Dr. Dev (fictional name) while an MBBS student was studying for his exam in the AIIMS, New Delhi, library. The exam was to be held the next day. During a short break, he noticed his friend looking at a bunch of papers then consulting his textbooks, again looking at the papers, then referring to the books, and so on. A curious Dev asked his friend what he was doing.
A surprised friend replied, ‘Are you not doing the same? I have collected the question papers from the previous year's exams. As there is very less time now, I am reading from the book only the answers to the questions asked in the past years.’
Depending on the college/university, the examiner/paper setter, local trends, etc. you may find that some questions are repeated, either directly or in some modified way, over the years in the exams.
An obvious way is to prepare and read the answers to these repeated questions.
Why does this repetition happen? This may be due to various factors. Superficially, you may think that the examiners are lazy and do not want to spend time and mental energy in making new and original questions.
This is usually not the case.
One obvious reason is that the examiners think that these questions or topics are important and the student should know the answer to them to pass his/her exams. Another reason can be that the examiners don’t want to disturb the system being followed over the years for the student’s sake.
Collecting the question papers from the previous years and studying their answers, especially as the last night revision is a method used by many smart but lazy students to get more marks with less study with variable success.
By analyzing the past question papers, you can get an idea of the structure of the question paper so as to better prepare on how to write your answers. You may observe that there are some chapters and topics from which more questions are asked and thus spend more time reading those topics. You may note that questions from some topics are rarely asked or of lesser marks which you may skip reading if there is a shortage of time.
But beware! This is far from an ideal situation. There have been instances when the questions paper structure and the questions asked had been changed without any warning to the students, causing a great shock to the students in the exam hall who had mainly prepared based on the previous year's question papers.
But the more important reason is that by just reading and preparing according to the past question papers, you will not have good complete knowledge of your subject. When you go out in the world, your incomplete knowledge can cause a problem for you and your patients or clients. You may pass in the exam but may fail in the bigger exam of real life.
So no doubt supplement your study with exam-oriented, focused revisions and preparation based on previous year's question papers, but study extensively also so as to have a broad complete knowledge of your subject.
NB: This is not a scientific article. Please verify the facts yourself before trying anything.
— ND
(Based on allegedly true incident.)
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DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purposes. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use the information herein is at your one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal, and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Practice should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost. The author recommends that Medical Education should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost and according to NMC and other Board norms.
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