revising for postgraduate exams resulted in this 'random nuggets of knowledge' notebook

During the last twelve months, I have taken two surgical exams. Postgraduate exams are a whole new kettle of fish! At medical school, we needed to know a little about everything so you'd think revising for exams that were for a subset of that 'everything' would be easier? Nope. Turns out there is still a mountain to learn for surgery. The little about everything still applies, but for everything to do with surgery and every surgical specialty out there.... And it's actually a 'little bit more' rather than just a 'little'.

In September, the first exam I took was a written one and it was a multiple choice question exam. Easy enough - question banks were how I approached my revision and they served me well. I passed and then decided to sit the next exam in February which was a practical one. It is 'OSCE'-based (obstructive structured clinical examinations) where there were anatomy stations, practical skills ones, communication ones and anything you can imagine that is related to every surgical specialty out there. This was more difficult to revise for!

During my shifts at work (I was doing my clinical shifts in the Emergency Department at the time), I approached every potential surgical patient as if it was part of this exam. I did pretty well in the examination stations so that must have worked!

However, for the more knowledge-based stations, I used another question bank. This and revision for the first exam resulted in the most random notebook full of nuggets of knowledge from pretty much every surgical specialty.

I have to admit, this wasn't my most organised way to revise for an exam but it seemed to work ok. Part of it was that I didn't expect to pass the second exam as it was meant to be a practice one, albeit an expensive one!

My next exam won't be for another five years or so but for that one, I'll make sure I'm much more prepared and organised!

throwback thursday: medschool notes on psychiatry

Whilst doing a massive spring clean and clear-out of my flat, I found these notes I made on a psychiatry placement. These must date back to 2015! I think the pen used was a Pilot Kakuno (fine nib of course) and Diamine Prussian Blue as the ink. The ink seems to have faded a bit (despite not being in direct sunlight) and has turned into dark grey which is quite easy on the eye! The darker blue in the latter is Diamine Denim or Blue-Black - I can't quite remember!

For those of you still holding onto your university notes, what do you do with them? There is probably little to no need for me to keep them but they do look too nice to just throw into the recycling bin!

the studying never stops!

As a doctor, the studying continues through specialist courses, online modules, study days, simulation days... the list is endless. I also want to do a masters in the near future so I would be the last person to moan about the amount of constant study required in this profession!

Late last year, I started studying for one specialist course, perhaps a bit too eagerly. The notes are most likely overkill but for me, if I don't write something down, I just won't remember it. And having not blogged about studying for a while, it felt like a good time to show off these notes :)

As expected, there is colour in abundance, post-it notes and washi tape. Most of it was written with a Parker 51 inked with Pure Pens Windermere, accented by Zebra Mildliners and Pilot Juice gel pens.

Most of it is in bullet points or diagrams or tables to try and condense the information into memorable chunks. I have also gone back to using flashcards while revising for specialty exams and they seem to work well for me (which is ironic as I did not find them all that great during medical school!). 

All in all, I find fountain pens and having materials you love using can make studying all bit more fun (if we can ever call studying fun!).

studying as a post-graduate and as a doctor

Although I'm officially no longer a student, the learning never ceases in medicine. This is something that can be hard to fit in and with my rota averaging 46.25 hours a week (seven of which are unsocial), it is hard to keep up the energy and enthusiasm for some extra learning once the hospital is out of sight.

And as surgery and anaesthetics are at the forefront of potential career paths, I'm trying to stay on top of anatomy revision.

What's changed from my revision at university is that notes are now on loose leaf sheets of paper and in an A4 lever arch folder instead of in a notebook. This is because I'm continuously adding to the notes in the form of post-it notes, extra sheets of paper and various other print outs.

Something that hasn't changed is that fountain pen is still my pen of choice and that there is still an abundance of colour (though less so when you look at some of my other notes such as here, here and here).