It is an institute of national importance, located in Bangalore, Karnataka. It caters to the needs of patients from all around India and neighbouring Asian Countries. It also trains human resources into expert mental health professionals, serving the nation. It is well known for its multi-disciplinary approach, in diagnosing and treating mental disorders. Being a part of this premier institute as a mental health professional ; is what most of the psychology student aspires for! Isn’t it ?? The amount of patient exposure, well trained faculty, latest laboratories etc is way beyond any comparison!
Goals set?
Good enough but not actually enough for what it takes to be there. As a M. Phil aspirant one have conceptual clarity and the knack to apply these concepts to various domains of clinical psychology. The process of being a psychology student and now being a M.Phil aspirant must have been a long one. But since the NIMHANS entrance is just a month away. Gear up students. Every
minute counts.
Key Points
It all starts from the basic conceptual clarity. Some key points, which would be instrumental in preparation, in this crucial one month’s time are as follows:
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Study smart –
Read the general psychology textbooks thoroughly. As students we tend to ignore the experiments and supporting researches of how a concept came into being; what inspired the theorists, and what is the latest work in that area. Reading about a concept, isolating these important factors leads us to nowhere. In order to develop an insight about the topic we need to adopt a methodological way of reading it. Don’t study much; study smart instead!
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Try to form questions –
While reading a specific topic, try to form a question out of every statement you read.
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Focus on the names of the authors, researchers, psychologists –
Focus on the names of the authors, researchers, psychologists etc and try to arrange them in a chronological manner so that you know how a concept was conceived.
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Explain the concepts to others –
Develop the habit of explaining back the topics to your friends citing examples and applying the concepts in life situations How wonderful it would be if you can explain the concepts to friends from different streams apart from psychology!!
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Read the glossary
Read the glossary section of each book thoroughly. This helps in solving the MCQ’s quickly.
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Read properly and minutely
There are some topics which have to be read properly and minutely now. So that you can be a productive future clinical psychologist. For instance, the topics like intelligence and learning. The topic of Intelligence covers a vast majority of sub-topics like history of intelligence, history of assessment, earlier and contemporary theories. Intelligence tests developed based on these theories, so on and so forth. As a clinical psychologist trainee, students are expected to deal with intellectual disability cases day in and day out. It could be right from professionally diagnosing the cases to therapeutic measures to rehabilitation. Another example could be the topic of learning. What after diagnosing the individual with certain level of intellectual disability.? As a clinical psychologists the plan of treatment would include major therapies ; mostly behavioural techniques in case of childhood disorders. Thus the learning chapter which includes classical and instrumental conditioning, reinforcement types and schedules etc have to be understood properly.https://www.uibsdel.org/product/m-phil-in-clinical-psychology/
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Prepare for application based questions
A lot of application based questions are often put up during the interview rounds; just to check the conceptual clarity of the individual. So you see rote memory helps but not always!!
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Remain updated –
Keep yourself updated with the recent changes in DSM and ICD. Also familiarize yourself with the clinical terms. It helps.
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Know mental health Act –
Keep checking the latest amendments in the acts and laws related to mental health.Be thorough be the Rehabilitation Council Of India(RCI)’s site. A lot of valuable information is put up there.
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Accept your weakness –
Considering individual differences, lets accept that all of us have some strong and some weak areas. Accepting one’s drawbacks is beautiful, but do work on them as well.
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Check where you stand? –
Practise timed tests and mock test papers. Do not be scared to check where you stand!
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Sleep Well
Sleep well students, talking about the long term potentiation!!
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Stay positive –
Stay positive; God helps those who help themselves.
