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Hi, good evening everyone. Um Before I start, can I just get a couple of thumbs up just to make sure that everyone can hear me? All right, it popping on the chat? Yes. No, a one. Perfect. Thank you very much. So, welcome to the NST S MRC S Dissected Series. Uh I'm S, I'm one of the uh CT one co trainees currently based in the Northeast. Uh and, and I'm Plastic Esteed. So, the webinar series that we have organized is purely to focus on part A and part B exams. And thank you so much for joining us today uh for our first session. So what we'll be trying to aim to cover this evening is to focus on a couple of uh broad aspects of both parts of the exam. So for part A, you know, I'm just giving an insight and overview of how the exam uh examination is structured. Uh breakdown of the formats, a couple of high yield topics and revision strategies that I use for the exam. And same thing for part B sort of giving you an overview of the format, the types of stations that you might come across um and also a couple of, you know, recommended textbooks from the Royal College as well as a couple of uh colleagues that have already for the exam. And between these two sort of, you know, trying how uh we manage to balance clinical duties exam prep and towards the end, uh we can also have a bit of AQ and a uh that's a really good question, Khan. Um Jen, do you mind just recording as well? Uh Anyone in the chat who's not comfortable with recording with us, uh, recording this, just let us know and we'll try to sort of, uh, you know, act accordingly. So s before we sort of crack on, I just wanna get an insight as to, you know, the, um, the majority of you, which, uh which stage of training you're in. Are you a really enthusiastic medical student that's coming in just to get an idea as to how the MRC S exams are or if you are sort of, you know, uh foundation post CT. So thank you so much for your responses. Uh So, yeah, majority of your, uh, foundation training, uh which is perfect because that's when I decided to sit for the, uh part A as well. But nonetheless, everyone else, it's really good to sort of, you know, gain an idea as to how other people pass the exam. How do people normally tend to sort of revise and there's so many other resources out there and sometimes it can be slightly overwhelming. So what I decided to do is just try to, you know, cram it all in this one hour lecture. So I hope you find it useful. So, next question uh in terms of the uh journey itself, um I just wanna get an idea as to if you sat for part A already. Uh are you sitting for part B uh or you've not sat for any of them as of yet? So, so yeah, majority of you uh have not sat for part A. So that's perfect. Um Most of the talk is gonna be focused on part A with a bit of part B towards the end as well. So, excellent. So what's MRC S uh membership of the Royal College of Surgeons? Uh It's an examination to assess whether, you know, we have the knowledge, skills, claim of confidence and experience expected towards the end of course surgical training. Although it says at the end of course, surgical training, that doesn't mean you can't start early, which is, you know, uh a perfect time. Uh you know, now is the best time to sit for any exam. Uh as one of my consultants always says, so the exam MRC S in whole is split into two parts. You've got part A which is the theoretical aspect, which is your, you know, MC Qs and part B is the Os Ky similar to how we sit for our medical school. Exam where, you know, for one week you've got a couple of uh theory, theoretical papers and then the next week you've got your OS Cy uh so similar uh in that vein, to be honest. So this is uh really uh useful you can attempt as soon as you graduate from medical school for MRC S. And that's different to M RCP where you need at least one year of clinical experience. So that's something to keep in mind. But nonetheless, you can only attempt part B after you've passed part A. So it's a linear progression. Um So recommendation, um something that I did was I sat for part A during my foundation training. And right now in CST, I'm sitting for my part B exam. Um Again, a lot of people uh would suggest other um you know, some people say foundation is better. Some people say C SDI think in the end, it really, what really matters is finding a time where you are most comfortable and you have the most uh leeway to sort of dictate your time uh for revision. So there are four Royal Colleges of surgeons. Um So when I first, you know, decided to sit for Mr CSI, didn't know which college to you sit with, you know, whether one was better than the other. Um I couldn't really find any resources on, you know, uh on most of that. But in the end, it doesn't really matter which college you sit for, um, the whole idea of the four colleges is just for geo geographical sort of, uh, purposes if you are, you know, around Scotland or north of England, uh, it's easier to sit for Ed Edinburgh, Glasgow if you're more down south, you know, England and of course, Ireland on its own. So, the most important thing is it's an intercollegiate exam where any sort of with whi whichever college is set for the exam is gonna stay the same. So it doesn't really matter uh in terms of the uh content of the exam itself. So coming to the specialties um that require MRC S, uh there's a fair few uh as you can see on the board, I think a couple of things, a couple of caveats to this is the Ent uh MRC S exam uh previously used to be DAS part A and part B. Whereas now, recently it's become MRC S part A and DAS part B. So the part B for Ent is a separate exam uh which obviously has, you know, different requirements, more specialized in ent um speciality itself for emergency medicine. This is not something I realized until I was putting up this uh this lecture where for, if you're applying for emergency medicine, sitting for the MRC S gives you a couple of points. Uh But it's, I think one point compared to you actually set for the emergency medicine exam. So you do have a few people who initially uh who thought they wanted to do a CST sitting for MCS and then at a later point, moving towards emergency medicine. So the exam does count but not as much as you know, obviously the main exam and how and how the MRC S is set up uh is where you are supposed to sit for the exam or complete the exam within the first two years of call surgical training. So you can't apply for your high specialty until you've completed. But uh both part A and part B which is a really huge uh cause II know a few people who've come into CSD, who've tried to sit for part A and part B who have not managed uh to pass part B and required to take some time out before they apply for high specialty. So that's something to consider. And it's always best to try to get the exams out of the way cause it's a huge headache and once you're done, at least you can focus on the applications and stuff. So, uh so there we go. So coming towards uh to focus on part A. So within part A itself, you've got two papers um and the papers split between um the morning and the afternoon. So the entire exam is done within a day when I sent for the exam back in 2021 it was an online format which was an absolute headache because you had, you know, you could, you had a software where you couldn't take your eyes off the screen. Uh, I know if you, I knew a few people who sort of just to look up to think had, you know, had to have the exam disqualified because it was deemed, uh, as, you know, cheating and so on. It was a real, sort of, uh, annoying bit whereas now because of all the issues they've had with that, all the MRC S exams, uh part A exams have come back to being face to face. So you know that at least you don't have to stress about that. But, but yeah, exam is split into morning and afternoon. The first uh paper one consists of 100 and 80 questions. Uh And it's a three hour exam, I think when I sat for the exam I had maybe about 20 minutes towards the end. Um And again, I'm the type of person who once I've, you know, done the whole thing, I don't normally go back to check cause I just feel like I just uh you know, overthink. Um So yeah, II about 20 minutes uh towards the end. And pa um the paper one for part A is mainly uh basic sciences. So we're talking about biochemistry. We're talking about, you know, your uh anatomy, physiology, technology, like the basic sciences that we learned in med school, first few years of med school pot uh paper two is only in the afternoon, it's a two hour exam, 100 20 minutes and this is more focused towards the principles of surgery. So, uh the stuff that UV learned maybe in 4th and 5th year of medical school where it's about applying all the different sort of, uh, you know, basic sciences and putting it uh to formulate your diagnosis, think of a management plan. Those are the things that you're really focusing on. Now, this uh link that I've attached. Um of course, towards the end, we, we will sort of uh give the or we will share the PDF. Um I highly recommend uh you um sort of, you know, uh clicking the link and looking at the uh Royal College of Surgeons breakdown of the exam itself. It's uh not something that many people um sort of, you know, highlight, but I found that quite useful because if I bring you, I'm not too sure how clear this is, but um I really wanted to bring your attention to this because the uh link uh go, you know, provides us with a PDF, which is provided by the Royal College of Surgeons and what it is, it's like an entire breakdown of part A and part B. So for example, if you see on the left for part A, it breaks down the modules and within each module, for example, that 10 modules and within each of them, it talks about, you know, exactly what would be covered in the anatomy and physiology and pathology uh in great detail. And more importantly, if you see on the middle of your screen, it actually breaks down the number of questions they ask for each uh module. So as you can see, so, applied surgical anatomy, for the first paper consists of 75 questions. Uh surgical physiology consists of 45 questions, pathology, 37 questions, uh and so on and so forth. Now, what I did was I actually sort of um wrote down or sort of, you know, transferred all this to a table chart and actually use that as a reference for me when I was doing my revision. Because again, when you are sort of either in um foundation training or post ct where you're in a really busy job, you don't want to be wasting your time, sort of, you know, spending hours and hours revising on topics such as, you know, data interpretation and audit, which only consists of three points or so just, you know, uh medical legal aspects of surgical practice, which is only 23 questions you want to really focus on the high yields left. So I use this literally as my guide as to, you know, what they, what um topics I wanted to revise and exactly how high they were. And to be honest, it proved quite useful uh cause, you know, I managed to focus on the really important bits. Um So, yeah, definitely worth having, having a look at that. So, coming to, um, the part A, um, I think a lot of people obviously, you know, talk about the pass rate of part A. Um, so the most, the, these were the most recent figures that I could find, uh, from the Royal College. So back in September 2021 that's actually, that's when I sat for my, for my part, a, the pass rate was, you know, 45%. Um, and the following May 2022 was about 43%. So this is roughly, um, the sort of percentage of pass rate. But with that being said, try not to feel too disheartened. The reason being because a lot of people sort of who sit for the exam tend to also be those who are still not sure whether or not they wanna do surgery. So they tend to preemptively sort of, you know, book for the part A and try to sit it hoping that would give them a bit more of an idea. So again, the, the graft might be slightly skewed uh by this uh population, but nevertheless, it is a difficult exam. Um, it's like any other medical school exam, to be honest. Um, there's a lot of, you know, hard work that you need to put into it. Revision and so on which is something that will sort of come on to the next a few slides. So for part A uh you've got six, a six attempts. To be honest, more than the six attempts. What hurts more is the amount that you paid every single time you sit for the exam, which I if I'm not, again, is about 500 ish 550 lbs, I think for each sitting. And it's not just uh again, you, you have to remember. It's not just uh the amount that you pay for the exam, it's also the resources that you, you'll use. The amount of time, you know, that you spend each time revising. So what I definitely suggest is when you do sit it, sit for the first time, just make sure that's your best shot, you know, trying to give it a give it you all cause you don't wanna be going through the same cycle and over and over again. And as soon as you finish party, you can put it aside, focusing on part B but nevertheless, you know, for those who, you know, uh might not know part A is valid for seven years. So you've got a seven-year timeline for you to sit for your part B once you've passed part A, it's a long, I mean, seven years is a long time. So it shouldn't be an issue for most people, but just to keep in mind uh and Part A is available uh in just three mo I mean, in Jan May and September. So there are only three sittings in a year. And of course, you've got, you know, uh you've got the option to sit with the various, uh Royal College of Surgeons, uh that we briefly discussed at the side. So again, like I said, it doesn't really matter. All the exams are at the, the exact same thing. It's just, you know, your certificate would either say Royal College Surgeons. Edinburgh. No, England, Ireland. So on. So it's not a big deal. Uh So part a resources um I've broken this down into uh left and right. So on the left hand side, these are the actual resources that are recommended by the Royal College of Surgeons. So like I said, if you click the link, um which I will share later on, it actually breaks down, you know, what resources they would recommend. So for the for anatomy, at least a few thats uh I'm sure that we all know about Grant's um last anatomy, you know, quite common books, physiology, gels, uh pathology, obviously plots uh sorry, uh Robbins, basic pathology and for the clinical textbooks, Bailey and loaf and so on. Although they recommended, you know, all these books again when you're actually sort of trying to revise for an exam whilst working full time whilst trying to also have a life on the side, it is really, really difficult to try to balance all these things. So these are all, you know, these are the recommended textbooks. But what I would, you know, normally uh the ones I used were on the right to be honest. So uh they have a huge question bank, I think up to about 5000 questions just now uh which actually um relates to the uh exam style question quite closely. So, um the process was one of the things I use. EE MRC S is another option. It's similar to past medicine, I think it's by the same company. Um and they also have a large uh M CQ Bank and their explanations are slightly better than past test. So I use a combination of these two, but I've heard of people using BMG one examination and having really good luck with that as well. So, um anybody uh I'm sure you guys have heard um anybody who, you know, have their own website, they do a lot of interview practice. Now they've introduced their own uh M MRC s Question bank. Uh Again, I've not personally used that myself. Uh But I have heard of others who have used it and have had really good uh set of scores. So, again, various options to look into uh Alan's anatomy uh is another one, I think Alan's anatomy video uh library is more beneficial for part B, but it's still a really good uh to, especially if you are struggling to visualize uh the anatomy itself. You know, nowadays you have 3D models uh that are available on, you know, so many different platforms that you need to pay a lens is also something that it's a subsequent basis. But if you are uh affiliated with, I think Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh and England, you do have that part uh within the subscription fee. So it should be uh accessible. Uh So, yeah, these are the common ones uh that I use more often these days. So now, you know, with all of that said, I'm just gonna share a bit more about how I passed. Uh part A. Uh again, this was back in September 2021. Uh I sat for it when I was af one. So again, um a lot of people suggest sitting for during your F one F two years, mainly because part A is very basic science heavy. So, you know, right after med school, you still have that somewhat fresh in your mind. Um As long as, you know, having that uh momentum to get you through. Part A is a bit easier. But nonetheless, even if you're not in foundation, it's, it's, you know, just putting in the time effort and energy to really hone in on your basic sciences because part A as we sort of went through earlier, 100 and 80 questions or sort of, you know, 60% or 6070 60% of the exam is mainly basic sciences. So that's a huge chunk that you need to focus on. And obviously part although, you know, 2nd, 2nd paper for part A is still applied surgical pathology and so on. It is still basic science heavy I would say. So the next thing I would definitely suggest is book your exam before even thinking of preparing for part a reason. Why is when I was thinking of sitting for part A I was like, hm, I'll start revising and I'll see how I feel. Never ever would take my word for it. If you only by booking the exam, you set a deadline and nothing, you know, helps you get prepared other than, you know, having a looming deadline. Uh You know, whether it's 90 days, 100 20 days, it doesn't matter as long as you've got something like an end uh to all or, you know, all the hardware you're gonna put, that's gonna really give you a strong push to start revising, you know, revising during your nights revising when you're absolutely lactate cause yeah, that's, that's gonna give you the biggest push. Um I would, II sort of spent about three, I think I would say three months of solid work. Um I'm talking about sort of three hours uh a day and again, I tend II sort of used most of my sort of revision before going to work. So I know uh I'm a morning person. I know some people are not. So it really depends on what's gonna work for you. But the most important thing is trying to be consistent because I don't think part A is a type of exam where, you know, you can spend every weekend starting 18, 8 hours, 10 hours, 12 hours. Uh and sort of, you know, coming on the other side, I it's more of the exam where you need to revise consistently small chunks slowly building your knowledge and over time, over months, then you realize, oh, you actually know quite a bit. Um Cause that is quite a bit that you need to cover. So um the what worked for me was getting up early in the morning, sometimes, you know, five A MS, you know, just trying to get a couple of hours of revision in the morning and then towards the evening sort of using that just to revise this stuff that you've already done before. So that worked perfectly for me. So that's something that I would definitely recommend um in terms of books or in terms of references, I never really use any book other than MS and dang. And even this is just to understand things better. Uh I mainly use past test uh IR saying the past test uh question bank which like I said, it's about 5000 questions every single day. I do the questions and the concepts of sort of, you know, complex stuff like kidney uh physiology or, you know, breast pathology, things that I needed a bit more sort of understanding. I use uh like reference, reference books. Otherwise I just never even open them. What I did differently compared to what others do is I also incorporated Ki, so I'm not too sure if anyone is familiar, but Ki is a um space Repetition app. Uh where, you know, you put stuff in, you know, you and you study it once and then three days, you study it again, seven days, it just sort of, you know, has its own algorithm to show you stuff that you are less familiar with. Whilst the things that you are more confident with you sort of push it down the line. So just to bring you just to give you an example of what I actually did with my sort of revision. So when, whenever I did a sort of a process or sort of E MRC S question bank, I do the questions and then the questions that I got wrong questions, which I felt that I was not comfortable with questions where I thought hm I know this now, but I don't think I will remember this in like a couple of months. I just popped them on an uh and literally, you know, sort of broke down the questions and um on the front and the back was the answer simple as that again. Um You know, this might sort of look like I didn't type the whole thing. I literally just, you know, uh copy paste, copy paste and building, you know, setting up each card maybe took about 2030 seconds. The reason why I did this was I know a co a couple of people would suggest, oh you know, process E MRC S, you can sort of just delete your, the entire sort of library and redo the whole thing. Again, I personally feel like that's a waste of time because out of the 5000 questions, for example, let's, let's say process as 5000 questions most often the questions or the, the um the theory that they're trying to test you on repeats. So let's say, you know, repeats twice or thrice I don't need that. I don't need to do that, you know, two or three times. I only need the theory to repeat once for me to understand it. That's first. And secondly, I don't want to be doing redoing questions which are easy questions which I know I'm gonna get by. So that's why I use because all the questions which I got, right just gets pushed towards the end. I won't see it for like months on end, the questions which I got wrong. I see it again again, again and again. And, and that's the, that's literally the basis of the space repetition. And uh and how on key works. So this, you know, worked perfectly for me cause I sat for the exam, like I said, f one my first sitting, I managed to score 88% which I was quite sort of happy with. And again, it's not that, you know, I was, I was, I, yeah, I just sort of put in the hours, used a really good system and it paid off. So I definitely, that's one of the ways, uh I would definitely suggest uh revising for part A but there's so many other different strategies, you know, if you Google, you know, MRC S part, a revision technique, you, you get sort of 56 hits on, on websites, youtube Royal College. So there are different strategies uh on how you can actually sit for the pass and pass it and pass it quite comfortably. I think it all depends on, you know, what works for you, what system, you know, works best for you. So, but yeah, I think the most important thing, the only takeaway from today is if you are interested in sitting for part a just book the exam, if you haven't, that's gonna be step number one, that's first task after that, everything else will fall into place. Uh That's gonna give you the drive and the motivation to actually set for the exam actually study and actually, you know, uh maintain the consistency. So, yeah, I think that um yeah, I think that is uh my take on part a literally, it's like a whistle stop tour. Um But like I said, you know, the link um definitely uh worth checking out. And also, again, there's so many other resources online and if there's any questions uh I think what we'll do is go through part B and then we can sort of um uh thanks uh g uh for sharing the link on the chat. So, yeah, so I'm gonna share the link on the chat, you know, access it, it'll be uh it'll really make a difference. So I think what we'll do is we'll save a question and answer towards the end and let's just crack on with part B. Um So part B um again, you know, uh disclosure, I've not signed for my part B yet. I'm sitting for it in May uh mid May. So that's why, you know, the stress levels are just about here. Um But I've spoken to a couple of people. I know uh my, some of my colleagues have uh been kind enough to share their ideas. So I'm just sharing with you, you know, what uh the consensus have used and what uh how I'm uh preparing for the exam as well. So part B is uh like I said, an AK uh format. Um It's also split into AM and PM. Similarly to how uh during med school, you know, you, you've got about, you know, 18 stations, you have a couple of sessions in the morning, a couple of sessions in the afternoon. And that's similar to how it is. So the part B exam actually has 19 stations. It's long, I know it's very long. But from the 19 1 of the station is their trial station. So it won't be counted as part of your full, uh as your marks. But, uh you will be going through sort of 19 stations overall, you know, in the span of the day. So it is a very long day. Uh, I think sort of mental stamina is a huge thing when it comes to part B but we'll talk about it as we go along. So, again, very similar to med school plus one minute of reading outside the station trying to understand, you know, what, what you're expected to do. And then as you go in, there's nine minutes uh to the station and this can differ, some stations, um they would suggest the, some stations would um sort of state you've got nine minutes for the whole station, whereas other stations might say you've got six, you've got nine minutes. The first six minutes you take a history from a patient of the remaining three minutes is, you know, sort of like AQ and A or viva with, with the examiner. So that would be um stated quite obvious uh in your question. So sorry. So, um for part B obviously it's an ST so you, you have, you know, you'll have 1 to 2 examiners uh who are uh who are assessing different skills uh and the four domains uh you know, that they actually test will sort of um come to uh the next slide. But yeah, sometimes you've got one examiner, sometimes you've got two, that's not really, uh the main point. It's just, you know, like any old ay uh where you should go in, put on a show, you know, show how that, you know, how to do things, say the right things and just walk out. Um But yeah, when it comes to part B uh it's also split into two domains. Um So the first domain is knowledge. So, and that's broken into eight stations and you know, it's just very much about, you know what you know, so, you know, that's uh surgical anatomy pathology, uh and sort of surgical science and critic test stations. And again, uh this is the, the breakdown of the station is available in the link uh that, you know, someone shared and it tells you exactly what you need to focus on. So, for example, again, when I'm doing my revision, am I gonna spend more time do revising anatomy or critical care? I think, you know, the answer. So this gives you a good idea as to, you know, what you need to focus more time on and that's what I've been doing as well. I've been sort of focusing most of my time in anatomy. Um cause that those are the type of stations where you either know it or you don't, you either know, you know the muscles uh in the leg or you don't. So it's one of those where you very difficult to sort of, you know, talk your way through. It's all about sort of uh you know, core knowledge. So that's what I'm doing just now. But yeah, you've, you've got eight stations in this. Um and the critical cast station can be anything such as preoperative intraoperative management, af sepsis, those sort of things, um interpretation of visual information um could be X ray ct scan, um MRI ultrasound. So you have to be somewhat able to, you know, you have to have some knowledge of how to integrate these things and generate interpretation of written data that can be ABG that can be, you know, a blood test. Uh It can be, yeah, a report from uh uh from different scans. So it's all about sort of, you know, being able to understand exactly, you know what it is and how you're gonna interpret it and present it to the examiner. So, uh this is a sort of very simple example station. So all it is is, you know, have as soon as you walk in, um the question would state, oh you've got a patient who's come in with a injury to the forehead. Uh This station is gonna be testing your knowledge on, you know, sort of cranial uh neuro you walk in, you'll have, you know, prosection model, plastic model or sort of, you know, uh image uh on an ipad or on a paper and the examiner would 0.0 you know, what is structure? A structure. B what is this? This literally it, I'm not too sure. Some medical schools had it, but uh when I was in Dundee, we had uh anatomy sort of um you know, vi questions uh back in 30 I think. So it's very similar to that sort of examiner would point to one random structure and you need to know exactly what it is where it's coming from, where it's going. So with part BI felt like the, the amount of anatomy that you need to know is ton small compared to part A. Uh I don't remember sort of revising my anatomy to that extent in part A. Whereas in part B, I'm just sort of, I feel like most of my time I just spent on anatomy. So these are the types of uh stations that you will come across and remember there's like three stations uh for anatomy and the next uh this is a surgical pathology station. So this is something um this is an example question um which is available on the uh PDF as well. So, you know, one of the potential underlying causes of appropriate management. 72 year old patient who's had a nephrectomy five days ago. Now, symptoms of profuse watery diarrhea, um fecal incontinence, uh you know, been on antibiotics, you know, spot diagnosis, you know, c diff um again, I would never, would be able to look at that microscope and uh microscopy and say that C diff it's just based on the um question and the uh patient's presentation, but it's about trying to combine all of this. So like I said, part A is more sort of isolated part B trying to combine your knowledge and sort of presenting it. So again, this is something uh which is, you know, something that you can expect in one of the stations in part B. So that was knowledge uh which was eight stations. The next um the next domain that part B is testing is your skills. Now, with the skills you've got four communication stations and six clinical procedural stations very, very similar to med school where, you know, they, you what you expected to do is take uh history taking um you know, providing uh information to a patient, gathering information uh from a patient or providing information, doing a sbar hand to a, to a consultant. So it's, it's very much um the vibe that we had in med school, it's just, you know, requiring you to do just a little bit more. And in the, in, in the sense of, you know, explaining the uh diagnosis to the patient, explaining what are the, you know, conservative surgical uh you know, you know, non surgical approach and management may if it's surgical, you know, saying that you'd consent the patient and these sort of things just taking it one step further. Again, there's so many resources out there as to the type of stations and so on that will come across later. But it's just, you know, just to give you an idea as to what you expected when it comes to the clinical and procedural skills station. Again, physical exam can be literally talk to anything. It can be cranial nerves, abdo chest, uh or it can be sort of examined the wrist, examine the groin, examine the ankle could be literally anything. So it's worth sort of, you know, spending time finding a practice buddy just to make sure that you're constantly refining your skills. Because again, uh having experience, having experienced uh being a um examiner for medical school, OS I, you can sometimes tell, oh, you know how much experience someone has when they're examining the ankle or the knee. And I'm assuming that's the exact same thing uh for the examiners uh during an mrcs. Um for the other part, b they would know how much of experience you have, you know, examining someone's shoulder or knee, you know, as opposed to someone who's not, you know, confident or comfortable with these things. So it's worth spending the time uh practicing. Um And when it comes to uh generic skills, this could be um sort of putting a chest strain in urinary catheter, you know, suturing it could be, you know, these, uh there are very few things that you need to cover. Like I said, PDF has it and also all the resources online also sort of break down the different skills that you, uh, that it's worth sort of trying to, um, master before you go for the exam. So when it comes to, uh, this, this, uh, part, the example stations, uh, sort of as shown, uh, on, uh, at the screen. So on the left, uh, you pres someone presents with pain in the right knee, uh, again, knee examination. So, in this, yeah, you examine someone's knee exactly like what we did in med school. Um, and, you know, but the added touch of doing a bit more of the, uh, specialized test, you know, Lachman's test, uh, and posterior drawer, all those things and then, you know, presenting your, you know, investigations, your management. What's the differential diagnosis? What are the options, those sort of things that you need to add to this and on the right again, you know, someone who presents with severe abdo pain, um, six minutes, uh, uh, complete the task. Yeah. Again, taking your history from a patient who presents with, um, abdo pain. Again, very similar to what we did in our osteopro. It's just about, you know, practicing, practicing, practicing. That's what we did in med school. That's what you expected to do for part B as well. Um, so again, don't be, uh, don't be intimidated because it's a professional surgical exam. It's like annual exam. I think it's worth sort of taking that. Um, try not to stress yourself too. Much saying, oh, this is, you know, different because that's what I did with part A, I sort of, you know, over, you know, hyping it up in my head, but in reality it was just any other exam. Uh, and, you know, that gives you a bit more co, um, you know, composure because your, that was only exams to come all the way until this point. So when it comes to the marking domains for part B, um it's broken down to these four big domains, right? So all the examiners as soon as you walk in, uh walk in uh to the room, these are the four things they are looking at. When I actually went for one of the uh I'm asking this part B causes the examiner was saying if you, if you introduce yourself to the patient, if you wash your hands, if you say thank you and leave the room, you got three points. Literally, it's as simple as that for your communication. If you do those three things, you got three points out of 20 points, getting those three points within the, within, you know, the first five seconds is a huge thing. So you really wanna sort of try to apply all the things that you normally do day to day in clinical setting. You know, how you speak to a patient, you know, how you reassure them, how you break bad news, those sort of things. That's exactly what they are looking in, looking at uh for part B as well. So it's broken down with clinical knowledge, skills, communication and then sort of, you know, your judgment uh problems. So skills and um what is worth uh having a look at is the breakdown of part D marking scheme. So again, very, very, they, they literally give you everything in terms of, you know, how many anatomy stations there are, how many pathology stations there are, how many, you know, communication stations, uh what exactly they're seeing and what the breakdown is for each of these stations. So if you can see here, the anatomy is just all clinical knowledge and just clinical knowledge, you know, there's no coma and point you answer, that's it. Hold on. Whereas the other stations like procedural skills, you know, there's clinical technique, uh there's knowledge, there's a bit of communication. So again, you, you can use this as a guide to identify exactly how the, how the points are broken down and what you can do to sort of maximize the points uh which is what you want. So the pass rate for part B is a little more forgiving. Um I think again, the last um last percentage I found was back in autumn 2020 20 which was 75%. So three for pass part B which is a lot better compared to part A. Um And I keep hearing that as well. Uh Everyone keeps saying, oh, if you, you're fine with part A part B shouldn't be too bad because majority pass, part B with that being said, still, you know, one and four don't make it. So it's really important to put in the time effort and try to make sure that, you know, you're, you're up to a point where you feel confident cause I feel like with any osteo exam again, you'd have experience with that as well, the more confident you feel going in the better. It's not that, you know, you've read more or you, it's just a confidence, it's just, you know, trying to show that, you know, you, you're confident enough to reassure the patient. I think that's the biggest thing. Um So yeah, that's something to keep in mind. Uh For part B, you only have four attempts. So it's not the same as uh part A which is six. So again, you have to use them wisely. Um The, the next, again, I think the majority of you are, are sitting, have not set for part A. So that's fine. It's just that, you know, the next exam uh is in May, the deadline is closed and the remaining dates are pending. So uh try to plan ahead when you're thinking of uh preparing or sitting for the exam. So probably resources, there's a ton out there like a, like for instance, I'm the type of person where if I see more than five resources, I get stressed I'm like, OK, which one, which one do I use? Like, you know, which one is the best, which one is gonna give me, you know, the most, uh out, out of the, you know, minimal time that I have to actually put into this. So as you, as you can, as you can see here, you know, there's, there's different books. Uh Eli and Mohave were last uh surgical critical care, uh physical exams for surgeons. Uh You've got sort of, you know, the Ackland Human Anatomy uh video library, which I definitely recommend as well. You've got a couple of banks part the MRC S MRC Q, I mean, it goes on and on. So again, these are the common ones that I found online people who abuse them who have, you know, swept by them. So it's worth sort of, you know, having a look at all of these seeing exactly what's gonna fit your style of uh preparation. What it also it's about, oh, you know, which parts of the exam which you feel most confident and least confident. But so for example, for me, I feel a bit more confident with communication and history taking because I do that every day, but I don't feel confident in that me. So that's what I'm focusing on. So that's something to take in mind. So coming to how I'm preparing for part B again, similar to part A instead of giving myself about 3 to 4 months Um I've, I've been revising for, for the last couple of weeks, but um I still have about two months plus just now. And this one, this is when I start ramping up. Uh my revision, um the books that I'm using Get through M CS Anatomy, which is a really small, tiny green book and everyone swears by them. Like literally everyone I speak to. The first thing they say is get that book for anatomy revision, which is what I'm doing. Um The some have also suggested surgical critical care for Kane. Um Again, keeping in mind, critical care is I think is only one or two stations. So I'm not gonna spend too much time on it. It's just, you know, something I'm gonna use on the side. Um physical exams for surgeons is also another resources, a resource that I've been using so far. But most importantly, I think it's just practicing, um you know, history taking examination skills. I think these things aren't some stuff that you can read and learn. It's about, you know, doing it day to day and also trying to be a bit more deliberate with your practice, having someone, you know, criticize and evaluate exactly how you did, you know, taking history, doing the physical exam and you know, trying to improve um just by, you know, one or 2% every single time and before you know it, you'll be, you know, scoring really well. So fingers crossed, that's what I'm thinking. So we'll, we'll reach out to see how it goes. Um When it comes to online resources, I'm using past the MRC S online uh resource. Again, this is, there are a couple of resources that uh people have recommended. This is what um I think works for me. So that's what I've gone with. I've already done the Edinburgh MRC S uh prep course, which I definitely would recommend. It goes out like that. It literally the day they uh advertise within 24 48 hours, it's already fully booked. So I definitely, if you're really keen for it, what I did was I emailed them beforehand saying, look, I'm interested in your calls. Please let me know when, when you know your next dates are available and they got back to me. Um I think as soon as or even before they uh sort of put it out. So I managed to get in and it's very, very useful reason why it's useful, especially if you are sitting uh the exam in, in Edinburgh is because they take you to the room where you're gonna sit for the exam, the format, they format the uh cause exactly like how it is it is for the exam. But more importantly, the examiners who are sort of conducting the cost are the examiners on exam as well. I think there was a huge, uh there was a huge benefit because you know, the first time you walk into an, ay, you've never seen the examiner before. You have no idea how they are. They could be the nicest person, but they have this, you know, stern face where you feel like holy shit, you know, I'm gonna screw up even before I say the first word because they look so darn intimidating. But after going to the class, I realized everyone's absolutely lovely, like, like one of the examiners, you know, as soon as I walked in, he had this, you know, like literally dead pan face where I was like, right, OK, let's just focus on the next um station cause I'm not gonna do well looking at this guy and after I finished, he was, you know, so bubbly and chatty and I was like, 00 my God, like, you know, if, if I had him as an examiner for my ay, I would feel so comfortable and I was like, right, you know, that would give me a bit more confidence and actually doing well. So I think just from that, I definitely would suggest the uh Edinburgh cost, but given the fact that you are actually gonna sit in Edinburgh. Um But I've also heard of the Cardiff uh doctor's Academy cost, which is a bit longer uh a bit more expensive, but I heard good things about it as well. So again, really depends on, you know, your timeline. Um you know, amount of time you have your loc location so these things obviously uh matter as well. So, and yeah, I've been aiming average about 2 to 3 hours a day. Uh And hopefully by the end of it, it should work out well for me. So, um I think the last thing I wanted to touch on is trying to balance uh exam and work. Uh I think especially, you know, most of you being uh sort of medical student foundation uh and sort of close foundation doctors. I think it can be a bit daunting to prepare for an exam whilst you're working full time. Even if you're working part time, I think it's really difficult to sort of, you know, try to, you know, schedule in your revision, trying to be consistent. These are the things that you really have to sort of, uh obviously focus when you're actually getting, you know, uh getting to the crunch time. So think about, you know, when is, when is the best time to sit, for example, in holiday season, if you've got, you know, holidays planned, uh obviously try not to uh book your exam anytime, you know, around that. What I did was I booked my, I booked like a long holiday after the exam which, you know, another gave me another sort of reason to, you know, work hard really, you know, put it out out there and then enjoy after, I think current placement plays a huge role when I said for my exam, I think I did gen search and gastro did I gen surge, no trauma, uh trauma, orthopedics and gen surge. So when I first started my revision, it was during um, orthopedics and then it was, which was, which gave me a bit more time because orthopedics in my hospital was actually quite relaxed. But when I came to jurg, it was just, you know, uh literally 8 to 8 every single day. And obviously I had to reduce the amount of time I revised. So try to use, you know, your plate placements to your advantage. Anyone who's doing GP uh psychiatry, those, you know, uh you know, are go us cause the amount of time and the head space where, you know, can be running around stress that helps with your revision as well. Any other commitments that you need to consider, um again, most important thing, book your exam. If you wanna pass the MRC S do, don't, you know, don't sort of sit on it, don't say, oh, I'm gonna try this out, I'm gonna revise then, then decide where I'm gonna sit. It does not work. I tried that. Uh It did not work for me so highly advised sort of booking exam. Uh three months, I think three months is all you need if you can remain consistent, just, you know, 2 to 3 hours every single day, three months, you know, you'll pass easily. Um Because I think like when I, when I started my exam, the pass rate, the pass mark was about 75%. Uh, the pass mark. So, again, you know, like I said, all I did was 23 hours, three months. That's it. Um, when it comes to part, uh, for both part A and part bi think it's really helpful to find, have a study buddy for part A, you know, just trying to keep yourself accountable. And for part B, of course, it's, it's even more important because you want, you want someone to practice on. So it really becomes a huge thing because yeah, I II know some, I know some people who have passed part B without, you know, practicing much, but that might be because they've got a lot of clinical experience. So if you have the confidence clinically, then yeah, you can focus on, you know, the knowledge. But, but if you are still a bit sort of, if you're, let's say, you know, post foundation um sort of CSD where you're still not 100% or, or you've not done, for example, like in trauma and orthopedics rotation where you don't know how to examine the hand or the, it's worth, you know, constantly trying to practice with someone and yeah, um organize the study leave early. Um I, that's something not many people sort of utilize. Again, every four month placement, you've got about 10 days worth of study leave, which you can uh use for exams. So make sure that, you know, you use all the time that you can get uh for preparation. So I hope this was useful. I wish you all good luck. Um And before we end this again, I just wanna remind you, this was the whistle stop tour for MRC S. Our next talk on Thursday is gonna really, you know, go down to the bad bones of head and neck anatomy. Uh So I hope, uh you've found this useful and if there's any questions at all, please, um you know, post it on the chat. Uh If you any comments, if you wanna share sort of, you know, some things that you found uh that works for you, please, by all means, share that as well. And I hope you found this uh useful. Thanks. Re yes, fantastic talk. Um I'm gonna post the link for um the next seminar in the um in the chat as well. Yes. And, and uh just to remind everyone, we will also be uh posting the feedback form. So please, by all means, uh share what you thought um was went well, what do you think? You know, we can change in the future? And I hope uh it was very helpful. Final thing, I think you said this already show us. But yes, there's every Tuesday and Thursday for the rest of March. We'll have um, lectures.