Planning and Time Managment

Making a Study Plan !!

A timetable merely mentions the time duration assigned to a particular subject whereas a study plan is more comprehensive. It also defines a methodology to deal with the preparation, planning and problems faced in each subject by an individual.

A target should be set, items should be prioritized and an effective timetable should be drawn. Effective refers to a schedule that should be followed religiously with a determination to achieve progress and results.

1.Long term Plan

I made a backward plan, that is starting from the Date of the NEET exam and going reverse..

6th Jan 2019 NEET exam.

22nd Nov 2018  PGI exam.

15 Nov 2018 AIIMS exam.

14 October All India Mock Test/CBT.

(Calculate the rough dates if exact ones are not known yet)

So these were my basic milestones.

 My goal was to give the CBT on 14th October with a perfect preparation. After that 1 month of revision (with AIIMS oriented study) and rectifying mistakes made in CBT.

Then final revision after AIIMS exam till NEET.

So now I need to make a plan till 14 October. This would include the first reading and minimum 1 revision before the CBT. That means if I leave 1.5 months for revision, I should complete the first reading by 31st August.

Note: This is the most ideal Plan that can be made. Adjustments should be made according to current preparation status, If you have less time you can make the AIIMS Exam as the target of completing first revision and go with another 2 before the Final NEET.

How will this help??

-You will feels organized and in command because a proper plan will involve thorough understanding of one’s course or syllabus.

-Once you make a timetable, you will realize that time is limited and it is impossible to complete the entire course in the stipulated time. This is when you will start to PRIORITIZE.  When one’s priorities become clear and the requisite level of importance and effort can be directed to the learning of each subject.

-Work does not get accumulated and hence there is no need to study at unearthly hours. This also safeguards one’s physical and mental health and reduces stress levels.

-You will be more confident since now the only thing between you and your success is following the plan.

-The achievement of each target provides motivation to achieve another. Very soon one starts enjoying the process because the concepts become clearer and understanding improves.

-And once you start to enjoy the process of achieving targets, it creates a positive loop and you end up achieving your targets even quick.

2. Making Short term Plan

This involves taking into account days for TnDs, Grand tests, Internship hours (if you are a current intern).

-List down everything you need to account time for and adjust them into your schedules.

-Listing down your weak and strong subjects also helps since you need to give the weak subjects more time.

-Joining a Tnd Course is a good idea, since it gives you a schedule to follow and helps you give required time to the subjects.

Precautions:-

-One should set realistic targets as overambitious targets can cause disappointment and demoralize a student. Since once you get a backlog, it starts a negative feedback loop and that would leave you clueless.

-Its okay to not follow the plan with 100% perfection.

There will be days when you will feel Its Not Happening...Its okay to have such days. Don't overdoo yourself on that day and take a break. Because there will be days when your outcome is coming good. These good days is when you need to push yourself, have your cup of coffee, study extra hours and cover up the backlog.

Push your good days and don't mind the bad days, gradually the number of good days would rise and  your net graph would keep on rising.

FAQS:

Q: You are telling me to complete the course by 31st August!!? That's completely insane ! Thats like 4 months before NEET !

Yes, You need that much time for revision. Remember,  REVISION WILL GIVE YOU YOUR RANK.

You may study a subject, 100% of it and feel good about it. You will give the Tnd and may even score well. You will feel you know the subject so well, you are gonna score 100% in that subject in the final exam.

We all have this feeling, Even I did. But smart are the ones to realise this feeling is short lasting.

The real exam is after many many months. Even after a week, if asked to recall, you will hardly remember 20% of it. And after a month, may be none.
That is why TnD scores don't matter much. The Purpose of TnDs is to help you make a schedule, complete the subject in the time given, and give you high yielding discussion on important points.

For an average student, to recall all 19 subjects during the exam, that to under stress, you need to have your notes at your fingertips. And for that you need to revise at least 3-4 times.

You need to send all your knowledge from your short term memory to your long term memory. Gone are the proff days where you ruttafi all the info to just vomit the next day. Here you CANNOT do that. The syllabus is just to huge.

Also after one revison, you need to give a mock exam and access you weaknesses . You will realise what subjects you need to give more time to while revising. Hence 2-3 such cycles are necessary for giving a Good Final Exam.

Q Its still insane. I need more time for my first reading. What to do??

You can increase your time for first reading  if you feel you will not be able to do even bare minimum course by 31st August. Extend the time of your first reading but then to be safe, you should follow the technique of revising along side.

Leave 1-2 hours everyday for revision. Preferably do that in the morning so that you definitely do it. You can revise things you read last week, or last month.

You can follow the "Do Grand tests solutions, one subject a day technique" (as explained in the Grand Tests Post).

You can revise random high yield topics from any subject.

Trust me, once you start doing this, you will feel more confident of yourself. This will also improve your grand test scores since you will be able to recall facts from different subjects now.

It will open up your mind and get yourself out of the monotonous "single subject for entire week" schedule.

And when after your first reading, you finally start revision, you will find yourself to be able to recall lots of things that would further boost up your confidence.

Q Okay so we already had a crunch of time and now you say leave 1-2hrs for doing a random topic. How on earth Am I supposed to complete by subject in 6 days allotted to me in my Tnd Schedule???

One thing you need to understand is completing 100% of the subject is not possible. Even people doing 3 years of PG in that subject cant claim to know 100%, how can you in 6 days?

 The TnD schedule is made in such a way that time allotted to a particular subject is the ideal time needed. You dont need to COMPLETE the entire subject.

YOU NEED TO BE Jack of All Subjects, Master of NONE.

You need to Prioritize. The basic notes that your coaching is providing you, if revised multiple times is good enough for a good performance. Of course you need to furnish those notes by adding anything you feel is important but not there. Eg: A Q being repeated in last few years papers but that topic is not adequately dealt with, in the notes. Read up the topic and add to your notes !! Highlight the important points, furnish them with funny mnemonics, revise 3-4 times and that's the recipe for a good rank.

And after the TnD, make sure to leave THE NEXT DAY to revise the Tnd Discussion. Since you just attended the class, you will be able to do it really quick. Remember the TnD discussion is probably the most high yielding session since every institute tries to predict the Qs through their TnD papers makes you write super high yielding things. You will also get to know if you missed a topic which is supposed to be high yielding.

So if you are falling back on time and not able to complete the syllabus, it is probably because you are doing too much.

Just don't keep adding anything and everything you see.

As a student, you will see plethora of resources around you. And then there will be an urge to do everything. Every new info you see around you would attract you to add to your notes.

Having information about rare syndromes will not shoot up your rank.

You will keep running towards such new things and never would able to come back and revise the basic must know stuff. If you don't come back to revise to your topic, it would be same as not knowing it.

Sometimes doing questions from online platforms can make you doubt your own preparation level.

You see, its a competitive world, even for the authors and faculties. So many a times, the guide books in their strive for 100% strike rate may go off the road in quest of including all kinds of new and daring Qs.

But YOU dont need to score 100% in your exams.

Do the basics first. Pick up Question bank of last 5 years, make sure your are well versed of the topics asked and that's it.

You can use the available App Q banks

• For high yield topics you feel are not appropriately given in your notes.  Completing a module for that topic will give you confidence for that topic and an exposure to all kinds of Qs likely to be asked.
• Once done with the basic stuff, you can solve more for an extra edge.

 There will be "High Yield videos"  by so many faculties all around asking you to add these to your notes and subscribe for more such videos. You can watch them if they come up at start of the year and you feel you are weak in that topic.  But sadly such videos are not uploaded at start of the year, when students actually can afford to add new info to their notes, but are circulated in the last week/last month when a student is already filled with self doubt and insecurity and showing him such videos filled with new info is just going to make him doubt his preparation even more.

Q Yeah Yeah I know all of this, But the basic notes itself are too vast to be covered in the 6 days time. I am still getting backlog.  How to manage time in this ??

Ans:

I can think of 3 Solutions:

1. Smart Study

The TnD schedule is made in such a way that time allotted to a particular subject is the ideal time needed.  But since every individual has their own weaknesses and strengths, you can modify your study time accordingly. Eg If you can do a minor subject in 3 days, remaining 2 days you can complete your backlog/give to a heavy subject.

Also there are times when the Tnd Schedule is not completely prefect. Eg: Most Tnds give Medicine 4 weeks, 1 tnd each week. I don't feel you need to give 1 month just to Medicine. The notes are coverable in 3 weeks, and 1 week could be used for something else.

Similarly Peds needs 1 week (2 weeks given by most TnDs).

Subjects like Psychi, Ortho, Anesthesia, Radio may need just 3-4 days hence u can use the remaining time for your backlog.

2. Time management.

I told you above to prioritize your syllabus since you are running out of time.

But This prioritization needs to be done with your daily routine as well.

 You will need to cut down  wasteful exercises. Things which don't give you an output. Like  Gossiping, talking about others, sitting in front of tv changing channels, scrolling your FB feed for hours without even realising it, taking chai breaks that lasts hours. These things eat up your time without giving you any output.

List down 24 hours of your day, and think how you are actually using them. You will come to realise that there is a huge chunk of time  you are wasting for things that give you no output. Yes breaks are necessary, but those should be 10 minute breaks preferably a walk/mild exercise that will also keep GERD and backpains away. You can use that time to talk to your parents/best friend/special someone to relax and gain positive energy.  But make sure you channelize most of your energy into the goal at hand.

-One thing I followed is to plan the next day. When you are done with the day's schedule, take a diary and write about your day. Ask yourself what went wrong and what more you could have done to make it more productive. Plan the next day and the topics you are going to complete. Be proud of yourself of what u r doing, and be proud of making it this far. Sleep early, sleep enough.

-Cut out the distractions. Cut out the negative people. People will come up to you during their breaks, waste your time, tell you how tough it is, that its an impossible task and once they feel they have cried enough, they will go back to study leaving you demotivated and filled with self doubt.

Remember, Time is never enough. But you need to make each second count. We all have 24hrs, yet some people manage to do more, why?

There is no point in giving a half hearted attempt DONT DO THAT MISTAKE.

You cant be like " I want to win, but I don't want to work so hard." It doesn't work that way.

It might not sound so convincing now, but the problem comes after its over. You will find in yourself carrying a  baggage of regret for giving a half hearted attempt.

And even if you know, that you didn't prepare well enough and you still have potential, there will be still self doubt, and its very tough to get out of that.

3. Speed

You need to maintain the adequate speed while completing your course. You cant afford to go into depths of everything and anything. If commit a cause, commit to speed as well. U need to complete it in 6 days, then do it. Period.

While making targets, assign deadlines too. And try to push yourself to stick to it and compete the assigned task within the stipulated period. Once you reach the deadline, note the things you have left, and start the next subject. You will find time in gaps to finish these small backlogs.

Stop procrastination. You must have seen people coming to the Reading room, they would first clean up the already clean table, arrange all their books, highlighters, pens in a neat way on the table. Would scroll Facebook for 15-20 mins sitting on the chair, forward some whatsapp jokes, comment on fb posts saying "Comment to see the snake dance",  drink little sips of water, take a washroom break and then start studying.  So basically before starting, they have a tendency to postpone the act of studying by doing random activities.

The chance to watch that cricket match will come again, but not this chance of making your dreams come true. The Game Of Thrones episode will be there later too, but the time you have now, will not stay.

(Special advice for fellow GOT fans:  Yes you can take out 1 hour in a week.  But Don't watch the episode as the first thing on the Monday morning. If you do, you will be sleepy, will end up discussing and sharing memes the entire day and waste the entire day. Instead, decide to hard study that day. Since you wont be able to open whatsap/fb (because Spoilers by some Losers), it  would further help you to be away from these distractions. After an amazing day of studies, finally reward yourself with the amazing episode. Valar Morghulis. "

You need to start liking what you are doing.

Be excited everyday. Be Enthusiastic. Learning is Fun.

Q: I Don't like studying. How can learning be Fun? In fact I get panic attacks every now and then because the syllabus is fuc*ing huge. The Toppers are not humans. This Blog is unrealistic.

Ans:

Yes, Learning is not fun for everyone. It doesn't need to be, its okay.

Be clear on your goals. Find a reason why you want to crack this NEET PG. For some it may be   to make their parents proud, for some it might be a way to prove someone wrong, or it may be the money you are going to earn. It may be this amazing neurosurgeon you want to be, or the stent you want to put as a cardiologist.

 Let it be ANYTHING !

Find your reason, write in in front of your study table, and start.

Its okay to get panic attacks once a while. We all do. Its a tough syllabus. Low selections rates. This and That.  Its all normal. Take a day off. Eat your favourite ice cream. Chill !

You cant be super motivated and positive all the time. No one can.

Be happy with what you are doing. You don't need to be stressed always.

Its okaay to lag behind schedule.

Its okay if you keep forgetting things.

Its okay if are not getting superb ranks.

Just Feel proud of your efforts. You dont need to do everything perfectly. You just need to go on and try your best. The ones who manage to get through the phase, and survive are labelled as toppers. And so will YOU.

Things take time. You need to keep working. Its a matter of time, a matter of when.

And when you reach there, it will be worth it.

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