Imagine you are a month away from the exam day, your social media feed is full of stressful comments and you feel uncomfortable no matter what you do. Self-doubt creeps up on you. You start questioning your preparation, doubting whether you are on the right track and feeling as if everyone’s ahead of you in the game. You feel as if you are being left behind.

STOP!

It’s time to go into INTERNET DARKNESS MODE and stop the internet feed from taking over your brain and demeaning your efforts. It is now time for Rapid Revision and nothing is going to stop you from getting to your target.

• Complete the entire Internal Medicine RR series in 3 days@ 5hours. For each session minimum continuous sitting advised is of 3-4 hours. This is in keeping with the exam duration i.e. 3 hours plus the 15-30 minutes time before exam, when you reach the exam hall and wait for the exam to start. Keeping your study sessions of similar duration will help you build stamina for sitting that long and being able to concentrate. If you feel fatigue in back muscles and strain in eye muscles after 2 hours of continuous sitting in front of the laptop it means that your physical fitness is not up to the mark. Use the months until the exam to practice and improve.
• Write down summary of each topic in max five points. Keep a separate 50-page register for this. Focus especially on comparisons, for example multifocal atrial tachycardia versus Atrial Fibrillation, Multiple Sclerosis versus Neuromyelitis Optica.
• The combination of Audio-visual stimulus along with quick jotting down of important points will prep up your neo-cortex with lots of information to be deployed in the final battle in the examination.
• The entire list of antibodies mentioned in the Rheumatology section have to be crammed up straight, as it does not need much understanding and if asked during the exam, your eyes should be hunting for the correct option.
• Some path slides have been incorporated to cover the integrated topics. For those where the path slides are mentioned make a note in the register and do those topics from Pathology RR as well on the same day. Even if you’ve to compromise on a few hours sleep, try to do those topics on the same day, as it will increase your retention of these integrated topics.
• On the fourth day, the following five lectures must be done at 1.5 X from the main app in the last month before the exam. Questions are always asked from these topics in any exam anywhere in the world. It will take less than half a day and the rest of the day can be dedicated to MCQ of multiple topics.
• Electrolyte imbalance (Kidney first lecture)
• Renal Tubular acidosis (Kidney)
• Epilepsy and EEG (neuro First lecture),
• AIDS (Last lectures in App)
• ECG and Arrythmias
• Keep in touch with your family. A comforting voice can change your mood and remind you that you are doing it to make your parents proud of your achievements. Focus on the positives.
• Do something apart from furiously scrolling Instagram or Facebook. This is important for your sanity. Those who post every hour on Facebook may be much less prepared than you are and only showing off. Never Show off and be humble.

Best Wishes for the Final Battle. You can do this.