Monday, September 16, 2019

Year 1 OSCEs

First month in and not realizing what I was getting myself into...


The Objective Structured Clinical Examinations aka OSCEs is one of the most important exams in medical school.

It consists of 6 stations and a prompt before you enter the room. You have 3 minutes to read the prompt and 8 minutes to finish the station. The stations can range from physical exams (such as a knee exam) to history taking (such as anemia history). It is based on all the theoretical knowledge we have gotten from our lectures and synthesized into all the clinical knowledge we have gotten from our clinical days. More importantly than all of that, it shows the school the we are not awkward af and can actually talk to people normally.

For me, I thought this was one of the best exams I have ever taken in my life. It showed me that being a doctor is much more than just filling out bubbles on a blank exam. Instead the interaction we got, even from just actors and volunteers, were great. Our ability to relate to people is critical in our careers.

And best of all, we are now on a weeklong break before our 5th and final block for year 1 as well as our 3 upcoming exams.

Pray for me.

Edit: Update after OSCEs and Results

So it has been approximately three weeks since I sat the OSCEs. Personally, I loved the OSCEs and it was one of the best exams I have ever taken (and not because I did exceptionally well). Even though everyone says it's a song and dance, I really appreciate how it actually simulated working life for us. The one downside I would say that it is largely very subjective and not at all standardized. On one station I got 100 and comments saying I had great repertoire with the patient whereas on another station I got 36 saying it seemed like I was reading off a checklist. Furthermore, we got a station that hasn't been taught and was used for second years... I guess in the end everything is subjective and testable.