Exam Intelligence

Arrgh.

We wanted to wish everyone sitting the exam yesterday good luck, but sadly that didn’t work.

So retroactive Good Luck to everyone!

Now you have done the written, take a couple of days to chill out, and then, after the weekend, start straight back in on the work.

The worst thing you can do at this point is think to yourself “Well that was crap, I can’t possibly have passed!”

What you need to do is keep on top of work, and read through the Viva books, and let yourself be viva voce’ed at every opportunity.

Practice is the key here!

Here is a simple, easy cook meal, ready in 10 minutes, and not very expensive either!

• Pasta for however many people - your choice of shape (fusilli, papardelle, taglietelle, whatever).
• 185g or 160g tin of tuna per 2 people
• 100-200g white cup mushrooms per 2 people
• 100g rocket leaves
• 1 lemon for up to 2 tins of tuna
• 1 clove garlic for up to 2 tins of tuna
• Olive oil
• Blackpepper
• Salt

To cook:

1. Put the pasta on to boil.
2. Zest and juice the lemon (Microplane Graters are great for zesting, they’re my favourite cooking gadget!)
3. Put 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan, medium heat.
4. Mince/chop garlic and fry for 1-2 minutes.
5. Add sliced/chopped/ripped/whole mushrooms (your choice, but remember that the larger the pieces, the longer they take to cook!)
6. Fry for further 1-2 minutes.
7. Add tuna, rocket, zest and juice of lemon.
8. Fry for further 1-2 minutes.
9. Season to taste.
10. Serve, with chilled white wine (unless revising after your meal, obviously!)

The Impossible Quiz

Might be more useful than trying to predict!

FRCA Examiners say they deliver “topical” questions… (see the SAQ report on the RCOA website)
So if it’s had guidelines and an article or two in one or more journals, it’s probably higher up the list of probable topics coming up in the exam than something else.

Anything that’s had an editorial and an article, or a CEACCP or review article, is also fair game.

If it’s headlining in the BMJ it has also occasionally shown up (apparently….), however, I’m not sure about that one.

Questions done badly the year before have a tendency to crop up again, occasionally with a twist.

Specific predictions tend to be more difficult to make.  When I did the final I guessed 8 of 12, I think.  Didn’t guess that anatomy of paravertebral space would come up, asthma, anxiety or pancreatitis (April/June 2008).  The others I guessed might come up based on the criteria outlined above.  I thought other topics might also come up, as did others, so you can’t fully narrow down what to revise, and to be honest, you’ll be better off not doing so in the long run anyway!

I just wanted to reiterate what I’m sure you’ve heard before if you’re revising for the exam, and that is that anything in the CEACCP supplement that comes with the BJA is “Fair Game” for a SAQ or for MCQs in the exam (…as if they didn’t have enough to worry about - Ed.)

In the April 2009 issue we think that the following articles are high possibilities:

Exomphalos and Gastroschisis

Arterial Tourniquets

Fast-track surgery and anaesthesia (after all, isn’t this what the government would love us to do for every kind of surgery???)

Gastrectomy for Adenocarcinoma

Management of Cardiac Disease in Pregnancy (though we think this is lower than the others mentioned so far - it appeared in the October 2008 paper).