A bit about myself that will be helpful for you to judge the experience better - I was never so much interested in becoming a doctor. Also, I wanted to be an engineer because of my attitude: if my brother can do it, so can I. My parents had quite high hopes for me to become a doctor as they had in mind I am good at mugging things up ("rattan"). I don't blame them for it, though, because apparently, my marks in the subjects that required mugging up were quite high compared to others. Not that I was weak in math, but just the fact that I was strong in chemistry and biology. The first time I told them I didn't want to pursue medical was when they were talking about my scholarship in the ACST exam and that I had to take admission in Aakash. I told them I would much rather prefer to take the FIITJEE exam and take admission for the engineering course and take biology as an extra. Oh boy! They got so angry and said that I was not suitable for engineering and whatnot.
I was admitted to Aakash Institute Patna Boring Road Centre through the ACST test, and I scored a remission of about 85%. Still, my parents had to pay 1 lakh something fee. They also fixed the van service, which again cost quite a lot. I would suggest not to take the van service. I did make a good friend there, but still, sometimes you will get very rude drivers.
My experience in 11th grade is so amazing that I would love to live it again. It was not because the teachers were fantastic but the fact that the friends that I made on the very first day were superb. OMG, how can I be so lucky to find not one but three idiots (let's name them Alpha, Beta, and Gamma) who shared such a similar vibe? Also, the girl that I befriended in the van. I loved to spend every minute, every second with them. It was so much fun. Alongside the fun we had, we did not let that falter our ranks in the test. I almost always secured the 3rd rank in our centre, and Alpha always secured the 1st position. My rank fluctuated so much because I didn't like to pay any attention to zoology. Bro, I swear to God I hated the Animal Kingdom and Biomolecules chapters so much. I never used to study zoology for the test. I could never. My marks in botany were average because of my OG teacher. I am forgetting his name, but no, he was not the famous one.
My zoology teacher used to explain everything in so much detail that even medical students wouldn't be studying that in their first year. Seriously, TBH, I liked his classes only for the reason that in his class we mostly used to pen fight, make so many jokes, and try not to laugh at things. I was the most troublesome during his class. My vibes matched the most with Gamma, and we used to do so much in his class that even Alpha got pissed one time lol. Our chemistry ma'am was amazing. I liked her way of teaching, and also the fact that she made us do some JEE mains questions too in the classroom. Talking about our physics sir - he did his M. Tech from IITR, and he was so... I don't know what to say about him. I don't have words for his personality. Many students did not like physics (because of these remedies) so they did not pay much attention to him, but I liked him and the fact he did not waste time on the simple chapters and got us JEE mains questions to solve. Also, his way of teaching was something many students mocked. I can't properly explain how, but he had an innocent but crazy personal smile, he used to share strange stories of his life, and the way he used his hands to point at something and OMG the penguin walk XD.
In 12th, lockdown came and many students who had the potential to crack NEET in the first chance lost to the mental battle of keeping up. My 12th-grade teachers were some of the best in the entire centre as I got the 1st batch, PBTY1. Earlier, I was in PBTY2 (although some say you should not prefer the 1st batch). The thing is, if the classes had been offline, then many aspirants would have scored such high marks rather than what happened due to the lockdown. I faltered badly. I started playing PUBG and all. I didn't attend lectures. I fooled my parents badly this time. I copied the solutions for all the tests as I had hold of two accounts (one was my friend's) and always showed my parents I got 580+ marks. It is the worst possible thing I ever did, and I regret it so much. In reality, I could not even cross the threshold of 450, like ever.
So speaking about academic help, I want to say that if you follow your teachers properly, you will receive quite a lot of help. But TBH, students like myself (even if my personal goal was to crack medical and not engineering) shouldn't be taking coaching, at least for NEET, because everything in NEET comes from NCERT.
I went on to score 480-something on the exam, which was expected, but let me tell you one thing: I did the complete biology preparation, both 11th and 12th, within just a month (I even barfed so many times because I was putting so much effort to not dislike what I was doing. I forced myself to study something I didn't want to study). Not a very big achievement compared to the marks, but I knew two things deep down:
- This lockdown did affect my mental peace to an extent I could never recover, and I know this happened to many.
- If I had made up my mind to crack NEET, I would have.
So all in all, I don't think that the centre is completely bad, but I would suggest trying to crack these exams without their help. I would suggest joining only if you feel like you need help. Otherwise, the combination of NCERT + PYQ + any coaching material should be more than enough if you possess enough discipline. Also, if you are suffering mentally, do seek help. It would help a lot.