Exams Pt I

I had my first two exams today; I have two more on Wednesday and then an OSCE next Tuesday.

This set of exams are a little odd, as they're my "finals" in the sense that I'll only have an OSCE to do next year, no written papers. It feels strange calling them finals when I still have another year at uni, but we keep being told that next year is all about the practical stuff so our knowledge now should be all we need to get through - scary thought!

Anyway, after a near nervous breakdown last night (asking friends to test you less than 12 hours before an exam is never a good idea, especially if they test you on things you've honestly never heard of in your life!) and about 8 hours sleep all weekend, I managed to get through.

This morning was the MEQ (modified essay questions), where there were 9 scenarios with associated short answer questions. A slightly odd mix of topics came up. There was no paediatrics or psychiatry, which is a little annoying as they're probably my best subjects. Cancer came up 3 times (suppose it is common and important) and there was a scenario which was largely about audiology... Bizarre! I was the first person to leave, which often happens in exams as I'm a really fast reader. I'm not sure how anyone spent 2 and a half hours on it, but I definitely answered everything! Anyway, having chatted to other people it seems like we all wrote vaguely similar things, so either I've done ok or the majority of the year have failed. Fingers crossed for the former! We have a second MEQ on Wednesday so if paeds and psych don't appear at some point in that I will be annoyed.

This afternoon was the EMQ (extended matching questions), which is a slightly bizarre format which is similar to multiple choice, but there are 5 questions relating to each set of possible answers. The range of subjects was a bit better (very glad I spent ages on developmental milestones) and there were only a couple where I was really unsure. Again I finished stupidly early, was second to leave (after the guy who left second in the morning - I guess we're both just quick!). I think I'm one of those people who feels the need to change things if I sit there too long, so after checking my answers 4 or 5 times, I have to go before I start changing all my correct answers to wrong ones!

I have written down a list of topics which came up, should anyone be interested.

I'm going to head off and try for a decent sleep tonight, then will spend tomorrow going over the things which weren't in today's exam as they're likely to appear on Wednesday.

Good luck to anyone else with exams at the moment xxx