Pain areas of the students
1. Defining priorities:
- Medical students have to multi-task: attend lectures, practicals, hospitals, study for local exams, routine daily activities, etc.
- Among all these activities they cannot prioritize NEXT studies as it is vast
- Students remain in false sense of achievement by getting admission in MBBS & passing local exams
2. Busy schedule:
- MBBS curriculum is demanding. There are multiple subjects with theory, practicals & students have to attend hospital also
- When students meet the needs of busy schedule it gives a false sense of fulfilment. But the long term goal of NEXT gets neglected.
3. Lack of awareness of core activities:
- Every MBBS student has a dream of becoming a specialist like surgeon, orthopedician, physician, gynecologist, dermatologist, etc.
- After the exhaustive preparation for NEET-UG, in MBBS students fail to recognize that their long term goal of becoming a specialist can only be fulfiled if they crack NEXT
- Students get influenced by the other students & they get lost in daily routine
4. Scarcity of suitable options:
- Even if MBBS student recognizes the importance of NEXT (NEET-PG), there are no suitable options to start preparing for it in 1st or 2nd year MBBS
- The available options like week-end classes, online videos & thick MCQs books rather contribute to the depression of medical students than solving their problems
5. Unavailability of mentoring & guidance
- The overall atmosphere of medical college is about introducing various subjects to the students. It is not conducive to NEXT (NEET-PG) preparation
- Although coaching classes & online videos bombard the knowledge over the students, there is lack of handholding & real mentoring considering the obstacles in day to day life of the students
6. Lack of micro-planning
- Since syllabus for NEXT (NEET-PG) is extremely vast, it is difficult for students to micro-plan their studies
- In NEET-UG, students find it difficult to cover syllabus of 2 years (4 subjects) in 1 year preparation. In NEXT, they have to handle syllabus of final year MBBS i.e. all clinical subjects. It is utmost difficult task unless you have detail planning over the period of 3 to 4 years.
Available solutions
1. Week-end or regular classes
- 8 to 10 hrs teaching per day & “finishing” the syllabus attitude
- Not cost-effective as it costs around 60-80,000 Rs!
- Students end up paying for hall rent, travelling of faculties & their stay in hotels.
- No time or in-built mechanism for self-study
2. Video lectures
- The same long (1 to 1.5 hrs) classroom lectures recorded
- Wastage of time in writing on black-board or smart-board
- 600 to 700 hrs of total lectures demanding 2 to 3 hrs listening per day if you want to cover the syllabus in 1 year. Writing notes, tests all needing extra time! So this is solution is not feasible.
3. Test series
- Simply joining test series does not help when concepts are not clear
4. Books/publications
Merely self-study without mentoring leads to loss of focus & depression
Drawbacks / Dis-advantages of available solutions
1. Time Consuming
The classroom lectures are often too long & too heavy to keep students interested.
2. Not Suitable Schedule
Students are unable to manage the balance between their routine schedule & NEET-PG preparation with existing solutions
3. Low Yield / Spoon Feeding / Dependency on Lecturer
- Even after attending week-end/ regular classes & going through online video lectures, students end up in repeating NEET-PG years after years.
- Students are always dependent on their lecturer in every study related matter. This trait suppresses the creative side of their personality and they never get to know their strengths. Ultimately, the results don’t meet the expectations of students.
4. Not Interactive
- Students cannot ask their difficulties in class as they feel shy
- Students loose interest & become passive listeners.
- The students have to learn with the pace of their teachers.
- For teachers teaching for NEET-PG in the coaching classes in their various branches have become a routine activity
5. Not Cost effective
Traditional education is cost demanding. Tuition fees are usually very high to the tune of 60 to 80,000 Rs for 8 to 10 months one time coaching.
How should be the ideal Solution?
1. Flexible
Students should have flexibility for personal schedules & they should be learning at their own pace.
Student should be able to go through the lectures repeatedly if needed.
2. Fitting to exact situation
The solution should be customizable to the individual needs of the students.
3. Supportive at every stage of study
NEET-PG preparation should be parallel with routine college studies & should not be a burden in terms of time, money, and energy.
