As well as roaring past the 2500 hits mark, the blog has been recommended on an Australian website: Anaesthesiacases
They write: "James Shorthouse’s Blogspot!! This is great reading: the keeping of a diary in the approach to the final FRCA exam. Good for the final exam candidate but also for the consultant browsing on a range of clinical topics". I'm thrilled to have received some international recognition!!
Back to the job in hand: having just finished a stupendous ten day stretch in ICU, I've been trying to catch up with some revision. I've just filled out my application form for the exam, together with a(nother) cheque for £690. Remember that the closing date is September 9th.
I've been through and repeated the SAQ paper I did in April this year, specifically concentrating on questions which were done badly by candidates i.e. air embolism, paediatric fluid resuscitation, and neuromuscular blockade reversal. All questions were done to a strict 10-11 minute time-limit, and I reviewed my answers and annotated them for further reference.
I have also completed the 270 MCQs in the new RCOA guide to the Final FRCA, in 3 batches of 90. Pleasingly, I managed to score 77%, 78%, and 79% respectively (aiming for 80% passmark). Bear in mind, some of these questions I've done before. On a negative turn of events, I attempted some Q-Base 5 questions on the computer. Firstly, I think in future I will do these Q-Base MCQs on paper as the CD-ROM only do negative marking. Secondly, they are in batches of 60, so you get out of sync with the papers - I believe we need to be practicing 90 MCQs at a time. Thirdly (& less importantly), there's something I really don't like about Q-Base questions i.e. they're hard and I only got 36% this time round! Just like last time, I always end up swearing at the computer during Q-Base!!!
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2 comments:
hi james, reassuring to see that someone else has had to open the books again and get back to the nitty gritty. Having gained a 1+ (just!) in the MCQ last time around, have gone back to MCQs and find that the whole new approach(ie no negative marking)is a lot more encouraging. However, have gone through the College questions from the new edition and find that I am making the same mistakes again and again....very frustrating. Still, the fight goes on....
Good luck and keep blogging!
hi james, you have fabulous blog. 5this is especially uselful for peopple like me working in the republic of ireland where theis practically no teaching and train ing. consultants are not particularly helpful for preparation of exams. so i just read your blog and try to prepare new topics from it. you are doing a great job, please focus a little more on recengt burning issues if you can.
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