Who built BCBR Buddy

Why I made BCBR Buddy, what I checked before selling it, and what I left out.

Sachin Jagtap

MBBS, resident in ophthalmology

👋 Hi, I’m Sachin

I am a PG resident, and I am also the one who built BCBR Buddy. A doctor making apps may sound a bit odd. This is not my first website and not my last, but it is the first one I made because I needed it myself.

I am still learning coding. As a resident, I can’t sit and learn full software engineering. But if you know clearly what you want and keep improving it, today’s tools can get you there, piece by piece. That is how I made this. There is no team of engineers behind it, it’s just me.

😐 Four days before my exam

4 days before my exam, I still didn’t know what to read. Nobody in my batch knew either. We asked around and got nowhere. Then a few PDFs started going around, with hundreds of recalled questions and the answers marked.

The questions were useful, but the PDFs were hard to study from. Just a letter beside each question, nothing else. No explanation of why that answer is right or why the other options are wrong. Knowing the answer is “c” doesn’t help if you don’t understand why.

BCBR is about research methods and biostatistics, and most of us who have to pass it are clinicians who never studied these properly. I am one of them, I am not from PSM. So there I was, 4 days before the exam, reading answers I didn’t understand and getting more frustrated every hour.

The topics are not difficult. The problem is that many terms sound the same but mean different things, and the exam asks exactly those differences. Information seeking vs retrieval vs critical appraisal. Confounding vs effect modification. Validity vs reliability. Once these are clear, the exam becomes manageable. The PDFs didn’t help with any of this.

So I started making what I actually wanted: every question with an explanation that clears up these confusing terms. I made it for my own exam and for my co-PGs giving it with me. I gave the exam with it and I passed. After that I felt it was worth finishing properly.

My full story is here: how I prepared for the BCBR exam.

🔍 What I found when I checked the answers

Before putting it online, I checked all 690 answers. 20 official answers are wrong as per standard books, like a sample size of six, a median reported with a standard deviation, matching given as a way to control unknown confounders, and phase 2 given for long-term adverse effects. 5 more were wrong in the PDF, so I corrected them.

For those 20, the Qbank still marks the official answer as correct, because that is what the exam gives marks for. But each one has a note explaining the correct concept. You should pass the exam and understand the concept properly. As far as I know, no one else does this, and it is the part I am most confident about.

🎯 What I learnt from giving the exam

Two things, and both changed how I made this app.

• Time is not a problem. 3 hours for 100 questions is 1.8 minutes each. Nobody runs out of time. So there are no speed drills here. Practising speed would only make you rush in an exam where you need to read carefully.
• It is about recognising the question. What decides pass or fail is whether you have already seen that type of question before. That is the whole idea behind this Qbank.

To be clear: I know the exam format and which topics keep coming. I don’t have any live exam paper, and I don’t know what will come in your exam.

🚫 What I left out

No streaks, no badges, no leaderboards. Other apps have all of these, but they only make you open the app more. They don’t help you pass.

For every feature I ask one question: does this help you pass? If not, I leave it out.

⚖️ What this is not

BCBR Buddy is an independent study app. It is not affiliated with or approved by ICMR, NIE or any government body. I don’t have any live exam paper, and I can’t promise that you will pass.

What I can promise: the questions are relevant, the explanations actually explain, I fix mistakes quickly when you report them, and if it is not what you expected, you can get your money back as per the refund policy.

🏢 Who publishes it

The content, the explanations and the answer checking are mine. The app is published by LUMINOVIX TECHNOLOGIES, my proprietorship firm registered in India, which handles payments, support and the legal side. Full business details are on the contact page.

🤝 Let’s connect

If you found a mistake in a question, need help with a payment, or just want to say hi, you can reach me here.

Found a wrong answer or a bad explanation? Tell me. I can fix it for everyone within minutes, without any app update.

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