Dr. N. Srinivasan (RxBDS user: srinivasan), a product of Vinayaka Mission's Shankarachariyar Dental College-Salem, hails from a small town Nagapattinam in South Tamil Nadu. In his own words, "...you would have heard about my town since December 26, 2004 -The place Worst Hit by Tsunami in India." has got 3rd Rank in TN Dental Post Graduate State Entrance Exam- '06. A modest individual, in an interview to RxBDS has provided valuable insights regarding his success in TNDPGEE '06

Q: What do you think as instrumental in your success in TNDPGEE?

Dr. Srinivasan: Attending various exams helped me more. Starting from a) AIDPGEE '05: No rank b) TNDPGEE '05: Rank 201 c) AIIMS MAY '05: No rank d) PGI JUNE '05: Rank 209, Marks: 57.56 e) BHU: No details f) AIIMS, Nov. '05: No rank. g) AIDPGEE '06: Rank 118 h) COMEDK '06: Rank 79 i) TNDPGEE '06: Rank 3

Q: Did you take any course for PG preparation?

Dr. Srinivasan: No. I didn't undergo any coaching classes. I prepared with my friend. According to me coaching class is useful to give ideas, plans, books, notes, environment and many more. But it is not a must.

Q: It is often said, man most often loses the battle against fear of failure....This is more so after facing with a setback. You had to take time off for this second attempt of the exam sessions. How did you react to your setback in previous attempt and how did you deal with it?

Dr. Srinivasan: Yes really I got upset after my TNDPGEE-'05 results (I could only manage to get Rank 201), and I thought my preparation was not enough to be in the merit list. My inspirations were my seniors who got Ranks 10 and 15 in the first attempt itself in TNDPGEE Entrance Exam.  One of my own senior got Rank 2 in his second attempt. So I decided to study sincerely for 1 more year and it paid off.

Q: Your book shelf for your preparation?

Dr. Srinivasan: For Basic Medical and Dental Sciences I read, Anatomy from B.D. Chaurasia, Satyanarayana for biochemistry ( I feel it is a good one), Philip's Dental Materials (current edition is a must), K.D Tripathi for Pharmacology, Harsh Mohan for Pathology, Satish Gupte for Microbiology (but I feel Panicker is more ideal), Orban's Oral Histology and Ash & Wheeler's for Dental Anatomy.

For clinical Dental Sciences my choices were Shoba Tandon, Gurkeerat Singh for Orthodontics, Carranza for Periodontics, Grossman for Endodontics, Sturdevant for Operative Dentistry, Shafer's Oral Pathology, Burket's Oral Medicine (the chapter should be given strong stress!) White and Goaz for Oral Radiology. For Prosthodontics Zarb (latest ed.) and Bernard-Levin “Impression for CD", Stewart and Shillingburg. I also referred Deepak Nallasamy (a good one!) and Neelima Anil Malik for Oral Surgery

For Community Dentistry Soben Peters. But reading Park’s Community Medicine is essential too especially for All India.

For Clinical Medical Sciences, I used Manipal Manual for General Surgery and General Medicine being vast, my choice was Davidson.

The MCQ books that supplemented my preparation included

Boucher’s MCQs

Gowri Shankar

Bhatia

Atul Soin Question Bank

Medical MCQ's Book : Amit Tripathi, M.S Bhatia

Dental Synopsis: Amarendra Reddy

Medical Synopsis: Mohammed Akram.

Q: You had taken many exams including AIDPG-'06. What was the strategy that you adopted for preparation for TNDPGEE, in contrast with AI Entrance preparation in particular?

Dr. Srinivasan: Regarding AlI India Entrance Exam, I prepared from the standard textbooks and the MCQ texts. Park Social and Preventive Medicine helped me in securing a rank in AIPG. (Nearly 10 Q's came. More stress was given on SPM and Genetics this year, and not in Forensic and psychiatry.)

For TN Dental PG Entrance Examination, I had given the maximum stress on Basic Sciences.
 

Q: Where did you prepare for the exam from? For eg, many consider Chennai for aspirants in Tamil Nadu to be ideal for PG preparation, what with the University Library and the library at Madras Dental College etc. So what is your opinion on that?

Dr. Srinivasan: I prepared in Bangalore with my friend G.Srikanth (RxBDS Member). We both together had almost all the books necessary for preparation. Reading what we had was by itself a Herculean task in the short period that we had.

Yes, Chennai can be considered to be a good place for PG preparation. But I must add that if we have the resources and standard texts, any place is ideal, even a remote town like Nagapattinam (my own native). Since many don't have the ideal collection of books for preparation, they choose the library at Madras Dental College, Coaching classes or The Regional Medical Library in the TN Dr. MGR Medical University Campus

Q: In particular, tsunami and all the devastation that it caused it must have had some impact? Didn’t it?

Dr. Srinivasan: Tsunami- that caused such great devastation and tragedies to our friends and the whole lot of people did cause much mental agony. By God's grace our family was safe. 

Q: How did u spend the gap period between the '05 session and this '06 session? I mean did you take up any work, as an under trainee etc? Can you add a word on your daily preparation routine?

Dr. Srinivasan: I was working as Assistant Dental Surgeon at a clinic in Salem under a senior practioner, from the month of April '05 to the first week of August '05. During this period, I prepared whenever I got free time and I attended the PGI, BHU and the AIIMS (May) Entrance exams during this period. After 10th of August, '06, I sat down for whole hearted preparation approximately, 10-12 hours per day.

Q: Can you give an account of the last phase of your preparation? The last week or last month before your TNDPGEE exam, any particular strategies you adopted?

Dr. Srinivasan: After completing my AIDPGEE, nearly 10 days I didn't prepare anything. These days went in discussing the answers. Most of the time I was online browsing RxBDS Site (though I didnt post much in forums!). I came to know that my marks in AIDPGEE '06 will be around 126 (+ or - 3). So I expected a rank which will be on the borderline. Exactly same thing happened, my rank was 118 (waiting list no: 5). You may remember my post "cat on the wall", that you (The Editor) replied.

Coming to the question, Preparation done for AIDPGEE helped me more than any particular last month preparation in securing a good rank in TNDPGEE. Nearly last 20 days before exam (i.e. after ComedK), I did only basic sciences in addition to oral pathology. Clinical subjects, I didn't study much. In TNDPGEE exactly 125 questions come from basic sciences (1st and 2nd year).Since I felt that I was weak in basics, I concentrated more in basics. Regarding 125 questions on Clinical Dentistry, intensive and planned preparation that I had done earlier for All India helped me.

Q: On the exam day, what was your mind set-up and can you give a briefing about the crucial exam day especially the All India and State PG Entrance Exam?

Dr. Srinivasan: For AIDPGEE I was tensed, On 8th January, '06 morning I prepared myself repeating to myself. "I have done the maximum preparation." I was focusing on the number of questions to attend. Later I completely relaxed.

For TNDPGEE, I was completely relaxed. I was calculating the cut-off mark for TNDPGEE. Top ranks will be around 65% (with 2% margin on either side) and to get that score at least 190 correct answers with negative NOT more than 8-10 marks was ideal. According to my plan, in the first round I did around 190 questions and in the second round I made 40 questions.

Q: As a successful aspirant of TN Dental PG Entrance Exam what is your word for the TN Dental PG aspirants?

Dr. Srinivasan: Regarding TNDPGEE basics is most important. It is not so difficult to get a good rank. One must study sincerely for 6 months, 10 to 12 hours per day since our subjects are vast. We must

Ø      Analyse the previous question papers and try to find the answers from text books

Ø      Get the idea from where questions come from frequently

Ø      Use our imagination and think by oneself

Ø      Practice many papers- as many as possible.

Last but not the least…We must become proficient in solving multiple choice questions (some answers will be direct, some will be analytical, in some questions one has to arrive at the answer by elimination method)

Q: What, in your opinion is the role of Internet and Online Discussion Forums like RxBDS in PG Entrance Preparation?

Dr. Srinivasan: Internet and online discussion forums like RxBDS are definitely useful adjuvant to our preparation especially to get AIIMS, PGI and in All India PG Entrance Exams. Examiners or question setters concntrate more on few topics and a PG aspirant has to get the idea where the Q's are/might be taken from. Answering simple Q's dont need preparation but answering the difficult ones will need the standard text books or internet forums. I am sure that in AIDPGEE '07, few difficult Q's is going to come from our discussion forum!

Q: You have mentioned that you studied with your friend for the PG entrance exams. What is your opinion on the group study?

Dr. Srinivasan: Two people is sufficient and ideal according to me. Three is good. The success of a groups of more than three, depend on individuality of each member of the group since one person in a group is sufficient to distract others.

Q: Being a member of RxBDS site what do you have to say about The Site!

Dr. Srinivasan: It's excellent. I will try to contribute valuable information in future to it!

Q: Your word for RxBDS users...

Dr. Srinivasan: For PG aspirants, I have two things to say

1. Studying qualitatively is more important than quantitative reading,

2. Revise, revise and keep revising