How I cracked the exam that almost cracked me

National Entrance cum Eligibility Test

Cracking NEET is not a very hard thing if you’re focussed, determined, and strong willed. It is easy to get distracted in this 2 year journey. In fact these 2 years go by so fast that it will just seem like a couple of months when you look back on the experience and the journey.

I secured AIR 2546 and 671 marks in a paper that was not necessarily the easiest but definitely the most competitive year of NEET history has ever seen. Anyway all that stuff aside, here are the technical details as to how I cracked NEET 2023 with great results.

THE BEGINNING

I, like many, got to know about NEET in my 10th class and then decided to take BiPC in my 11th standard. In fact I have a lot of friends who were already well seasoned with the NEET syllabus by the time I was still thinking of which coaching center to join, as they had joined in some techno schools and stuff way back in their 8th itself. I even have a friend who has been studying in a NEET coaching center since 4th standard. The reality that most parents do not understand is that if you join the child at such an early age by the time they need to give the exam they start to feel the burn-out. That’s why I believe that the perfect time to join the coaching center is 11th class, because one can only maintain such a high level of intense studying for only 2 years. So the first step is to not feel bad that you joined late. In fact I did not even know the full form of NEET until my second year! 😅

According to me, joining a coaching center is an absolute must because you cannot get the amount of resources they spend on you anywhere else for free. Now, for the coaching center part, any coaching center will have really good faculty. The thing to look for is to join in the best branch of that coaching institute because faculty wise it makes a huge difference. Also, if possible please take an integrated course meaning the intermediate schedule is managed by the coaching center itself. This is way more trouble free than going to the coaching center after your school is done in the evening.

Now, try to work as hard as possible for the coming 2–3 months as this is when the coaching center will see your test scores and put you in a good section or a bad section. Even though many coaching centers say that they do not have the concept of a good or bad section they will do it because it makes them more money ultimately. The biggest advantage of being in a good section is that you will be surrounded by like minded people and people who are willing to work hard for their goals. Putting aside the obvious advantage of there being good faculty, a good section provides you with great friends, which according to me is arguably more important than good faculty.

THE GRIND

This is basically the longest part of your journey and the nearing this part is when you would feel like giving up, which is exactly when to not give up. The right time to keep going is when you feel like giving up.

For the first one year and a good chunk (half) of the second all you have to do is basically just understand the concept being taught to the full extent. I will give some resources in this blog incase your coaching center is not providing enough support.

PHYSICS

“Physics was my strongest and favorite subject.” These are the words coming from any topper who has aced NEET in any year. This is also the subject where most students need help. That is exactly why you definitely need the help of online resources for this, no matter how good you are.

1. PhysicsWallah MR Sir for 1st Year Physics [https://www.pw.live]
2. PhysicsWallah Alakh Pandey Sir for 2nd Year Physics [https://www.pw.live]
3. Cengage A to Z book for daily MCQ practice. I recommend you to buy this book even though your college has given you some modules. This book will make you a king in NEET physics. [https://amzn.eu/d/3BVDWvA] — First Year [https://amzn.eu/d/6rAuw7D] — Second Year
4. Make formulae sheets consisting of ALL important formulae from your class notes, condensing the whole chapter into 3–4 pages.
5. Do at least 100 MCQs in Physics daily. The source doesn’t matter but I would prefer Cengage.
6. Do compulsorily read the physics NCERT and points to ponder and summary of each chapter. If you are unable to read all of them, read 2nd year Part 2 Physics NCERT without fail, as it has the most theoretical chapters.

CHEMISTRY

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My weakest subject was chemistry. But I am not ashamed that I got low marks in it because my marks would have decreased someplace else if I had spent time on this. Your schedule should be like 70% time for Physics, 20% for Chemistry, 10% for Biology.

1. Pankaj Sir of PhysicsWallah (PW) for Organic chemistry [https://www.youtube.com/live/ShALRAmCSu0?feature=share]
2. Vishal Tiwari sir for Inorganic chemistry. [https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJZKPYk_mu6YWlP-npSOTEenHMh_nQy8h]
3. NEETPrep subscription to practice chemistry MCQs and PYQs. [http://neetprep.com]
4. Lilliput View book for a final recall of the entire subject.[https://amzn.eu/d/8RYIgpq]

BIOLOGY

Biology is a strong subject for anyone so you don’t need my advice on this. However I can give you advice on how to minimize time for biology and still get the same marks in biology so that you can spend that time on physics and chemistry. Essentially, NEET is more of repeated revisions. To do this as fast as possible, I used to write down the points of NCERT that I was not able to remember or those points which I kind of knew would be a bit hard for me to grasp, in a word document and took a printout of it. This way, I used to be able to complete the entire human physiology unit in just 15 minutes, a feat that would probably take 4–5 hours if someone read the NCERT even at their fullest speed skipping diagrams, points, etc. This is the key to cracking biology like me, who got 360/360 in biology by spending the bare minimum amount of time required for it. Also the reason why I was able to spend the minimum amount of time on biology was because my mother helped me a lot, as she used to watch youtube videos and simplify the topic by the time I came home so that it would not waste my time…so huge thanks to her 🙌 . So remember, NEET is a journey where the parents have to work as hard as the students. Other than this advice, here are some extra resources.

1. Ritu Rattewal from Unacademy (The best biology teacher imo). [https://www.youtube.com/live/XjDelBogL6A?feature=share]
2. NEETPrep subscription is perfect to practice biology MCQs and PYQs as they are extremely relevant [http://neetprep.com]
3. MTG Fingertips Biology book for more MCQs. [https://amzn.eu/d/g1kCT1s]
4. Cengage biology MCQ book [https://amzn.eu/d/iodyNl1] — First Year. [https://amzn.eu/d/4Ovf1N7] — Second Year.

The reason I suggested so many MCQ sources for biology is that the more questions you do, the better. I used to do at least 250–300 MCQs of biology everyday from these books and subscriptions.

My actual book shelf…just the essentials to ace the exam!

THE END

One thing that students worry a lot is about mock test scores. Do not take into account these scores. The scores will only matter in the last 2 weeks before the final NEET exam because the score you will get in those mock test will be your final score, with a buffer of 5–10 marks. Marks are not at all a concern until this endgame stage. Show this to your parents if they keep bugging you about marks. 😄

So from my side this is the honest advice I can give. I won’t bore you with more things, so good luck for the coming days!!