Katy Miller's Final Guide
Part 1: Written SAQ/MCQ
My revision
Lots of different parts to this and although you strictly don’t have to pass all the bits, it becomes very difficult to pass as soon as you fail one part.
SAQs – You need to do lots of these as it will be the first time for most of you doing a written exam in years. Three hours of writing is a lot and you don’t really have time to stop during the exam so you need to have practiced doing this prior to the exam. There are no half marks and the percentages per part of question can be made into points once you remember that each question is out of 20, eg a 30% part to the answer requires 6 points (at least this will give you the best chance of scoring 6 marks). There will always be hard questions, this is how the questions are being set. Make sure you read the previous examiners reports as it guides you to how the examiners are thinking, also where candidates have slipped up in the past. Now that lots of articles are being posted on line before print it is a good idea to look at theses online up to just before the exam. Ask colleagues if they were setting the exam what they would ask as there are often new guidelines / interesting research just being published.
MCQs – There will be lots of basic sciences! If you have had a gap between your primary and final then you really need to go back over the basic sciences as this will gain you vital marks (remember this also includes stats and clinical trials). There are lots of MCQ books out there, make sure the your practice includes the college question , they do come up.
SBAs – The new addition and possibly the worst! They are not there to catch you out but they are not always seen that way at the end of a day of writing. The books that are out there are getting better but lots are a long way off being like the real thing. This is due to the fact that these haven’t been used for that long and therefore experience is limited. They are not MCQs turning into SBAs. The best way I found to answer them is cover up the answers and read the question only. If you know the answer then look for it in the answers and go for that answer. If the answer you were thinking of is not there then start by eliminating the least likely. When I took the exam there were no negatively posed questions eg/ which is the least likely, or which would you not do first.
Books
You need to have a good general understanding to base your revision on and therefore the Continuing Education in Anaesthesia, Critical Care and Pain (CEACCP) articles are a really good place to start.
SAQs
Bricker: Short answer questions in Anaesthesia
Its old now and the format is not how the questions are now, but the information in it is good.
Good onto of the cont anaes and pain articles.
Shorthouse: SAQs for the final FRCA
I used this to dip into, not exhaustive.
MCQ / SBAs
Lots of these books have mistakes in them and therefore it is best not to use them as your only source of revision as if you don’t notice the mistake then you will learn it incorrectly instead of question it. I did lots of these books to try and get experience of the SBA questions, the ones below helped but are often not ideal.
Ebrahim et al: Practice Single Best Answer Questions for the Final FRCA: A Revision Guide
Best one I have found so far as closest to the actual questions.
Written with input from lots of SpRs.
Easily manageable papers.
Tandon: SBAs and MCQs for the final FRCA
Not great as the SBAs are not that close to the real thing but more practice.
Courses
Coventry:
If you are short on time then makes you do some intensive days with a good period of time to the exam.
Part 2: Viva
(Not yet done)
Additional insight: studying with a little one
Studying is hard enough let alone trying to do it with a child. I found that using them as my incentive to work really helped. What do I mean by this? I found it really hard to take myself away from my child and therefore decided that I would try and do this for the least amount of time possible and make my first attempt at the exam my best shot. It is really helpful if you can find others who are studying with children. Who better to understand being up the weekend before the final written with a febrile child. I made sure that the revision that I did was intensive and useful. You have to be realistic about how much you can fit into a day. If your child does not go down early then you will not necessarily have all evening to revise, no matter how good your partner is.
By now we all have an idea how we best work and therefore should use this to our advantage. Whenever the little one goes down for a nap then use that time to study and not tidy / clean the house, this can easily add valuable time to revision total.
Your childcare arrangements can also really help. Having a day when you are not at work but your child is at nursery/with childminder/grandparents etc can allow you to have a full day studying. Doing this once a week really helps if it is possible.
I found that I was going to be struggling to get back to see my child before bed and therefore to save sitting in rush-hour traffic trying to listen to dr podcast but actually thinking about whether I am going to make it home in time for story time I stayed in the library and did an effective couple of hours work and then drove the shorter time home actually listening to dr podcast.
Make sure that you plan time with your child. You need then to help you often as much as they need you. I made sure that I had at least one morning a week where it was just me and my child and this really helped. It helped my study and my child knowing that mummy was still around.
Depending on when you take leave / work less than full time there is often longer between exams. You do need to factor this in. I found that attending a course in the run up to the exam enabled me to do three days intensive study when otherwise I would not have been able to. The basics are tested but often in a more applied way and therefore it is really important to review the basic principles that the primary asked.
There are lots of us out there who have successfully studied for the exams with little ones and we will all have things that helped us. Please do not hesitate in asking.