Today I start week 4 of my 6-week Australian Medical Council exam for International Medical Graduates prep. I can't believe I'm already half-way.
Week 2 was a write-off due to moving. Last week I had a massive migraine with neurological signs that landed my in the Emergency Department with a CT Brain. I'm all fine but it took the wind out of my sails.
Weeks 3 and 4 have been a much reduced study load than what I set for myself in weeks 1 and 2. I really should've given myself an extra week for adult medicine at least.
This week is Obstetrics and Gynaecology. I am doing the O&G questions from AMC Handbook of MCQs, and cross-referencing them with Llewellyn-Jones Fundamentals of O&G. Some of the gynaecology questions from AMC Handbook are in the adult medicine section so I saved them for this week when I came across them in week 2 as there are only about 28 obstetric questions.
A lot I know from just having a baby myself. Some I learned at med school and from my in-hospital clinical obstetrics placement, but seeing as I was pregnant with my first during the reproductive system module and then with my second during my O&G placement, I can't say I was really on the ball during those times at med school. I definitely learned more by simply being pregnant myself. Of course its very much augmented by the fact I read O&G textbooks to supplement my own experience as a patient. I always say that its easier to remember things when your brain deems them important. What is more important than the health of your unborn baby?
Part of the issue I had such a terrible migraine, I think, was from studying at the library. The public library has only one study room and it is often booked by group of old ladies chatting about knitting or baking or some crap that really infuriates me. The other "study" section of the library has been so unbelievably noisey and distracting lately. I am a mum and a paramedic so I can work under pretty awful noise conditions but this library situation has been horrible.
Then I realised I really needed a particular textbook that I really didn't want to have to purchase so I rang the local hospital library to see if they would allow me an outsider membership. It took a week to organise and $135 for an annual membership but I am so happy to be able to borrow at the hospital library AND study in a lovely quiet space. So stoked.
Its been the Easter long weekend so neither library has been available to me and my husband had arranged some (urgent) landscaping to occur at our new house and our babysitter kind of feel through so I was unable to study which really sucked. Always, always obstacles for me. But...I just have to push through.
So far I am sticking MOSTLY to my plan of completing AMC Handbook cover-to-cover and referencing topics in Murtaghs, as well as Llewellyn-Jones O&G, Practical Paediatrics by South and Iaasacs, and I think I'll also use Foundations of Clinical Psychiatry by Bloch. A few other clinical guidelines online, and I'm really going to try and go through the photos in AMC Anthology of Medical Conditions because that's where I heard a lot of the images in the exam come from.
Ok back to the books because I have no time to waste.
Week 2 was a write-off due to moving. Last week I had a massive migraine with neurological signs that landed my in the Emergency Department with a CT Brain. I'm all fine but it took the wind out of my sails.
Weeks 3 and 4 have been a much reduced study load than what I set for myself in weeks 1 and 2. I really should've given myself an extra week for adult medicine at least.
This week is Obstetrics and Gynaecology. I am doing the O&G questions from AMC Handbook of MCQs, and cross-referencing them with Llewellyn-Jones Fundamentals of O&G. Some of the gynaecology questions from AMC Handbook are in the adult medicine section so I saved them for this week when I came across them in week 2 as there are only about 28 obstetric questions.
A lot I know from just having a baby myself. Some I learned at med school and from my in-hospital clinical obstetrics placement, but seeing as I was pregnant with my first during the reproductive system module and then with my second during my O&G placement, I can't say I was really on the ball during those times at med school. I definitely learned more by simply being pregnant myself. Of course its very much augmented by the fact I read O&G textbooks to supplement my own experience as a patient. I always say that its easier to remember things when your brain deems them important. What is more important than the health of your unborn baby?
Part of the issue I had such a terrible migraine, I think, was from studying at the library. The public library has only one study room and it is often booked by group of old ladies chatting about knitting or baking or some crap that really infuriates me. The other "study" section of the library has been so unbelievably noisey and distracting lately. I am a mum and a paramedic so I can work under pretty awful noise conditions but this library situation has been horrible.
Then I realised I really needed a particular textbook that I really didn't want to have to purchase so I rang the local hospital library to see if they would allow me an outsider membership. It took a week to organise and $135 for an annual membership but I am so happy to be able to borrow at the hospital library AND study in a lovely quiet space. So stoked.
Its been the Easter long weekend so neither library has been available to me and my husband had arranged some (urgent) landscaping to occur at our new house and our babysitter kind of feel through so I was unable to study which really sucked. Always, always obstacles for me. But...I just have to push through.
So far I am sticking MOSTLY to my plan of completing AMC Handbook cover-to-cover and referencing topics in Murtaghs, as well as Llewellyn-Jones O&G, Practical Paediatrics by South and Iaasacs, and I think I'll also use Foundations of Clinical Psychiatry by Bloch. A few other clinical guidelines online, and I'm really going to try and go through the photos in AMC Anthology of Medical Conditions because that's where I heard a lot of the images in the exam come from.
Ok back to the books because I have no time to waste.
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