NEET M.D.S: 5 HABITS THAT SEPARATE THE BEST FROM THE REST

- You have to make the effort count instead of questioning its worth

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Come NOVEMBER and nationwide, approximately 20,000 dental graduates will appear for the highly competitive NEET M.D.S to contest for close to 6000 PG seats (including government and private colleges as well as deemed universities). That’s a success ratio of  1:3 i.e; only 1 out of 3 students will eventually manage to get an M.D.S seat. Add to that, the other factors such as reservation and aiming for a branch or college of choice and the odds of success decline even further to 1:6 or even 1:10.

So, there is no doubt that the only way to improve or overcome these odds is by putting in a tremendous amount of effort during your preparation. Yet, approximately 80 out of 100 students (figuratively) end up either compromising on their dream of pursuing M.D.S in a branch and/or college of their choice or don’t get through the exam itself in spite of repeated attempts. This leads to the formation of an opinion that is also passed on to the future generations that;

“Preparing for M.D.S entrance is really not worth the effort”

OR

“It all depends on luck”

But is it only EFFORT and LUCK that determine the success of the top 20 achievers? Is putting in 12-14 hours of study every day and backing it up with a solid revision plan enough to score a rank?

ABSOLUTELY...NOT!

The difference lies in how the ACHIEVERS use the right MINDSET and APPROACH to develop 5 important habits that lead them to success and separate them from THE REST;

1. HAVING A SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE

Consider the following question,

Your chances of hitting the bulls-eye on a dartboard are the maximum when;

a. The bulls-eye is your target

b. The entire dartboard is your target

You are absolutely right if you went with option a.

Similarly having a pre-defined and a specific objective (eg; M.D.S in Orthodontics from Nair Hospital Dental College or an M.D.S seat in GDC, Mumbai) before you start preparing gives you a clear goal to work towards and automatically increases your chances of success as opposed to preparing with no clear objectives and following a general aim of getting a good score in the entrance exam.

2. PUTTING IN MEASURED EFFORT

A pre-defined and specific objective demands a MEASURED EFFORT as opposed to a general objective that leads to BLIND EFFORT.

Having identified the bulls-eye as your target, all your effort is focused on getting a shot as close to the target as possible. Similarly, when you are focused on getting an M.D.S seat in a specific branch and/or college, the QUALITY of the EFFORT will matter more than the QUANTITY. This is MEASURED EFFORT.

So instead of reading and revising let’s say 10 books, 5-6 times, which amounts to BLIND EFFORT, the ACHIEVER focuses on only the most important and most relevant material to generate the results.

This habit separates THE BEST (who manage to get a seat of their choice) from THE REST (who manage to get a seat).

3. STUDYING SUCCESS

“XYZ  scored a PG seat by reading ABC books and if I follow the same, I will get a seat too.”

The standard formula for SUCCESS followed by most is also the least dependable.

The ACHIEVERS don’t just follow success, they STUDY success. They reach out to those who have been there, they learn from the mistakes of others, they learn from as many success stories as possible.

The whole point of STUDYING SUCCESS is that from the lessons of plenty, you can build the foundations of your own story. Pure imitation never guarantees the same results, but following the journey of those who have been there, learning from it and adapting it to your own situation makes your path a lot easier and prepares you for the obstacles ahead.

4. TRACKING EFFORTS REGULARLY

No matter how QUALITATIVE or MEASURED your efforts are, they still have to yield the outcome you desire and the only way to do that is by TRACKING the success of your efforts regularly.

REVISION is undoubtedly the key to M.D.S entrance success but in spite of varied opinions, appearing for online or offline test series during your preparation still remains a valuable tool that helps you to judge the RELEVANCE of your effort in terms of the outcome.

ACHIEVERS use this tool regularly to work out their strengths, identify their weaknesses, learn time-management and above all to prep their minds to be calm and composed in an exam environment, all of which matters on the FINAL DAY.

5. OUTPERFORM THE REST ON THE FINAL DAY

Not a habit per se but an ACHIEVER MINDSET for the final day.

The real match after hours of NET PRACTICE. This is where the specified objectives, the measured efforts, the lessons from various success stories and a complete awareness of strengths and weaknesses come together in the form of a PERFORMANCE that completely separates itself from the NERVOUS and UNCERTAIN minds of THE REST.

The ACHIEVERS outperform everyone and get what they want not because of some magic potion or luck or an insane amount of effort but because they incrementally develop and follow the habits mentioned above.

To conclude, when it comes to highly competitive exams, the odds of success are always minimal. M.D.S entrance is no different but off late, it has been facing a lot of flak due to various issues such as limited seats, reservation etc.

What the dental graduate needs to remember here is that instead of getting negative about the scenario and getting frustrated by the ground reality, if you have a dream of pursuing M.D.S in a branch or college of choice...JUST GO FOR IT!

“Will it still be worth the effort today?”

ABSOLUTELY!...All you need to do is adopt the right MINDSET and APPROACH and separate yourself from THE REST.

All the best!

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