PMT Gurumantra – the first ever initiative by a medical student to guide NEET aspirants

PMT Gurumantra: Guru Shishya Parampara Redefined – 13 Glorious Years.

PMT (NEET) Gurumantra was launched on 17th June 2011. Today is the Happy Birthday of my first social entrepreneurial endeavour that didn’t gave me any direct monetary gains, but gave me lots of love and respect from students community.

Long before any medico had a YouTube Channel, medicos were active on Quora. Long before Unacademy came into existence, long before medical students were posting reels on social media, www.pmtgurumantra.in was perhaps the only bridge between a bunch of medicos and medical aspirants.

The story behind PMT Gurumantra

While preparing for medical entrance exams, I realized there was a lack of quality mentorship. Many coaching teachers hadn’t cleared any entrance exams themselves and lacked the understanding of competitive exams. After clearing my medical entrance, I decided to help students preparing for the same.

During my first year of MBBS, I received many calls from students in Kota preparing for PMTs. I would guide them over the phone, but soon realized this only helped a few individuals and required repeating the same strategy to each student. So I thought of compiling all my advise, strategy in the form of a blog.

How I made the blog PMT Gurumantra

13 years back, I made this website on a wordpress blog with zero technical knowledge, learning everything on the go.

I wanted to be a mentor for medical aspirants, friendly and like an elder brother and yet be strict and formal. So I named the website as ‘PMT Gurumantra’ and its tagline as ‘Guru Shishya Parampara Redefined’! I believed in meaningful conversations, avoiding distractions and used to give to the point replies to the questions.

Within 20 days of the launch, Hindustan Times covered my endeavour in a small article that helped me in gaining little traction. My website had around 650 hits that day and gained almost 100 new followers. I still remember the names of those few students who helped me in getting word of mouth publicity. Within 3 months, I was covered by few online webpages and soon comments started pouring in and I started clearing doubts of students.

I followed no proper writing protocol. There were lots of spelling errors. I had zero idea of SEO tactics. But it was result of my zeal of providing meaningful content and clearing doubts of the students that within few months of operation, my website started ranking on the top page for most keywords, even ahead of major coaching institutions like Allen and Aakash.

Soon, I got covered by the Hindu and other national and local newspapers. I also launched Biology books which had been instant hit and the blog played a major role in boosting the sales of my books. With mentors like Vaibhav, Kshitij, Deepak, Anshika and many others, in the initial 5 years till 2016, we were able to guide thousands of aspirants and solved more than 10,000 individual queries, without charging anything.

What went wrong with PMT Gurumantra?

I had many plans for the website, but within a year, reality struck. MBBS final exams, PG entrance preparations, and a demanding residency took over, leaving me with no time for the website. A few medical students continued engaging with aspirants, but the movement faded out within five years of its inception.

I tried to revamp the website few times, but with half hearted approach and the results went in vain. My books went out of publishing and I had no time to get the latest edition. Soon, there were scores of medical students on Quora, YouTube and Instagram and the name of PMT Gurumantra disappeared from everyone’s memory.

Though dormant for last couple of years, the legacy of ‘Guru Shishya Parampara’ still continues in various other forms.
PMT Gurumantra, Now NEET at your fingertips – future plans?

PMT Gurumantra is now being revamped as ‘NEET at your fingertips ‘. The website is now live, but the official relaunch is pending. I need to overcome a few more obstacles and bring someone on board to manage the website full time on my behalf.

I always believe that the content on website lasts longer, and safer to browse than the content on social media. Browsing on website is more insightful, less distracting and prevents students from wasting their time while interacting on social media. I’m working to create a space for meaningful discussions that won’t get lost in the endless scroll of social media feeds.

Hopefully, I will be able to revamp the website again in its full glory. I already have released Physics at your fingertips which is available in the market. The next is Chemistry at your fingertips. Moreover, revised edition of Biology at your fingertips soon in the market.