As students we always have a sense of heavy competition around us, sometimes it is between our classmates for bagging the first place in the class, and at times it is to see who gets the higher percentage even though having a higher percentage and a good rank is pretty important but we must always remember and teach the students that understanding the concepts, grabbing the necessary skills is equally important. The marks and the rank are just numbers, what stays with us is the topic that we have learnt and how well we are able to implement those concepts in real life. Competitive exams fill our minds with enthusiasm and healthy competition, so that the students along with learning are also able to develop the ability of problem solving, strong thinking, quick analysis as most of the exams have a certain time limit.
One such competitive exam for which I prepared for almost two and half years was NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Exam) which is conducted in India for MBBS, BAMS, BDS and medicine related courses. NEET is conducted once every year and includes questions from three subjects which is, Physics, Chemistry, Biology. Students can take up the exam after the have graduated that is after class 12th boards. The exam is conducted for a total of 720 marks with a duration of 3 hours. The students receive 4 marks for every right answer and a negative marking as well for every wrong answer.
This enhances the decision-making ability of a students as one wrong choice can lead to adverse consequences and his rank may go down. Many students take up the exam every year in order to fulfil their dream of becoming a doctor. Although, the pattern seems really easy but the entire journey of preparing for NEET is not easy. No matter how much knowledge you gain and how much efforts you put in, it always seems insufficient, all you can think about is how are you able to make it past those lakhs of students who are giving you a pretty tough competition. There will be times where you will want to give up and think that NEET is not your cup of tea but persistence is the key.
I always had a dream of being a doctor, every single time I visited a hospital and would see a doctor treating his patients I would be so inspired and always just dreamed of being like them that is why I decided to take up biology as a subject after class 10th. I joined coaching institute for enhancing my performance and thought by doing so I would get guidance from the best faculty.
But that did not happen, instead I started paying so much attention to NEET preparation that I couldn’t make any time for my board exam preparation hence I ended up scoring less marks in my boards. But that didn’t stop me I continued my journey of preparing for NEET, that is when covid hit, and everything changed. I stayed home and kept studying all the time and I kind of felt sick of it, all I did was stick to my books all day and attend online classes offered by my coaching institute, but trust me that didn’t help with anything.
I was so exhausted by constantly trying and not seeing the expected results that I just decided to give up. I gave the exams without much hope and the most expected thing happened, I couldn’t clear the exam and was obviously disappointed because I sacrificed so much for the sake of this exam. But as they say life must go on, I thought of giving it a second chance but my inner feeling said ‘NO!’, I was not ready to accept one more failure, one more year of just sticking to your books 24/7.
I managed to crack my state entrance exam and through that I got admission in one of the best Engineering colleges in Bengaluru. As I was perceiving engineering, I realised that this is where my interest lies, this is what I enjoy doing and would prefer doing for the rest of my life.
One thing I realised through this journey was that I just kept on studying and putting in the efforts with a purpose. Whatever you study and put in your 100 percent efforts for only yields you the desired results if you study without thinking about the outcome or the result.
If you are highly determined and motivated then trust me you don’t need any coaching institute, just regular practise and solving previous year question papers is more than enough. This is one of the biggest mistakes I made, I just kept studying and filling my mind with new things rather than enhancing the knowledge I already have.
Even though you don’t get admitted in the top medical colleges, you don’t need to worry because there are many other options and career opportunities waiting for you and they could actually turn out to be something you would be really interested in just like it did in my case.
All is well that ends well!
By: Shreya B
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