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Time for an exam update:
The critical skills paper was nice. Very nice in fact. However, we felt suspicious. Why might they have made it that simple? We could think of no catches, no sneaky little questions that plant a little seed of doubt and eat away at you till results day. So we were happy.
Unfortunately, all became clear as we opened the second paper “key clinical knowledge”. Damnit – DVTs? Why not simply a PE? Why vascular dementia rather than alzheimers? In all fairness we had covered all of this, but the conditions they questioned us on seemed to be those which were secondary to the scenarios we were given to learn about. We had a number of cases about heart disease, chest pain etc, and of course this lead us to also learn about DVTs, but after having concentrated on MIs, IHD, etc.
Still, I had a fair crack at it, and hopefully I have passed, albeit not particularly spectacularly.
The real fun started at the third paper. Granted I probably should have actually attempted some anatomy this year, but what can I say –I was having a little “motivational trouble”. So about a third or so of the paper was stats and public health, and the other two third A&P. the stats and public health were nice and easy, but oh lord did I struggle on the A&P.
So all in all I’m reckoning a good pass in paper 1, a pass on the scrapey side in paper 2, and a very possible resit for paper 3. not that it matters, there’s no sun anyway.
And then for the OSCE. I unfortunately was in the morning of the first day, so I was going in totally blind. They say they change the stations each time, but it’s a load of bull. Last year I actually had a plan of all the stations around the ward. So obviously it pays to be towards the end of the week. But despite this setback, I’m actually quite pleased with my performance. Pulled of a near perfect injection I think, and didn’t make any other blinding errors, but my examination for hyperthyroidism was a bit on the sparse side. But I think everyone in my group was, simply because we didn’t know we would be asked to examine for a condition – in the past it has just been “please perform a thyroid examination”. a couple of my histories were a little crap too - blank brain syndrome struck, and also the computer ECG and Family inheretance chart interpretation were a bit on the mean side. I also made a bit of a mess of basic life support as I got flustered, which is an instant fail, but they give you the chance to resit just this station on the last day, which should be fine as I’ve put in a bit of practice. And I got all the basic stuff like washing hands, explaining procedure, gaining consent etc, and these are the bits which really seem to get you're marks up. So here’s hoping for a pass
So that’s that until Thursday when I may be invited back for the BLS resit, and then results next Friday. Can’t hurt to start a little resit work in advance I guess…
good luck for any liverpool peeps who have yet to take their OSCEs. but since you know exactly whats going to come up you should be fine anyway. not that i'm bitter in any way...
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"The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease."
Voltaire (1694 - 1778)
University of Liverpool 4th year medic
Last edited by Chang; 12-07-2007 at 06:41 PM.
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