INI CET 2023 Topper Interview: Aakar Prabhu, AIR 1 says meticulous planning and quick revision of notes worked for me

Dr Aakar Prabhu, AIR 1 who secured rank 1 in INI CET 2023 July session dedicates his success to consistent efforts right from MBBS days and revision of past year question papers. He also secured rank 16 in NEET PG 2023. In this exclusive interview, he shares how candidates should go for the preparation of INI CET, one of the toughest medical exam.

INI CET 2023 Topper Dr Aakar Prabhu, AIR 1

Dr Aakar Prabhu, AIR 1 has secured rank 1 in INI CET 2023 July session for which result was declared on May 13. With meticulous planning and dedicated efforts, Prabhu also got rank 16 in NEET PG 2023 exam. He says aspirants should start preparing early for the exam right from the 1st year year MBBS. This includes not only to pay attention in the class but also key learning in wards during clinical posting. In an exclusive interview with Shiksha.com, he shares the success tips for INI CET exam.

Q. Congratulations on emerging as an INI CET 2023 topper! How are you feeling about your results?
A. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting it at all. I knew I would get some rank in the top 100s, but never imagined that the dream of being INI CET 2023 AIR 1 rank will actually turn into a reality.

Q. What motivated you to pursue medicine as a career?
A. My parents and sister, all are doctors, so, I feel somewhere deep down in my brain, as they used to talk about medical stuff, I subconsciously got influenced into taking medicine. Another thing is I always liked skill based work and hence was attracted towards surgical branches.

Q. Did you appear for any other PG medical entrance examination?
A. Yes, I also appeared for NEET PG 2023 where I secured an AIR of 16

Q. When preparing for INI CET, what motivated you the most?
A. To be honest I was actually not going to sit for the exam, since I already had my NEET PG rank which was good enough to let me choose any branch and college I want. But I always loved the quality of questions that were asked in INI as compared to NEET. And also the general opinion that INI CET is tougher than NEET actually motivated me more to give the exam, crack it and prove that its actually easier to prepare for INI CET than NEET.

Q. How did you prepare for INI CET 2023?
A. Since I had already prepared for NEET and had around 2 months gap between my NEET and INI CET exam, I focused more on the previous year topics. I started with a quick revision of all the subjects using the same notes that I had used during the last 2 months of NEET. I had kept the last week before the exam exclusively to solve past year questions of the last 6 yrs and nothing else.

Q. Did you have any specific exam day strategy?
A. I feel the day before the exam is as important as the exam day. I just went through my 20th notebook in the first half of the day and in the second half I was just relaxing in order to keep a calm mind. On the exam day my plan was to take the question one by one without thinking about anything else. I guess a good rank in NEET actually helped me remain calm in the exam and go ahead with an aggressive approach. Even if I could rule out one or two options I had attempted the question, since I had nothing to lose.
Q. Any message or advice to future medical aspirants?
A. I would like to say that these exams don’t test how much you have prepared in the last year before the exam, but rather how attentive and consistent you were throughout your MBBS. So this actually means that you should start preparing right from the 1st yr. (Not by watching videos/reading notes but by keeping an open eye to whatever is happening around you, be it the classroom or the wards during your clinical postings.)

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