Most of the people who prepare for AMC exam have question like 'how to prepare?', 'how much time should I give?","what should I read?", Is there any bridging course can I do?" and "where can I find more information?".
This exam is multi-station OSCE - Objective Structured Clinical Examination. In simple word, there will be multiple short cases. You have cleared AMC MCQ, so you have knowledge. Now you have to show that knowledge and clinical skill to your examiner and your patient. This exam is more sort of communication skill testing with your medical knowledge and skill.
When you want to prepare for this kind of exam, you should practice that in real life. If you are working in Australian system, it is much easier to do that, otherwise you can practice with your colleagues/friends. Practice is the only solution for this exam. Practice, practice and practice until you feel comfortable about that station. When you are practicing, practice like you will do in real exam. Do not spend more than 8 minutes in any case. Now you will need mock cases, you can write by yourself or ask your friend or supervisor to do that for you. AMC Handbook of Clinical Assessment is great book to get idea about the cases. I recommend that you read and revise this book at least 3 times before your exam. There is also one DVD from AMC - Multi-station Structure Clinical Assessment out there, which gives you more idea about the exam procedure rather than cases.
How much time should you give for preparation? Answer of this question depends upon your clinical experience in your country and in Australia or similar system, whether you want to give full time or part time and what's your personal life circumstances. Ideally you should give 3-4 weeks of intense (full time) if you have Australian Clinical experience. You will require more time if you are out of the field or outside Australia, but 2-3 months is sufficient time according to my experience. If your speaking is poor and having difficulty in IELTS/OET speaking, then doing IELTS/OET during this time is also useful, as this exam will be in same language "English".
You should read above book and see DVD (if you can) for exam preparation. On the top of your AMC MCQ reading you should read following books/DVDs (Whole list is exhaustive and I will post in one blog together).
Talley and O'Connor's Clinical Examination: A Systematic Guide to Physical Diagnosis
John Murtagh's General Practice, Practice tips and Patient education
I come across this nice bookstore which is cheaper than other sites and it delivers books free worldwide. If you are in Australia and would like Australian website Fishpond is the anotherone to go.
There are lots of bridging courses around by reputed source if you are in Australia. I am not aware of any good course outside Australia. Below are few institutions who run bridging courses for AMC candidates. They are costly, but I will recommend you to do at least one if you are not working in Australia. VMPF and RACGP (Sydney) are intense courses for lots of information and practice, but are really expensive.
- VMPF - Victorian Medical Postgraduate Foundation
- Monash University in Victoria
- RACGP - In Melbourne, Adelaide (2 hours a week for 10 weeks) and Sydney (full day/week for 10 weeks)
- Centre for International Medical Graduates, Queensland
- Postgraduate Medical Education Council of Tasmania
- Northern Territory General Practice Education
Clinical Exam tips and resume writing are coming soon!!
Please read disclaimer before using the above information.
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