Comments for Your Views on Exam Preparation at http://www.sheffieldcat.org.uk , comment 1 to 4 out of 4 comments http://www.sheffieldcat.org.uk Tue, 07 Sep 2010 00:43:32 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.sheffieldcat.org.uk/news/253-your-views-on-exam-preparation.html#comment-46 Way back when, when supernumary training in the region was 6 months in the central hospitals, you were very strongly encouraged to start your basic science reading with a view to primary in those first 6 months without on call. I was regularly given an evil topic to have prepared for the next list with mentors (MAC values and partition coefficients, compartment models etc). We would get the patient on the table, then sit and talk through it. I wonder if the other factors, such as the farming out of supernumary training, with consequent reduction to 3 months (yes, I know this is in line with everywhere else in the country but), and immediate throughput to specialty (no pissing about doing 18 months of medicine as an ST) have had a larger impact than is being estimated. The bottom line is it is bloody hard work, and it was always made very clear to me that it would be 6 months of serious study, to pass. Perhaps that message is being diluted by all the other things competing for trainees attention (an audit a year, attending mandatory training, demonstrating competency in IT etc). - alexamannings Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:50:46 +0100 http://www.sheffieldcat.org.uk/news/253-your-views-on-exam-preparation.html#comment-42 I have anaesthetic friends in the North West and they love their system. From what I can see it works - very early on people are starting to do their reading with the primary in mind and dont do as the majority of us seem to do which is suddenly panic later on in SHO training! I dont know official figures of pass rates but certainly they appear to have a higher first time pass rate. I mentioned this to several STH consultants whilst an SHO but nobody had any interest in taking it forward. Theoretically it should be feasible in a small 'friendly' region such as ours. PS. The northern once upon a time ran a rolling rota style curriculum aimed towards exams with the trainees themselves preparing topics. I really enjoyed it but again it just fizzled out!! I think Shaun and Sumayer have the original topic list if that helps?? - OlenaM Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:03:52 +0100 http://www.sheffieldcat.org.uk/news/253-your-views-on-exam-preparation.html#comment-41 It's definately a good idea and would have support from most if not all trainees. However it would take up more resources and to be run effectively I think would need to be centralised ie run 1/2 a day per week rotating locations and trainee oncalls covered so they can attend (I can but dream!). Thanks Jochen for looking into this. - philb Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:30:34 +0100 http://www.sheffieldcat.org.uk/news/253-your-views-on-exam-preparation.html#comment-40 I worked in the North West and weekly teaching there is organised on a sub-regional level in groups of 6 or 7 hospitals (ie similar to this region but more compact geographically). There were separate programmes for new starters, pre-primary and pre-final trainees (not sure what happened to post-fellowship SpRs). There was also a rolling list of topics so that in theory over 18 months the whole primary syllabus was covered. This approach seemed to work reasonably well most of the time but would, as you say, have resource implications and it was not uncommon for teaching to be cancelled at short notice. The hospitals in this region being more spread out might also be an issue in terms of travel and people getting back to DGHs for on calls. - dtarpey Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:20:30 +0100