There have been developments in the way the exam is presented and how its marked. The number of physical answers required has been reduced, such that you will have time to complete the exam. You will get 3 exam books of 20 pages each and a props book. It is anticipated that you will spend 3 minutes per page or one hour per book. This is a good way to judge how you are doing. timing in the examI would advise people to spend no more than one hour per book. Have a point where you check, midway through the book i.e. at page 10, that you have spent no more than 30 minutes until that point. In an exam where you are spending on average 6 minutes per question, it is easy to go over by 30-40 seconds per question and thus not get to finish. Other forces at play will assist you with this(explained below). So know that you will be finishing page 10 at 30 minutes and book 1 by 60 minutes etc. This is a good way to speed up, without trying to set your alarms for every 6 minutes, which is about a 5 second loss of time every time you do that(2.5 minutes in the exam). how much do I write?"SAQs are designed with the answers being short. This is reflected in clearer wording. The following general principles apply for the upcoming paper –The words “describe, outline, and discuss” are now absent from the paper (as these words suggest a paragraph or short essay answer) –The word “list”, if used, suggests the answer items will each be 1-3 word answers. –The word “state”, if used, suggests the answer items will each be a short statement, phrase, or clause. –If the word “list” or “state” is used, the precise number of answer items requested will also be known, with each item attracting one mark e.g. “state 3 items, list 4 items”. how is the marking distributed?Each question has a set number of answers required, each worth a mark, as indicated. This is not equal for all questions i.e., there are a total number of answers that have to be given for the whole exam. If those total number of answers is greater than the number of answers required to pass; you pass. strategyGiven the way the exam is now set up, technique becomes less of a weapon, although there are some things I would recommend.
1. If you write a drug- write its dose (important for kids) 2. You need to be able to calculate kids weights. 3. Given that most answers are single or a few words long, you'd be foolish to leave any blanks. If you are ridiculously running out of time, the only time I would leave a question out is if you are doing a question worth say 25 marks and you just don't have time to think about one worth just one mark. 4 Forget about the old idea of leaving out 3 or 4 questions, the way the marks are now distributed i.e.., unequally between questions, this almost has no meaning.
0 Comments
Preparing for the fellowship exam is difficult. Where do you start? It's a question that makes a lot of candidates quite flustered. But an even better question to ask is once you've worked out where you're starting, how do you actually start? "Preparing for the exam is as much about understanding the context of the exam as the content." One of the things that we are big on in the fellowshipexam.com course is thinking about the how and why of the exam, not just the content. We had some great discussion at our recent face to face meeting in Melbourne for our candidates about this very topic, and we spent a fair bit of time deconstructing various examination questions. "Without performing a single calculation we have probably gleaned enough information in just a minute or two to write an answer that would have passed this question." This week at fellowshipexam.com we are taking on two of the most feared props in the exam itself – the ECG and the ABG. In particular, the ABG seems to be a source of significant concern for most candidates. The bad news is that even with the advent of the new examination the ABG plays a starring role. In the 2015.1 exam 2 of the thirty questions features were centred on an ABG. That’s just about 7 % of the marks available for a single prop. "The good news is that with a systematic approach the ABG can be broken down easily..." We came across an issue this week regarding the issue of history and examination findings. There has always been a bit of a blurred line in the exam between the two, but in general history was stuff that you asked the patient, and examination was stuff you looked for and found on the patient. So, in the context of an obstructed airway, are voice changes, difficulty swallowing secretions and stridor or wheeze history, or examination findings? "..more precisely, it depends on how you ask the question and how you answer it...." A couple of weeks ago in our virtual study group - a key component of the fellowshipexam.com course - we had a great question. What is the best (or definitive way) to reduce a pulled elbow? As a question, it highlights two very important issues when studying for the fellowship exam. When you’re studying for the fellowship exam in particular:
"If you lined up 10 FACEMs and asked them....they'd each give slightly different answers." Earlier this week we posed the question: A 27 year old woman presents to your ED with RIF pain and PV bleeding. She is sexually active and uses a Mirena device. Her only gynaecological and obstetric history is an incidental diagnosis of ovarian cysts as a 22yo. A urine bHCG is positive. Which of the following statements is true? A) this patient's symptoms are likely due to an ovarian cyst B) Because this patient has no documented history of PID an ectopic pregnancy is unlikely C) This patient's use of an intrauterine contraceptive device places her at an increased risk of an ectopic pregnancy D) This patient may have an ectopic probably caused by exposure to diethylstilbestrol It's a good example of a clinically based multi-choice question that should be featuring on the new exam. Now, knowing is NOT enough - you need to able to reason as well. In the first week of the fellowshipexam.com course we spend a lot of time on the multi choice questions. The MCQ is an important part of the exam, and understanding the MCQ is easily as important as studying for it. We always ask our candidates to do some “homework” each week. As part of this one of our candidates set the very astute and scientifically tight MCQ below. "Knowledge....needs to be interpreted in the context of a patient." The fellowshipexam.com team were bemused to hear some recent exam candidates (not our students!) speak about ACEM's second new fellowship examination. It seems that several of the questions were a bit out of left field..... "In fact, we here at fellowshipexam.com were similarly outraged, until irony of ironies one of our faculty actually had to perform the procedure under question last weekend!" The fellowshipexam.com team are thrilled to announce that we have had a huge response for the 2015.2 course. If you haven't signed up now, sorry, we're full. (If you're desperate, flick us an email and if we have a last minute cancellation we will let you know.)
We are full steam ahead for 2015 - the videos, notes, questions and mcqs are all up on the fellowshipexam.com website ready to go. Later this week we'll post some commentary on the latest written exam. For now, we'll simply say we are looking forward to meeting, teaching and helping all our new students on their way to exam success! |
TAKE ME TO THE COURSE PORTAL!
The fellowship facultyWe work as emergency physicians, and teach, blog and write at resus.com.au Archives
July 2017
Categories |