Doc93 Posted August 30, 2017 Report Share Posted August 30, 2017 Hello.. starting med school soon and i know i will take exams regularly during this time. What i wanted to know was if when i start residency if i will be taken exams too? Will they be the same as i take in class for grades or is it more of a learning type thing? Thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ellorie Posted August 30, 2017 Report Share Posted August 30, 2017 Less often, generally. In psychiatry here we do the LMCC part 2 (national licensing exam) roughly after PGY1 (the first part is at the end of medical school), we take a formative (ie doesn't count) national content multiple choice exam every year, we have departmental written exams after PGY1 and 2 (that also don't really count for much unless you spectacularly fail) and we have oral exams/observed clinical assessments multiple times per year (but if you fail you just do it again until you pass). It feels a lot less arduous than medical school because the actual marks don't matter in the same way and it's all relevant to what you need to know and are interested in so it feels less purposeless. At least that's been my experience. Much less pressure and less preparation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bambi Posted August 30, 2017 Report Share Posted August 30, 2017 Then I should have gone into psychiatry, lol. I found more pressure, more prep and much more important. We each have different experiences. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDwannabe02 Posted August 30, 2017 Report Share Posted August 30, 2017 37 minutes ago, Bambi said: Then I should have gone into psychiatry, lol. I found more pressure, more prep and much more important. We each have different experiences. Can I ask what your specialty is, Bambi? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ellorie Posted August 30, 2017 Report Share Posted August 30, 2017 I think what's different for me is that nobody cares anymore if I get a 90% or an 85%, as long as I'm improving and working on my knowledge base. Out of curiosity, where does the feeling of pressure come from for you? I feel pressure to learn things and get good at my specialty, but the exam itself doesn't really create much sense of pressure for me, because I'm doing that anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shikimate Posted August 30, 2017 Report Share Posted August 30, 2017 Just my experience: USMLE Step 2 CS, and 3 (done Step 1 and 2 CK already) LMCC Part 2 In-house written exam (3 per year) 2 in house oral exams per year Resident In Service Exam (RISE) - annually in March, MCQ online For board certification exams: Canada American Board Potential Royal College of UK, depending on my mood and budget lol Bottom line, get used to writing lots of exams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bambi Posted August 30, 2017 Report Share Posted August 30, 2017 Surgical Foundations is an exam you prefer to pass the first time, and therefore, you do feel the pressure and are motivated. However, I love my residency and am excited by the new challenges I face on a regular basis. Then, there were the other exams from time to time which you had to prepare for and the monthly presentations where you had to do your research and be prepared for questions where you had to be on top of your game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bambi Posted August 30, 2017 Report Share Posted August 30, 2017 4 hours ago, MDwannabe02 said: Can I ask what your specialty is, Bambi? I prefer not to indicate my specialty as that would likely identify me to many here and I prefer to remain anonymous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polarbear89 Posted August 31, 2017 Report Share Posted August 31, 2017 4 hours ago, shikimate said: Just my experience: USMLE Step 2 CS, and 3 (done Step 1 and 2 CK already) LMCC Part 2 In-house written exam (3 per year) 2 in house oral exams per year Resident In Service Exam (RISE) - annually in March, MCQ online For board certification exams: Canada American Board Potential Royal College of UK, depending on my mood and budget lol Bottom line, get used to writing lots of exams. Side note: Are Canadian specialists eligible to write the UK board exams? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NLengr Posted September 1, 2017 Report Share Posted September 1, 2017 On August 30, 2017 at 11:52 AM, Doc93 said: Hello.. starting med school soon and i know i will take exams regularly during this time. What i wanted to know was if when i start residency if i will be taken exams too? Will they be the same as i take in class for grades or is it more of a learning type thing? Thank you In my program we had: LMCC 2 Surgical Foundations 2 practice Orals per year (formative) 2 practice writtens per year (formative) US based in service exam yearly (formative) Royal College Exam. This is the hardest and most stressful exam you will ever write. I spent 2 years prepping for it, with the last year being pretty much constant studying (and my experience was typical for my program) You also get evaluated on your performance after each rotation by the staff you worked with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted September 1, 2017 Report Share Posted September 1, 2017 Similar to other above in Radiology I have had the LMCC2, a yearly ACR exam in radiology, an oral exam once or twice a year, an OSCE style exam once a year, many of us do write the ABR exam in the fall of our fifth year, and of course the final royal college exam - which everyone will tell you no matter what specialty you are in is simply the hardest exam you will take in your life, and will take a ton of time to prepare. Like NLengr I have been preparing for my exam for most of my fourth year, and now are going full steam max studying for the next 9-10 months in preparation. "these are end times, and dark days. Yet we still dream of the light" - ha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogerroger Posted September 9, 2017 Report Share Posted September 9, 2017 The exams are a different beast in residency. The Royal College exam waits at the end. I just call it, "the exam". People say this is the hardest exam of your life. They are not exaggerating. With the exception of the LMCC exam - which is more of a "getting out of med school tax", all the exams written in residency are geared to the final exam. In residency the pressure is on you to perform to a standard that is preparing you to pass that final high stakes exam. Then in your last year of residency you live and breathe the exam. The exam prep for that last exam pretty much runs your life for 12 months except for some minor exceptions. You study harder than you knew you could study. For those studying of the Royal College, hang in there, it does end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NLengr Posted September 10, 2017 Report Share Posted September 10, 2017 23 hours ago, rogerroger said: For those studying of the Royal College, hang in there, it does end. Then within 6 months you forgot a ton of all the stuff you worked so hard to learn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogerroger Posted September 10, 2017 Report Share Posted September 10, 2017 7 hours ago, NLengr said: Then within 6 months you forgot a ton of all the stuff you worked so hard to learn. This tells you something about the state of medical education and the exam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goleafsgochris Posted September 11, 2017 Report Share Posted September 11, 2017 4 hours ago, rogerroger said: This tells you something about the state of medical education and the exam. I wrote it recently, and I can say the main issue is that it tests mostly super obscure nonsense. Almost none of the material/questions will have any relation to day to day practice, and I think I actually became a worse doctor during my final year, because not only did I learn nothing of value despite studying 80 hours/week, but I stopped thinking about clinical problems and started thinking about mastering test taking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviathan Posted September 11, 2017 Report Share Posted September 11, 2017 Annual in-house and mock American board exams for my specialty, finishing with the beast that is the Royal College. So glad that is done with and to have my FRCPC! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowmen Posted September 11, 2017 Report Share Posted September 11, 2017 Let's just pray that thwy change the exam format within the next 8 years so I never have to take it then! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted September 11, 2017 Report Share Posted September 11, 2017 2 hours ago, Snowmen said: Let's just pray that thwy change the exam format within the next 8 years so I never have to take it then! ha people have been praying for that for the past 20 years Politics....so much politics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc93 Posted September 11, 2017 Author Report Share Posted September 11, 2017 Thanks for all the feedback everyone, i appreciate it. A couple more questions if i may.... how long does residency last.. and what are the hours like? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ellorie Posted September 11, 2017 Report Share Posted September 11, 2017 Depends on the residency and if you do a fellowship. Family medicine is 2, most other things are 5. Hours heavily depend on what service you're on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogerroger Posted September 16, 2017 Report Share Posted September 16, 2017 On 9/10/2017 at 5:38 PM, goleafsgochris said: I wrote it recently, and I can say the main issue is that it tests mostly super obscure nonsense. Almost none of the material/questions will have any relation to day to day practice, and I think I actually became a worse doctor during my final year, because not only did I learn nothing of value despite studying 80 hours/week, but I stopped thinking about clinical problems and started thinking about mastering test taking. Aye. The RC reforms coming down soon "might" change this. No more single high-stakes exam etc, EMBE etc.. Time will tell. But if already conquered I guess we can always say we belong to the "old RC exam club". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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