The Exam Doc

  FRCEM Intermediate/SBA   See RCEM Website for exam details   Personal Experience: I sat this exam whilst working in the Mater Emergency Department which is a notably busy ED in Ireland so working my study plan around my roster was tricky. Anyone working in EM has my full admiration as it is incredibly tough on your body changing shift patterns relentlessly. I found I had a lot less energy when studying for this exam as compared to the MCQ in intern year (which was also a very busy and demanding job). I started studying around late November for the sitting in early March. I didn’t get much done over the Christmas period between work and everything else, but it was still mentally reassuring to have started the mammoth task before the new year. I found the volume of work to get through very overwhelming and I definitely didn’t get it all done before the exam (for example I don't think I covered the infectious diseases chapter before the exam). I went in for th...

  MRCEM – MCQ (FRCEM Primary)   See RCEM Website for exam details Personal Experience: I sat this exam as an intern whilst I was working on my final 3 month post in Portiuncula University Hospital on an Obs&Gynae Rotation. I decided to sit the exam at the last minute before the closing date if I recall correctly. It was less than two months from when I started studying until I sat the exam. So I didn’t have as much time as I would have liked to prepare. I was also commuting an hour each way to work so I was limited in how many hours I was going to have to get ready. I used to slip away from theatre when there were breaks in between cases or on my lunch break and study for 20-40 minutes depending on the gap between cases or jobs needing done on the ward. In the evenings I would try to do 1-2 hours either in the hospital library or at home. On the weekends I reckon I spent about 3 hours a day max getting through the questions on the Pastest MCQ bank and reading ov...

  MCAI MCQ Month Study Plan 1 Pharmacology + MCQs 2 Pharmacology + Stats + MCQs 3 Physics/Equip + MCQs 4 Phys/Eq + Physiology + MCQs 5 Physiol + MCQs 6 Revise MCQs MCAI SOE/OSCE   Week Study Plan 1 Pharma + OSCEs 2 Pharma + OSCEs 3 Pharma +OSCEs 4 Phys/Eq + OSCEs 5 Phys/Eq + OSCEs 6 Phys/Eq + OSCEs 7 Physiolog y + OSCEs 8 Physiol + OSCEs 9 Physiol +OSCEs 10 Revision   *Yes I did recommend three months for the OSCE/SOE but I have made this plan for ten weeks for two reasons. Most people will probably give it less time as they need a break after the last exa...

Hi Guys, My name is Ciara and I am a doctor working in Ireland. As of now, I am currently working as a Registrar in Anaesthesiology and will be starting the formal Anaesthesiology Training Scheme this   July. Along my journey working as a doctor (since 2016), I’ve completed the membership examinations in emergency medicine and anaesthesiology, i.e. I am MRCEM and MCAI certified. Without fail, every time I signed up for an exam (that’s six exams now!) I had such a sense of overwhelm and impending doom because I never knew how or where to start. Finally, after sitting all of these tests I feel I have some insight into how I would do it more efficiently if I were to go back and do it again. The aim here is to make your study accessible, organised and effective. I have asked many friendly colleagues for their advice prior to starting an exam and I will include their tips in this guide as well. There is no ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to tackling the load for any exam, howe...

  MCAI Overview (Membership Examinations of the College of Anaesthesiologists of Ireland) 1. MCQ 2. Structured Oral Examinations 3. OSCE The SOE and OSCE are combined into one day so you could consider them as one exam but the topics covered differ between the two.  Let's talk a bit about what you're getting yourselves in for. I am attaching screenshots of the MCAI exam guidelines as there is no point in doubling up on work but I'll include a few additional details below.  I personally found that on the website the information isn't easily accessible. Some documents relevant to both the MCQ and SOE/OSCE are only linked at one exam and some documents are linked under headings I wouldn't have thought to put them under. So I'm attaching links for the exam guidelines here and for the marking systems here . The exams are held a couple of times a year (three times for the MCQ and twice for the SOE/OSCE). I am linking the schedule of examinations here  (MCQ: currently...

  Personal Experience So for this exam we actually sat them from home again due to Covid (I believe they will be back in person again this year?). For my preparation I really took a haphazard and everchanging approach which is precisely why I am here to hopefully prevent you from making my mistakes. I started 2 months prior using the Dr Podcast book and would plan my study using the contents table (Error no.1 – do not leave the entire curriculum for a two month sprint when you haven’t studied in 5 months. You won’t remember the majority of what you previously studied). About three weeks into this mess, I realised I wasn’t preparing anything for the OSCEs which carry a huge amount of marks and are assessed in a very different way in terms of content. So I then incorporated the MCAI OSCE book and would study a handful of the OSCEs alongside chapters in the Dr Podcast book. At about week 3, one of our extremely kind Consultants called Deirdre started giving us tutorials for the ex...