Conversing with Life: The interlude

Thursday, March 16, 2006

The interlude

Halfway point?
The calm before the storm?

This is where the stressful part begins.

Written papers are over, finally. 2 weeks of written papers, haven't had such a long exam period since the A' levels.

With at least 3 parts to each track (Medicine and Surgery), we were tested on every possible thing in medicine. Although mostly they were things we didn't expect (because they were uncommon).

"Common things occur commonly. When you see a bird, it is a sparrow, not a robin."

Apparently there are no robins in Singapore. The robins are all in the written papers.

I think the above quote only applies in clinical practice and I think it will serve me well for the clinical exams.

Med MCQs: I've always felt it to be tough, so it wasn't much of a surprise when I realised it was tough. Isoteric questions were asked and choices were close and difficult to distinguish.

Med Essays: Mostly do-able. Except the last question (might have screwed it up). Paeds seemed to be less demanding.

Med MEQs: Not too bad. Didn't manage to get all the investigations right but at least the topics were common clinical problems.

Med OSCE: The easiest paper of the lot. Was easier then the mock paper. Saving grace?

Surg Essays: Wrote like a mad man possessed. Some careless mistakes (didn't talk about history and physical in Qn1), unexpected focus on gynae and totally lost my nerve for the ortho question. Prognosis: bad...

Surg OSCE: Was still feeling down from the last paper. If anything, this paper helped sink me into depression. Tough brand-new slides, difficult questions, tight time limit. Did my best but I suspect will have a lot of mark deduction, especially if the marking is going to be Prof Lim Beng Hai's standard.

Surg MCQs: Maybe because this is the last paper, my mood was more upbeat. Questions were of moderate difficulty. Some plain simple, others a bit more tricky. Finished with a decidedly better mood.

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I've had good luck with the balloting.

Med adult long at CGH, and shorts at SGH and KKH.
Surg at AH.

Quite a good combination. Couldn't imagine better. It's nicer given that I'm familiar with the setup at SGH and CGH having done SIPs there, and paeds at KKH is better than NUH anytime.

Not too worried for surg clinicals. Just have to really brush up on my shorts.