the best part about blogs is that you could also turn them up into your source of earnings. Yes, I know that medical education is not cheap. Definitely, you could not start earning a 6 figures amount from the beginning but if you keep on trying then definitely you could earn a huge amount from blogging.

There are many platforms where you can start blogging. For beginners, I would suggest that you could start blogging on www.blogger.com. It's easy and free. You could learn blogging from YouTube. If you want any help from my side you could comment down below. 

Improve your Public Speaking Skills

Public Speaking <Pic credits:- Pixabay>

We all are good at speaking. obviously, we are because we the social animals. But most of us are not good with a public speaking or I should say that many of us have a stage fear. Having stage fear is very common and that thing could create a bad impact on your presentations and on your personality as well. If you are up to something then you must have to have greater confidence in it. But if you are nervous during your presentation then people might lose interest and developed a bad impression. 

Don't worry guys! it is not too hard to improve your public speaking skills. You just need to practice about it. You should come up and start speaking in public whenever you get the chance. Initially, you will very nervous or might be embarrassing but trust me, eventually, you will feel more confident about speaking in front of a huge crowd. 

You could also learn some basics of public speaking from online platforms like youtube or udemy. But I prefer to start speaking and start facing the crowd and you will use to it.

Learn About Money and Investing

So, now you are in your medical college and soon you will be a very successful doctor. After becoming a successful doctor you are going to earn a lot I mean a lot... And at that time if you will not have the financial knowledge then definitely you will face troubles in managing your expenses and bills. A handsome salary doesn't guarantee you to make rich. With a good salary, we modify our lifestyle according to our salary and many people don't think about savings at the beginning of their earnings. The habit of saving and investing is the key to become rich and financially independent.

Here, I am talking about financial independence. What does it mean? In simple words, financial independence means that you not working for money you are working or doing your job because you love it. You don't have any fear of the future regarding your financial condition in any way. 

Many good books are having nice information on money and all these things. And the language in these books is so simple that a person from a non-commerce background can understand them. Some of my favorite books are " Rich Dad Poor Dad" and "The Psychology of Money"

You could find some good and relevant stuff on youtube as well.

 

Make some trips and Travel Plans

P.C:- Pixabay

Guys! Medicine is an endless stream and MBBS is too long. you can't let yourself confined in your medical college for the whole 5.5 years. Just imagine when your non-medico friends will go on some trips and upload their pictures on Instagram or on other Social media platforms. 

If you ask the same question from me then I will say that I will feel very bad. College life is the best time to explore the world and to get some new experiences. After college, you will not get a chance to have a good trip plan. I am not saying that you will not get time, many of you might have a lot of time. But it's too obvious that you are not going to have your friends and your batchmates with whom you could enjoy a lot. 

Everyone likes traveling and vacations but I don't think solo travel is too popular. Traveling with friends is soo amazing than traveling with family and you must have to admit this fact.

Join any Cultural Society of your College

You are in college now, and here study is not the only thing. Personally, I don't like studying rather I like to do some co-curricular activities like sports, dance, and drama. These things will help you a lot in the long run of your whole medical life. These things will teach you why balance is important in life. Trust me guys if you are not into any co-curricular activity before then it's the time for you to get into one. You will come to know that it's a good stress buster and also make you feel more confident about yourself.

In society you will get a lot of things to learn, you will know the actual value of teamwork. Till now we all have a very competitive mindset because of NEET. I am not saying that it's not good, but now it's time to change your mindset. We all should learn that we can not get many benefits in competition but if we work together then the chances of getting success increase tremendously.

Alright, we are at the end of our article and I would like to thank you all to read this whole article. I know that it might be boring for some of you hahaha... but I just wanted to broaden the view of new upcoming medicos regarding college life. college life is not about study only it contains many more things.

In the end, I want to wish you guys luck for your long journey.

Thank You