Books Books Books

My Amazon delivery arrived in a big box today, followed by the book I bought on eBay. A week ago I ordered 'The Royal College of Anaesthetists Guide to the FRCA examination The Final'. As with the Primary, apparantly a number of questions from this publication appear in the exam, therefore a must-have. It arrived yesterday. I piled them all up neatly in the study (actually the second bedroom - to be negotiated!) and then watched TV with some wine! No point in opening them just yet. As quite a few of my fellow Registars at the enormous teaching hospital are also taking the exam, I thought I would be sneaky and have booked some study leave for April next year (and very tentatively June as well!).

Keen as mustard

Either I'm naiive or I can't quite remember the complete torture that I went through for the Primary just under a year ago. I feel quite optimistic and keen to get started with the revision at the moment. I think it is because now as a registrar I am more confident in my skills to give an anaesthetic, but still realise how little theory I know/have forgotten!

As far as I'm concerned, the most obvious way to start is to buy lots of books. Worked for me last time. I checked out the recommended list here on AnaesthesiaUK and then took a trip into Central London to Waterstones on Gower St to browse through the selection. I find it easier to look at the books in hard copy before deciding whether to buy them.

I have already acquired:

"The Anaesthesia Science Viva Book" Simon Bricker
"Short Answer Questions in Anaesthesia" Geoffrey Rushman

I got a copy of "Anaesthesia & Critical Care" Chris Dodds & Neil Soni from eBay for a tenner.

Then I placed the following order with Amazon:

"Companion to Clinical Anaesthesia Exams (FRCA Study Guides)"Charlie Corke
"The Clinical Anaesthesia Viva Book"Simon J. Mills
"Short Answer Questions and MCQs in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care"Peter Murphy
"FRCA: MCQs for the Final FRCA: Saunders Self Assessment Series: MCQs for the Final FRCA (FRCA Study Guides)"Karen Henderson
"Practice MCQ's for the Final FRCA (FRCA Study Guides)"Jon Hardman
"Short Answer Questions in Anaesthesia"Simon Bricker;
"Final F.R.C.A.: Short Answer Questions"J. Nickells
"Clinical Notes for the FRCA (FRCA Study Guides)"Charles Deakin
"Final FRCA: Multiple Choice Questions (FRCA Study Guides)"Michael D. Brunner
"QBase Anaesthesia: MCOs for the Final FRCA v. 5"Edward Hammond
"MCQs for the Final FRCA"Khaled Elfituri
"MCQ's in Anaesthesia (FRCA Study Guides)"A. Ganado
"QBase Anaesthesia: MCQs for the Anaesthesia Final FRCA v. 2 (QBase)"Mark Blunt

A bargain at £320!

In the beginning.....

Not content with potentially moving house at the end of this year, I have decided to take the Final FRCA examination in April/June next year. One of the main reasons for this is the excellent teaching I have thus far received since starting as a registrar at the enormous teaching hospital! I am also trying to stick to my mantra that no matter what, I would not still be taking exams when I turned 30! Having written a guide to passing the Primary FRCA (found here), it was suggested by the good team at AnaesthesiaUK that I might like to produce a similar guide to the Final. I thought that rather than write it retrospectively as I had done previously, I would give a blow-by-blow account of the whole event. After all, I thought, there's plenty of time - the exam's not until April.

Then I remembered my Primary preparation.....and talked to a few people.......and glimpsed at the syllabus. We're looking at a good five to six months revision again. OK, I can start revising in November; that's still five weeks away. But I need the mental preparation time, the timetable-making, the textbook-buying, the study-leave booking, the girlfriend-preparing for the mental torture and anguish that lies ahead. All of a sudden, there was a lot to do!