Imagine this. You just got back from a hectic 36-hour hospital duty. Your legs are in pain; your sleep cycle is completely messed up and all you want to do is jump on your bed. But right there on your study table, a huge pile of medical books is staring at you. For most MBBS interns, this is the exact moment they give up. They decide to just somehow survive the internship and start their serious NEET PG preparation a year later. But Dr Nishid Thakkar chose a different path. 

He graduated from BJMC Ahmedabad and finished his internship in March 2025. While running around the hospital for his tight internship duties, he managed to get an INI CET rank of 29. That alone secured him a seat in MD Pediatrics at AIIMS New Delhi. That is a massive achievement by itself. But he did not stop there. He pushed even harder and scored an incredible All India Rank 11 in NEET PG exam. 

This is not a story about a guy who locked himself in a silent room to study for two years. This is the story about managing time, studying smart, and refusing to make excuses. If you are struggling to balance your internship and NEET PG Preparation, here is the clear-cut strategy Dr Nishid used to crack the exam. 

How to Find Time When You Actually Have No Time 

People always ask when they should start studying. We look at top rankers and just assume they have been reading textbooks since their very first day of medical college. 

Dr Nishid says that starting early is fine, but your actual success depends on how strictly you maintain discipline till the end. During his internship, his biggest problem was not the syllabus. It was finding a routine. When you make your own timetable, it is way too easy to break it. You feel tired after a ward posting, so you tell yourself you will study tomorrow. But tomorrow never actually comes. 

As Dr Nishid perfectly explained: 

“Being on track is the most important thing. You can take a rest, but you need to remain consistent on track of your journey.” 

To make sure he actually stayed on that track, he relied on structured live coaching classes. Following a live schedule with hundreds of other students created a real sense of urgency. He knew he was not studying alone. This outside pressure kept him going, proving that the best time to start is the exact moment you commit to a strict daily routine. 

The Smart Way to Study: Workbooks 

Medical students argue constantly about the best way to study. Should you read standard textbooks, highlight printed notes, or write everything down from scratch? 

Dr Nishid openly admits he is a bit lazy when it comes to making notes. Writing detailed notes during an internship is almost impossible. At the same time, just reading printed books does not help you remember things for long. His secret weapon was using workbooks. 

Workbooks solve both of these problems perfectly. They are short, targeted, and partially blank. When you sit in a lecture, you have to actively fill in the missing words, flowcharts, and important clinical details. This forces your brain to stay awake. 

When you write something in your own handwriting, it builds a strong visual memory. In the middle of a stressful exam, your brain will not remember a generic paragraph from a printed book. It will remember the exact blank space you filled in with your own pen. This strategy saves a massive amount of time for busy interns. 

Stop Changing Your Study Materials 

The biggest trap for medical students is chasing every new book or notes PDF that hits the market. You see your friend reading a new book, and suddenly you feel like you are missing out. So you abandon your core materials. 

Dr Nishid got a great piece of advice from his seniors that changed his NEET PG Preparation. You simply cannot read every single book out there. It is impossible to cover the entire NEET PG syllabus perfectly. 

Instead of chasing new materials, trust the notes you already have and revise them constantly. Any standard coaching material will cover about 180 questions in the actual exam. If a question comes from outside those core topics, it is an out of the box concept that will be tough for everyone in the exam hall. Those weird, rare questions do not decide your final rank. Your rank is decided by the core questions that you simply cannot afford to get wrong. 

Stick to your primary notes and revise them until they become second nature. 

University Exams vs NEET PG 

Your MBBS prof exams and the NEET PG are two completely different games. In your college exams, you have to write long paragraph answers to show the examiner how much you know. But NEET PG is purely about solving MCQs, identifying clinical patterns, and ruling out wrong options quickly. If you try to read massive standard textbooks cover-to-cover just like you did in your final year, you will burn out very fast. 

Dr Nishid realized very early that if you want to beat the crowd, your first step is to fully understand the NEET PG Exam Pattern. Not all subjects hold the same weight. You cannot just sit with one subject until you are perfect at it. You have to divide your time based on what actually gets asked. 

Huge subjects like Medicine, Surgery, OBGyn, and PSM need deep focus and weeks of study. On the other hand, shorter subjects like Psychiatry or Dermatology just need a quick review over a day or two. 

By looking at NEET PG previous year question papers, you start noticing clear patterns. You realize that major topics like Tuberculosis, HIV, and trauma protocols are guaranteed to appear every single year. Focusing your energy on these repeating topics is the true definition of studying smart, rather than just working hard. 

Everything You Need, All in One Place 

Getting Rank 11 takes more than reading books. You need a good support system. Dr Nishid used the DocTutorials platform to make his life easier during his busy internship year. 

1. The Power of Live Classes: Recorded videos are flexible, but you can easily put them off. He prioritized live classes because they were interactive. Asking doubts in real time and studying with other students kept him motivated. The live schedule formed the backbone of his daily discipline. 

2. Direct Mentorship: One unique part of his journey was having direct access to his teachers. He could reach out and ask his doubts to the faculties anytime he wanted. Getting answers so quickly felt just like having a personal tutor. It also kept him highly accountable because he genuinely wanted to perform well for the teachers who were personally investing time in his success. 

3. Making Medicine Easy: Medicine is huge and scary for most students. But he relied completely on Dr Rahul Rajeev to make it easy. Instead of blindly memorizing facts, the focus was on understanding clinical concepts. Once his core concepts were clear, he felt confident that he could easily eliminate wrong options on the exam. 

4. Relentless Practice: You cannot win without testing yourself. He rigorously solved daily quizzes and short 20 question tests called the RDX series. Watching the video explanations after a test made sure, he truly understood his mistakes before moving forward. 

The “Fake Exam Day” Hack 

Dr Nishid has one major piece of advice for his juniors: never skip your Grand Tests. 

Many students delay giving full mock tests because they feel their preparation is incomplete. This is a huge mistake. Taking a test is not about proving how smart you are today. It is all about building the right mindset and finding out exactly where your weak points are. 

Dr Nishid took this step further. Instead of taking tests alone in his room, he gathered a group of friends. They all took the Grand Test together at the exact same time in a quiet room. They created a real exam environment. 

This is a brilliant mental trick. By practicing in a strict environment over and over, the actual exam day just feels like another Sunday mock test with your friends. It kills the exam anxiety and keeps your brain calm, allowing your intuition to guide you to the right answers. 

The Conclusion 

Scoring All India Rank 11 while doing a full-time internship is amazing. But Dr Nishid believes that the top 500 rankers all have roughly the same amount of medical knowledge. The real difference is who stays calm on exam day, who has a better strategy, and who can spot patterns quickly. 

You do not need to read the whole library. You need clear concepts, good mentors, active practice with workbooks, and a lot of mock tests. 

This is exactly where DocTutorials steps in to make your journey easier. Instead of figuring it out all alone, you get everything Dr Nishid used in one single place. With engaging live classes to build crystal-clear concepts, structured workbooks for active recall, direct access to expert faculties, and Grand Tests that perfectly simulate the real exam, the platform is built purely for smart studying. It gives you the exact ecosystem you need to perfectly balance your hospital duties with your preparation. 

Do not use your internship as an excuse. Use it as a reason to study smarter than everyone else. Trust your core notes, take tests with your friends, rely on the right platform, and watch your scores go up.