There is no secret ingredient but you (From the hollywood movie Kung Fu Panda) As I pen these words now, a feeling of relief and exitement goes through my mind. With hard work, prayers of my parents and wellwishers and blessings of Lord Almighty, I have been able to achieve my dream a post graduate seat  at one of the best institutes in India. I would like to share a few words regarding this eventful journey. Having narrowly missed a PG seat through State entrance examination due to indecipherable quota and roster system and thrownaway a PG seat in Manipal University simply because I can't afford the tuition fees, and having missed a PG seat through COMEDK 2009 by just one mark, I made up my mind to be determined and focussed to achieve my goal in the simplest way possible to go for a good rank that remains immune to all the obstacles  and what I have achieved now has never occurred even in the wildest of my dreams.

My parents, my brother and my relatives have been a constant source of encouragement and moral support. Getting to the point, dental post graduate entrance examination has become more unpredictable in recent years and I got the first hand experience of it when I appeared for the All India Dental PGEE 2009. Shocked at the reality and my preparation level, I decided to up the ante to be in the race.

     The most important and significant thing which I realised was that solving the previous year's medical papers is equally or sometimes more important as compared to dental papers. It helped me to know and learn about numerous intricate and complicated things in General Medicine, Pathology, Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Physiology. But to go to that level I should be confident with the dentistry subjects and that's what I got by preparing it during the initial stages of my preparation. It's not possible to read each and every line from all standard textbooks, but what can be done is having a clarity in basic concepts and reading all the important topics from textbooks. Solving as many MCQs as possible before reading the theory helped me in gaining an insight in what topics and areas importance must be given and in what possible ways questions may be asked. Being clear about the basics helps to save precious time in reading and understanding complicated topics.

     Discussing on online forums helps in clearing doubts, knowing some entrirely new things which you may not be familiar with but others may have an idea about or even well versed in them. As much as working hard, it's equally important to relax and not to lose your cool even in most frustrating circumstances when nothing goes right. It would be fitting here to thank Dr.Vinayak Senthil, Director, Speed Medical Institute and Dr. Senthil Moorthy, Co-Ordinator of dental faculties and all the faculty members for their constant motivation and inspirational words.

     I am grateful to my Alma Mater, St. John's Matriculation HSS, Chennai and SRM University, Chennai for being the backbone of my progress throughout my school and college days and to my friends, who always lend a helping hand, motivate me and take pride in my achievements. Last, but never the least, I am grateful to my parents for making me what I am today and my sweet brother who keeps my energy levels always high. Hard work always pays, Later if not sooner.