NEET drop year: Repeaters course at coaching centre or self-study? Read this before deciding

After all the doubts and questions, if you have finally decided to go for a drop year for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test - Undergraduate (NEET-UG) preparation, there are two paths you can take, you can either join a coaching institute or choose the less-taken road of self-study.

While most coaching institutes offer ‘repeater courses’, especially for the students who have decided to take a drop year with focused learning methods, it might not be for everyone due to many personal and financial reasons. Here are what experts and former NEET aspirants say about both options:

Coaching:

Anurag Tiwari, National Academic Director, Medical Aakash Institute: More than one lakh students take admission to our repeaters courses that offers specialised classes for NEET-UG repeaters. It includes almost 400-450 hours of teaching over a period of around 10 months.

Since there is one course that offers NEET preparation along with Classes XI or XII, those are integrated. While for repeaters, we focus solely on the application part of the NCERT content which is important for NEET. We give the students MCQ-based training so that the focus is on NEET preparation only.

Also, repeaters are already familiar with the fundamental concepts of the syllabus. So, what is needed is rigorous testing, revision and doubt clearing in a period of eight to 10 months.

Vinod Kumawat, Senior Vice-President, Allen Career Institute: Repeaters need to prepare both Class XI and XII syllabi on the other hand they do not have the pressure of boards and practical examinations. For leader batches, we prepare training for objective-type questions and derivations of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) chapters.

According to me, if a student has achieved good results in their Class XII Board examination and is even slightly above average in academics with a passion for medical education, they should definitely go for a drop year. In our institute, the number of droppers is much higher than freshers as freshers often find it hard to juggle their Class XII syllabus with NEET preparation.

Repeater courses have higher enrolment as well as higher success rates as well.

Ujjwal Singh, CEO & President, Infinity Learn by Sri Chaitanya: Our repeater programme provides comprehensive and targeted support to help students maximise their potential and achieve better results in their second attempt.

Firstly, we focus on personalised learning, identifying the specific areas where students faced challenges in their previous attempts and providing tailored support to address those gaps. Additionally, we emphasise extensive practice and revision through our comprehensive study materials and regular assessments. We provide a wide range of practice questions, previous years' papers and mock tests to help students gain confidence and improve their exam-taking skills.

Purnachandra Rao, Director, Resonance Hyderabad: There are two types of students who take a drop. One, who already scored pretty well on their first try but wants to get into a better government college, usually has a 400+ score and wants to focus on one or two weak points. Other students who scored less than 400 and need to focus on overall subjects and topics. The strategies for both are different.

At Resonance, we have a 4+4 slot for all the repeaters where we try to give two and half hours to one subject. This includes one and a half hours of teaching and one hour of tests or practice. The study material for repeaters is also slightly different, consisting less of the theoretical part.

Self-study:

Jayaprakash Gandhi, Career Counsellor: The repeater courses have become highly expensive as most of the coaching institutions are functioning like full-time schools, also providing accommodation to the students and so on. On average, these courses might cost about Rs 80,000 to even one lakh.

If due to some reason, a student is unable or unwilling to take up a coaching institute during their drop year, there are a number of YouTube videos available online free of cost that focus on specific topics and chapters for doubt clearing.

In addition to this, if you are taking coaching or not, regular mock tests are very important. A number of mock tests are also available on the internet if students want to access them.

Kapil Gupta, NEET Mentor and Career Strategist, Neetprep: The most important thing to consider in the context of repeaters is that there are frequent burnouts involved in the process. I suggest all the students make a schedule that includes at least seven to eight hours of sleep as well as three to four hours of non-study time. This could include any hobbies, family time, walks or workouts, just make sure you are dedicating some time out of the day to things other than studying.

Another option that the repeaters might consider is joining online platforms for mock tests and question papers or doubt clearing. These are significantly cheaper and more affordable than classroom learning.

I have seen good success rate for students who choose to study without any coaching as well.

Om Kumar Sahoo, Former NEET aspirant: For me, self-study was a way to find self-sufficiency but, in the end, it depends from person to person.

For me personally, a few parts of the process were hard, especially while taking Physics but I had decided that I need to solve the problem.

The main reason I did not take coaching is that the other way was much calmer. This is how I would like to describe the process of self-studying – calm, modest, and simple.

Anushka Pant, Former NEET aspirant: I took a three-year drop for NEET prep. For the first year, I went to Kota, where I had coaching at Allen Career Institute. It was, of course, an experience but after facing immense pressure over there and health issues, I decided to go back home and start self-study.

I had access to all the coaching material. So, it was pretty easy for me but it all depends on your willpower. Otherwise, NCERT is always the key. You can also always take help from some online channels and keep solving the previous year's multiple-choice questions (MCQs).