Considered a crucial national-level examination for budding doctors in India, the AIIMS is one of the toughest medical entrance exams. The AIIMS which is short for All India Institute of Medical Sciences is conducted by the authority of the same name based in New Delhi. Often paralleled by the NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test), the AIIMS MBBS is considered to have a more competitive edge. According to the 2016 statistics, only 0.35 pc of the students taking the AIIMS 2016 exam were able to crack it. Let’s understand the basics of AIIMS first, and then listen to AIIMS 2018 Topper Tamoghna Ghosh’s journey to success. This article is on AIIMS 2018 topper!
AIIMS – D Day
The AIIMS 2018 examination will be held on May 26 and May 27, 2018. In order to know the date of your exam, register yourself for the examination in the official website and collect the list of do’s and don’ts as well as exam rules and regulations.
This year will mark the first time for AIIMS to have the examination on two different days.
Who can appear?
The eligibility to appear for the AIIMS MBBS exam is decided by the examination authority of AIIMS. According to their 2018 eligibility, the criteria for appearing for the coveted exam are as follows:
- The minimum age limit for appearing for the exam is restricted at 17.
- Applicants should have passed their 10+2 or equivalent with English, Physics, Chemistry and Biology as qualifying subjects.
- The minimum marks obtained in the 10+2 or equivalent exam is listed as 60 pc for general and OBC and 50 pc for SC/ST/OPH
- Indian passport holders, which include Indian nationals and NRIs can appear for the exam. OCIs, PIOs and foreign nationals are also allowed.
AIIMS vs NEET- A comparison
If numbers are to be believed, it is easier to crack NEET. For instance, in 2016, of the total aspirants who appeared for NEET, 56 pc were able to clear it.
In terms of ease of giving exam, NEET requires physical presence as the exams are conducted in offline mode while for AIIMS exam, a candidate needs to appear online. Thus, AIIMS is clearly a computer-based examination.
Upon talking to experts regarding the effectiveness of both national level entrance exams for medical students, certain points were noted. Aarti, a counselling guide who trains students appearing for NEET and AIIMS states, “ If you were to compare the statistics and success rates of students appearing for both the exams, it would be very clear that AIIMS is more competitive and difficult to crack as compared to the NEET system which was previously the AIPMT. This is simply because the number of seats for AIIMS aspirants in limited as compared to NEET and the questions are believed to be tougher.
However, saying that, the difficulty level of both exams depends on the preparation, somewhere where both aspirants go wrong. Psychologically speaking, students are also often taken aback by hearing and reading that AIIMS is more difficult to crack which creates a mental block. This makes them believe that one is more achievable than the other. In the end, what matters is how you tackle the examination and how well are you prepared for it, beforehand.”
According to AIIMS 2018 exam guidelines, there are 707 seats across seven AIIMS institutes throughout the country. In addition, there are 100 seats for the newly established AIIMS institutions that were added in the current session. These include AIIMS Guntur and AIIMS Nagpur.
From the horse’s mouth – AIIMS 2018 Topper Tamoghna Ghosh
Tamoghna Ghosh, an AIIMS 2018 topper with an All India Rank of 3 in the AIIMS 2017 exam believes that perseverance and prepping are the two most important skills for clearing the difficult exam. During several interviews upon the announcement of the AIIMS results, Ghosh was quoted saying that the importance of practice and mock tests are second to none coupled with perseverance. Ghosh states, “I appeared for both JEE and AIIMS and eventually landed up in IIT Delhi. I managed to get into the prestigious Computer Science Engineering department however it was upon being there I realized that I had dreamt of being a doctor all along. I had secured a 99.99 percentile in AIIMS 2017 and thus could get through AIIMS Delhi. My aim is to research in Oncology and come up with ground-breaking theories in the field where much is still left to be explored and discovered.”
Talking about his preparations, Ghosh states, “For the preparation, I took a lot of mock tests and thoroughly went through NCERT books. An important step which I believed helped in improving my confidence and timing is to go through the previous years’ question papers. I would set the time as is given for the original exam and sit to solve the questions within that stipulated time. It not only helped me understand the question paper but perfect my presentation in the long haul. Of course, I have had the help from mentors who guided me throughout. My parents are both in the teaching profession which helped further.
“In order to better prepare I had enrolled with two coaching institutions. One was Aakash, which was strictly classroom coaching and the other was distance learning in Allen Kota.”
We asked Ghosh as to a common mistake aspirants make and he said, “I believe that a common mistake made is not to focus on the weak subject. For example, my base in Physics was strong and hence I focussed more on Biology. Examinees should concentrate first on the subject that is bothersome and then go about to consolidate the base. An easy way to assess and achieve that is to go through regular mock tests analyzed by mentors. My mentors used to go through my tests and assess them to point out my problems and thus, improve.”
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