My journey to INICET AIR 33 (AIIMS D, MD MED final year) MBBS (MAMC, Delhi)

Overcoming exam anxiety (or at least learning to live with it)

Hi, I'm N | 28/M | AIIMS Delhi | MD Medicine Final Year (AIR 33).

Before anything else: I'm not someone extraordinary. I didn't crack INI on my first attempt, and I didn't get here overnight. I took a drop before MBBS, and I took another during my INI journey. I probably represent a much larger group of aspirants than the "one-shot topper" stories do—the ones who are a little older, have taken a drop, and have had to rebuild confidence more than once.

The one thing that remained constant throughout my preparation wasn't motivation. It was anxiety.

And if you've prepared for INI, you know exactly what I mean. The closer the exam gets, the louder your thoughts become. Your heart races while opening mock scores, you start questioning everything you've studied, and somehow every hour feels like it's not enough.

So how did I overcome it?

The honest answer is: I didn't overcome it. I learned to keep it at bay.

The biggest lesson was surprisingly simple—take each day as it comes.

I always kept a rough 6–8 month roadmap, but only the first month was planned in detail. Every single day had a defined target. The months after that had broad goals, not rigid hourly schedules. That flexibility probably saved me.

One mistake I see everywhere is setting unrealistic expectations: "I'll study 12–14 hours every day for a year." Very few people can sustain that, and when you inevitably fall short, the guilt becomes worse than the missed study time.

My first major breakdown happened in second year MBBS. I'll talk about that in another post, but it taught me something I'll never ignore again:

You have to protect an hour of your day that has nothing to do with medicine.

For me, it was playing the guitar, online games, badminton, or simply exercising. Even during my drop year, I made sure I had 1–2 hours where I wasn't a medical student preparing for an exam—I was just myself.

That break isn't wasted time. It's what makes the remaining hours sustainable.

Preparing for INI is already hard. Don't make it harder by believing you need to suffer every waking minute to deserve success.

More soon—Part 2 will be about the breakdown that completely changed how I approached studying.

Don't forget to follow or DM for any doubts or help, or just talking about things