Today is my first day examining. The first surprised is, no more big group of examiners, like 4 or 5 examiners in a group, instead, each examiner group consists of just two examiners. I saw an anaesthetist paired with a Surgeon, so the lucky candidates will escape grilling by the Medical examiner. Anyway, in fairness, many of those experienced examiners are so capable that they can test candidate on their general medicine. I can testify this, as I am sitting with a veteran Paediatric Professor and she could have conducted the exam by herself as she could smoothly quizzed the candidate presenting General Medical case...
First candidate was detected early as a failure - for the reason that he 'found' large hepatosplenomegaly on a patient presenting with nephrotic syndrome, without any physical signs! Furthermore he claimed that the patient had generalised crepitations, which was negative.
The good thing about the long case exam this time, there are only two examiners for each group, so you got more time to ask the candidates. And second, you are also given the time to 'vet' the patient, just before examining the candidate.
WE later found this rewarding, as our third case was a very talkative patient (a musician) who turned out to have no active complaints, and on questioning was rather denial of any previous history apart from his repetitive narration of his cerebellar infarct.
We are also required to 'waitage' the marks ie out of the 6 section: History, Exam, Diagnostic ability, Investigation, Management, Interaction with Patient. Unlike the previous exam where all those sections more or less carry the same marks, this time around, it is up to the examiners to decide at the beginning of the exam, how much mark (out of 30) each of the section allocated. We are also required to document the Criteria for Passing ie what critical data or findings that must be presented by candidates, in order to deserve a Pass.
And I have heard about the 'Manned OSCE' too - basically a very much robotic exam. So, all candidates beware, sometime, there are many disadvantages when examiners are not allowed to interrupt or give hints - this could be good or bad depending on the candidates, and the cases. Therefore, each candidate must ensure they conduct examination with the appropriate approaches and techniques - as each of the technique may draw mark, leaving a particular part of exam means you will miss a mark. There, theoretically, a person, in his rush and enthusiasm of passing exam, perform a lot of unnecessary examinations, or repeat certain manouvers several times, and yet this will not disqualify him as long as he has performed all those in the examiners checklist!
I wish all the Year 5 candidates best of luck, may God help you and make it easy for you.
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