I think I've failed the SJT

There should be a question on the SJT about backbiting from medical students.

How do you deal with haters who hide behind Anonymous and don't own up to their comments? The correct answer is tell them to mind their business.

So mind your own.

How is this backbiting?

I'm sorry but if a patient came to you and spoke to you about their struggles, surely you would not say "I have no sympathy for such and such struggles."

Everyone struggles with things differently and I only made this post because I'm concerned about being placed far from my family and friends. I don't think I should be told my feeling aren't valid, thank you.

I sat the SJT today and I think I’ve completely failed it I didn’t even finish the exam missed out a couple questions. Did the practice questions to prep and they just went awful got most wrong in some way. I’ve completely ruined my life. Please help

There is an on screen clock but with the exam being so long I lost track of time. I think timing wise it’s not too bad i only missed one question but I flagged a couple to go back to that I was spending a while on which I stupidly didn’t put an answer in so I missed those too. I’m a dunce so you’ll be fine.

There is an on screen clock but with the exam being so long I lost track of time. I think timing wise it’s not too bad i only missed one question but I flagged a couple to go back to that I was spending a while on which I stupidly didn’t put an answer in so I missed those too. I’m a dunce so you’ll be fine.

Aw I worked out each of the ranking are about 2% of the marks each, so missing those 3, and me missing that last one won't be what seals it if that helps at all. Try to keep your head up, this exam has been even more hyped due to covid unknowns, and the new type of questions, so we've definitely had more pressure. Hope you do well!

I feel absolutely awful about my SJT. Don't know if anyone has come across the furore on twitter and Reddit abit it. I sat mine online and had all sorts of issues. Main issue being I have a urinary condition and need to go to the toilet and with receiving extra time I was unable to go to the toilet and this distracted me for the entire exam. I know that had I gone to the test centre I wouldn't be under this level of pressure anxiety and stress during the exam. I also sped through the exam and with all these thoughts I feel that I have not read the questions properly and when walking out of the exam my first thought was I am going to be in the exceptionally low category and now I am absolutely certain that I am not going to get my competitive deanery which means having to spend another 2 years away from home. It's all just such a real nightmare and I'm so convinced that I will not be able to go to my first choice deanery. I don't even know who I can ask for advice since my medical school are absolutely useless and absolve themselves of all responsibility. All they ever say in regards to sjt issues is that it's not a university exam so they have no control over it...

I would email UKFPO about it directly. They probably are the best people to advise you. Your med school prob could advise you, as through the medical schools council they work with ukfpo to do things like recruitment.
I think i saw on social media that there might be a chance to have a second chance if you have had a problem, but i think that the time to then is really short, so your medical school contacting them on your behalf is probably the quickest thing, as i am sure they notice the medical school contacting them. But also email and put the problem in the header so they pick it up?

Sorry that you have had such a tough time. Very few people are exceptionally low, but if you are hoping for a very competitive deanery, i completely understand your worry. Ive moved a lot with the different training levels, and actually there were lots of positives, even with my biggest leap - from london to Yorkshire for specialty - which i loved even more. I hope that you have done better than you think though.

I just think as a year, this cohort of medical students (Year 5s) have been extremely disadvantaged with nothing set in place to negate the amount of time we've lost. For example, we've missed out on the most placement and we're the first year to trial these new questions of which there are no solutions online and nobody really knows the difference between "very inappropriate" and "somewhat appropriate" etc. There's also the new "dialogue style" and "video" style of questions which has never been used before. Again, the examples provided have no solutions.

Does anyone else feel like this? It generally feels like the UKFPO haven't thought through this at all and how badly we would be affected during the pandemic with these new changes coming? I don't know if there is anyway to feed this back?

How is this backbiting?

I'm sorry but if a patient came to you and spoke to you about their struggles, surely you would not say "I have no sympathy for such and such struggles."

Everyone struggles with things differently and I only made this post because I'm concerned about being placed far from my family and friends. I don't think I should be told my feeling aren't valid, thank you.

I'm so sorry to read these posts from fellow final years who have found the SJT hard. Reading this thread has got me dreading my SJT on Saturday. I've done minimum prep after hearing that it 's an exam you can't revise for and also splitting what little time I have between SJT and PSA., Plus being on 8.30 - 5.30 placements in the hospital for the last 3 weeks I haven't had much spare time as I've been exhausted in the evening. I'm also worried about timing/not finishing like a couple of you mentioned. Is there an on-screen clock/countdown to try and keep yourself on track?

There is an on screen clock but with the exam being so long I lost track of time. I think timing wise it’s not too bad i only missed one question but I flagged a couple to go back to that I was spending a while on which I stupidly didn’t put an answer in so I missed those too. I’m a dunce so you’ll be fine.

I feel absolutely awful about my SJT. Don't know if anyone has come across the furore on twitter and Reddit abit it. I sat mine online and had all sorts of issues. Main issue being I have a urinary condition and need to go to the toilet and with receiving extra time I was unable to go to the toilet and this distracted me for the entire exam. I know that had I gone to the test centre I wouldn't be under this level of pressure anxiety and stress during the exam. I also sped through the exam and with all these thoughts I feel that I have not read the questions properly and when walking out of the exam my first thought was I am going to be in the exceptionally low category and now I am absolutely certain that I am not going to get my competitive deanery which means having to spend another 2 years away from home. It's all just such a real nightmare and I'm so convinced that I will not be able to go to my first choice deanery. I don't even know who I can ask for advice since my medical school are absolutely useless and absolve themselves of all responsibility. All they ever say in regards to sjt issues is that it's not a university exam so they have no control over it...

I sat the SJT today and I think I’ve completely failed it I didn’t even finish the exam missed out a couple questions. Did the practice questions to prep and they just went awful got most wrong in some way. I’ve completely ruined my life. Please help

It’s my fault I grossly underestimated how hard it was going to be and prepped last minute. I can’t believe I sabotaged myself like this after all these years of work. I emailed my supervisor for advice on what to do next because I really think I have failed.

Except the person I was talking to is not my patient and I am not giving medical advice on TSR. That's the difference between practising Medicine IRL and expressing my views on a website. My sympathies for patients under my care don't always have to extend to people online if I think they are making mountains out of molehills. I am perfectly within my rights to tell anyone on TSR they're making a big deal out of nothing, if I think so. I draw a line between what I say at the workplace and what I say online - maybe you'll learn a thing or two from me about how to separate your work life from your personal life.



May I ask, how did you manage to study for medical school exams while you were on placements? Those were presumably 9-5 hours as well, even in the run-up to exams. Were you able to take time off back then and just not attend placements at all in order to focus on studying? I don't see how the situation is different now if you are a final year medical student.



You're a final year medical student who has passed many exams more difficult than the SJT. So you can see why I would be hesitant to believe that you're a "dunce". You wouldn't have made it this far if you were.



It's not the end of the world if you don't get a place in your first choice deanery. This is the risk you take when you apply for a national allocation programme like UKFPO - you do run the risk of being placed somewhere far away from home if your SJT doesn't go as well as you hope. But IMO this is what you sign up for when you start at medical school as an enthusiastic 1st year. If you don't get your first choice, maybe you will get your second or third choice deanery which could be commutable distances from home. When every medical school graduate in the UK is pretty much guaranteed a job somewhere in the UK, I'm struggling to understand why your situation has such gravity as you describe. Job security in a pandemic shouldn't be taken for granted. I'm sorry to hear about your condition and I have indeed read the medical students' section on Reddit which describes the humiliating conditions that students were made to sit the exam in, as well as some of them being unfairly revoked halfway through - it's disgusting and I will make a separate post addressing my thoughts on that. Unless your condition means that you are unable to take care of yourself independently, in which case that's another question. But when you've already managed 5-6 years away from home, I don't really see why another 2 years away from home seems impossible? If you do get a place far from home, maybe you'll have to apply again next year so you can move home. Even that doesn't seem like such a big compromise when compared to losing livelihoods and homes.



Explain it to me please because I really don't get it. How exactly have you ruined your life? It seems that you and I have different definitions of what constitutes a ruined life, so give me some context please and I will return the favour to you.



It seems to be a common theme here that the SJT is an exam you don't have to prepare for, so lots of you here chose to do exactly that and are now unhappy with your exam performance. You have taken all your medical school exams very seriously and passed them all so far, so why is the SJT any different? Why are so many students intentionally not studying for this exam when it's apparently quite easy? Or at least it has been in the last few years when it wasn't online. IMO if you don't study for an exam then you don't have a leg to stand on when it comes to how hard it was and whether you think you've failed. Like I explained already, on the (very very) slim chance that you do fail, you can still go on to practise as a doctor. There are small failures and there are big failures. As someone watching all this unfold from the sidelines, failing the SJT when it doesn't stop you getting your first job as a doctor seems like a pretty small failure to me.

Reading lots of the comments here reminds me of final year medical student Simran Halari at Imperial College London. In one of her older YouTube videos she opens her 3rd year exam results and is visibly upset at achieving 73% and 83% or something like that, in her written and practical exams respectively. Because she won't be able to live at home. Yes I get that there are various reasons why people want to get a job somewhere that allows them to live at home. But we can't always have what we want, especially when it comes to competitive deaneries like London. IMO educated professionals like doctors can find living independently to be a piece of cake compared to working in hospitals.

Except the person I was talking to is not my patient and I am not giving medical advice on TSR. That's the difference between practising Medicine IRL and expressing my views on a website. My sympathies for patients under my care don't always have to extend to people online if I think they are making mountains out of molehills. I am perfectly within my rights to tell anyone on TSR they're making a big deal out of nothing, if I think so. I draw a line between what I say at the workplace and what I say online - maybe you'll learn a thing or two from me about how to separate your work life from your personal life.



May I ask, how did you manage to study for medical school exams while you were on placements? Those were presumably 9-5 hours as well, even in the run-up to exams. Were you able to take time off back then and just not attend placements at all in order to focus on studying? I don't see how the situation is different now if you are a final year medical student.



You're a final year medical student who has passed many exams more difficult than the SJT. So you can see why I would be hesitant to believe that you're a "dunce". You wouldn't have made it this far if you were.



It's not the end of the world if you don't get a place in your first choice deanery. This is the risk you take when you apply for a national allocation programme like UKFPO - you do run the risk of being placed somewhere far away from home if your SJT doesn't go as well as you hope. But IMO this is what you sign up for when you start at medical school as an enthusiastic 1st year. If you don't get your first choice, maybe you will get your second or third choice deanery which could be commutable distances from home. When every medical school graduate in the UK is pretty much guaranteed a job somewhere in the UK, I'm struggling to understand why your situation has such gravity as you describe. Job security in a pandemic shouldn't be taken for granted. I'm sorry to hear about your condition and I have indeed read the medical students' section on Reddit which describes the humiliating conditions that students were made to sit the exam in, as well as some of them being unfairly revoked halfway through - it's disgusting and I will make a separate post addressing my thoughts on that. Unless your condition means that you are unable to take care of yourself independently, in which case that's another question. But when you've already managed 5-6 years away from home, I don't really see why another 2 years away from home seems impossible? If you do get a place far from home, maybe you'll have to apply again next year so you can move home. Even that doesn't seem like such a big compromise when compared to losing livelihoods and homes.



Explain it to me please because I really don't get it. How exactly have you ruined your life? It seems that you and I have different definitions of what constitutes a ruined life, so give me some context please and I will return the favour to you.



It seems to be a common theme here that the SJT is an exam you don't have to prepare for, so lots of you here chose to do exactly that and are now unhappy with your exam performance. You have taken all your medical school exams very seriously and passed them all so far, so why is the SJT any different? Why are so many students intentionally not studying for this exam when it's apparently quite easy? Or at least it has been in the last few years when it wasn't online. IMO if you don't study for an exam then you don't have a leg to stand on when it comes to how hard it was and whether you think you've failed. Like I explained already, on the (very very) slim chance that you do fail, you can still go on to practise as a doctor. There are small failures and there are big failures. As someone watching all this unfold from the sidelines, failing the SJT when it doesn't stop you getting your first job as a doctor seems like a pretty small failure to me.

Reading lots of the comments here reminds me of final year medical student Simran Halari at Imperial College London. In one of her older YouTube videos she opens her 3rd year exam results and is visibly upset at achieving 73% and 83% or something like that, in her written and practical exams respectively. Because she won't be able to live at home. Yes I get that there are various reasons why people want to get a job somewhere that allows them to live at home. But we can't always have what we want, especially when it comes to competitive deaneries like London. IMO educated professionals like doctors can find living independently to be a piece of cake compared to working in hospitals.

Wow so you're basically saying that empathy is something you've learned to fake in your professional life, and outside of that you are free to act like an ******* because there isn't a professional body that can judge your behaviour?

I really feel for your IRL friends and family. You must be really fun at parties.