it sjustaquiz

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Introduction

As I walked out of the 2005 paper in a dazed fashion, I reminisced about studyingfor the FRACP written examination. Ingrid and I then wondered whether a fewsage words from those who have gone before might be helpful. I started typing afew weeks ago; a few sage words have mutated to a tome! (But nothing like theOxford Textbook).

The opinions expressed are our own, and wont work for everyone. The journey tothe FRACP written exam is long, arduous and, at times, painful. Youll laugh,youll cry, youll hurl. Youll lose some friends but make others. You will also gaina lot of knowledge and become a better doctor (although it doesnt feel like itmuch of the time!). Take heart that you are not the first person to study for this'quiz, you wont be the last and at least there are other people to moan to. Andmoan you will. We did. A lot.

When should I sit the exam?

One year is plenty of time to get through the material. Some start earlier (e.g.January in the year before) Many candidates did no work until the Sydney courseand passed, however remember that (just like at school) there are those annoyingpeople who never did any work and studied their tails off in secret.

If youre sitting with the next batch or not, religiously attend all the Wednesdayteaching sessions, journal clubs, grand rounds, radiology conferences that youcan get your hands on. It all helps. Read around your patients. Teach your houseofficers some stuff to break the boredom of faxing and putting up blood forms (youknow you understand something really well only when you can explain it

coherently to someone else!).

If youre not sure if you want to sit, consider joining a study group, and talksomeone whos done the exam.

Good luck!

Zo and the gang

PS-If you have any comments or contributions for the next edition, please emailthem to CETU or find me in the coffee line.


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Table of Contents

What to do first?..................................................................................4Study Group Ideas..............................................................................5

What do you do at study group?.........................................................................5Wednesday Teaching .........................................................................6How to start.........................................................................................7

Having a plan ..................................................................................................... 7Mango Book from the College .......................................................................... 7

Learning Resources............................................................................8How to wallpaper your mind ............................................................................... 8Harrisons Principles of Internal Medicine...........................................................8MKSAP questions...............................................................................................9Current Medical Diagnosis and Treatment ....................................................... 10Up To Date ....................................................................................................... 10Oxford Textbook of Medicine............................................................................ 11Other useful books and resources.................................................................... 12

Steves CD ....................................................................................................... 12Dont forget about ......................................................................................... 12Immunology......................................................................................................12

Suggested approach to journals........................................................13Websites we found useful .................................................................14Old Questions and MCQs .................................................................15

How to find the questions, year by year............................................................ 152005........................................................................................................................152004........................................................................................................................152003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999 ................................................................................16

Other papers .................................................................................................... 16Practice exams .......................................................................................................16AMSAP questions...................................................................................................16Harrisons MCQ book..............................................................................................16

Studying and keeping sane (ish).......................................................17How to study?...................................................................................................17

Going to a Revision Course ..............................................................19Two week Courses........................................................................................... 19

Dunedin ..................................................................................................................19Melbourne...............................................................................................................19Sydney....................................................................................................................20Delta Med Courses .................................................................................................20

Money for Jam..................................................................................21Exam technique-leading up to the Big Day .......................................22

On the Day ....................................................................................................... 22What to do next?...............................................................................23

Waiting for Godot..............................................................................................23What to do if you pass...................................................................................... 23What to do if you dont pass ............................................................................. 23


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What to do first?

1. Form a study group. From observation, this will increase your chance ofpassing

2. Introduce yourself to the Director of Physician Training at your hospital

3. Join the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (forms available on-line)

4. Book into a 2 week exam preparation course (Dunedin, Sydney, Melbourne)

5. Organise study leave (as much as you can get!). I found that about 6x singleweeks off, plus two weeks off for Dunedin, scattered over 8 months to be reallygood. (With more time off you may find yourself renovating the house orwalking your dog t.d.s)

6. Do your best to get an exam friendly job from November (i.e. can actuallytake study leave, not too many weekends/nights/long days). Lots of peoplefrom our year opted for a 0.7 reliever job. The vast majority passed. It makes ahuge difference having time off

7. Start explaining to your house officer that you will not be around onWednesday afternoons. They will understand

8. Find someone friendly from the previous year from whom to cadge lecturenotes/old exams/material from course/tips

9. Consider a DeltaMed last minute exam revision course

10. Go to a stationery shop and buy a sturdy hole-punch, stapler, a big bunch offolders, lots of highlighters, dividers, and memory cards

11. Explain to your family and friends that you are becoming a self-imposedhermit. This is not because you are a bad person. This is a tough exam thatwill require a lot of your time and energy


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Study Group Ideas

Many candidates find a study group useful (nigh essential), we certainly did! Wedspend the first hour or so moaning about work, and how hard the exam was,before settling down to do some hard graft. Every group is different, but what wefound useful was.

Meeting once a week (or so) after work for a good few hours. Make thecommitment

Having a beer/glass of wine Roughly 4 people in a group seems to work (that way, even if someone is on a

long day, you can have a quorum of 3 people). Preferably people that you like,or can imagine getting to like! Youll see these people a LOT over the nextyear

We found having a general plan (e.g. 3 weeks going over cardiologyquestions) helped keep the focus

The venue was usually each others houses. I think some groups in the past havemet at the Philson Library (there are meeting rooms that you can book) or thehospital, but we thought that this was too depressing.

What do you do at study group? This varied a lot, as it should. We would go over and around remembered

questions, key topics and proper questions from the College. Ideas wouldbounce around, with one person on a lap-top looking though UpToDate,another flicking through Harrisons, someone else cooking dinner or orderingpizza, the last person complaining noisily about the complete lack of relevanceof the question

Other groups would set homework. This could include creating summaries andteaching to the others, or going over 5 MCQ questions each and teaching therest of the group with worked answers. For my group, the whole homeworkconcept didnt work, for others it did!

Some groups would meet fairly casually, more to share resources than to goover questions or concerns

Some people did not join a study group A good approach could be to ask a candidate with whom you identify in some

way (perhaps a similar attitude to life, or a mutual love of rugby, whatever) andask how they organised (or didnt!) their group

A lot of the benefit from study group was sharing the burden/journey of

studying with like-minded people. It certainly kept me (mostly) sane


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Wednesday Teaching

The lectures at Auckland are, overall, excellent. If nothing else, its a break fromwork. Attend whether youre sitting or not, youve got to start somewhere! I foundit useful to give my pager to my trusty house officer. He or she would call me onmy cell-phone for emergencies (as theres always a big queue for the phone). You

may have to bribe your house officer with coffees and chocolates.

Steve set up an email address ([email protected]) for lecture material

We all wish that wed read over the material before Wednesday. You get more outof it, and appear clever. But, most of us didnt and most of us passed. However,what would have been really useful was a timetable from CETU with approximatesubjects and dates for the year. One of you should do this.

It is useful to have MCQs that you dont understand on hand to ask the lecturersfor that topic. This will save a lot of your valuable time. Most lecturers are keen tohave a go at the questions. They will tell you that this is a tricky question, howcontroversial! This has no relevance at all to nephrology/oncology/blahology, Icant believe the College expects you to know this stuff.


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How to start

Have a planI personally found that having a plan and a timetable kept me going when thegoing got tough! Other people had a far more relaxed (some might say less anallyretentive) approach. Im sorry to say that the rumours of a multicoloured studytimetable are true of some candidates. Some candidates may have also colourcoded their folders to match the study timetable.

Going over the topics in your own time, and doing similar topics in study group,was useful in order to remain efficient and focused.

Mango Book from the CollegeThis syllabus is useful as a rough skeleton of topics. Available online, but you geta copy sent to you in the mail. Its not especially helpful for specifics (e.g. thecandidate should understand the mechanism of action and side effects of

chemotherapeutic drugshuh?). Ingrid and Michelle allowed about 3 weeks perbig topic and one week per little topic, aiming to go over everything once beforeThe Course.


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Learning Resources

The material to revise varied according to preference. Many of us first timersneeded some kind of background knowledge, to go over things properly, to have abroad overview and level of understanding (to wallpaper ones mind, SteveMcBride). Everyone who sits is coming from a different background. You all have

different strengths and weaknesses. This is normal and to be expected. Somepeople have photographic memories. Others need large packs of multicolouredpens to make notes (ask me if you need cheap multicoloured pens, Ive got adealer). Some made memory cards, typed beautiful summaries, or made screedsand screeds of notes.

How to wallpaper your mindWhat follows are approaches from our year and past candidates. Please note thatthis list is not exhaustive, nor are we advocating that you max out your Visa cardto get everything! My study group, for example, didnt do the MKSAPS (we went

for CMDT mainly) but others swore by them. I bought Harrisons after Dunedinand didnt use it much.

Harrisons Principles of Internal MedicineThis stalwart of a textbook is what most of your consultants andsenior registrars would have used, I read Harrisons twicebefore Dunedin. Where are you up to? Aarrgghhh!

StrengthsThe new edition came out late last year, so we couldnt go overas a whole. It seems a LOT better than previous editions, nice

pictures and tables, better layout, good radiology and bloodfilms. Basic science (genetics, cardiac physiology, oncology,the cell cycle etc) is well covered. Harrisons is paid for by theNCTN and certainly worth having as a reference text. Can find the answers tomany questions.

WeaknessesBe prepared to not understand much initially (we couldnt make proper sense outof Harrys until 2 weeks before the exam!). There is the risk, if you read it cover tocover, of being bogged down by a topic that will never come up. Most people Ivespoken to from our year did not read Harrys cover-to-cover. If you get the two-volume version, there is an unwritten rule that the page you want is always in the

other volume. Always. The index drove me to despair from time to time.


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Harrisons Principles of Internal Medicine

Strengths Weaknesses

Nice pictures, tables andmanagement tips

Pictures are surrounded by complexwords

Good Radiology It can bog you down with lame topics

Good blood films and pictures

One-volume is better than two-volume Basic science well covered Gets out of date after a year of

publication

MKSAP questionsThese are MCQ format, from the USA. Each subjectstarts with a focus on new, hot topics in eachspeciality, with many MCQs to follow in best answerformat. CETU has the books and a CD-ROM.

Strengths

MKSAPs are a good way to cover a lot of ground. The notes are concise andrelevant, the questions get you in to MCQ mode and reasonable answers withexplanations are provided. Each chapter/topic would take about 1-2 weeks to goover. Revised every couple of years, so reasonably up to date

WeaknessesFrom the USA so different focus to Australasia. Another set of reference ranges toget your head around (is a table in the back of Harrisons that comes in handy forthis). Does miss out a lot of background topics.

MKSAP Questions


Concise and relevant notes Reference ranges are different toHarrisons

MCQs with best answerformat

Yokel Factor USA approach, notAustralian

Reasonably up to date Misses a lot of background topics


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Current Medical Diagnosis and TreatmentAn annually updated textbook put out by Lange. The same sizeas the Whitepages (maybe a bit smaller).

StrengthsThe text is pithy, easy to understand, relevant, and updated

annually. A few key tables that are easy to memorise. Wellindexed. Good references. It makes for an excellent place tostart. Where did we start? Page 1! Some of us aimed to haveread the CMDT by Dunedin. Many candidates have used thisapproach successfully for the past two years.

WeaknessesNo pictures/radiology etc. It costs about $100, and is sadly not paid for by NCTN.You can get it from Medical Books. Be aware of limitations in terms of space andmaterial covered (youll realise this when trying to find answers to old questions,occasionally CMDT is almost but not quite there). Not so good for understandingthe background. Often needed to dip into Harrys or a physiology text tounderstand the science.

Current Medical Diagnosis and Treatment


Easy to read No pictures

Easy to understand It costsyou $100 Good tables, index and references Some limitations with material

covered

Up to date information Scientific explanations sadly lacking

Up To DateThere was universal use of this computer-basedresource. If you club together with a group of 8,then you can get an annual subscription foraround US$400. Some cheap skates/mortgageholders would print out chapters to go over athome, or email themselves relevant chapters from UTD at work. You can alsooffer your mates a months free trial subscription. Once theyve rorted your creditcard, the UTD people send you CDs that go onto your hard-drive on yourcomputer at home, and you can also go to the website from any computer and logon with your own details.


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StrengthsI used UTD every time I studied. UTD is essential as a resource to obtain answersto specific questions. There are excellent pictures and radiology, its verysearchable, and the summaries of relevant articles are good, with explanation ofthe evidence at hand. You can find excellent management strategies you cantfind in the textbooks andits Up To Date (duh!). However, at over a bazillion

pages you'll never read it in its entirety (unless youre some kind of genius,unemployed or are sitting in 2007!). Most of us coughed up the cash and paid forit.

WeaknessesUTD is pricey, and NCTN wont pay (but were working on it!). It is not ideal to useas a basic framework for study as it can lead you all over the place. Can be OTT(over the top), so use it wisely and critically.

Up To Date


Gives answers to specificquestions

There are over ten billion millionpages

Excellent pictures, radiology andsummaries

Annual subscription costs youUS$400

Very searchable Excess information can lead youastray

Excellent management strategies Not good as a basic framework forstudy

Oxford Textbook of MedicineThis behemoth has a BMI of 40+. A few people found it to be anoccasionally useful reference textbook. Far too big for a humanbeing to read in its entirety. It costs $1000. It does defy logic thatthe NCTN will pay for a big expensive textbook that hardlyanyone uses (except as a door stop), but wont pay forUpToDate, which costs less.


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Other useful books and resources

Talley and O-Connor- These two clinical medicine books areessential for the clinical exam, paid for by NCTN and totallyworth a read through. An excellent chapter in the Examination

Medicine book about preparing for the Written exam. Course notes from a previous Melbourne, Dunedin or Sydney course give

you a good idea of where to start and the level required. The topics coveredare not exhaustive.

Lecture notes on. by Blackwell Publishing. Published in UK for theirMRCP exam. Brief, but useful especially for blood films and interstitial lungdisease.

Internal Medicine-The Essential Facts by Nicholas Talley etal. $72, money well spent. You should buy this book, it is a littlegem! Chapters on all those annoying finicky little topics likepharmacology, genetics and statistics. Lists of mnemonics and

tables, only useful if you have wallpapered your mind first.

Steves CDSteve has put together a CD-ROM, available at CETU, which hasbeen contributed to by registrars over the past few years. It hasheaps of journal articles, old papers, questions and other bits andpieces. Beware of information overload. Even the mighty Stevedidnt read everything on the CD but its really handy as a reference.

Dont forget about Little old Oxford yellow hand book (Ingrids favourite!) RMO Clinical Handbook (ADHB publication) Antimicrobial guidelines LabPlus guide on lab tests (very handy, esp. for endocrinology)

ImmunologyA lot of questions and teaching in many subjects come from immunology. Anunderstanding of all the T-helper cells, and their CD markers etc would havemade things a lot easier if Id gone over this earlier. There are two excellentarticles from the New England Journal of Medicine, appropriately called The

Immune System Part One and The Immune System Part Two. Make sure thatyou understand this stuff early on.


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Suggested approach to journals

Many people never read a review article in my life and I passed and I was fine.There are certainly a lot of journals containing a lot of review articles that theCollege advocate you go through/memorise/be able to translate into binary code.We reckon that lots of questions are lifted straight out of review articles, of late the

Internal Medical Journal (i.e. from the College, all the consultants get this mailedto their house regularly) and the Lancet. New England too. Much of the teachingcomes out of review articles. But dont go crazy. Be sensible. Maybe ask us whichjournal articles we thought were seminal.

Attending journal club if youre at NSH is a must. Sadly, there is no journal club atACH or MMH. Why not create your own! Even if just a few registrars turn up, takeeach other through decent review articles from the past 2 years, and eat theirlunch, it would be really useful.

You will come across key papers (e.g. UKPDS). It might be worth knowing themain principles of these. This usually comes up in teaching.


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Websites we found useful

JournalsBMJ, NEJM, Annals etc are available online, at work you can use passwords fromthe hospital library to read and download articles.

RACP websiteThis has the Australian version of MKSAPs (AMSAPs). You have to be a memberof the College to get online, so join up! Also has information about how theexamination itself is scaled. You download past papers from here, and access theInternal Medicine Journal too.

passthefracp.comThis unofficial Australian website has remembered questions, resources, a fewlecture notes. Well worth a look around.

ADRAC websiteUseful for pharmacology questions. http://www.tga.gov.au/index.htm. You clickon recalls and alerts; the ADRAC bit is under the alerts heading.

NZ Medsafe websiteUseful for individual drug summaries. There is a hot topics section with alerts onimportant drug interactions.

[email protected] email address was set up by Steve, and is really useful. The password ispassword. The Auckland lecturers email the slides from their talk to the website,so if youve been on nights and missed out, at least you have the handouts.Steve suggests that you get up your own email account this year (use yahoo or

gmail to get a decent sized account). There are plans afoot to do soundrecordings of the lecturers, which will be available online with the power-pointslides.

www.medlib.med.utah.eduGood for renal biopsy and haematology slide sections. MCQs good if youre onnights.

www.mja.com.auMedical Journal of Australia. Can be emailed to you automatically.

Bmj.com

bmj learning is part of it. Comes with learning modules, are a few hospital doctorfocussed questions. Ingrids favourite for nights!


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Old Questions and MCQs

If theres one thing that our predecessors told us, and were telling you now, itsdo every old question and MCQ that you can get your hands on and startnow!Some people take this to an extreme and raid Medical Books for anything todo with MCQs. The rest of us did all the old papers, the remembered questions

from the year before plus a few others. Remembered questions and those fromthe past papers are absolutely essential, and should be a key part of yourlearning, along with wallpapering, study group and attending a study course.

The questions also look hugely daunting when you first start doing them. This isnormal. You shouldnt get hung up on the exact answer but rather read aroundthe question topic. It does become more familiar as you go along. You have toaccept some of the questions are stupid and you just have to deal with it.

There arent as many repeated questions as there have been in the past, but theydo repeat a few every year. Trust me, when youre in the exam those repeatedquestions should be like old friends.

When youre doing MCQs, print out a fresh version for yourself, or rub out/twinkout the scribbles. The scribbles might not be right, and you need to be able towork these questions out for yourself.

How to find the questions, year by year

2005Your predecessors have typed up a version of 2005s questions. This took manyhours that could have been spent doing long cases. Please do the same for the

next group after your exam.

Keep in mind, these are remembered questions, remembered by a group ofpeople who were traumatised as a group and struggled for hours! To make thingseven worse, these questions may have been remembered in a drunken postexam haze. Weve done our best.

The important point is to revise the topic that came up in the question, and nottake the question or wording too literally. We found it useful in study group to havea few versions of the 2004 paper at hand, to try and find the best rememberedquestion. You could look for other versions of 2005 on passthefracp.com. Mostpeople (particularly our colleagues across the ditch) are cagey about dishing out

remembered questions, and rightly so as some poor blighter/s spent hours typingthe things up. What you could do is exchange information, e.g. swap yourAuckland version of the 2005 paper with someone from St Vinnie's or Queenslandor Wellington or whatever in a clandestine fashion when youre at your course.Then no one feels that theyre missing out.

2004Hopefully the college will release this later in the year. Otherwise, weve all gotseveral versions of remembered questions for you. Please (for your own sake!)


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put these remembered versions straight into the bin when the college releases theproper version.

2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999All can be down loaded and printed off for free from the College Website. Answersare given, but not explained. Use this as an opportunity for learning. Dont stop

when you find the answer! Make sure you read around the topic and understandit. Also, make sure that you understand why the wrong answers are wrong. Mostof us used old questions as a springboard for study, i.e. what topics to focus on,and whats important to understand.

I found it useful to do some of these exams under exam conditions later in theyear. This was useful for exam time management practice, and gave me anaccurate, though at times depressing, picture of my progress.

Youll find that a few answers, especially on older papers, are out of date.

Other papers

Practice examsEvery course has a practice exam. For Petes sake, do the exam at your course.Do not worry if you fail it miserably. Many candidates have scored about 25% (i.e.worse than a lucky monkey!) and gone on to pass the proper exam. Practicekeeping to time, and not making frame shift errors. Make sure you are a dabhand at shading in boxes; your life will depend on it in a year!

Someone from each course should bring back an unmarked copy of their exam,then other people can have a go. This would save a lot of twink. We have the

2004 practice exams from our courses for your guys. Some of the questions arepoorly written. Again, it is the topic that is most important.

AMSAP questionsThese are available on the college website, so relevant to Australasia. I personallynever used them but everyone else thought they were excellent. The questionscover key topics that the college thinks are important

Harrisons MCQ bookThis costs $90 from Medical Books. A lot of us went over this. Ifound it very useful 2 or 3 weeks pre-exam and learned loads,but Diana does not recommend this approach due to the

potential for panic. She suggests going through at an earlierstage. The questions are a different style to the College MCQs,so this book is no substitute for old questions. If youre nice, youcould wangle a second hand copy from one of us for a nominalfee. Excellent, succinct worked answers.


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Studying and Keeping Sane (ish)

Overall, the general rule is to be the tortoise, not the hare.Start early. It may not seem like it but the hour or so you doat home each night after work while youre missing CSIMiami or The Apprentice really adds up

When I started studying I couldnt sit still for more than 5minutes. It took a long time to be able to concentrate for anhour. Start low, go slow

Some people could study for 10 hours each day off! Themajority could manage about 6 hours per day. This means that you can have

Saturday Night off for your underwater basket-weaving class! Woo hoo!

I really found that having a plan helped a lot.Knowing that youve got limited time to get through alots of material is scary, but if youve spent 5 weekson haematology you need to move on, quick smart,to the next topic

Some method of filing system is essential. You will be inundated withmaterial. Most people used big folders, one per topic. File stuff as you go, oryoull end up with massive piles of stuff all over your desk/flat/house/study.Please recycle your paper, there will be a lot of it

Be co-operative with the other people studying from your year. Shareinformation with one another. Tell each other what is helpful. Hoarding secret

piles of resources will NOT make the difference between passing and failing

How to study?

Studying is hard on those around you (partners, flatmates, whanau). Thankthem regularly

Key quote from Mark; Not studying is worse than studying. You will cometo understand this

Key quote from Diana-You will not know

everything despite the amount of studyyou do. You will find you forget things afew days after studying them! Dont getdisheartened

Chris made the excellent point that yourlearning needs to be active. This is notThe Matrix; you cannot plug a cable intothe back of your head and suddenly become an immunologist


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You will not learn anything by sticking Harrisons under your pillow. Mostpeople need to take notes/summarise/do mind maps

Once youve decided where to start and which book to read (this took meabout a month!) then you just have to start. At page one, or a subject that

everyone in your group wants to go over. Many people used a few questionsto get started

A study or study space is ideal. Some people can study on their bed, outside,in the library, whatever works for you

Yes, you will be a hermit (see page 1)

Youre in this for the long haul! Sleeping properly is very important. Doingall-nighters is not how to pass this exam

You may gain 5+ kilos. You may also lose 5+kg

Look after yourself. Keep jogging/going to thegym/playing soccer/walking your dog or ferret.Try to eat properly

Consider getting a cleaner/nanny/someone tohelp with every-day tasks so you can maximiseyour time either studying, or spending time withloved ones. Enjoy your time off (or try to!)

Lots of us had at least one clear night off a week (e.g. Friday). Go to themovies, do cross-stitch, go rock climbing, whatever works for you

Try not to feel guilty if you have a day off. In fact, if youre in a total studyfunk then a day or weekend, sometimes even a week off completely can bethe best thing. We all had time off studying leading up to the exam. At leasthave Christmas/your cultural equivalent off

If youre stuck, then do something different. That pile of oldquestions/AMSAPs/Harrisons MCQs is really handy when you just cant standreading another chapter/word/review article. Do a few questions, look up theanswers, and learn something


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Going to a Revision Course

It doesnt matter too much which course you go to.Just make sure that you can get to one of them andorganise somewhere decent and nearby to stay. Thecourse fees, airfares and accommodation will be

refunded (but car hire, nights on the tiles and primeseats at Phantom of the Opera are not). Hopefullyyoull have fun, and learn a great deal. There areadvantages and disadvantages to every course. In2004, we all went to different courses and all thought

they were good! If you identify part of your course that was rubbish, then gothrough someones material from another course and find better stuff.

Two week Courses

Dunedin

Strengths Immunology Rheumatology (really excellent, actually see patients) Renal Haematology Otago peninsula

WeaknessesGastroCardiology get notes from elsewhere

Neurology

Melbourne

Strengths Shopping, Italian food Topics were very exam focused. Covered a lot of ground in a relevant way. Lecturers who write questions Melbourne course notes reflect the current practices in Australia

Weaknesses

RheumatologyImmunology needed more detailOncology


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Sydney

Strengths Neurology Cardiology Endocrinology

Beaches Shopping Arguably the highest concentration of lecturers who write questions

WeaknessesNo HIV lectures!GastroThe last course, so least time after to revise

Delta Med Courses

These are extra 2.5 day last minute revision courses in Australia that run 3to 4 weekends before the exam. Essentially they do the same presentationin 2 different cities (Melbourne and Sydney)

Nota replacement for the 2-week courses. Cost of the Sydney course $A 363.00 + travel + accom. They were not

refunded in 2005.

Strengths Money well spent 1 hour on each topic

MCQs highlighted the lecturers hot topics Is a one hour mock exam If you cant attend, try and go over the notes from someone who went

WeaknessesShelling out about $1000Motels book up earlyThese courses arent publicised wellDont expect topic summariesPotential to panic you one month out from the exam, so may not suiteveryone

There is also an Investigations in Medicine course which is run the weekendbefore the Melbourne revision course. The cost of the Investigations in Medicine Ithink was about $A100.00.


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Money for Jam

A lot of these are nicely covered in Internal Medicine-The Essential Facts. Makesure that you

Have your punnet squares and family trees sorted out. Covered well in thecourses, Auckland Genetics teaching was fantastic but we needed moresessions

Know all that sensitivity/specificity epidemiology stuff (Steve found a greathandout by dredging though the web, well get it to you) and know it well.Questions always come up

Make a card with the pharmacology equations (half-lives, etc). There is alittle book handed out at the Dunedin course called Pharmacology madeEasy. This starts well, but quickly becomes complicated


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What to do next?

Waiting for GodotWaiting for the exam results to come out was the weirdest week. I was absolutelyconvinced that Id failed, and had started re-organising my desk, bought 4 morepackets of felt pens, started a brand new colour coded study time table anddecided which study course to go on. From one who knows, try and chill out,remember that the College cant fail everyone. Just to warn you though, I still havenightmares about shading in the wrong box!

What to do if you passCongratulations! People will stop you in the street and shake your hand. You willachieve demi-god like status to the registrars a year below you. Your consultantswill be pleased as punch. However, the relief and happiness is short lived as youprepare for the clinical examination, which is bloody difficult (but dont worry aboutthat now!).

What to do if you dont passFailure in the exam is not a pleasant experience (particularly if you haventexperienced failure before). In fact, its bloody awful. Its important to put this intoperspective. It does get better with time and you find that the material is easier tounderstand and retain second time around. You will be hot property for a newstudy group. The biggest hurdle is getting through the initial dent to yourconfidence. There is no way to make that easier or say anything to make it better.Its something you just have to drag out of yourself. Dont forget that lots ofpeople have failed this exam before and are now wonderful physicians. Mostpeople get through on their second go. Some people take 3 or more attempts, but

they still get there.


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