The fear

I officially today got what is universally known as "the fear". No precipitating factors really; we had a teaching session with a practice SAQ and I struggled to organise and structure my questions. My colleagues always appear to have much more confident and well-organised answers. I know and hope this is just my own insecurities leaking out but I really need to concentrate on understanding what the question is asking and structure accordingly. I had that feeling today of running out of time - where there appears to be so much still to do with not a lot of space to accommodate it all.

I started some MCQs the other day from MCQs in Anaesthesia by Ganado (see previous post with book listings. The explanations for the answers given in this book are superb - almost like a mini-textbook in itself. The first 20 MCQs I did, I scored 50% and was delighted; falsely so!! The next 20 MCQs scored 35%. As usual with commencement of MCQ practice it can be variable, usually with some confidence-draining scores at the beginning. One of the positive factors I took from the Primary exam was that I know I am a good MCQ guesser. This is an important fact that you should know about yourself when preparing for MCQs. Some people are naturally good guessers; other are not. One way of finding out if you have not already done so is to do a number of MCQs e.g. 25-50. Whilst you are doing them, number each answer from 1-3, where 1 is "I'm positive I know that this is the correct answer"; 2 is "I think this is the correct answer but can't be totally sure"; 3 is "This is a complete guess". Mark the MCQ and count up the number of 1's, 2's, and 3's. If you're getting lots of 2's and especially 3's as correct answers, you are likely to be a good guesser and should probably make more educated guesses in the actual exam, rather than leaving questions out due to the negative marking. Chances are that with this strategy, you will gain a higher mark than if you omitted the question.

Bizarrely, whilst browsing some podcasts on the itunes online store, I found some advanced Anatomy & Physiology tutorials by an American clinician (Dr M Bonner). Rather sceptically, I downloaded them to my Ipod and have been playing them in the car to and from work this past week. Despite a few Americanisms and some dodgy intro and exit music, surprisingly, I have found them quite useful. They do go right back to the beginning in some subjects but to listen passively whilst driving and brushing up on some basic science, I think, has made pretty good use of commuting time.