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Tips for clinical year med students

For anyone who's gone through the clinical years of medicine can you give me some tips on how to succeed and learn from placements to get a good score at the end of year exams? I am in year 4 at the moment and will be tested on specialities and clinical ethics at the end of the year MCQ exam.

Reply 1

nexttime

My main tip is don't be afraid to ask questions, or ask to be involved in audits/research if that's what you want. It's very easy to feel that the doctors are too busy and can't answer your questions, but the department is paid almost £250 per day for you to be there and generally speaking doctors do want to help you. Worst case scenario, they say sorry I'm busy - nothing lost.

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 2

Confffffffused

Aside from MCQ tips, does anybody know how to make the most of passmed. I am getting 70% of the qs wrong.. Should I use a book to help me answer questions?

Reply 3

ForestCat

Original post by Confffffffused

Aside from MCQ tips, does anybody know how to make the most of passmed. I am getting 70% of the qs wrong.. Should I use a book to help me answer questions?

Try the question and if you don’t get it right then look up the reasoning behind the answer. Or study around the condition. Repetition is key

Reply 4

Lightsparkles

Try to focus on the medicine (history taking, examination, differentials, investigations, management) and core clinical skills at the beginning and up to pre-finals. The worst thing you can do is stand around and hover so definitely try to be proactive. The best way to learn is to have someone watch you do things so you get proper feedback. Then I’d read about conditions/anything else you’ve seen during the day for that to really stick. When revising, I recommend going from a differentials point of view and work through cases. Post finals, I’d focus on being a good F1 by shadowing F1 doctors in the team and see what they do because a lot of the job is about time management, organisational skills and communicating with people (patients, family, colleagues/seniors, other specialties, especially Radiology and Microbiology), but you’ll pick up a lot of that on the job. The other thing is managing common ward urgencies/emergencies. You will be expected to as a F1 to assess (never forget the ABCDE), and initiate management and escalate early. I’d also keep prescribing in the back of your mind always and use the BNF. You’ll be a safer prescriber if you really understand side effects, interactions.

Sorry that was a bit of a ramble!

(edited 4 years ago)