Justice
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Hey guys,
Well, it is finally my turn to tell you about my CS experience... The bottom line: nothing horrifying, nothing unusual, nothing unexpected, nothing you would not know and haven't heard of... Just get confident in yourself and open that door... They will let you in, if your steps are firm and straight...
I will edit this post to add words about the real experience and other details after I get cool down after 3 hr drive from Chicago to Madison, WI, and after my first beer will take my fatique off... See you tonight on this forum...
J
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| ram3
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Good luck buddy I felt that way to and I passed good luck
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| icarus
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Hey Justice ... We are all ears ... i mean eyes !!! lol
Best of luck
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| paviraj
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Gud luck for ur result.
anything to say i mean what u forgot and others dont want to do them !!!!
thanq.
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| Justice
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All right, here is the time to share with you guys my thoughts about the prep to the exam, and the exam itself...
My prep involved mostly FA, and just superficial reading of UW... To my opinion, cases presented in FA much better, in a clear instructive way, whereas UW is kind of demagogueic… Please read minicases in FA several times (they are worth reading on the night before exam, very useful)… The only thing useful in UW is videos, but they contain a few mistakes such as testing for tactile fremitus with only one hand at a time, etc… For those who don’t have sources to subscribe to UW, please see the Virginia videos, they are for free but contain the same info…
I was studying for about a month, on and off since I have a full-time job in the university, two kids and a beautiful wife, and all of them needed my attention. I did not practice much; had a lucky opportunity to go over several (about 6-7) cases over a phone, - just to get a taste of this… I am not sure if practicing all cases with a partner is of any use: please remember that you will not get a case of a 67 yo male complaining to bloody stool and answering to you questions in the way presented in either FA or UW… The most important issue during the prep is to understand the concept if the exam and the structure of the disease… You are welcome to take this message seriously if you are still looking for the answer to your question about something the most essential of this exam.
I am fortunate to be kind of fluent in both speaking and writing, although I am IMG and am in the US only for 5 years… Thus I did not need (or I felt I did not need) to practice to pronounce questions distinctly and loudly… And again, memorizing questions one by one is one of the ways to fail on the exam (well, to me only) because imagine the situation when your SP is a non-compliant guy who answers to your Qs in a way different from what you memorized while you practiced with your partner, but the only thing that your memory pushes up to your lips is another Q your memorized to ask… You will not have time to fulfill your mission if you do not understand that all this is about improvisation. I hope I am not offensive to those who do practice in the more traditional way… I am just describing my experience.
The day of the exam:
I took my exam in Chicago… Proctors are very good, the environment if very friendly to everyone… Please do not waste your time to bring extra snack, there is plenty of food in the center, plenty of soda and cookies, so you will not get hungry… In addition, give a chance to your endogenous cortisol and epinephrine to work: they will make you hyperglycemic in any way…
First five cases ran over very fast, you will not even realize how quick the day of the exam is… Other four were also fast… I felt myself kind of exhausted only after the 11 case, and only when I was writing my PN (yea, I was writing it), I just caught myself that I was writing not as fast as I did with first ten PN… And, of course, the last PN was written very slowly, that that was the case of just counseling, so I did not need to do any physical exam and was out of the room about 4 minutes earlier…
My time management was also OK… In several cases I was closing the case when I heard the alert to leave the room, and the proctor needed to knock the door to get me out… But, and surprisingly, they just kindly mentioned that I have to leave the room, and hopefully they did not report that as an irregular behavior, provided that they would tell me about that if they were going to report that…
All cases are discussed in FA, and this is the reason to strongly recommend this book as the best source for the prep. One of the patients was really tough, and she was overloading me with the number of times she was hospitalized, the years of those hospitalizations, and the reasons for that… She was also answering to my Qs is a very short way… I was doing my best to please her with my attention to her, and at the end she kindly smiled at my face that meant (at least to me) that I won that game…
I could easily make all the diagnoses, so I did not need to guess… The only patient that gave me a surprise was a case of a sore throat, and I was leading the case to make a diagnosis of at least of bacterial pharyngitis, or at last of inf. mononucleosis… But my Q to her about possible STD in the past changed whole picture: she said that some time ago she was diagnosed with HIV… As you can imagine, guys, this was the only best diagnosis #1 to put in DD section…
While asking, I was trying to follow LIQORAAA PAM……FOSS, but it was not possible to do that in every case… In most of the cases I was in the middle of PE when I heard the 5-min alert… If I needed to ask something else, I would ask either during PE or after it but before closing… I am sure it is OK as you are supposed to be a human not a robot, and you have to demonstrate that… All other routines such as washing hands and cleaning stethoscope with alcohol swab were done in a demonstrative fashion… I was naming the Pt by his last name in each my question, and it wasn’t difficult…
So called tough questions are classic (read FA) and not that tough at all…
Of course, I made several mistakes, but I am not going to dig a hole in my sanity re-experiencing those moments… I forgot to ask some of the Qs I was going to ask, but instead I would propose that in DD or WU sections of the PN… The only serious mistake I made was not draping a SP with a severe back pain… THE ONLY TIME I DIDN;T DRAPE WAS THIS ONE!!! When I entered, she was showing so much pain that I just forgot about drape… She was in an assumed position, so I needed to almost kneel in front of her to look at her eyes to maintain contact… I felt that I was doing something wrong when I was performing the straight leg test to her, but the understanding came when I caught the eyes of the SP of the drape when I was closing the case… This is the only mistake I am really sorry about… Otherwise, I think I did acceptably well…
Probably that is enough for today… If you have questions to me, please ask… The only thing I would like to add is that this CS exam is the test for your maturity, for your medical adulthood… If you feel yourself as a doctor, you will do well… If you are still a student in your heart and soul, then you have to teach yourself for this exam…
GL to everyone…
Edited by Justice on 08/11/07 - 11:08 AM
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| layla
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Congratulations, on your pleasant exam experiance and thanks for sharing it.
i have a questions for you, what is the title that i should look for in Virgina videos? coz i couldn't find it there.
thanks
Layla
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| mytime
Go Marching in!
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I kinda felt the same way........ HEHEH! Now lets see what the results say!  
GL.
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| Justice
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layla wrote:
Congratulations, on your pleasant exam experiance and thanks for sharing it.
i have a questions for you, what is the title that i should look for in Virgina videos? coz i couldn't find it there.
thanks
Layla
http://www.med-ed.virginia.edu/courses/pom1/video...
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| arlete
Half way there!
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Thanks for sharing! GL!
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| vanshita
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GOOD LUCK
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| Justice
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Thank you all, guys!!! I wish you the same for any of the steps you are working on...
J
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| layla
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thanks Justice,
God bless
L.
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| ShweHope99.9998
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Well said Justice, by the way what kind of beer ..... & how many already
Thank you, i feel same way not to follow exact Qs as LIQ or PAm etc, that eat up my brain while thinking same time with Qs rt one out to ask pt as , me as DOC
since never into those extra memorizing for short mneumonic , just try to correlate, know the case, has systematic, organized way of Hx, etc then , i think as far as we got Dx, DDx, that will lead to all Hx, focus , in Ph Exm , investigation, MG too .
Just my 2 cents, not all practice as same style even in real life though as approach to pt to get hx , etc.
GL justice, thanks for the sharing, including the beer & food at the Chicago center .
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| icarus
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Tell is when you have the results Justice ... WE ARE ALL WAITING AND PRAYING FOR YOU
Best of Luck
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| Justice
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Thanks, Icarus and all other colleagues... I am trying to be positive... And here is another joke: NOTHING FAILS LIKE A PRAYER... G-d have already given us a chance, and we are to thank him for it, not to ask for that taken chance to be good, or for another one... If G-d made us in front of this door, don't you think he left this door open???
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| virgola82
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Congratulations Justice you definitely did great! I agree with everything you said and wish you good lick for your match!
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| abanoz
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justice,
if you are online plaese tell me if you know, how to learn form web site if we passed or not.
My exam date was 13th of August Houston. It seems I can learn the result now.
Thank you very much.
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