Clinical exams will never stop being scary 💀

aweoifjaweoifj I just did my long case exam yesterday morning, now anxiously a/w results to come out tomorrow, but tbh, will not be surprised if need to resit (for several reasons, both personal and external). FYI - long case is an exam style used in BPT (basic physician training) where you have 1 hr w a pt to take a comprehensive hx and o/e, 10ish min to organize your notes and thoughts, then 10ish min to present your findings, imp and issues list to the examiners, then ans their qs for another 10-20mins (or what I like to call "be executed"). @unimelb med school, the examiners are not in the room w u for the first 1 hr, but they've done their own consult for 15mins before you see them, and you're given a list of the pt rx and obs.

It is by far the scariest and (in my opinion at least) easiest to fail exam in MD2. It has defs been a thundercloud over my head for the whole year which I've tried my best to ignore (maybe a bit too much...😅) but I've been slapped w both bad luck and my own procrastination to create a chaotic evil experience. Gonna try to offer some tips and advice after my emotional spew.

Personal factors 

- Didn't practice enough → first half year was struggling just being back in med school, second half avoidant behaviours, defs made too many excuses to not practice as much as I should, esp the px bit

- Easily stressed and anxious → just who I am and what I need to work on continuously

External (uncontrollable) factors 

- I GOT THE SCARIEST ASSESSOR oaiefjaoweifja wfo → she literally failed me on my last practice long case b/c I didn't get through O/E and issues list in the 12 mins px time, which I thought was totally unfair at MD2 level cuz she still asked me for exam findings in the qs time and I obviously did the physical exams I should've done and she didn't say she had any issues with my actual clinical reasoning 😢. Well GUESS WHAT, I still ran out of time, was halfway through O/E when she went "in the interest of time can you tell me your salient findings" so I mad rushed my O/E, summary and issues lists. Hopefully she was just being extra harsh during practice to force me to practice more before assessed exam but still, the minute I walked into the exam room and saw her, I internally went *welp, resit here I come*

- My pt was so lovely BUT SO HEKKING CX → like all the cond he had were core cond but when u have 6 core cond each w mult. cx themselves and they all influence each other, it becomes a hekking diff cobble web to untangle→ was already panicking about my examiners, so px was defs not as organized as I would've hoped for. 

Tips

- PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE

- Good night's sleep day before

- Deep breaths pre entering exam room

- Remind yourself it's not the end of the world even tho it defs feel like it in the moment and short term