How a Medical Student Got a NEET UG Biology Teaching Job on EdTech To Cover Living Costs
It’s 8:17 PM on a Wednesday in my first year med hostel, and I’m staring at my bank app, the blue screen glowing in the dim light from my study lamp. My balance reads ₹1247. Mess fee is ₹3000 due in five days, I need a new lab coat and a box of dissection gloves, and my parents just finished paying my annual tuition. They can’t send another rupee this month, not with my little sister’s school fees due the same week. I flip through the stack of old notebooks on my bunk, and stop at the thick blue binder labeled NEET BIOLOGY. I scored 350 out of 360 on that section just 10 months earlier. I’d heard upperclassmen talk about teaching to cover living costs, but I had no idea how to actually get a spot on any edtech platform.
I spent the next three nights filling out generic applications for every big name platform I could think of—Unacademy, Vedantu, Byju’s. I wrote “MBBS student, good at biology” on my resume, hit submit, and waited. A week went by, and I got one generic rejection email, then radio silence from the rest. I was frustrated enough to give up, until I ran into Riya, a second year, at the college canteen the next Saturday. She was splitting a plate of vada pav with a friend, and when I mentioned what I was trying to do, she pulled out her phone and showed me her own edtech profile, then told me everything I was doing wrong.
First off, she said, don’t waste your time going after the big name platforms that hunt for full-time celebrity educators right off the bat. They almost never take part-time current med students with no prior teaching experience. Instead, start with smaller platforms that focus specifically on NEET UG coaching, and actively look for recent top scorers. Students love learning from someone who just took the exam, remembers what it feels like to mix up Krebs cycle steps or struggle with genetics Punnett squares, so platforms are happy to hire us. She named a few that were hiring when I was looking: Doubtnut for part-time doubt solving, NEETPrep for junior part-time faculty, even Allen and Aakash have open part-time roles for med students to handle small batches and doubt sessions.
Next, she told me what to put in my application that would actually get noticed. Most people just list that they’re an MBBS student, she said, but that doesn’t tell the platform anything. Lead with your NEET biology score right at the top, before you mention you’re in med school. That’s the number they care about most for NEET teaching. Then add one or two specific areas you’re strong in, not just “I know biology”. I wrote “Full marks in genetics and plant physiology, experienced in breaking down complex diagrams for visual learners”. Then, the thing almost no one does: make a 2-minute sample video with your phone. No fancy editing, no fancy background, just you explaining one common NEET concept or question. I did mine on how to remember the difference between C3 and C4 plants, leaning against my bunk bed with my old notes, and I didn’t even cut out the part where a crow flew into the window and made me jump. Attach that to your application, she said, and you’ll stand out from 90% of other applicants.
I redid my applications that night, sent one to Doubtnut for a part-time NEET biology doubt solving role first, because Riya said doubt solving is way easier to get into than full batch teaching when you’re starting out. It’s also flexible—you can log in and answer questions whenever you have free time after class, instead of being tied to a fixed schedule that clashes with dissections or college tests. I got a reply three days later, asking me to take a quick 20-question NEET biology assessment. I finished it in 12 minutes, got 19 right, and got hired that same week.
My first month, I answered questions for about an hour every night after dinner, and made ₹4200. That covered my mess fee, my lab coat and gloves, and even bought me a new pair of sneakers I’d been needing. After three months of doubt solving, I had a little work experience under my belt, so I applied for a small weekend batch teaching role on a regional NEET edtech platform. I got the spot, and now I make around ₹12,000 a month. That covers all my living costs: mess, groceries, stationery, bus fare home once a month to see my family, and even the occasional coffee and snack with friends. I don’t have to ask my parents for extra money for anything, which takes a lot of pressure off them and off me.
The biggest thing I’ve learned that I pass on to other first years who ask me about this is that you don’t need to be a perfect teacher or have fancy credentials to do this. Edtech platforms don’t expect you to have 10 years of experience. They just want someone who knows the NEET syllabus inside out, can explain things clearly, and is reliable. The other rule I stick to is to not overcommit. I cap my hours at 10 a week—one hour a day on weekdays, two hours each on Saturday and Sunday. That leaves me plenty of time for college, studying for my own exams, and even hanging out with friends. If I have a big med school assessment coming up, I just cut back to 3 or 4 hours that week, and all the platforms I work with are fine with that, because they know we’re students first.
Right now, this setup works really well for me. It turns out that teaching NEET biology also helps me revise my own concepts for my MBBS anatomy and physiology classes, so it’s a win-win that I didn’t even expect. I know once I get to third year and my schedule gets a lot heavier, I might have to cut back or stop altogether. Some months the pay is a little lower if I take time off for college events, and sometimes I get a really rude student or parent that leaves me stressed for 10 minutes before I move on. It’s not a perfect, glamorous side income. But it’s steady, it fits my life as a med student, and it covers all the little living costs that add up every month. For now, that’s more than enough for me.
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