Pros and Cons of Dropping a Year for NEET Preparation

As you are appearing for NEET 2022, you have surely tried every possible way to prepare for this examination. However, you may not feel confident about your possibilities to crack this year. Or else, you could not prepare well enough because of the Board exams.

Irrespective of the reasons, it is normal. Because of a huge syllabus and an ever-increasing competition, this exam is considered as one difficult hurdle for medical aspirants. This article does a complete analysis of the pros and cons of dropping a year for NEET preparation.

So, if you are in a dilemma, several NEET droppers’ success stories and this article can help you to make an informed decision.

Scenarios that Lead Students to Drop a Year for NEET Examination

1. Unable to Achieve Good Marks

This is the primary reason why many candidates choose to take a year off. For an exam like NEET, the score isn't as important as our rank among the other candidates. You might feel a little bad after getting fewer marks. In this case, a candidate can choose to drop a year, but keep in mind the disadvantages.

2. Unable to Prepare Because of Health Issues and Other Personal Issues.

Even though our technology has advanced greatly, the predictability of the future is beyond our control. In this case, you wouldn't be able to do anything. Consider the case of a pandemic, which occurred at the beginning of 2020 and caused many candidates to skip their NEET exam after becoming sick with the deadly virus, which affected people's daily lives across the country. In this situation, the candidates will have little choice but to drop a year because these are conditions beyond their control.

3. It is Your First Time Taking an Entrance Exam.

Extremely competitive entrance exams have a lengthy syllabus, and not everyone can complete it in time; for some, it may take months to complete the entire syllabus and get well versed with it. So because the NEET syllabus is entirely dependent on NCERT textbooks, this cannot be considered an acceptable reason to skip a year.

Should Students Drop a Year or Not?

Usually, the aspiration of becoming a doctor is higher than an engineer in students. Thus, engineering students do not often come across confusion like should I drop a year for JEE or not. Thus, the numbers are more in NEET than in JEE.

But, to clear out this confusion, students should not only rely on their intuitions. They should only take any decision after proper reasoning of different factors. The following are some pros and cons of dropping a year for NEET preparation.

Pros of Dropping a Year for NEET Preparation

• Betterment of Your Preparation

One of the major advantages of dropping a year is that students can have the opportunity to fix the weaker points of their preparation.

Due to the vast syllabus and Board exams, you often find these two years insufficient for NEET UG. Thus, another year can provide you with better chances to consolidate the concepts and improvements. 

• Improvement of Your Past Performance

As you already have appeared for this exam once and are wishing for a higher score, a one-year break can be fruitful. During this year, you can analyse your past performance and understand where you need to work more.

Also, you can solely focus on NEET preparation without having any second thoughts in your mind. With comprehensive learning, NEET 2022 preparation tips, and mock tests, you can achieve the desired score.

• Achievable Rank

After last year’s NEET rank, you have now understood where you are precisely standing. Thus, with systematic improvement in your performance, you can rank significantly better. As you have experienced what effort comes with which rank, you can work on it and achieve your preferred rank in NEET.

• Aiming for Best Colleges

As an aspiring medical student, your ultimate goal is surely to get admission to the best dental and medical colleges across the country. But, because of the huge competition, it can be a difficult job to secure. So, instead of compromising with mediocre college admission, you can pursue your dream by taking a year’s drop.

In the next year, you can reappear in NEET with more confidence and preparation and secure a seat in one of your dream colleges.

Cons of Dropping a Year for NEET Preparation

• Losing a Year

Taking one year drop for NEET preparation means you have to go through similar preparation and concepts for an extra year. Furthermore, this can be stressful as well. Again, if you have future plans for higher studies like a Masters Degree or Ph.D., you may not afford to lose a whole year. So, dropping one year can go against such plans.

• Pressure of Performance

As the previous year’s performance was not satisfactory, you may feel extreme pressure to outperform others. Or else, this extra year can seem to you as a complete waste. Thus, with all this pressure, sometimes you can be diverted, and the result can turn out to be poorer. But, with self-motivation and dropper success stories NEET, you can inspire yourself and steer these stresses.

• Side Effects

As you are considering a tough decision, you need to understand that this extra year will not go smoothly for you. Every day’s preparation may not turn out what you have determined. Getting along with another year of strenuous preparation may not be easy. Sometimes you can feel depressed, frustrated, discouraged, or bored. However, all these feelings are normal as you have put a higher stake this time, and the fear of failing is greater as well.

Thus, after analysing the pros and cons of dropping a year for NEET preparation, you must have understood what can be beneficial for you and what can go against your future. For further clarification, you should take this one-year break only if you are 100% confident about your potential.

You can give yourself this second chance. Either you want to change the college to a better one, or you know that you will perform better with another year of preparation. During this year you can engage yourself with some fitness classes along with your NEET crash course. This way, you can be fit both mentally and physically.