What to do about 4th year rxams

I'm in a little bit of a pickle about what to do in regards to 4th year exams coming up in a few weeks.

For the last couple of years I've been having issues with difficult to control asthma and have generally been coping alright. But everything has gotten so much worse over the last 6 months with 2 severe exacerbations landing me in hospital, an anaphylactic reaction and 2 life-threatening attacks! The most recent of which I'm still in hospital for after a week!

I know that despite doing well in end of block assessments I've missed a lot of placement and have probably made some of the attacks worse by pushing myself to return to placement too soon.

The only issue now is whether I have a go at sitting my exams in just under 4 weeks time, even though I am definitely not prepared for them (the osce in particular), go for mitigating circumstances which now means sitting the resit in may (as first sit) or just saying sod it and suspending my studies for the year to have a bit of a break

There's definitely pros and cons for all of them and I can't seem to reach a decision, or a consensus amongst my coursemates I've asked about it. So naturally I thought I'd come here for advice 😂

I've already intercalated and would rather not take 7 years but also don't want to end up sending myself in with yet another worse attack as I seem to be creeping closer and closer to ITU each time :frown:

Sorry for the long post

Basically - lots of hospital admissions with asthma and don't know what to do about 4th year exams!

Reply 1

Lionheartat20

Are you able to apply for mitigating circumstances, and still sit the exams? On the assumption that your asthma will affect your exam performance, as it is has had a detrimental affect on the preparation for your exam, as demonstrated by your hospital admissions / missing placement.

Do your university allow you to miss this many weeks of placement and still pass the year regardless of your exam score? Our university require a pass of each placement, as well as the end of year exam, in order to progress into the next year. Have you fulfilled your module requirements of attendance (?Is this relevant to you - not just the 'assessments' but the 'attendance' component) because there's not much point stressing about an exam if the uni turn around and say you aren't attending enough. EDIT: Probably not relevant reading the OP but worth mentioning just in case!

4 weeks sounds far too long to prepare for an OSCE or at least I hope it is haha, mine is now in 3 days :smile:

(Just finished Written Finals which took up the vast majority of my revision).

But in all seriousness, your health comes first & foremost. Don't push yourself to the extent that you become ill, it's only kicking the problem further down the road and will then affect your next year instead. So look after yourself :smile:

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 2

Anonymous #1

Original post by Lionheartat20

But in all seriousness, your health comes first & foremost. Don't push yourself to the extent that you become ill, it's only kicking the problem further down the road and will then affect your next year instead. So look after yourself :smile:

The mitigating now means that you're "not fit to sit" and if you turn up to the exam you are declaring you're fine to sit it.

Attendance wise I have missed a lot but from meetings I have had at the uni they're not too bothered about it at the moment (although I guess they might change their mind after this block)

I know 4 weeks is waaaaay too long in general for an osce but I'm not ready for the written ones either and am struggling to get myself in for practical exposure to patients currently! :smile:

Reply 3

Helenia

Have you had much contact with a personal tutor or other uni advice services? I don't know what your uni's policies are likely to be, so they're far more able to give you tailored advice. In general though, I'd say look after your health and worry about the exams after - med school will still be there.