Not many of us manage to clear MRCEM part B in the very
first attempt. But there’s always
(almost) a second time! I’m just trying to enumerate few points here so that it
would help the future exam takers pass the exam in the debutant attempt. Most
of these points are directly or indirectly discussed in detail by Lakshay
in his post http://emdidactic.blogspot.in/2015/09/mrcem-part-b-do-you-know-exam-well.html . This might just be an attempt to rephrase the same as a practice for IELTS
writing :-P
1. When to start studying? How many times
should I revise?
Decide what are you – Superman? Batman?
Wonder woman? Shaktiman ? or ACP
Pradyumn?
The first 3 might just need 4-6 months of
dedicated study, the 4th might need slightly more and the last one…hmm…OK!
Decide it for yourself!
2. OHEM Vs Victoria Stacey!
There haven’t been any randomized
controlled trials to conclusively say that one is better than the other. But
our team has evaluated multiple case reports with varied results. On initial
eyeballing, our impression is that OHEM > Stacey (though you need to study
both). More studies are warranted for
conclusive evidence on the same!
3. “OHEM? That book of Lilliput’s?”
Yes! Read it and understand it LINE BY
LINE! Just reading OHEM without adequate clinical experience won’t help but
reading this amazing (Often boring) mini, one-stop-for-all book definitely
gives you an idea of how to write the answers in exam! Believe it or not it
just LOOKS small!
4. Discuss – Read – Discuss – Repeat!
That’s completely normal for an ER
physician, I mean having ADHD! That’s one of our core characters! But when it
comes to studying, that might be a problem! So…finding a study partner would
definitely help. A partner whose ADHD score is slightly lesser than that of
yours would be a good idea. You need to discuss emergency medicine; not game of
thrones, cricket, music, travel, poetry….OMG! It’s exam time and everything in
the world apart from books look so damn interesting!!!
5. Solve as many questions as possible!
Online question banks can be subscribed for
few months - keep solving these questions. This helps a lot especially when
continuous reading becomes notoriously directionless.
These are also confidence boosters.
6. Mock the exams! Do not let the exams mock
you!
So if you are working in a department where
there are seniors, registrars and consultants request them to conduct topic
wise, weekly, mock tests – Make a plan and cover every topic.
+ 3-4 mega tests a month before the exam
will be of great help.
Score your papers amongst yourselves and
discuss the answers – Preferably under the guidance of someone who has already
cleared the exam. Let there be some competitive
spirit as well!
7. List those must know criteria, scores,
scale, rules - rule them all!
8.
Know
what/how *EXACTLY* to write the answers
Select your standard answers before the exam. Example: Analgesia - Remember 1 opioid and 1
NSAID with dose + route and write that in exam. Don’t waste time deciding
between Ketorolac, Diclofenac, Ibuprofen, Paracetamol, etc. inside the exam
hall. Have ‘standard answers’ for
‘standard questions’ to be above the standards in exam!
Be very very specific
in all your answers - ’Oxygen’ is not an answer; ‘Oxygen XYZ liters/min via ABC
mask to maintain saturation of PQR’ is the answer! (You can fine tune these skills
during the mock test sessions)
9. Let your brain be a tropical iceberg during
the exam!
Cool, calm, like a shift in the ED– and you
are almost half way through the exam. Don’t let the global warming effect you during
those two hours!
Also, TIME IS EVERYTHING! Do not waste time
on a question you don’t know anything about! Move on. Dermatology can wait!
Deal with the other emergencies first and come back to the rash in the end for
a detailed analysis!!! Be Dhoni! FINISH IT!
Author
Dr. Apoorva Chandra, MRCEM
Twitter: @apoorvamagic
Resident, Emergency Medicine
Apollo Health City, Hyderabad
apoorvamagic@gmail.com
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