I've had a few people ask me about this. I have had some reservations in posting about this because I'm not sure in my heart of hearts I believe it is right we need to put ourselves through this. It was an amazing learning opportunity, but it was also a long time to study at this level, mentally challenging and tough on the family. We may need to be creative if we want to make changes to this process.
However, this is honestly how the lead-up to my exams went. It would seem that at least in the short-term, a rigid intensive study period is what is required. I am only posting this in case it helps. My advise to people sitting, is to take on advise you think will help YOU, and ignore the rest - it is kind of like having a newborn baby in that respect. There is advice that I was very grateful I took.
How I did it
I had typed notes on all topics (this was a combo of notes from previous candidates, Tobias and my own additions). These were made over 4-5 years (not including memberships notes, but my membership notes were not that helpful to me). I divided these notes into 8 parts (the first 8 weeks). I divided them by 'typed notes word-count' versus Tobias word count. What I mean by this, is that some chapters are literature heavy (so more notes on papers, therefore more words) versus others that are not. Therefore notes word-count was more reflective of the time I needed to spend per section. I had 95% of my notes, but made sure I additionally made brief summaries of the recent papers in our reading list. I didn't worry too much about what was not on our reading list (I'm not saying this is right or wrong, it is just what I did - I read a few papers from JSAP and VCNA that helped with my understanding of a topic or when there was nothing much on a topic, but can't remember referencing much that wasn't on the reading list).
For me it divided into 8 like this;
- Neurosurgery (chapters 26-37)
- Forelimb (50-55), Endocrine (120-121)
- Pelvic limb (56-64)
- Oncology (25) and skin/recon/skin neoplasia - (75-82)
- Rest of ortho - bone grafts, principles of fracture repair etc (chapters 38-48 and 65-74)
- Genitourinary (109-119)
- Early chapters and pathophys of these - inflammation etc. (1-24), respiratory and cardiac (899-105). Ear (122,123)
- GI - (87-98)
Each week of my first 8 weeks went like this;
Days 1-5 - notes summary from my main body of notes
Day 6 - Repetition (key) - going back over the 5 previous days
Day 7 -
morning practice exam with Dave (pictured!)
afternoon - catch up on anything I didn't get to.
pm - chat with Nick (also pictured :) with my questions from the week.
I divided the word count for these chapters into 5 (5 days) then I divided this by 13 hours. I studied 13.5 hours a day. 13 hours planned + 30 mins catch up. I started at 8am and studied until 10.30pm and took exactly 1 hour for exercise. I ate breakfast, lunch and dinner in the office. I took a melatonin at 10pm so I was sleepy by 10.45pm. I replied to messages from 10.30pm - 10.45pm and tried to be asleep by 11pm to get 8 hours before up at 7/7.30am.
Weeks 9 and 10 - summary weeks. I repeated the previous 8 weeks of content in the first 10 days and made summaries of my summaries. The next 3 days I made very brief A3 sheets of what I wanted to look at the day before. The day before (most stressful day of my life, however I stuck to the plan) I read these notes and highlighted anything I wanted to read the morning of the exam. The morning of the exam I couldn't sleep so I arrived at the college at 6.30am and I read my final highlights. For all the topics, I made large mind-maps of the literature. This exercise makes it clearer what papers are more important than others. I have posted previously on the evidence hierarchy, but I think this is important. Knowing the recent literature also seems key, but with a focus on the papers that are up the hierarchy. I found ways of remembering things with weird stories in my mind. I think the most important thing though was finding some form of repetition. Between the written exam and the practicals I had papers I had pulled out and printed that had useful pictures, and I also went through all the text book reading list pictures. I think there is a lot to be said for 'pattern recognition'. By this I mean recognition of pictures of key surgical complications especially fracture critique and just recognising quickly what is described by an image/radiograph etc. Finally - people always ask - how did I do this with two kids? There is no secret to this - my husband and parents did 99.9% of everything in these 3 months. I hugged them at bedtime (sometimes). The guilt was unreal. For the first few days after finishing, it was really weird (the kids called me Nanny), but within a week (and with a new kitten bribe) ;) all was forgotten and things were surprisingly normal. You haven't ruined your children's lives as your mind has tricked you into thinking you have. It required a very supportive family though. There are probably more tips. I am happy to help, if you think I can. If you are sitting these exams and want to chat, I am just a phone call away (usually I phone people on my way to and home from work). Helen D'Silva is the excellent performance psychologist I have previously chatted about. She is also a huge advocate of females in leadership. We get along well.
