Not permitted to sit finals exam

So I'm in 3rd year in med school, unfortunately I didn't get an overall pass mark on the in-course assessments through the year so I'm not permitted my first sit. This means I'll have to sit my exams in august (as my final sit) as opposed to at the end of June with everyone else.

It's really disappointing and I'm a bit gutted and scared but I wanted advice on how to make my time from now until then productive, so that I could pass all of the exams comfortably. This includes an OSCE paper, multiple choice question paper and an interpretation of medical data paper.

Would be great to hear ideas :smile:

Reply 1

notespad

14

I can understand that you're quite frustrated, but you've got another shot! Let's make it work!

What kind of advice are you looking for? I guess you should probably start by what you've been doing/why you failed the last assessment? If it was literally just because of family stress and you not studying - and usually if you're studying leads you to pass the exams, then just study consistently!

Reply 2

kate332211

OP

Original post by notespad

I can understand that you're quite frustrated, but you've got another shot! Let's make it work!

What kind of advice are you looking for? I guess you should probably start by what you've been doing/why you failed the last assessment? If it was literally just because of family stress and you not studying - and usually if you're studying leads you to pass the exams, then just study consistently!

Hello!

Thanks for your reply! I'm awaiting a breakdown of my marks which will tell me if it's just a lack of studying that caused this. I think it was a combination of things, my lack of understanding on what will come up in the exam, spending too much time on topics especially topics worth few marks (meaning the return on my studying/investment is lower), too much socialising (?even thought I spend more time working than socialising), not having enough time to complete everything, and not doing enough revision (evidently!).

It's so disappointing, and its frustrating that I have friends who regularly score 30% more than me in exams but I have no idea what it is they're doing differently from me!

My goals to pass exams this summer are: to make sure I cover only examinable topics instead of trying to cram everything and losing time for important stuff, going over everything numerous times so that it sticks, identifying what information could come up in exams, know how to apply what I know to exam scenarios, and make sure I'm motivated and disciplined throughout the two month period and don't burn out either!

Any ideas on how to achieve this would be greatly appreciated!

Reply 3

notespad

14

Original post by kate332211

Hello!

Thanks for your reply! I'm awaiting a breakdown of my marks which will tell me if it's just a lack of studying that caused this. I think it was a combination of things, my lack of understanding on what will come up in the exam, spending too much time on topics especially topics worth few marks (meaning the return on my studying/investment is lower), too much socialising (?even thought I spend more time working than socialising), not having enough time to complete everything, and not doing enough revision (evidently!).

It's so disappointing, and its frustrating that I have friends who regularly score 30% more than me in exams but I have no idea what it is they're doing differently from me!

My goals to pass exams this summer are: to make sure I cover only examinable topics instead of trying to cram everything and losing time for important stuff, going over everything numerous times so that it sticks, identifying what information could come up in exams, know how to apply what I know to exam scenarios, and make sure I'm motivated and disciplined throughout the two month period and don't burn out either!

Any ideas on how to achieve this would be greatly appreciated!

Lack of understanding on what will come up:
- be VERY CLEAR about what you need to learn. Email professors/course leads if necessary. For us, we had to learn everything lol so that might also be the case.

Spending too much time on certain topics:
- You NEED to know how to "study smart." This does not mean study poorly, cut huge corners and borderline pass. No way. But if you're told that 80% of your paper is going to be on the main systems abdo/gastro/cardio and you have a 250 slide fungal infection lecture, then put the latter aside until you're comfortable with everything else. Obviously, that's an extreme example, but you get what I mean. I ALWAYS cover my bases, then, I learn extra things. And it's important for you to be able to decipher what is "extra."

More realistically, if you have more than one paper - and they're equally weighted - make sure that you're equally prepared! I remember going into one exam and realising that I was unprepared because the content for the first paper was 70% of the total year and the content for the second paper was 30%. Thus, I realised that I'd only spent 30% of my whole revision time covering stuff for paper 2 even though they were both 50:50 weighted.

Too much socialising/not enough revision
- If I were you, if you are able to (e.g. you don't have any major mental health/physical health issues that stop you from doing this), but I would cut out the social life and study study study. Especially now that you have some solid time to do some work. You're in 3rd year, which means, you've got what it takes to pass!!! Just focus now. Retaking a year is doable, but LONG. Just sacrifice your social life for a few months and you can then have a guilt-free time of your life!

(edited 6 years ago)

Not permitted to sit finals exam

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