BEGINS ON DAY 1!
Main components to the third year exam
- OSCE - Tests communications skills/style, practical application,
systematic evaluation
- Written MCQs – Tests knowledge detail (content more than style or
organisation)
Preparation
OSCE
- Practise, Practise, Practise
- You cannot passing an OSCE just by reading a book. An examiner can
tell a mile away if you have never assessed a patient properly.
- Practise on your clinical rounds, on other students, on your family, in
front of a mirror
- Establish a 'groove'. 30 practise cases done in strict precision
is better preparation than 60 slap-dash efforts.
- Observe each other. Perform a critical evaluation each time you do one.
Be ruthless with one another.
- Involves an assessment or diagnostic station, data interpretation station (lab, xray,
ECG) or management station
- Perform the clinical exam according to the Talley & O'Connor's
recommendation. Do not modify unless you think it is more efficient or
logical to do so.
Written MCQ
- After each case go back and make notes based on the ‘Study Tips’. Use
cases to motivate you to learn material.
- Every-time you are in a clinical situation attempt to apply new
knowledge you have learned from your ‘Study Notes’. Help make it ‘stick’.
The learning styles for OSCE and MCQs are quite different.
OSCE is doing and MCQ is knowing. Practise for both.
A NOTE ON MINI-CEX
Regularly practise parts of the mini-CEX; not just in a formal evaluation but
informally with each other as 'assessors' e.g. take a history, examine a system,
present a case.
This builds confidence and style and reinforces knowledge and application.