Passing the entry exams and making it to a medical school seems to be quite an achievement. While that is certainly true, it is only the beginning of a long journey, speckled with difficult examinations and assessments. The road to becoming a doctor is long and bumpy and will take you a lot of dedication and, unfortunately, time spent on studying and revising for various tests to finish.
Don’t worry, though! While the journey to becoming a medical practitioner is certainly not an easy one, there are certain ways you can make it a bit easier on yourself. We would like to share with you a couple of tips that will help you along the way and make revising for future examinations a bit easier.
Study regularly!
While procrastinating for extended periods of time and only starting to learn weeks before the examination might seem tempting, it, unfortunately, won’t work in the case of medical exams. The sheer volume of knowledge and skills required for such tests is simply too much to master in such a short amount of time. Instead of leaving everything for the last moment, we recommend regularly reviewing the material and studying, at least a bit, every day. Doctors and medical educators all over the world recommend such practice over and over to their students, and not without reason.
The first step to becoming proficient at learning for medical exams is to get rid of your college habits – the medical school is much, much more difficult. The best way to keep up with the material is to review it daily. This way, as you revise in preparation for the exam, you will already know most of the information required from you, and you won’t find anything surprising. Keep the material fresh in your mind and you won’t have any trouble remembering it on the day of examination.
Prepare for OSCEs
One of the biggest surprises for fresh medical students are OSCEs, or Objective Structured Clinical Examinations. These types of exams are very frequently used in health sciences, and they vastly differ from the written tests you are used to in college. An OSCE is a practical exam, during which you will pass through various stations. At each station, you will face a simulated medical problem, most usually based on your interaction with a patient. These types of tests will not only test your knowledge, but also skills in communication, clinical examination, prescribing, and interpreting results.
Preparing for an OSCE might be a bit difficult, as it requires more than just raw knowledge. Without skills and abilities expected from a professional medical practitioner, you will have a hard time passing. The best way to prepare for an OSCE is to practice repeatedly with your colleagues, as that will allow all of you to share feedback, noticing each other’s mistakes. Moreover, chances are your university has a special clinical skills lab, in which you can easily practice your clinical skills in a safe environment. Take turns with your colleagues and set up stations in a similar manner to an OSCE, where one of you takes the role of the patient, another the role of a doctor, and the rest will act as examiners. You should also time your attempts, as during a real OSCE time will be very limited.
Break down your revision into sections
The entirety of the material required for various medical examinations might look overwhelming at first. The best way to avoid being crushed under its weight is to break it down into smaller chunks, categorizing relevant information into sub-sections. The most common way of organizing your material is to do so by organ systems, but you can also create more specific sub-categories into which you will further segregate all of the information.
Make a study plan and stick to it – no excuses! A revision timetable might seem like a waste of time at first, but it will make the whole process of studying much more efficient. As you follow it, you will find it extremely rewarding to cross various sub-sections off from your list every day!
Revise efficiently – use QUPI!
There is no better way to solidify your knowledge than repeatedly test yourself, and QUPI allows you to do that in style! QUPI is a professional database of medical questions, consisting of over 10,000 questions from various areas and fields of health sciences. With QUPI, you will be able to easily create and customize your own quizzes, which can contain specifically the material you need.
As you complete quizzes with QUPI, you will grow accustomed to the format of medical examinations. You will gain not only knowledge, but also confidence, which is much required during every medical exam, especially the practical ones. Give QUPI a try today and begin your 7-day trial, free of charge!
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