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Yeah, I put him in everyone. Um Welcome to today's um edition of the exams series. We will be starting with a Fr cl to a structural approach to is the, this is organized by religion Trust Group Africa. So today we have um two presenters. They are currently ST three radiology Radio Stress uh four because by next month they will be four. So will be starting with uh Doctor Must Abraham Fu ST three IV in West Midlands currently in MS Trust. So Mister Five, you are here. I can see that you're here. Um I would like you to start today. Thank you. Ok. Uh Just give me one second. All right. Hi, everyone. Um So I'm gonna be looking this way because my laptop's there with the presentations in front of me. Um My name's um Must F and I'm one of the ST threes in the West Midlands. Er, and um I've come to talk briefly about the two A exam and sort of my approach to how I prepared for it and what the two A exam is. Um So this is the layout that I've got. It's a fairly short presentation, but we're just gonna have a quick introduction to the two A exam. The then we'll talk about some resources, main resources that most UK trainees er, typically use and recommend, er, and then question books um for preparing for the actual exam. And then just briefly what my strategy and experience was with the two A exam. So the two A exam is probably the biggest of the radiology FRC R exams in terms of how long it takes to prepare. Um UK, trainees typically sit the exam at the AST three. So that's roughly 24 months of radiology training um under their belt, er, within the first one or two months of ST three. So you can say it's maybe 26 month of radiology training. Um The exam is two papers on two separate days. Each paper has 100 and 20 questions. Um, and you get three hours per paper. So it's a total of 240 questions. Um And it's unlike the uh the anatomy and the physics exam, you can fail one day basically and make up for it on the second day. Uh It's your gross mark that counts towards your overall mark. Um, and the pass mark varies and it just depends on how well everyone scored or how poorly everyone scored. Um, I can't remember the name of the scaling that they use here in the UK, but it's, it's, it basically just depends on how well or poorly everyone did that on that exam. Um, but you're looking at around the 65% ish mark for a pass, there's no images in the exam. It's all words that's good and bad. If you're not particularly good at, like, haven't seen that many things in radiology. Um It's obviously better but it just depends on the people who write the question. They will use their own descriptive terms. Um, so you do have to sort of get used to that. Uh And there's six modules that are covered in the exam. Er, I think historically, the exam was six separate papers. So you, you basically had to know M SK radiology and then you'd go in and, and 75 questions. M SK radiology, same with neuro, same with cardiothoracic. Um But they scrapped that. Um I think they said that the failure rates were really high on these exams and it just meant that trainees were doing a lot of exams. Uh, and now they've just encompassed it all into one which has its pros and its cons because with it being all in one, you can, if you're not particularly good at one subject, you can make up for it in the same paper. Um But the downside is if let's say one subject lets you down and you do well on the others, but you still fail. It means that you have to revisit everything all over again for the exam. So the resources for learning radiology. Um the vast majority of UK trainees um will use either crack the core or core radiology or both. Uh They're sort of the revision guides that are um recommended by most people and most of my colleagues have used one or the other. Um There is a more extensive textbook um called Radiology Review Manual by Donna. But I tried to look at it and personally, I thought that was too extensive for the, um, for the, for the exam and it was just impossible to learn anything from it. That was my experience. But if you're the type that enjoys reading really information, heavy books without a lot of pictures that might suit you. Um, II haven't included a picture of that book unfortunately, because I just, I just didn't use it, but that is, I think the gold standard uh textbook, um, supposedly what the RCR exam is based off of. Um, and there's another little book that I came across that I only use towards the tail end of my, um, revision. This red one here, the final F RCR complete revision notes. Um, that's super concise. Um, and wouldn't recommend using it on its own. But because it's the only one that's British, which is both crack, the core and core are American books. Um, it's the only one that's British and it just, it highlights the high yield things and sort of bullet point format. Um, so if you have time and you can probably read it in, you know, a week or so towards the end of your revision. But II definitely recommend one of these two as textbooks. Um They both have their drawbacks and their positives, which I'll talk about at the end when I talk about like my strategy and sort of experience with a um but I'm just kind of giving you an overview on the resources that most UK trainees um use or recommend. Um Google is gonna be your friend. Um Because Radio Pia or Stat DX, depending if uh your institution gives you access to stat DX. Um radio PIAs basically got everything. And if you just use Radio Pia for the exam, then it all the, all the questions will be coming, you know, you'll find all the answers in there. But the problem with Radio Pia using that alone is that it's not very organized, having a revision guide, that sort of structures. Your learning is probably the best way to go about it. But um what I found is when I was um studying for the two A is that I was googling a lot of things and I just got into such a habit that even after the exam finished, I was like typing in, it was like, I don't know, er Joe Biden Radio Pia just as a because I was so used to googling everything on radioed that I was reading. Um Yeah, the, the other golden nugget that I found really helpful towards the end was the Radiology Society, the Society of Radiologists in training, they hold free sort of lectures on teams or zoom, um sort of in the lead up to the two A exam and they have some of them available online for free on youtube. And I found those really, really good, um, wouldn't recommend watching them early on because they're fairly heavy on sort of high yield exam questions. Um But I found it really, really good and definitely worthwhile in sort of in the last four weeks. Um before the exam, it's sort of they're recorded lectures that are in a question and answer sort of basis. So there's like no pressure on you, but you're just watching to see how other people answer and then the consultant who's presenting is giving the rationale as to why that answer is correct. Um But yeah, uh a lot of information in that in those videos that you won't find in textbooks. Um Yeah, and II, II think those sort of resources will cover you in terms of the, what you need to actually learn, um the content for the exam. Um Again, I'll revisit this a little bit later on. But um my advice with regards to the revision textbook is I would say, just pick one whether it's crap call or core radiology and stick to it. Both of them don't necessarily have all the information that you need. Um But because you'll be Googling, you'll be doing questions and you'll be attending lectures and stuff. You can fill in the gaps. Um, but yeah, you don't want to overwhelm yourself with reading a bit from this textbook and then a bit from that textbook. Um, I just, yeah, my advice would be, choose either call radiology or call, um, and, er, stick to that, uh, stick to whichever one you prefer. Um, I think generally crack the core is more example. So it's like the question, the way it's been, it's written to prepare you for M CQ style exams. Whereas core radiology is just more of a, like a, just a generic textbook. Uh, but if you prefer that, then go for core radiology. Um, crack the core. I liked it because you made some jokes in there and it was a bit easier to read. Um, but, um, but yeah, that's just sort of my advice on crack the core versus core radiology. Personally. I only used crack the core. I did try to read core and then I couldn't finish it. Then I switched to crack. But, yeah, just decide for yourself which you choose. But I recommend sticking to one and then using the internet and those S LT lectures to fill the gaps. Um, question books and banks. Again, there's a lot available online. The ones I'm gonna talk about are the ones that I did. Um, which is those five here. Um, I think there are others available. Um, but they're older and I'm not saying they're bad. I just don't have any experience with them. So these are probably the most recent ones. Um Well, I think they are the most recent bills. Um, so I'd recommend doing those and doing them extensively rather than having a wide variety of questions and not dedicating as much effort into those kind of questions. So I sometimes less is more. Um And I think on the next slide, this is the order that I did the books in. And it's also the order that I would rank those question banks in. Um F RCR exam prep is the only one that's online. Um It has the most number of questions. It's 1600 give or take a few. Um It's online, my experience with Fr cramp. I found it very, I II felt like it covers the bulk of the curriculum. So if I only had to choose one question bank to do, I think I'd probably choose this one. It is a bit easier than the real exam. But I felt like doing that. That question bank extensively prepared me a lot more for the exam than when I didn't. So for context, I had to take the exam twice. Um And the first time I didn't do F RCR exam prep as extensively. Whereas the second time I covered it maybe 2.5 times before the exam. Um And personally, I found that that was the difference. So I would say that the questions are easier, but I would start early um and try and get through that question then twice before um you set the exam. Uh The next book was the Oxford SBA S book, which was this one here, this red one here that was 450 questions. And it was in the older modular format. The questions are much more difficult than the two A exam. Um in my opinion, and I would use that as a learning resource. So also I would recommend doing that one quite early, you'll get a lot of things wrong. But if you the explanations are very, very good, so it's worth doing slowly and extensively um to develop knowledge. Uh The third book is this B IR imaging single best answer, which I believe has an app for um Android. But if you use Apple, um you have to buy the book, uh This one probably represented the exam the best um because the stems in the exam aren't particularly long. Er and they do feel a bit vague sometimes and I think this one in my opinion was overall the most representative of the real exam. So I would also try to do that one early um twice if you have the time. Um But again, the explanation is also very, very good. So what definitely would um highlight that one as a resource to use ex like fairly well. Um The next book is the Final F RCR Self Assessment which has four mixed mocks. Um This one here and that's the companion book of the Small Red revision guide. Um That's the newest book I think it was published in 2021 or something. Um Again, also very good and in my opinion, fairly similar to the real exam. Uh But again, the explanations and reading around the questions is where you'll do the most learning. So I wouldn't just rush doing it. Um, and then the last book is this Get Through one, the orange one, which is here, it, it's a good book if you've got a lot of time, but if you're short on time, I probably would have prioritized doing it. So I didn't do that one when I was taking the exam the second time. Er, it's the questions from what I've been told are the, with the, the RCR doesn't like negative questions. So it doesn't like questions that are sort of worded in the, which of the following is true. Everything in the following is true except, or what is not a likely diagnosis. Um, and these, that had a lot of these kind of questions which beneficial for learning, but it didn't really mimic the real exam and I would only do it if you had a lot of time. And the last, uh, it was the sample RCR questions. So there's a PDF and talking about preparation for the two A exam with 30 questions with explanations. And then on the RCR website, there's 11 questions with no explanations can definitely recommend doing those because um from memory, I think there was one question that was repeated from these 41 questions in my April exam. Um So definitely do those later on in your revision prior to the exam. Um Yeah. And I think as far as questioning books this, well, that's, yeah, these are the main ones that I'd recommend and the ones that I used. Um, yeah, I'm just gonna talk a little bit about like my experiences and tips for the two A when you come to do it. Um Time scale is usually one of the first questions and II think that will vary from person to person if from, if you, if for most UK trainees who've done two years of radiology, I would say about 4 to 6 months is the time needed with working uh extensively or with, with a full time rotor. Sorry. Um If you've done previously medicine or you've been in radiology for a long time, you might need less. But I think four months alongside working full time is a fairly uh a a minimum. But I think that's like just a fair average. You only, you can kind of know how long it'll take you to build the knowledge and get into the flow of the exam and pass it. Um But yeah, it will vary from person to person. But I would say for bulk of people who are maybe two years radiology experience working full time, I'd say at least four months. Um as I mentioned before, crack the core or core radiology, um I'd honestly just recommend pick one of them and just stick to it, annotate from other places, you know, do your reading from radio media add stuff in, I prefer physical books. So, which uh, II can't, I still can't do like, um P DFS and stuff. So I had to buy the physical book for crack the call. But, um, but yeah, annotate stuff in, um, read around and stuff it in crack the core or call radiology. Um, like I said, they're both lacking in some information. Um, so yeah, you can't really pass the exam without doing question banks and doing, um, some, some, uh, reading online from radio P. Um, now this was something that had basically threw me off in the real exam and it was said to me, I had nausea by like, so many people that the exam is really vague and that you're gonna be guessing between two answers for most of the exam. And I didn't realize how true that was until I sat the exam cos like both times I felt that there were like there were two answers that I was constantly guessing between. So don't let it dishearten you. But that's unfortunately the reality of it and I guess that's true in radiology as well. Or the time there's a lot of cases where we're not 100% certain. Um, and it's just, it is what it is. Um, I've never really had a problem with timing in the past with exams. And, uh, the, th this exam was the first exam where I found that I was struggling for time that I basically finished just as the, er, clock had finished, especially the first time, the second time was a little bit better. But, uh, yeah, timing is really important. So make sure you're working on getting, you know, a lot of practice to do 100 and 20 questions. Um, cos it is exhausting and, um, yeah, just, yeah, just general advice. Don't spend too much time on one question. Like things that you generating. Yeah, just all that kind of generic stuff. But, yeah, um, if you've never had a problem with time in the exam before, don't think that you, that means you won't have problem with this one. it, yeah. Um, yeah, and the other thing is questions, questions, questions. UK trainees, like, always harp on about how important it is to do, um, questions and, yeah, I'd probably say that's the case as well. Here. I didn't do that many, as many questions as I should have in November. Like I did the books and I did a lot of reading. Um, and, er, the second time round, the only thing I changed was that I started, I did F RCR exam prep a lot more extensively for April. Um Like I was in the morning, I'd maybe do like 75 questions and then in the evening before bed, I'd do like another 80 100 questions or whatever. Um And I, in the exam itself, I felt like a lot more in the rhythm when I asking the questions when, whereas the first time it didn't quite feel as smooth cos I was using the books and I wasn't doing questions in the capacity that I should have. Uh But yeah, um honestly, like my take my, I know I've hopped on about it, but F RR exam prep is don't under like, don't underrate it. I was told by a lot of seniors that it's way easier than the real thing. Um And I stopped doing it around September time the first take. Um But yeah, so that like if you take something away from today, just don't neglect it. I'll see our exam prep. Um The other thing that is helpful for the exam is if you've got the ability to, to attend MDT S and speak to consultants face to face when getting feedback on scans. Um And that's because like, um uh unfortunately, there is like a good chunk of questions in the exam that you can't really just get straight from a book. Um And you have to either reported that scan or that the scan that they were talking about or attended that subspecialty or attended the MDT to know the answer to. And so if you can, I would definitely try to attend some of these things, some MDT S and to get face to face feedback on scans and how, how consultants approach um different scans of because that's definitely uh it'll help for a few marks. Um, and the other thing which caught me by surprise in November was anatomy. You get fairly basic anatomy questions come up in the two A. Er, so it's like they are really important questions to not fail because, er, sorry to not get wrong. And the reason I say that is because the pass mark, so April, the pass mark was 100 and 49 and the average score of all candidates was 100 and 57. Um So you're talking about eight marks between the average and failing. Um These basic anatomy questions like liver segments, artery and arterial anatomy. Some questions on dermatomes or muscle attachments, that kind of thing, you need to nail those questions um in order to um make sure that you're in that realm of passing, er, because literally every mark counts. Um and yeah, just read the questions carefully and yeah, just good luck. Um I've like written like a PDF on like my, what I did for the two A. Um If you're interested in it, you can email me and I can send it to you. Um But it's essentially there's nothing really that hasn't been uh didn't talk about here. So, yeah. Um uh that's all and I'll hand back to Phil and Yeah, thank you. Yeah. Thank you, Mustafa for the wonderful presentation. Yeah. Yeah. No. All good. Yeah, thank you. You know, we have some um questions from the audience but um we did the questions at the end of the session. So I would like to call the other presenter to present for us. So um doctor and it's ST three slash ST four in whole university hospital. So we'll be working on the same as same approach to F RC two A and sharing the experience as well. Eo OKA. Uh Thanks Phil. Um Yeah, I will share my slides. Can you see my screen now? Yes. Yes. OK. Um I think um er has covered everything really. Um So I'll just try and um focus more on, on touch up on a few points just to reinforce what he has already uh discussed and obviously um highlight my, my own personal experience as well. Um You know, the first thing to say is that this exam is challenging. Um it's a very hard exam. Um And the way you approach it is by actually trying to build it into your life over the next few months, particularly if you sit in the neck exam in November. Um But with a bit of structure and, you know, and staying organized, I think, you know, you know, most people would definitely pass the exam. Um So I think it's, it's very important that we are sort of doing this overview because having a structure and approach is, is really important. Um So again, as Mustafa did, I'll go over the exam structure. Some of the resources I used, I will highlight a bit on timeline because I think that's really important, especially if you're sitting in November, you really need to know what you, you know what you need to be doing at this time uh before your exam. And again, I'll highlight a bit on my own uh personal strategy as well. Um Again, the preparation can be very daunting and II think it's better to be over prepared for the exam. So what I'm trying to say is just do not underestimate what you actually need to know for this exam and what is actually required of you because the, the content is vast, uh essentially the entire radiology curriculum and they can ask you anything and any disease condition as well. And sometimes they can go into very, very little detail that, you know, you've never actually taught as well. So it is important not to feel over um prepared, it's better that you actually feel over prepared. Um So that, you know that again, that's gonna make the battle a lot, you know, easier as well. Uh I'm not gonna talk to you about the structure because we've already talked about it. Um And again, we already talked about the fact that exam, I switched to sort of two papers uh containing 240 questions in total, split over two days. So you look at the morning session or an afternoon session. I had, I think I had a, an afternoon session first and a morning session. I can't really remember uh when I started the exam in November. And so you roughly get about 90 seconds for attempting uh each question on average. And like most of said, you know, the final score is a combination of both papers and is marked using the modified go method in which again uses an aggregate score uh based on how all the candidates did on the particular day. So there is no definite cut off mark. So essentially you're trying to pass based on how good every other candidate is on that particular day as well. So which is why it's very important to, to make sure that from your own end you're sort of happy and satisfied with your uh preparation. What it says, I think looking back at the why I prepared for two A and um you know, looking back at the exam itself, I don't think it's uh you know, I might be wrong for saying this and some people disagree. I don't think it's an extremely hard exam. I don't think it's too hard. I just think the problem with the exam is that it's just too vast. You are required to just know a lot of things over a short period of time. Again, which is why you have to have an approach to how you prepare for these things. Because there's a lot of previous stuff for you to remember which, you know, trying to incorporate questions early is very important because again, you can understand how people first questions, how people are gonna ask our stuff because you know, not everything or not, every part of radiology can be put into an M CQ question. So the sort of resources that you use should sort of reflect that because you're preparing for an M CQ exam, you're not really, you're lining radiology at the same time. But to be honest, what you're actually doing is to prepare for an M CK exam. So you have to think about it that way. So all your preparations should be structured into how can I actually be able to answer questions and how can I identify concepts that can actually be tested in an exam? Um in terms of the question style. Again, as Muster said, we, you know, there is no, they don't do negative questions anymore, you know, but what they try and do is they can ask you what's the most likely diagnosis, you know, they can ask you something around um which of the following findings would be most likely in keeping with a diagnosis, you will select a combination of different findings with a diagnosis. Um What's the most appropriate next step? What's most likely the finding or syndrome? And what is the name of this particular finding or, or sign? This is essentially all the question style uh that you're gonna get during the exam. And I think you should be able to study and look at your question band based on these sort of question style and depending on where you find your information from, um that would determine um which question that is very much helpful in like MR formation. For example, I think, you know, for, if you've been to like chest MDT S or, you know, some of the GI MDT S, those MDT S are very helpful for sort of the next most appropriate treatment and sort of next best investigation as well. Um But again, they, they're not that helpful in terms of, you know, imaging findings, you know, they're not that helpful in terms of the most likely they might be helpful in most likely diagnosis. Uh but not as of not as much as what you read in terms of your normal, you know, resources as well. And again, they can't really help you much for like assistive findings or syndromes. So just try and in each resource, try and find out um how you can get the most out of it. Um And if you're speaking to consultants or trying to get some idea. I think try and be as specific as possible. Uh Sometimes consultants, personal opinion might not actually be what, you know, the person that is certainly the question wants as well. So just, just try and get an like a lay of the land and just try and, um, um, you know, balance out, uh, what is someone's personal opinion and what, you know, the exam would accept as the correct answer, For example. Um Again, just a quick overview. I know people tend to get bogged down between using cardiology, which is American or using Green Allison, which is, you know, essentially UK. Um I think either or is fine. I probably tilt towards core radiology because I think the, the writing style is a bit better than green analysis. I think green analysis is a good textbook for getting a quick overview of radiology while you are in sort of ST one and ST two. But I don't think the test was actually formed as sort of an M CQ sort of exam. For example, having said that there are some sessions that are really good. For example, I read the M SK part of green analysis and I actually found that really helpful um particularly for things such as, you know, congenital abnormalities and um you know, uh trauma as well. I think you covered it really well. But, you know, you don't want to be experimented. I would say if you're looking for a cortex you can use either or, but if you don't have one and you want the recommendation for the exam, I'll probably choose um uh cardiology. And again, echoing what said, I think, I think it formed based on M CQ. But again, the problem is that you can't really read it um cover to cover. I think you have to combine it with something else for you to get the most accurate uh generally, uh also be mindful that have certain sessions that are not use for the exam such as obstetrics. So you can, you can feel free to, you know, to skip that. What you actually need is a dedicated question, a dedicated uh resource essentially, um which is practical because again, this book, you know, it's not a reference test, it's not a chore textbook. This book is the, you know, written for MC Qs, you know, he's written for MCC exams and the author has gone through the painful length of actually trying to format radiologic concepts into MC two questions essentially. Um like this book is just if you are short of time or as I'm gonna come to in my strategy, we can recr the call twice and actually pass the exam, you know, it's actually that good. Um The problem is that it can be very superficial. Um There's maybe 10 to 20% of the exam content will not be covered. Uh you know, in cra decline with some other resources to supplement it. And again, if you like learning based on um linking facts together and getting a bit of a background knowledge, then I don't think using is a good idea. Um You need to supplement it with uh with something else. But having said that I think this is the most important resource um that you need uh for the two exam, you know, crack the call and a combination of questions, you know, and I know a lot I passed you using both. And again, you also have the reference books um and almost information done it. Uh It's just, it's a complex book. Um It has a lot going for it in terms of the content because essentially it's a manual. So the questions are actually from done, that's them, you know, all the questions are from done. So or maybe 90% of the questions are from done. But then the problem is that how can you actually get this information from a book that is over 2000 pages, you know, long and it's just full of tests with no pictures. So it's a challenging book to get the most out of personally. If you have a bit of time, I would suggest he trying to use donut initially. Um And what I mean by that is I'm not saying you should read it because I don't think anyone, you know, if you're normal, I don't think you can read them at all. Um what you should do is to combine a question bank that is very high yield that covers all the key concepts and they can tease out the sort of the most common questions. For example, you know, that in your exam, there are just some certain concepts that are going to be tested, you know, for sure you're gonna be tested on a chondroplasia, for example, you know, for sure you're gonna be tested on uh you know, hemophilic arthropathy. Um you know, you're gonna be tested on um uh you know, for hyperplasia, for example, these nearly 100% questions that will definitely come or concepts that will come out. I think you should go and read the bit on that, that way you're just reading a particular section of it that is very, very high. I think that will give you a lot of background knowledge like I use when you're sort of looking at uh all sort of um um superficial resources. That's how we say you should use the and again, raped we on radio pia. Um I think is excellent. Uh in my dinner we have full subscription to radioed. So again, it takes all the ads and all the long away and, you know, you can just use the search bar just to search for anything. So usually when I'm doing questions I have with the P open and I just search for um you know, various topics. The problem with the P is that some of the articles are good and some are not that good. So you have to sort of pick and choose to see which one works. Uh But it's an excellent resource, but again, it, it's very useful. Um you know, has a very, very good, quick, quick review. I think it's just the Google of, of radiology, essential. Um Another resource that you shouldn't sleep on is cardiac. Um I think again, you don't want to overload yourself with too many resources. Uh And I will come to how I sort of managed to structure um most of these resources because I sort of double on a lot of things generally. Um boards is very good at highlighting key imaging findings. So if you're not entirely sure from, you know, Wikipedia, from what you're studying so far about what actually differentiates, for example, um um for coral blood hyperplasia and an adenoma, for example, and you want to find out that key imaging feature, I think stat is very good at that if you also want to know what's the next best investigation or the most specific orses test, um you know, for a particular uh diagnosis, I think start yes, is the best as well. Uh Because it's very current, it's very, you know, current, you know, it's updated regularly, you know, written by, you know, top uh radiologists in America. So I think it's probably the best resource uh for those kind of questions in my opinion. Another reference that I didn't really use is reti um I think it's just a lot and, you know, the, the moles are quite old as well and I think they require update, updating. So I didn't really use Ring as well, but I know people have mentioned it previously for question banks. Um I think Oxford uh is probably the hardest uh by a long mi but I think it, it has, I think it has a lot of complex des which is really good. And I think you should do it when you're starting your prep because I think it will actually stimulate you to read and you actually explain how you actually answer complex terms. Um So I personally will start with, you know, Oxford because you want to do Oxford first and then do it a bit closer towards the exam. Um because it's a really hard question bank harder than the exam. But again, I think the concepts that the question bank test is really, really good. Uh And I would definitely recommend it F RC on prep is also another gem that people tend to sleep on. But it's very useful in easy compared to, you know, Oxford. And it's definitely easier than the exam. But again, it has a lot of questions, um you know, 1600 questions and it, it repeats concepts a lot, which is very good because what you actually require for this exam to retain a lot of trivial stuff is repetition. So I think, you know, if IC example is really good and obviously, it's divided system by system as well, which is really good. And you can actually um use it early on uh uh during your remission uh as well. Um And then you have these other question bands, you know, Master Pass, uh the Cambridge book by Stuart Curry and the B IR question band, I think, you know, like misinformation. Again, I II did all these questions back when I started my exam, which is why I'm, I'm showing you guys. But you know, I think the Oxford book is excellent. The BR book is also very good because I think the sts are also uh similar to the exam and the explanations are really good. But I think all Master Pass and Cambridge offers is just questions because again, this exam is about doing as much questions as possible. And if you're the kind of person that gets to a lot of questions, I think if you've not seen a question before, it's always good for you to do another question. If you know what I mean, because you know, if you see the question for the first time, every time you do a new question, you're simulating the exam because remember none of these question banks, you know, you're not gonna see this question in the exam. So every new question that you see is simulating the exam you know, there is a couple of other question banks which are excluded because I think they are very loyal and the structure is not that great. And you know, some of them, the answers I were wrong. But I think, you know, definitely um Lindsay, which is Oxford. Uh the P IR one is also very good as well. F RC as when you have a bit of time, I think you should also do Master Pass and, and the Cambridge book as well. Again, one thing I did that really helped me a lot. Uh I think three or four months to get towards my exam was I started using anti flash cards for questions. So, you know, sort of transcribed this question BS into flash cards and I was answering them in, in flash card. And I think that was really help and I think that was a big game changer for me because the questions I already know and if I answer it correctly, I don't see that again in my flash card pal and I only review things that I don't actually know. So sort of towards the exam, you realize that the more stuff is sticking in your long term memory, which is obviously where we're gonna rely on the exam, you know, the the better. Um So I think, I think flash guys are great because again, you can do a question bank and finish it, but I can promise you that I will show you certain questions again and again and you keep getting it wrong again and again and again, which is obviously very disconcerting. But that's why you have, you know, these anti flash cards. And I think, you know, if you can apply that, I think it's really, really helpful. Um I really help you sort of cement concepts that you can easily forget. Uh And then you have this final question. Bangs, which I think, I think these are the final warriors. Personally. I think, you know, the get through has about seven marks and the final F RCR self assessment has four marks. Um And then this is a complete revision note and as this information you can read it sort of within a week uh or less, actually less than that. Uh because it's actually very uh condensed has a lot of bullet points uh which is very helpful. But I think even if you don't have time to read the complete revision note itself, I think these two are really important and I think I found them useful, particularly this particular book. Again, people don't talk about the law, but I think your score towards the exam for this particular book will most likely reflect your score that you're gonna get. That's how useful I found it. Um So try and resist the temptation of doing them early. You know, you want to be able to gauge yourself as close to the exam as possible. So if you have 11 month exams and you do about a mock every three days, um, you're gonna do all 11 papers in about next three days. So I'll probably say start doing the mos 4 to 5 weeks before your exam. I, I'll probably say five weeks and then do just one paper every three days. You know, you do a paper, you take your time, you mark the score, you find out your weak areas, you read the explanation, you go over the reference to the explanation to understand why you feel the answers. Um You actually study each mock paper over a three day period. Um That way you can get the most out of it and you're not just sort of recycling questions or recycling questions. Um I think I will probably start with get through and then I will leave this one for sort of the last uh couple of weeks because I think it's very close to the exam. So if you study properly, you can do it once. But again, if you don't study properly, then I suspect that's when you probably need to do it, you know, twice or three times uh before the exam. Um I had the PDF for them and one thing I did was I didn't highlight the PDF. So um I guess I forget something I can usually come back and look at what I highlighted as well. And then finally, there are some other resources uh which I also use because remember you are working full time, you know, you've got families, um you know, you on call, there's other stuff going on, you have your objectives to meet in terms of your training, you probably don't have time to study and that worked for me as well. And I had other things I had, I was doing as well. But how I managed to supplement that by is by using a lot of add on resource. For example, I listened to a lot of songs for F RCR uh from Spotify or sort of Apple podcast. Very helpful resource. It's not that extensive because again, they didn't manage to make, you know, podcasts for all, you know, the study material required for the two A. But I think the, the resource that they created is just excellent. So what I normally do was if I'm coming to work, I put it on. If I'm, if I'm going to the gym, I'm listening to Force for S RCR. Um literally, if I was doing anything where I can have my headphones on, I was listening to it. So that means that actually if I go two or three days without actually studying, I've actually done a lot of studying mainly because I was sort of listening to, to, to songs for F RC Ice. So there are weeks, even, you know, four or five day periods, sort of over the last three months before the exam when I didn't actually do any other study, apart from just listening to podcasts, other podcast was, you know, ra exam review and radiologic review podcast. Again, these are American podcasts. So they are not very close to what you would expect for the F RCR. But I just think if you are struggling with the concept, you can just find that particular topic and just listen to it. You know, I think you have to treat it two way as a concept based exam. I don't think it's an exam where you, um, where you read and understand an entire, um, shall I say an entire system? For example? Um I think you have to pick up concepts and then try and understand that concept thoroughly because there are some very high concepts that you're almost guaranteed will come out in the exam. Um, and it doesn't matter where you learn it from, you know, you can learn it from videos, you can learn it from audio, you can learn it from textbook, you can learn it from crab call. You just know that you have to learn those concepts and that's what it's actually gonna help you. Um, uh, during the actual exam. Again, youtube is excellent as well. Again, you can watch a few videos. Um I found the, the S RT videos are great and I agree with, uh, muster, I think you should listen to them. Um, maybe, you know, 4 to 6 weeks maybe I'll probably say a couple of months before your exam. Um, very, very useful. Um, I think during, when I was doing the exam, I think that was when they were sort of doing the videos. So I sort of followed the series as it was coming out. So I was listening to them. Um, so they are very useful, all of them, very, very useful. Um, Doctor Mark Jones character Thoracic lectures and the neurology, all logic channels are also very good as well because if you're just trying to learn about the particular topic, um but I don't think they are very focused in terms of MC Qs. But if you're struggling with the particular topic and you need a video to learn them, you know, you can always uh look at them, the radio resident lectures are useful. But again, I don't think this is useful. So someone sitting the exam in November, I don't think you should use it. I think it's useful for someone that is gonna see the exam next year. You can just start watching those, these lectures. Now, uh you don't even have to study anything, you can just watch the lectures. And again, you might double into a bit of radiographics, abi of your assistant again, throughout my preparation over 99 months or so, I sort of looked at stuff from all these sort of results from time to time. Um But again, I don't think these are necessary uh, uh, for the exam. So I think you need about 6 to 9 months minimum. Um, I think six months is probably the minimum recommended. And you can do, you know, you can say 14 hours a week. You know, you know, let's say you do, you know, uh, 1 to 2 hours every day, uh, when you're working. So you can do an hour in the morning, an hour in the evening or two hours in the evening or two hours in the morning. And then, you know, if you do that Monday to Friday, you are very cheap on 10 hours. And then you can do for, you know, 4 to 8 hours on a weekend. And it can be, obviously, this is very varied, depending on, on, on individuals. But obviously, towards the last three months, you need to obviously ramp up your preparation. Um And you should be doing minimum, you know, 14 hours every weekend or seven hours every day off, you know, towards the exam. Obviously, it's important to plan your study and annually in advance. Um, and then create a study plan that works for you long term because one thing you don't want is you want to be able to ramp up your preparation over the final six weeks. You don't wanna be tired at that point, you don't want to be point out at that point, you want to actually just build it up nicely so that when you're sort of putting more, um, uh, more timing, you know, actually, you know, feeling up to it, you know, with less risk or burn out. So, which is why I would say you should just sort of build the exam into your life. I mean, obviously it's for a 6 to 9 month period. And then obviously at the end of that, you can actually chill out afterwards. Um, just because the exam is very daunting. Um And then doing it once is tough and then doing it twice is even harder as well. So it's just important to try and get it done if you can. So if using a nine month window, this is just a quick summary. Um If you have nine months, I would say in the first three months, you can have a co test and a reference test that you go to. You can either choose to use cardiology and you can either choose to double check stuff from D or double check stuff from wiped. Um I think you should use a system based approach. So the primarily you should be starting call, crack the call and doing a question bank. So obviously, we have six modules and the questions are gonna come based on those six modules. So you have 40 questions for each module. So I'll probably say over a two week period, try and read the core crack the core part of that particular system. So for example, gi and then if you have, if you're using on prep or Oxford, you can do the gi questions. I think one thing we are always afraid to do is doing questions early. You need to do questions early because you need to actually know what, you know and what you don't know. So I think if you do this over a 12 week period, that's over 12 months, you would have actually managed to go to, have gone through crap. The co and have actually gone through a large chunk of, you know, a particular question that um and then I think you should start, you know, listening to podcasts if you can or listen to a bit of video resources now for the next three months. So this is month, three to month six within a nine month window. I don't think you should use any co test at that point because I just think it's a waste of time and I think you should focus on solving as much question B as you can get your hands on. But they, the ones that show, you know, I II found useful, you know, F RC or on prep is really useful at this particular stage. If you have a flash card or you can make flash card that's also very useful as well. And at this point, you can try and review Cardol as well. And I think you should only be looking at your reference resources for sort of difficult and very high concepts. If you're still failing questions on achondroplasia or failing questions on, you know, differentiating benign liver lesions, I think you should go to either donuts or, or start the X and read those topics, you know, very important for you to read them. And then again, you can still, you know, a bit of podcast in the background and then for the final three months, um again, I think he's just cried the call, you know, find your hired questions, you know, questions like you failing, try and go about again and then this final three months, this is part of your final three months. I think you should start off your, your mo question banks at this point. I think in for your work every three days, um which will obviously allow you like a free week for your final revision before the exam and then revisit difficult concepts, you know, look at podcasts, listen to podcasts for concepts that you're still struggling with uh as well at this stage. But if you're in a rush and you want a very short version, I think if you do Oxford and Protocol first and I use to repeat it for your reference. And if you can try and do F RC or Z prep, you'll be fine. And if you do these resources very, very well and very thoroughly, you'll probably be fine. This is probably what I would recommend if you're short of time or if your exam is in November, I think if you can do crack the call, use Oxford first, then crack the call. Use Wikipedia for your reference for things you don't understand. Try and do F RCI example if you can and then do those 11 mark exams in the final fr cr book and get through, I think you'll probably be fine. Um So top tips, you know, listen to everybody, you know, you learn, probably learn more from people that fail the exam that from that passed the first time, in my opinion. Um So everybody's opinion is very important. But again, you have to learn to discern what was useful for you and what not useful for you. So all these are things that you actually find more useful. And again, don't speak to someone that passed the exam 10 years ago, it's very different. They're gonna recommend something different. Um Again, start questions early, really important. I think you're too afraid to fail most of the time, which is why we don't start questions early. Um So I think it's really important to start questions early because again, that will sort of focus you in terms of when you're studying because remember you are studying for an MCP exam, you're not really starting to learn radiology, stay organized, just find a system that works for you and try and stick to it. It's a long exam. You don't wanna be reading cardiothoracic and you've not actually read gi or you've not actually read head and neck because again, remember it's 40 questions for each system. So you need to be able to gauge that you're actually covering all the systems. So you have to try and stay organized um and try and cover everything. Um I know people that failed just because of they did, you know, they did badly in one of the systems and even if they managed to pass through, you know, the other system, it still brought the V go down. So I think try as much as possible to be average in all the systems. Even if you love, you know, you wanna be a chest radiologist. I don't think you should spend all your time reading chest, try and sort of average it out. Again, you don't want to spend all your time reading breast because breast is gonna be about 4 to 5 questions in the exam in total. Um So yeah, again, combine resources but then avoid overload. So you have to just tease out the ones that actually work for you and then stick to it. One thing you don't want is that you don't want to be, you don't want to be reading two co tests because that's a waste of time. You can pick a co test. That's fine. You can pick a dedicated, you know, M CQ prep tests like, you know, you can have a reference that you go to and obviously you have a question balance, but you don't want to be reading coad and reading analysis. I think it's a waste of time again. Like I said, you have to learn concepts rather than topics of textbooks because the format of the textbook is not really the format of an M CK exam. So think about the exam as I have to learn concepts. If you think about it. As in M SK, there are 50 topics that I need to know for me to be able to pass the to A OK. And if you write down those 50 topics that you see come up often in questions and if you learn and know them, probably examine, I didn't have a final, you know, good strategy for the final three, you know, 30 day event. Again, discussion groups, I added it because again, I had a discussion group which I actually found helpful. So we used it to study questions. I think what he helped me to achieve was it made me study when I didn't want to study. For example, you know, if I want to go watch football or something and we have a discussion, they always have to prioritize that. Um So I think discussion groups are really helpful in terms of um going through questions. And, you know, if you're someone that struggle to actually study alone, then I think we can find out and good luck. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you ca you. Wonderful. The show. Yeah, you guys have learned everything my network is. I cannot the location. Yeah. Yeah. OK. Yeah, I said thank you for orientation. You guys have outlined everything in a very systemic manner. Um Thank you so much. So, um we'll be taking some questions from the audience and um would like them to put them in the chat box so I can just send, get a question from there and answer any questions from dos or comments, anyone. Um So I'll just um say thank you for the um um session. It's been really helpful and I think um the board speakers were able to like give um um opportunities that like you can um alter based on like what works for you. Uh Just something um doctor I make I said just to clarify. So I II was trying to find difficult whether is um granger a a cortex or a reference text. Is it, is it like an alternative to call radiology or to the um radiology review manual that you mentioned earlier? Oh, yes, that's um so obviously there are two in Tesco. Um There is that these essentials which I think is a co test similar to cardiology. And then there is the, the big or call the big range analysis which is more of like reference test. Um Oh yes, yeah, it depends on how you want to use them or I think the, the big green analysis test is probably more of a reference test. Um The essentials is probably more of a cortex which is form for, you know, for trainees. Yes, thank you. OK. Um Any more questions um please, if you have any questions, can you put them in the chat box? Um I'm seeing a lot of thank you. Um But uh OK, someone's OK. Um Someone's asked them during the group discussion, what questions do you um solve question back? Or AMC Qs? Uh II would imagine the question banks have the MC Qs. But are you, are you like asking what particular um question bank you, let's allow the, the presenters to answer? All right. Yeah. So any of them can answer the question. Does the question mean like as in question banks as in like the online ones or the M CQ books maybe? Is that what? Oh, yeah, possibly. Is that possibly um I can on like from my theory? Sorry, I was, I was like, in my experience, we did try the question books in the discussion groups that I had, er, but it was a bit harder to follow along with it. So we ended up um doing F RCR exam prep um like for like 34 hours a night. Um But that was, that was from my experience of me. Yeah, I agree as well. I think F RC is on purpose, sort of easier to follow um um in terms of discussion group, although I think we managed to do, um, one, I think we might do the Oxford book sort of towards the exam. But again, that was, that was more difficult to follow the general. We mainly did that first exam, but that's good. Uh For Stat DX. Um there is a subscription and I think it has to be through like your organization. Um It's a w I, we didn't have it in the West Midlands. Um But when I was a peninsula training before they did give us. Um And II don't II think I tried looking if there was a way to get an individual subscription and it was like really, really expensive. Um Yeah. Uh And yeah, and he II didn't use it very much. So II, I think the, yeah, like said, I think, yeah, was via our um which is great um For here. Um It's free. I think what we just did was just, it's free but you just have to sort of if you have some of the question by like a PDF format, for example, you can just copy them and just make your own bank. I think that was someone that I actually borrowed that actually made a bank of the question banks. Sorry, of the question books already. The question books were already made into flashcards. Um So it was easy um to just use that and do the questions because that made it quicker. Um But I think if you like, you know, flipping through the book and the question books then probably might not have to use anti flash cards. Um, but what I, what I did was, uh, the question books you transcribed into flash cards. I just sort of use that hope to answer the question. What was the frequency of the exam in a year? Um, I think it's, it's twice a year, isn't it? I think you have the November and you have the April set in the UK from my understanding. Yes, it is the same um same uh I pray November for mm all over the world. Like now you can get in Egypt and Pakistan, India about December twice a year. April and November. Uh she want you, I think you said there are few questions from M SK that we need to know. Uh No, sorry, sorry about that. I said um what I said was that for example, if you identify sort of 50 key concepts or topics that you see very often that come up in the exam, you know, from M SK, for example, then you know, you can read around those topics, but it doesn't matter which particular resource that you use or are you as far as you know, to cover those topics. That was why I was trying to uh I need to um I don't think there is any question from Gran a Alison. Uh I know Gran A Alison has a dedicated M CQ book, but I think that's quite old and I didn't, I didn't find it useful. So II didn't, I didn't use it. Yeah. And like I said about the anti flash card earlier, I just used it to, I transcribed questions in the question groups into the first class and then instead of just solving the questions um um using a book, I just use the flashcard because the flashcard help you recall questions that you filled. So it's something that F RC or prep can do for you. But again, all those sort of question books are in the book format and you don't have the ability for you to sort of go back to the questions that you failed and just sort of focus on the questions that you failed. So what does to us is, um you know, it just helps you um uh sort of convert those question booklets into what FR CCR is on purpose. Like for example, I guess the what? Uh and again, if I, if I keep forgetting a particular concept, I just put in a flashcard and every morning I just review it again. It just as a reminder, I think I'll let rega answer the question about organizing tutorials and teaching sessions. Ok. Ok. Do you want to go? Yeah. Is it possible for a to be organized in tutorials or teaching sessions? They both mostly hired questions from time to time? Mhm. II don't think we have like any um structure plan for two a, uh, as it is now, I'm not sure if, um, you have any in mind. Yeah, I don't think so. Yeah. Advise anyone that, um, a apart from this, uh, session, if you have any, um, questions or if you come across a knee topic that you think it may be higher or not, you can just reach out to and they will direct you accordingly to the person you want to, that will address your concerns. That's what I would. So I see about it. Yeah. So II just the, sorry, I hope I didn't interrupt you. No, I know. Ok. Um So I just posted the um um link to the whatsapp group um that was created for the ST three plus for GA members. So anyone who sort of like is having um maybe um some questions about any of the, I think from two A and I believe um two A exams and approval like um ST three can um join the group um if you probably maybe need like a preparation partner or maybe people to do group discussions with. Um You can probably just announce on the group and anyone who is interested can joining and has a thought pending, pending um something more for more coming up. Uh That answers the next question as well. Yeah, I think, I think um I think it would be good to sort of um you know, similar to, I think the S RT videos were really helpful. I think there was a lot of higher concepts there. Um It'd be good to do one but I think the question is time and um um and then trying to have a structure to play, I think is definitely something, you know, I should consider it. Ok. OK. Um In the absence of any other questions, I think um you should be it off.