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First year is Anatomy, Physiology and Biochemistry, and the 1st professional exam. The toppers' advice is consistent: learn these subjects properly from standard books now, and let NEET PG-style preparation begin in 2nd year.
Phase I of MBBS covers Anatomy, Physiology and Biochemistry and ends with the 1st professional university exam. For batches admitted from 2024-25, NMC's CBME Curriculum 2024 also introduces Community Medicine in this phase; its university exam comes at the end of 3rd year.
Toppers who talk about this stage put the prof exam first. Dr Heet Manvar (INI-CET AIR 1, May 2024) advises concentrating on the university exam in 1st year and starting PG preparation in 2nd year. Marrow describes its own first-year course as recorded for the 1st professional exam rather than NEET PG.
The year still counts. Careers360's and ReflexPrep's 2026 estimates put Anatomy at about 8–11 of 180 questions, Physiology at 7–10 and Biochemistry at 4–9; all are recall-based ranges. Marrow's review of the 2025 paper found Physiology questions graph-based and integrated with other subjects, and Anatomy questions built on cadaveric images.
| Subject | Main prof textbook students use | Most-repeated NEET PG areas |
|---|---|---|
| Anatomy | BD Chaurasia (or Vishram Singh); Inderbir Singh for histology; Netter's atlas alongside | Cranial nerves, brachial plexus, peripheral nerve injuries, embryology, radiological anatomy |
| Physiology | Guyton & Hall for concepts; Indu Khurana, AK Jain or GK Pal for exam answers | Cardiovascular, respiratory, acid–base, endocrine regulation, renal |
| Biochemistry | Vasudevan or Satyanarayana; Harper and Lippincott for reference | Carbohydrate and lipid metabolism, enzyme deficiencies, molecular biology, inborn errors, nutrition |
Textbooks from 2025–26 first-year book lists (Medioks, The Med Matter, PW); repeated areas from PrepLadder's August 2026 analysis of previous-year questions.
Medioks' 2026 guide describes a layered method: textbook, atlas, dissection, redrawing the diagrams, then previous university questions. In PrepLadder's first-year anatomy guide, Dr Rajesh Kaushal adds two habits: ask questions during dissection, and lean on diagrams and mnemonics. Do not skip embryology; NEET PG keeps returning to it.
First-year guides stress mechanisms over memorising, weekly revision and one dependable textbook. Draw the graphs until you can reproduce them: the cardiac cycle, pressure–volume loops and the oxygen–haemoglobin dissociation curve, which PrepLadder's 2026 high-yield list calls a favourite NBEMS topic.
Medioks' advice is to attend practicals, draw each pathway repeatedly and tie it to the disease that breaks it. PrepLadder treats Biochemistry as volatile, so aim for understanding now; the memorising gets redone before NEET PG anyway.
It begins in Phase I with family adoption activities, but the exam and the heavy reading (Park's textbook) belong to 3rd year. Keep your field-visit notes and leave the PSM plan to the 3rd-year guide.
Put together, the first-year guides and topper interviews describe a simple week that fits around lectures and dissection.
Read the textbook pages for that day's lecture and draw the diagram, graph or pathway the topic depends on. PrepLadder's first-prof guide adds marking structures on your own body.
Redraw what you saw that night. Marrow says its cadaveric videos with Dr Ashwani Kumar complement the dissection hall and can be watched before or after lectures; PrepLadder Version XI adds 20 hours of dissection videos.
Go back over the week's chapters in all three subjects and answer the previous university questions on them. Medioks' 2026 Physiology and Biochemistry guides both tell students to revise weekly.
One video on the topic that did not click, then a short MCQ set on finished chapters; Marrow's first-year course has subject-wise tests for this. Grand Tests can wait: Dr Vaibhav Garg (AIR 1, 2024) and Dr Devesh began them in final year.
Solve previous university papers and revise from your own diagrams rather than opening a new book in the last weeks.
The books in the table above are enough for the prof. A platform is optional this year; if you want one, choose the teacher for each subject rather than the brand, as many students do.
In 3,277 YouTube comments under NEET PG strategy and resource videos (Oct 2025–Oct 2026), the Anatomy teacher named most is Dr Ashwani Kumar (Marrow and DBMCI One), then Dr Mohammed Azam (PrepLadder), though the numbers are small. One 2nd-year commenter pairs Dr Ashwani Kumar with Dr Soumen Manna for Physiology and Dr Rajesh Jambhulkar for Biochemistry.
| Platform | Anatomy | Physiology | Biochemistry |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marrow | Dr Ashwani Kumar | Dr Krishna Kumar | Dr Rebecca James |
| PrepLadder | Dr Mohammed Azam | Dr Soumen Manna | Dr C Shanmugapriya |
| Cerebellum | Dr Shrikant Verma | Dr Pooja Nigade | Dr Ankur Jain and Dr Smily Pruthi |
| DBMCI One | Dr Ashwani Kumar | Dr Ashish Kumar | Dr Amit Jain |
| DocTutorials | Dr Rajesh Kaushal | Dr Naveen Porwal | Dr Priyansh Jain |
| PW MedEd | Dr Pradeep Pawar | Dr Vivek Nalgirkar | Dr Rajesh Jambhulkar |
Rosters as listed on each platform's own 2026 course pages (read 2 Oct 2026). Teachers do change between editions, so check the course page before you buy.
One undated comparison blog quotes a student's advice: PrepLadder for 1st year, Marrow for the years after. Our platform comparison sets the courses side by side.
Not yet in any serious way. Several toppers began Qbank modules only in 3rd year, Dr Naisargee Raval (AIR 4, 2024) among them. A 2020 student guide gives a simple check on your notes: read them, wait two days, then solve one subject paper. Above half correct means the notes are working.
Advises putting the university exam first in 1st year and beginning PG preparation in 2nd year.
“build a broad and strong base foundation in the early years of MBBS”
Read standard textbooks in 1st year and turned to Marrow's videos only in 2nd and 3rd year.
Studied from books from 1st year onwards and took up apps only in final year.
“If your fundamentals from MBBS are clear, you always have an advantage.”
Dr Shashwat (INI-CET AIR 2, May 2025) read standard textbooks through MBBS, counts neglecting 1st- and 2nd-year subjects as a mistake and revised them repeatedly. Dr Soumyaditya (INI-CET AIR 2, Nov 2024) calls the exam a test of everything done through MBBS and internship.
Toppers say the 1st prof comes first: Dr Heet Manvar (INI-CET AIR 1, May 2024) advises starting PG preparation in 2nd year. What helps now is reading standard textbooks for understanding, marking the topics NEET PG repeats and doing a few MCQs after each finished chapter.
That exact question appears under Dr Aditya Sanjay Gupta's platform video. For Physiology, students name Dr Soumen Manna (PrepLadder; Careers360's 2026 book list includes his Review of Physiology) and Dr Krishna Kumar (Marrow). For Biochemistry, Dr Rebecca James (Marrow), whom NEET PG 2022 AIR 1 Dr Shagun Batra credited with making the subject easy to understand, and Dr Rajesh Jambhulkar (PW MedEd).
Not necessarily. Dr Kavya (INI-CET AIR 9, Nov 2025) used books until final year, and Dr Devesh (INI-CET AIR 8) read textbooks in 1st year before moving to videos in 2nd year. If one topic will not click, a single teacher's videos for that subject are usually enough.
Many commenters under PW MedEd's December 2025 video on starting NEET PG preparation in 1st year are NEET UG aspirants. Every topper timeline on this page begins inside MBBS, with the earliest PG-style study in 2nd year. Until you join, NEET UG is the exam that matters.
Recall-based 2026 estimates from Careers360 and ReflexPrep put Anatomy at about 8–11 of 180, Physiology about 7–10 and Biochemistry about 4–9. Their concepts also sit inside clinical questions, so their real reach is wider than the count.
Colour for Anatomy diagrams, cross-sections and histology; black and white for most Physiology and Biochemistry pages; one bound volume per subject. WhatsApp us the PDF for a quote.
Send your Anatomy, Physiology or Biochemistry PDF on WhatsApp: class notes, platform notes or your own handwritten pages. Diagram and histology pages are printed in colour, each subject is bound as a separate volume, and delivery covers all of India.
Order on WhatsAppTopper interviews, student resource videos and their comment threads, first-year study guides and 2026 exam analyses, read in October 2026.