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Dr Monish Kanna R went from a rank of about 28,000 to AIR 1 in NEET PG 2026. Here is what he and other NEET PG and INI-CET rank holders from 2024 to 2026 used, how they revised and what they warn against.
In a video posted on 24 September 2026, a NEET PG aspirant who goes by DrG tallied 27 topper interviews, NEET PG and INI-CET, from AIR 1 to AIR 8,627, counting what each topper brought up.
Mentions in 27 topper interviews, as counted by DrG, who used AI to pull out the points before counting them.
Revision cycles and daily questions run through nearly every interview, with Grand Tests close behind. Own notes and flashcards rarely come up in his count. One source scores only 5, yet the 2026 AIR 1 and INI-CET rank 9 Dr Kavya both make the point plainly.
NEET PG 2026 was held on 30 August 2026 and marked out of 720.
| Topper | Rank | Resources | How they revised / GTs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr Monish Kanna R | AIR 1 · 641/720 | Marrow videos, notes, QBank and custom modules (Careers360); also featured by PrepLadder and CoreBTR | Blocks of 4–5 subjects; three to four revisions by March; a GT every 7–10 days from February |
| Dr Pallakshi Prasad | AIR 2 · 633/720 | Marrow from 3rd year, World of Revision videos, GTs on several platforms; S Das, Bailey & Love; her own notes | Seven to eight revisions; almost every GT, later reviewing only wrong and guessed answers |
“Sticking to one source and revising it repeatedly helped me.”
“It wasn't about long hours every day, but about being consistent.”
Prepared through final year and internship, and kept away from her mobile phone.
Dr Monish is the clearest case for repeaters. He did only a few MCQs in internship and was not serious about his first attempt. He burnt out at about 10 hours a day before the November INI-CET, then held 7–8 hours, and his INI-CET rank of about 1,400 gave him confidence. His GT scores plateaued at 140–150, yet he kept his source.
Dr Pallakshi prepared while working as a military medical officer, studying between patients and after duty. Her final eight months ran as about three months of reading, two of revision and a last 30 days, and she wishes she had practised getting through the syllabus faster.
On video, Dr Simar (Rank 4) spoke to DAMS, Dr Graceton (Rank 5) to Marrow about building strong concepts from day one, and Dr Nisarga D (Rank 37) to DBMCI.
NEET PG 2025 had 200 questions, marked out of 800. The accounts below AIR 2 come from the platforms' own topper pages.
| Topper | Rank | Resources | How they revised / GTs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr Pooshan Mohapatra | AIR 1 · 707/800 | Online video lectures, question banks and mock tests | Concept revision; 10–12 hours a day from April to August 2025 |
| Dr Greeshma Gautham | AIR 2 · 705/800 | A year of coaching at DAMS, Kozhikode; a YouTube title also tags her with Marrow's Plan C | Note-reading, mock questions and revision; 12-hour days only in the final weeks |
| Dr Sanjay | AIR 7 · 692/800 | PrepLadder | Weekly GTs, each one analysed |
| Dr Nishid | AIR 11 | PrepLadder; Dr Deepak Marwah (Medicine), Dr Ankit Kumar (Pharmacology) | Qbank bookmarks on weak areas, notes for quick revision, regular GTs |
| Dr Jyotiprakash Sarangi | AIR 15 | PrepLadder videos, QBank and custom modules (PrepLadder); GTs and mini-tests (DocTutorials) | One GT a week, reviewed the same day |
| Dr Naisargi | AIR 19 | Cerebellum GTs, MCQs and BTR (Cerebellum); DocTutorials Live Power Pack (DocTutorials) | Every GT, with BTR modules reviewed before each; a diary of recurring mistakes |
| Dr Sakshi | AIR 21 | PrepLadder and its LRR sessions; Dr Preeti Sharma (Pathology, Microbiology) | Concise notes so revisions go faster |
Dr Pooshan Mohapatra (SCB Medical College, Cuttack) studied through internship, revising in short breaks on duty, and began serious preparation in the January of his internship year. Dr Greeshma Gautham came back from a previous AIR close to 3,000 (ETV Bharat) to finish two marks behind him. Lower down, Dr Sakshi (AIR 21) attempted 199 of the 200 questions and got 23 wrong.
NEET PG 2024 introduced time-bound sections. Careers360's interviews with the top seven all name Marrow; PrepLadder and DBMCI feature some of the same toppers, and Cerebellum other 2024 rank holders.
| Topper | Rank | Resources | How they revised / GTs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr Vaibhav Garg | AIR 1 | Textbooks, then Marrow videos, QBank and mocks (Careers360); DBMCI One Shot, T&D and workbooks (DBMCI); also on PrepLadder's list | Revision video notes plus Qbank points; GTs from the start of final year |
| Dr Anjali Shekhawat | AIR 2 | Marrow revision videos and test series | Concise notes revised 3–4 times; custom modules; GTs and the National mock |
| Dr Saikumar | AIR 3 | Marrow in final year (Careers360); PrepLadder QBank and Rapid Revision (PrepLadder) | Revised three times; a GT every two weeks in internship, about 22 in all |
| Dr Naisargee Ankur Raval | AIR 4 | Marrow GTs and National mock; Qbank modules from 3rd year | Main and revision notes revised at least 10 times; GTs monthly, then more often |
| Dr Ravi Bansal | AIR 5 | Marrow videos, GTs and Pearls | A small notebook revised at least three times; 5–15 Qbank modules a day |
| Dr Sonali | AIR 6 | Marrow videos and revision videos; INI-CET, NEET PG and FMGE PYQs | Multiple revisions; GTs for time management rather than marks |
| Dr Hamsavardhini | AIR 7 | Marrow clinical videos and revision video notes | 8–9 revisions; Qbank after each video; wrong PYQs reviewed before the exam |
Dr Vaibhav Garg (GMCH Chandigarh) studied between 10–12-hour internship shifts, and on days he felt bored he simply sat a GT. Dr Ravi Bansal (UCMS Delhi) turned the same preparation into AIR 3 in the INI-CET January 2025 session after only 6–7 days of preparation while waiting for counselling.
AIIMS New Delhi holds INI-CET twice a year: the November exam fills the January session, the May exam the July session. The next is on 1 November 2026. Several recent toppers built on standard textbooks and PYQs.
| Topper | Rank | Resources | How they revised / GTs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr Devesh Dharmarajan | AIR 2 · May 2024 | DBMCI app and T&D classes, Mumbai | A full day reviewing each GT, with review notes |
| Dr Netresh Sharma | AIR 1 · Nov 2024 | Standard textbooks such as Robbins; Cerebellum Mission classes, BTR, PYQ marathons | Two readings (5–6 months, then 2–3); 150 timed questions a day; 20–22 GTs |
| Dr Soumyaditya | AIR 2 · Nov 2024 | Printed Marrow notes, QBank and Pearls; MSU videos | Three cycles for major subjects, two for short; PYQs in the last 2–3 weeks |
| Dr Devesh | AIR 8 · Nov 2024 | Textbooks, then Marrow videos; the Qbank as his main source | One careful revision and a lot of practice; GTs from final year |
| Dr Shashwat | AIR 2 · May 2025 | Cerebellum; Robbins, GRG's notes, Dr Praveen Tripathi's Psychiatry book | Several revisions, especially of 1st- and 2nd-year subjects; regular PYQs |
| Dr Sairam | AIR 1 · Nov 2025 | Pre- and paraclinical textbooks; Cerebellum BTR (Cerebellum); a Marrow video title credits its revision videos | Up to 300 questions a day; every mock's mistakes analysed |
| Dr Kavya | AIR 9 · Nov 2025 | Books, then Cerebellum BTR, RR videos, custom modules, PYQs; no Qbank | 13 GTs, one a week; last 10 days on BTR and a short notebook |
Dr Netresh Sharma calls himself a late starter: no GT until about three-quarters of the way through internship, and a May INI-CET taken without PYQs that ended at rank 205. Dr Sairam (JIPMER) reached AIR 1 on his third INI-CET attempt, after a NEET PG 2025 rank of 3,700. Dr Soumyaditya's GT ranks swung from 50–60 to 400–500, then 20–30; he warns against being demotivated or overconfident because of mock ranks.
Dr Netresh worked through 7–8 years of PYQs and PYTs, and Dr Shashwat says around 95% of the INI-CET paper was based, directly or indirectly, on previous topics. Dr Monish focused on PYQs from about February; Dr Hamsavardhini went back over her wrong ones before the exam.
Toppers ranged from one GT a month, rising near the exam (Dr Naisargee Raval), to more than 50 in all (Dr Jai Rathi, AIR 34, 2024); weekly is the rhythm named most often. Dr Monish sat his on Sunday mornings in exam timing and analysed them that afternoon, wrong answers first, then marked ones, then the whole paper, going back to his notes rather than stopping at the explanation. Dr Sonali used GTs for time management, and Dr Nishid treats low scores as lessons rather than verdicts.
Start dates ranged from 2nd year to after internship. For 1st year, Dr Heet Manvar (INI-CET AIR 1, May 2024) advises putting the university exam first and starting PG preparation in 2nd year.
Dr Sonali (AIR 6, 2024) started in 2nd year and had watched almost all the videos by internship. Dr Jai Rathi (AIR 34, 2024) began then too, treating it like a hobby; Dr Naisargi built her basics from 2nd year.
Dr Naisargee Raval (AIR 4, 2024) began Qbank modules in 3rd year and Dr Ravi Bansal started preparing. Ravi later traced a GT plateau to postponing subjects such as Community Medicine.
Dr Saikumar covered all clinical subjects with videos and Qbank in final year; Dr Vaibhav Garg finished every video and began GTs at its start, and Dr Devesh also began GTs that year. Dr Sahed's warning: don't ignore short subjects such as Psychiatry and Anaesthesia.
Dr Sahed studied around internship duties of up to 18 hours; Dr Saikumar finished paraclinical subjects and sat a GT every fortnight. Dr Netresh, whose busy postings ate study time unnoticed, advises interns to set a structure and a target and start PYQs early.
Dr Monish (about 28,000 to AIR 1), Dr Greeshma (close to 3,000 to AIR 2), Dr Netresh (INI-CET 205 to AIR 1) and Dr Navaneetha Menoky (1,700 to INI-CET AIR 4) all improved on a repeat attempt. Dr Hamsavardhini took NEET PG after finishing a two-year bond.
Dr Monish Kanna R, with 641 out of 720, on his second attempt (first rank about 28,000). He studied 7–8 hours a day after internship, learnt from the Qbank before testing himself, revised three to four times by March and sat a GT every 7–10 days from February.
From three (Dr Saikumar) to 7–8 (Dr Pallakshi), 8–9 (Dr Hamsavardhini) and at least 10 (Dr Naisargee Raval). Dr Devesh (INI-CET AIR 8) preferred one careful revision with plenty of practice.
From 13 (Dr Kavya) and about 22 (Dr Saikumar) to more than 50 (Dr Jai Rathi), often about one a week, with the analysis mattering as much as the test.
Usually one main platform for learning, plus GTs or revision series from others, which is why one topper can appear on several platforms' lists. See platforms compared.
Yes. Dr Pooshan Mohapatra (AIR 1, 2025) studied through internship and Dr Sahed (AIR 13, 2025) around duties of up to 18 hours; Dr Monish and Dr Sairam got serious only afterwards. See the internship guide.
Several built on standard textbooks and PYQs: Dr Netresh Sharma (AIR 1, Nov 2024) read his textbooks twice with 150 timed questions a day, and Dr Kavya (AIR 9, Nov 2025) used no Qbank but sat 13 GTs. The next INI-CET is on 1 November 2026.
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