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It's just loading. Are you gonna keep your camera? Hello, everyone. Um My name is Ka, I'm the education lead for I RJ. Um Can everyone hear me? I don't know if you can message I can hear you but not sure if the others can. Ok. No worries. Fine. Um Great. So as I said, um I'm Iona, I'm the education lead for I RJ. Um And today we are um running our annual application to Radiology webinar. Um This is gonna be a three part series um starting with the general application today and acing the M sra with Doctor Austin Ling and then we're gonna, we've got two more sessions for the next two Wednesdays. Um So the 23rd and the 30th, the first one will be um an IR specific talk um run by a NST one ir run through trainee. Um He'll talk you all through the IR application and the IR trainee pathway and then the final one is an ACF talk um that's probably more suited to people applying next year as it is outside the window of application. Um But hopefully you will have a lot of applications. So for those who don't know, I RJ is a society, a national society made up of junior doctor trainees um who are passionate about Ir um and where we want to spread their news and educate um as many people as possible about um IR and radiology. So we're hoping that a lot of you will get into training and then therefore thereafter get into um IR training. So without further ado, I will just welcome uh Doctor Austin Ling. He is an ST two diagnostic radiology trainee at Cambridge University Hospitals. His interests lie in breast and um gi radiology and I'll just hand over to him. Thanks Cleo. Hey guys, how's it going again? My name is Austin. I'm one of the TT S at Cambridge or Adam Brooks Hospital and today I'm just gonna talk you guys through um radiology application and just kind of tips and tricks that I've learned through um applying for radiology myself and also by chatting with some of the other radiology registers and getting their experiences and also sort of some tips that they've learned as well. So hopefully this will be useful for the upcoming application cycle. Um And yeah, so just let's get cracking. Cool. So just an overview about what I'll be covering today. Um I'll spend about 45 minutes to 50 minutes. Um just um sort of doing the talk and I'll leave about 15 minutes to 10, sorry, 10 to 15 minutes. Um For any questions feel free to just pop any questions onto the chat if you have any along, um, or during the talk itself, but I'll try to answer them at the end of the talk. Um So just an overview about what I'll be talking about today. Um, before we go straight into applications, I'll spend a few minutes just talking about, um, why radiology is basically the best specialty out there and try to, um, convince those of you who aren't 100% sure they wanna do radiology that um you should definitely apply and why it's um the most incredible specialty. Now, talk quickly about um a typical week of an ST two just to get a rough idea of what you're signing yourself up for and also the training pathway again, just to just so you have a rough idea of what. Um So if you're applying for it and then we'll go into the application process, which includes um the different timelines M sra portfolio and we'll just briefly touch on um the interviews. Cool. So just gonna um give you a little bit of my very unbiased opinion on why radiology, the sort of best specialty out there. Um So I just think imaging is really, really interesting. You have lots of really um cool technology and also you have lots of different varieties. So you have um you know, all your different modalities like CT MRI plain film fluoroscopy. And when you recording, you also get a bit of different specialties. So I II really like um that part of imaging and imaging is so important in um patient care. Um as you know, most patients who go into a hospital, get some form of imaging and whatever diagnosis we write on um are um imaging report, it kinda get stuck with the patient and um it kind of dictates what the patient is gonna be treated for. So we're really important. Um We're a really important part of patient care. And radiology is also such an intellectually stimulating um specialty. I feel like you're always trying to solve a diagnostic puzzle and you're always trying to put um things together and come up with a unified diagnosis. Um The training in radiology, I feel like it's um so second to none, you get really structured um teaching, you get um lots of training opportunities when um sort of going from an F two to ST one. I think you really feel the difference in um how much people invested in um your learning and how much people care about just getting you to the point where, you know, you're a competent radiologist. Um the working environment in radiology is really good as well. I think just being away from the chaos of the wars and just not having um sort of the pressures of um the pressures coming from be managers, everyone just seems a lot more um a peace and stress-free in radiology and um because of that people sort of feel happier in a way and we also have really comfortable um chairs and there's ac everywhere. So you'll be um physically comfortable as well. Um One thing that a lot of people consider as well as going to radiology is the work-life balance. Um So as, ast y you're basically sort of super numerary and um your life's dream is just a Monday to Friday 9 to 5 job. Um When you're an ST two, you start doing on calls, which I will talk about in a sec. But again, this um isn't as frequent as um other specialties. So, um you still get that um work-life balance um aspect of it. And when you're a consultant, um if you're in ad GH, a lot of D GH just outsource um overnight scans to um tele radiology companies. So you don't do any overnight on calls. The most you do are evening on calls. And in um a tertiary hospital like Adam Brooks, you do have to do overnight on calls, but you rarely get called in the middle of the night. And because there's so many consultants, the oncall frequency isn't anywhere um close to the frequency of um say a, a medical or surgical consultant. Um And lastly, um as most of you are probably aware, there's a really um big national shortage in radiologists and there's such a high demand for radiologists that when you become a consultant um it shouldn't be a problem, um, getting or, uh, when you ct, it shouldn't be that big of a problem getting a consultant job. Um, I think it sounds bad for me to just drone on about how great radiology is without sort of giving sort of the other side of things and sort of some drawbacks of radiology. And one thing that lots of people talk about is, um, the threat of A II, feel like this is quite a, um, contentious topic and people have different, um, opinions on this, but just my personal opinion, I feel like this is something that's, um, still years away from actually happening. And, um A I, or at least the A I tools that we have right now, they seem to be only good at doing one thing. Um, and even doing that one thing, it can sometimes, um, not be that sensitive or specific. Um, but yeah, I think, um, it, um, it could be something that can happen in the future, but what I see happening is more, um, a I being used more as a tool to complement how, um, ra, to complement the work of a radiologist. And that's as something that will completely take over the work of a radiologist. Um, but I think the only way we'll see how, um, I think time will only tell, um, how this will progress and how things will sort of, um, develop the next thing that some people talk about are the exams because, um, some of the, um, sort of exams in radiology are sort of concepts that we're not really used to, for example, are physics exam. Um, some trainees find it hard to sort of get through the exams. However, I think, um, lots of different, different subspecialist, lots, lots of different specialties have, um, their respective exams and all of the exams, um, can be slightly challenging to pass. So I feel like this is just something that all of us will have to go through at some point in time. Um The next um sort of thing that to consider before you apply is um I know this was kind of set as um sort of a pro in radiology because um there's gonna be more need for consultants. But because of the increased demand for imaging, I think there's been rising pressures for consultants to re report at a quicker rate and sort of clear off the um the recording list. So there is gonna be an increased pressure for um for radiologist to be more sort of efficient. But at the same time, I think depending on how you look at it, this can be an advantage as well cause it means they'll just need to employ more consultants and um they'll also be more um scope for um outsourcing or private work um when you're a consultant. And lastly, um so some people talk about how radiology can be quite repetitive. I think sometimes it might feel that way after say if you've done like your 50th plain film um back to back. But the good thing about radiology, as I mentioned before is you have so many different modalities that um you don't just spend all day doing plain films. Um You, so you tend to switch around. So if you're doing plain films in the morning, you tend to do something else like CT or MRI. Um and I feel like all specialties have um have um something that is repetitive. So you just have to choose something that you think you can tolerate and that you can see yourself um sort of doing. So hopefully, um I've um managed to sort of talk you guys into wanting to apply for radiology rather than the other way around. Um And if you guys are still here, I'll quickly talk about um typical week of an ST two. So, um just a disclaimer can be different in different centers, but I'm gonna talk specifically about um how things work at Adam Brooks. And in Adam Brooks we um generally have sessions that are split into two. So we have like AM and PM sessions and these are um so split into specialty versus general sessions. So general are more service provision kind of sessions. Whereas your specialty sessions are your sessions where um you kind of just got experienced in either a subspecialty that you're rotating through or um, when you're ast four, ST five, the subspecialty that you've chosen, um, and on top of this you usually have, um, teaching sessions, um, that are built into your timetable. And also you start doing on calls when you're, um, ST two ST three. so when you're at two, at three, oops, I think there's a question. Oh, someone just say hi. Hi. May. How's it going? So, um, when you're, um, an ST two you start doing, um, evenings and weekends, um, and evenings basically just an extension of your day, um, where you stay on after your normal working day. And, um, you work from 5 to 9 weekends are like your, um, any other sort of medical or surgical weekend where you work, um, 12 hours from 9 to 9 and, um, twilights in Adam Brooks, um, we sort of start at 2 p.m. and we finish at 1 a.m. in ST four and T five, we start doing nights. Um, I know when some other centers, um, register us go on nights, starting ST two and in some centers, um, on calls are only sort of, um, evening on calls, especially in smaller DJ shifts where, um, overnight scans are, um, are outsourced. So, I think this is something worth looking into when you're preferencing your, um, your choices. So, just think about how much on call you're willing to do. Um, and, um, and, yeah, what kind of sort of on call frequency or oncall um schedule you're um willing to put up with. So, here's just a um example of a random week that um I have. So this is me during my IR block. So all the IRS um sessions, they are my um subspecialty sessions and they're more, they, they're seen more as um your training or specialty sessions and then interspersed I have my general slash service sessions. So, um there are things like holding the duty on call, radiologist's phone, um being on the portable ultrasound, the departmental ultrasound, um being on this, on CT and Fleur and so on. Um The split between um specialty and general sessions is about 5050 in ST two, ST three and ST four years. And in um ST five, it's meant to be about 70% specialty and 30% general. And um as this is the Ir Junior talk, I'm sure most of you are more interested in ir So in your ST six ir year, if I'm not wrong, I think the split should be 9010. So 90% specialty and 10% general, but this may also differ um between different centers. Um So just have a look into what this looks like. Um when you're preferencing different hospitals. Cool. So just gonna talk quickly about um the training pathways, most of you probably already know this radiology is a uh five-year training program with ST six being um an extra interventional. Um So with SC six being an extra year for those um doing interventional radiology. So ST one to ST three years are what we call your core radiology training where you um kind of rotate between different subspecialties. Um In Adam Brooks, in ST one, we're kind of trained up to do more service provisionally kinda um um modalities, for example, we have six months in ultrasound to train us up to run the um ultrasound list. Um and we have three months in neuro to train us up to do um acute neuro reporting when we're on call. And we have um another three months in general radiology where we're trained up to hold the on call duty, radiologist, phone and also to um run the fluoroscopy list in ST two and T three. We rotate between different um subspecialties which are um three months block. So we have eight different subspecialties that we rotate through just to give a bit of a taste of what each subspecialty um is like. And then as I mentioned before, ST five, ST sorry, ST four and ST five, you um choose a subspecialty that you're um gonna subspecialized in, I know um in some centers. Um This structure is a little bit different, for example, in Norwich, if I'm not wrong, um trainees only pick a subspecialty when they're in ST five. So they only have one subspecialty year. So again, this is something worth looking into before you um do your preferencing and fellowships are something that some people do. But, um, it's completely optional as, um, most people have, um, most people are able to get a consulting job, especially if you don't really mind where you're going. Um, um, yeah, most people have been able to get consulting jobs without having to do, um, kind of shifts. Um, just to talk a little bit about exams. You have, um, essentially three parts to your F RCR exams. Part one, we should take an ST one and actually a two part exam or two different papers. So you have your anatomy and your physics papers. Um And the RCR has recently changed the um criteria for um progressing from ST one to T two. And it's now include um F RCR part one as a mandatory um criteria. So you'll have to pass your um part one essentially to progress to um ST two. And ST three. You typically take your part two A which um consists of MC QS on different subspecialties. So it's completely written, there's no um imaging involved. You just get a description and you're given so five M CQ um answers to pick from um in ST four, that's when people typically take their two B and this um involves your viva rapid reporting and lung cases. Um However, this is kinda a future problem for you guys to worry about. Um And I'm sure um most of you guys are so more interested in me talking about the application process. So I'm just gonna um jump straight into it now. Um So I'm just gonna be talking about the application process for England, Scotland and Wales, which is run by the Cancer Sussex um Deanery. And you apply to this um on Oreo like how you did for foundation training. Um There's a different application process for Northern Ireland. Um I know the competition ratio is much higher compared to England, Scotland and Wales. Um just because there's a lot less um spots available in Northern Ireland. But yeah, that's not something I'll be um discussing today. Um And just to sort of give you guys a, an idea of um what the competition ratio is like, um it's actually gotten a lot more competitive in the last couple of years. So, um two years ago, um the competition ratio was 8.7. So almost 9 to 1 and last year it was um 11.9 so 12 to 1. And if you can see here, the number of um applicants that um have been applying for radiology, it's slowly s um well, actually not even slowly, it's exponentially um growing, it went from about um 2000 to about 3000 in a year, from 2022 to 2023. And as you can see here, the number of posts they aren't really going up. Um So this is, isn't me trying to scare you guys off um from applying, but just me trying to emphasize that. Um I think it's good that you guys are applying now cause I think in a few years time is just gonna get worse and worse. Um So if you're kind of in your f two year right now and debating whether you should do af three year, I would recommend just applying and see how things go. Um If you get a job, amazing if you don't just take it as um stroke and experience and try again next year. Um So I think the earlier you can get your foot in the door the better just cause I think competition is just gonna get crazier um in the coming years just to talk a little bit about timeline. So, um you're kind of aware of when things are gonna happen. Um This is the timeline um for the last application cycle, I think they've just released the timelines for um the applications um for 2024 and 2025 which are ta um show in a SAC. But um for last year, applications open on the 26th of October, um the M sra was taken around um fo fourth to 16th of January so early January time and the interviews were um around mid March. So for this year, um the applications open um sort of next week actually on the 24th of October. Um and they close on the 21st of November. So what's important to know is um I'll be, I'll talk about this a little bit later. But um for your portfolio part of the application, whatever you um submit, it has to be achieved before the date that the applications close, whatever is achieved after, um they don't count. Um However, there can be some flexibility around this. Um For example, if um you've done the work for the last 2.5 months, but um for it to, to be so for it to reach three mo months, for it to count as one of the domains for your portfolio, um Some consultants would give you some leeway and still sign the ladder for you um as proof of um completion of um of say a teaching project. Um Again, I'll talk about this in a second. But yeah, what's important to note is that um all of your evidence, they have to be candidate to be before the 21st of November. Um So, hee hasn't confirmed when M SRA is gonna be. Um But again, like I showed previously, um this is gonna be around January time. Um um And it'll be sort of around mid January like it was last year. Um And, and um yeah, just moving on to um when interviews are gonna be so similar to last year as well, interviews are gonna be um around March around mid March time. Um And then um hopefully you guys will be getting your offers um kind of towards the end of March. So there's been um some changes to how um candidates are ranked and the changes just came out um yesterday, if I'm not wrong. Um So now, um you, you'll still be sort of assessed on three criteria. So you have your M SRA portfolio and interview. But now, um the M SRA is used purely for short listing and um once you're past the shortest thing um stage, then you'll submit your portfolio and you go for your interview and uh um waiting is 40% portfolio and 60% interview. Last year. The split was about 20% for M SRA. Um 30% for portfolio and 50% for interview if I'm not wrong. And the year before um it was 30% sra 40% portfolio and 40% interview. Um I think they've changed it this way just so that um it'll be more um so far for people who are genuinely interested in um radiology. Um I think there's more scope for um ra people who are genuinely interested in radiology to score better. Um Compared to say people who just put in blanket applications for all different specialties that require MSR, for example, um surgery GP um um psychiatry, ophthalmology and so on. Because in the past, I think what happened was people who scored really well in M SRA, even though they weren't really interested in radiology and their um portfolio wasn't that radiology directed, they were still given a job um just cause the M sra had a significantly bigger ring. Whereas now I think they're trying to eliminate that and make it more um sort of radiology specific. Um So I think there are pros and cons to um the change that they've made. Um But I guess what we can focus on is just optimizing um your portfolio and optimizing um whatever you can do at this moment. And once you've um put in your application, I think one thing to um to consider is um the types of um training programs there are. So you have your um traditional versus your more academy style training programs. So with their traditional programs, um they're more apprenticeship style where you get earlier exposure to um to a clinical environment and your um shadowing other radiologist earlier during your training um versus academy, which is more structured teaching programs where you get more um classroom based teaching and to more uh focus on getting trainees past your exams. Um So one thing to mention about um the difference between the two training. So is that with academy training, um trainees tend to have better um pass rates in the exams just cause you get a bigger emphasis on um on getting trainees through the exam. So that's just one thing to keep in mind as well when you're um preferencing your um your dries. Cool. So just gonna talk about MSR now. Um It's a exam initially designed for our um GP trainees. And um there are two parts. You have your clinical problem solving part and your professional dilemma part for the clinical problem solving part. Um I kinda see it as your final year exam which uh a bit of a sort of GP um taste to it. So you got a lot of um questions asking for diagnosis and management and your professional development. Sorry, your professional development part, that's more your um S GT so your situation judgment, sorry, excuse me, just your um situation judgment. Um test that kind of questions. I know some of you probably haven't done um S GTs because they've recently scrapped it. But um if I'm not wrong for UK Cat, we have to take um there, there was a section on S DT S. Um So it's similar to that where you get um kinda ethical um kind of question and you're given a few actions and you're asked to rank um the action from the most appropriate to the least appropriate. It's quite a subjective task. I feel like there's no real way of um studying for it apart from just getting experience on the ward and seeing what um other people do, I think at the end of the day as well, um the answers really just depend on um the p the people who are standing the exam and whatever they think should be the most appropriate action. Um um That would be the case in the exam, but I'll talk about that in a sec. So before um I talk about strategies just gonna give you guys a rough idea of the scores um that if used as the cut off for um for the Radiog application last year. So I've mentioned mm sra is now purely used for, for um short listing. And what that means is they use um a specific score as a cutoff to invite um applicants for an interview. So anyone who scores below that score wouldn't get um an interview. And that basically means your um portfolio is kind of um kind of sort of pass into the bin and not consider that at all. So I think it's really important to am sorry and make sure you get an interview because if you don't meet the threshold mark, your entire interview is not gonna count. So in 2024 that score was 555 and in 2023 the score was 543. So how they um score the M SRA is basically based on um a normal distribution graph where 250 is taken as the average for both papers. So 500 essentially is the average for um all people taking the M SRA exam. And as you can see here, he says, um so um quite a higher score than um what the average person would get and just so you have um a rough idea of um what different scores mean, I've stolen this from mind the bleed.com. Not sure how, um not sure how reliable it is because um as you see, for the professional di dilemma part, um it's kind of implying that people who have a score of about 211 to 230 are in the um in the average. Whereas, um you know, with the normal distribution, you would expect 250 to be so bang on the average. But anyways, this is just to give you a rough idea of how well you have to perform um to get a score of 555 and I haven't done the exact math, but just by eyeballing it, I think you need to be around the top 10 to 20% to meet the cut off for um for, for being invited for an interview. And um I think the M sra um like your like your medical school exam. I think what's most important is just focus on doing as many questions as you can. Um And what I found most helpful are um sort of the official MSR sample questions. Um Again at the end of the day, um you know, what, what the people starting the exam, I think that would be so gold standard for um for h how the answer should be. So, um it's really important to, so just go through the, the sample questions as many times as you can and just be familiar with the answers, especially for the professional dilemma part. Um Another resource that I found really helpful. Um Again, for the professional dilemma part was the UK FP OS JT sample papers. I know, um the sample papers are probably not available on, um on the website anymore as they from scrapped, um, the whole S JT exam. But I'm sure if you Google around, you'll be able to find a, a PDF somewhere um with, with um with the sample papers or if you're uh if you go and read, I'm sure someone has posted at some point um a link to um to those papers for the clinical problem solving the um there are a few um question banks that um I used and when talking to others, um they've mentioned that they've used as well, but um just run. So my experience and what other people have told me, I think M CQ banks the most helpful and the most um similar to the actual exam itself, even the user interface is really similar to how um the exam looks like in um the Pearson View Centers. Um I think the questions, some of the questions are a little bit easier than the actual um MSR exam. But I think it's um the closest one you can get to the actual exam for um the professional dilemma part. I thought it wasn't um too bad. But again, um, I wouldn't sort of take all the answers. Um, so as, as, um, I would sort of take the answers with a pinch of salt because again, at the end of the day, um, what, what the answers they'll be looking for in the MSR, it will all be based on the people setting the, um, the exam so you can go through all the questions but just, um, take the answers with a pinch of salt. And that was the same with um past medicine for the professional dilemma part by following the clinical um bit um pretty good as well. And I think with past medicine, what's good is that you have, um, you have that explanation at the end of the questions. So it kind of gives you sort of some reading material to go through and if you got the question wrong, you'll um you'll be able to sort of read about um the justifications and learn about um sort of some, some knowledge that, you know, you've been missing. And um yeah, try not to get the answer wrong the next time. Um Some other question banks that um I've used were the BMJ on examination past test and he medica. Um I thought the questions were um quite different from the exam itself. But um if you need more stuff, if you need more sort of questions um or more practice with different style of questions, I think these are good ones to give it a go. Um I think there's just a question coming in um asking my suggestion as the best question bank. Um So, yeah, again, for me, I think M CQ Bank was the best. And past medicine was um a really close um second and then B MJ on examination um was another pretty good one and II would only do past test and I mea if you really had uh if you really have lots of um extra time and if you're really um keen to just go through more questions, I haven't heard of Aurora. Um Yeah, that's the one I have heard of. So um can't really give you advice on that. Sorry. And the Medicare was ok. But like I mentioned, I thought the questions were just quite different from the actual um exam itself and what I would recommend is just going through all the questions um one time and then just coming back and just going through the questions that you've got wrong. And um once you've done that you can either move on to another question bank or you can redo um the question bank again to you kind of know um you kind of know. Um So by heart, what um the questions that you've got wrong and um how to avoid making the same um mistakes again. So just going through some of the questions now, um I went through um each question bank, I think just once I didn't really have time to go through it. Them more than once I think for M CQ Bank, I did it, um, a second go after I've done, um, the first pass and doing all the wrong questions. But yeah, I only had time to do, um, to do that and, uh, in terms of reading materials, I didn't really have, um, I initially read the Oxford Medical Handbook and I also went through some medical school um resources and notes that I have. But um I found it not really that high yield and not really an efficient way of um using my time. So I ended up just ditching the books and just focusing on um on the questions for me. Um So just answering the next question about how similar or hard there was the clinical problem solving part of the MSR two UK med school finals. Um II thought it was actually easier than my med school finals. I know different med schools have um different sort of difficulties when it comes to fi when it comes to final exams. But I think from talking to other people as well, it was um slightly easier than med school finals. But um I think because of that, it's um that much more important to make sure you get as many questions. Um Right, as you can because um you know, getting one or two questions is wrong, that's gonna make quite a big difference to the score. That you get. Um cool, I'm gonna move on for now and then I'll come back to some of the other questions um just in the interest of time. Um So in terms of portfolio um with the portfolio, there's been lots of changes um in the last few years. Um and um during my year, they've completely changed the whole portfolio um around. But fortunately, I think this year they're sticking to the same portfolio system. Um So I'm just gonna go through the seven different domains and talk about things where you can get um easy scores and um and so yeah, get as many points as you as you can get. Um sorry, excuse me. So I think for um people applying this year um just cause the applications open next week and they're due to close for a month's time after that. I think you'll be slightly tight for time to achieve to get some of these um sort of domains ticked off, but I'll talk about the ones um that you may be able to achieve in a time span of a month or, or so. So I think for those of you who are um applying or II think for anyone who's applying for Radiog G um and if you're genuinely interested, I think you should get a um you should definitely get a score of 10 in the first domain which is commitment to specialty and this can be anything uh ranging from a taster week, a students like the component um or a radiology based research project. And you just need to be able to show that you've had at least three days of um exposure um to, to um this aspect of radiology. Um and this can be in the form of a letter, a certificate um and or sort of like um evidence of the project that you've done and there's some more um fine print um sort of details there that I'll um let you read in your own time. But all, all of this information is available on the hee website. Um The next one is leadership and management. I think this can be slightly hard to um to achieve, especially if you only have um a month left. And this is because you need at a, at least six months of um involvement in this row. Um But for people playing next year, some things you can look out for are um different radiology societies. For example, you have Ir Juniors that you can apply to or you have your um S RT and so on. And if you're able to score a position in these um societies, you get um uh a score of seven. but if um you're looking for something sort of easier to achieve and something less um of a time commitment, I've been told being sort of the junior doctor um forum R or um being so part of the meth committee can be quite a low commitment position. So that's something that you can look into. Um, and one thing to, so keep in mind is anything that you've done in med school, it will count towards, um, towards. Um, so when you're applying, so just make sure you include whatever you've done as a medical student and yeah, discount it. The next is, um, teaching and training, um, with this again, if you're applying this year round and you um are struggling to get something like this. Um That's fine. I think you just have to sort of focus on the other parts that you can optimize. For example, just make sure you score your M SRA and gather um get an interview um invitation and then you can try to sort of optimize your interview instead of worrying too much about this. But if you're applying next year, what you can do is um with Zoom and um sort of virtual um teaching, you can easily get a score of um four or five by just getting a few medical students or a few other foundations, doctors and just um organize regular teaching events um for students or um other um medical or students or other uh foundation doctors in different dries. And that would count as a four. And if they're in some different parts of the countries or if they're in um another country that would count as a score of five, I think what's important is also getting a consultant to supervise all of this. So they'll be able to um to write you a letter at the end of the um when, when you finish the whole um teaching program. Cool. The next one is formal teaching qualifications. I think this is quite a difficult one especially cause you need a formal master's um so degree to get full points for this. But um I think this is one that if you're trying to get more points for this current um application cycle, this is one that you can um get 22 extra points in. So there are lots of untrained trainers event going on. Um I think some trust they offer them out for free. And um I think there are like regular um external um trainer, trainer sessions that you could pay for. So if, if it's something you're keen to get on, you can look uh um around and um this is something that you can achieve in the next month and a half and if you are sort of applying next year, this is something that you can do sort of um with, with less urgency. The next one is um, audit and quality improvement. Um This is something that actually can be done quite easily. I know um, a full audit sounds like a lot to do, but it can be something as easy as a questionnaire and for it to um kind of show that it has changed practice. You can kind of just do it as, um, a teaching, um, a teaching session. So I know what one of, um, the people I've spoken to have done is they've, or they've, um, during one of the lunchtime teaching sessions they sent out, um, a questionnaire asking about radiation, um, pro protection awareness and by collecting those questionnaires and then doing a talk immediately after, and then just sending out another questionnaire after the talk and that kind of counted as um a uh an audit or, or even a quality improvement. Um If you like that has changed practice because he was able to show that he's, I improved the um radiation awareness of the people that he's um that, that he did to talk to. Um And if you're struggling to think of any um radiology audits to do, um, one good resource is the audit life um page on the RCR website where you can get lots of different um examples of audit or templates of audit that you can perform in the radiology department. Um Another thing you can do is during your taste week, just have a chat with the consultants or registrars around and see if they have any projects that you can get involved in. I think this is something that um you can potentially get quite high score in. Um Yeah, and then just moving on um the academic achievement um domain. Um again, if you are applying for this cycle. I think it might be a little bit um to sort of rush time for you to um for you to um sort of get poised in this. But um if you've done an audit, um you can always submit it to uh to a, to a conference. Um for example, um shout out to our junior as well supply. I submitted my um my audit to um the National Interventional Radiology Symposium. Um So nurse that, that was run by our juniors. It wasn't anything life changing. It was quite a simple audit. Um but it, it counted as so um a poster presentation relating to radiology at a national level. So I got three points for that. So that's definitely something you should look into. Just look into conferences um that you can um submit to um or even better if you can try to um write up your audit and um submit it into um a journal, then you get even more points for that. Um That's the prizes and awards. Um There are, it, it might seem a little bit daunting to um sort of get a price um by a recognized radiology institution at a national or international level. But um there are lots of assay prizes available. Um If you just look up different radiology societies and um me casts does um different radiog related prizes as well. And it can also, if you have an audit, just submit your um audit for a prize at different conferences. Um For those of you who are um applying next year, I think there's been a proposed changes for the application next year. I'll let you guys read this in your own time. But I think they're kind of reverting to the um the way they used to um sort of run things. So they're reducing domains from seven different domains to just five. And um so they're removing prizes and awards and just merging the two teaching and training and formal teaching qualifications, which shows how the um the the scoring system for portfolio used to be. And um I think they might be changing interviews to an in person interview where they used to do sort of um a portfolio interview before, sorry, a portfolio station before the actual interview. And that's why when they actually verify your uh portfolio score instead of having to submit everything online. So you have to go in with a physical binder and show them all your proof for your portfolio. Um So just a few tips and tricks, um just a few tips when um when it comes to your portfolio, just make sure you get your evidence and get it early. So try to email your consultants now if you're applying for this application cycle. Um just so you're not so scrambling for um for evidence when it comes to um the evidence um when it comes for you to upload the evidence. Um, also make sure you get, um, any certificates that, um, any cer certificates for things that you've done and, um, just any evidence that you can, um, collate at this point in time. Um, the other thing is make sure you upload multiple evidences for each domain. Um, I think there's a cap of four evidence for each domain. But, um, say if you've done something at a, um, inter national level or like international slash national level, but you've also done something at a regional level. Um Make sure you just submit both of them just in case for some reason they don't accept your um your your evidence for the higher score, you at least have a safety net and you still get the score for um for that domain. Um And one thing to not forget is that medical school projects they count and just um make sure you upload evidence for anything that you've done in med school as well, I think um in the interest of time. Um I'm just gonna sort of go through interviews really quickly. Um um Last year there, there's, they've completely changed the interview um section of the application process where um you have two different stations, one which was a prioritization um priority, prioritizing different clinical situations. So most um candidates got um so a situation where there the on call duty rash, uh they're asked to prioritize different scans and that you have specialty skills where it can be anything ranging from um coping with stress, helping a um colleague out. Um So commitment to specialty, just kind of like how they used to run old. Um they used to run the old interviews but um I'm II think Ir Juniors has uh um an interview um session coming up. So that's one thing that you guys can uh keep your eye out for. And um and yeah, cool. So some helpful resources that I've used um Reddit was such a lifesaver. It had really good um resources and people were always um sharing really good um um resources on that and you always get really up to date updates on Reddit. So that's one thing I would um keep my eye on. Um especially this um junior doctors subreddit. Um rast again, like I've mentioned before, they do really good prices, but they also do a podcast which I can listen to, to keep up to date with um with um current developments in radiology. They also do application courses and interview sessions for the interview sessions. I thought um they were really good and the questions that I was asked, they were almost identical to the questions I was asked during my actual interview. So that's something I would definitely look into. Um I think they are a little bit and the spaces go quite quickly. Um But I think it's definitely worth doing. So if you're interested, make sure to get on it sooner. Um rather than later, Radiology Cafe has really good interview questions, but it can be a little bit outdated. Um Although I think just going through them will give you a good structure as to how you're gonna um raise your answers. Medi Body similar to Radiology cafe, but you just have to pay for it. Um I see medical is a good um your book. So IC medical has a good medical interviews book which lots of trainees, um, not just in radiology but medicine surgery use. Um It gives you a good way of structuring your answers. And um I haven't actually used this resource myself. I've been told by a few registrar that the UK RST. They do. Um um they have really good resources and um they have a whatsapp group as well for um new terms, updates. Co thank you guys so much for um joining. Sorry, I ran a little bit, um sort of um longer than I said I would, but um we'll try to get through some of the questions now. Um Yeah, so just going back to the questions um and going back to the questions on um on question banks. I think there's a question from REMS about any reviews about Samsung. Um I'm not too sure what Samsung is. Um I presume it might be a question bank but it's not one that I've heard about. Um, if you want to sort of clarify a little bit more. Um But yeah, I don't think that's something I've heard about too much. Um, in the, um, it is quite an unknown one, but I've heard really good things for ST for Samsung. Oh, cool. So there you have it. Um And the next question was, um, what materials do you recommend for S GT? Um So yeah, Samson might be a good um resource but like I mentioned um the official M sra question papers, um they're sort of your gold standard and also um the UK FP O. So let me just go back to my slides, the UK appeal um sat sample papers. They're um they're really um they should be kind of your gold standard for um for these questions as well. Um Where can we find out about different trust structure of training to decide during preferences? There, there is a website um somewhere that gives you a rough outline of what different um hospitals you rotate through um in different um trust or dries. However, it doesn't always go into really, um it does always go that much into detail about what the um the on call hours are like and what um the rotations are like. So I think your only way of finding out is just by chatting to other trainees and just seeing um what they think about different um sceneries and I've seen people um sort of ask on Reddit as well. Um What different sort of training programs are like um cool. The other, the next question by Paula is um do I get points for being leader of Radiology Society at med school? So, yeah, like I mention, um don't forget any of your med school um um achievements or whatever um you've achieved while you're in med school. Um Do online teaching courses consider as evidence to such as 6 to 8 hour courses on Coursera. Um unfortunately, si think it has to be over, um, a time of sort of two days. So if it's only over 6 to 8 hours, I think it might not count. Um But again, I think there's no harm just to upload the evidence and see whether they give you the point for it. Um The next question, does the national price have you ra related or can it be medical institution? For example, um I think it can be um nonradiology related but you'll just get a lower point for it. Um If that's what you're asking. So you got, so um the highest score, if it's a radar related price um in a national or international level, whereas I guess if um it's not ra related that you might just get so three points for that. Do you know the average number of points for a portfolio of successful candidates? Oh, that's a good question. But um yeah, sorry, that's not one that um I have the number for, where can we find official M Sary sample? Questions. Um, if you just put in onto Google, um, you should get it quite easily. It should be on the M sra um, official website. Can I get a letter from my consultant after the application date has closed, stating that I have done my audit before the applica? Ok. The application that like, so, yeah, so like what I mentioned, um, that is up to the discretion of your consultant if they think. Um So you've done sufficient um work for them to be happy to sign the um the form, say if you've done for your teaching um domain say you, you need for example, three months for it to count but say if you've done two months and three weeks, if your consultant is happy to sort of overlook the minor, um the minor um one week that um that happened after the deadline, then, yeah, I'm sure I'm sure if they're happy to sign it, um They'll count um when it gets um used as evidence, do the uh evidence need to be prior to the deadline in November when you apply or can it be to the date when you upload evidence? So no, like I mentioned before, it has to be um achieved by November by the date the application is closed. Anything that you achieve between the evidence upload phase and between the um applications closing. They, it, it, it won't count was a good portfolio score for this year. Yeah, again, unfortunately I don't really have a number for, um, for that question. Um, but I know people who have score on the lower side. I still got a pretty good job. So, um, especially this year where the interview, um, it's a much bigger, um, proportion of, um, the score they used to rank you. So, um, I've, I've spoken to people who have sort of gotten a range of scores and just to put it in context, I got about 31 out of 45. Um, and yeah, II still kind of got um, one of the jobs I wanted. So, um, don't worry too much about your portfolio then just try to optimize anything you can and um, just focus your, um, the rest of your efforts where you can sort of, um, may.
