top of page
Writer's pictureAbbie Tipler

Fellowship Study Plan

Updated: Jan 4, 2023


⁠I've had a few people ask me about this. I have had some reservations in posting about this because I'm not sure in my heart of hearts I believe it is right we need to put ourselves through this. It was an amazing learning opportunity, but it was also a long time to study at this level, mentally challenging and tough on the family. We may need to be creative if we want to make changes to this process. ⁠

However, this is honestly how the lead-up to my exams went. It would seem that at least in the short-term, a rigid intensive study period is what is required. I am only posting this in case it helps. My advise to people sitting, is to take on advise you think will help YOU, and ignore the rest - it is kind of like having a newborn baby in that respect. There is advice that I was very grateful I took. ⁠

How I did it

I had typed notes on all topics (this was a combo of notes from previous candidates, Tobias and my own additions). These were made over 4-5 years (not including memberships notes, but my membership notes were not that helpful to me). I divided these notes into 8 parts (the first 8 weeks). I divided them by 'typed notes word-count' versus Tobias word count. What I mean by this, is that some chapters are literature heavy (so more notes on papers, therefore more words) versus others that are not. Therefore notes word-count was more reflective of the time I needed to spend per section. I had 95% of my notes, but made sure I additionally made brief summaries of the recent papers in our reading list. I didn't worry too much about what was not on our reading list (I'm not saying this is right or wrong, it is just what I did - I read a few papers from JSAP and VCNA that helped with my understanding of a topic or when there was nothing much on a topic, but can't remember referencing much that wasn't on the reading list). ⁠

For me it divided into 8 like this;⁠

- Neurosurgery (chapters 26-37)⁠

- Forelimb (50-55), Endocrine (120-121) ⁠

- Pelvic limb (56-64)⁠

- Oncology (25) and skin/recon/skin neoplasia - (75-82)⁠

- Rest of ortho - bone grafts, principles of fracture repair etc (chapters 38-48 and 65-74)⁠

- Genitourinary (109-119)⁠

- Early chapters and pathophys of these - inflammation etc. (1-24), respiratory and cardiac (899-105). Ear (122,123)⁠

- GI - (87-98)⁠

Each week of my first 8 weeks went like this;⁠

Days 1-5 - notes summary from my main body of notes⁠

Day 6 - Repetition (key) - going back over the 5 previous days⁠

Day 7 - ⁠

morning practice exam with Dave (pictured!) ⁠

afternoon - catch up on anything I didn't get to. ⁠

pm - chat with Nick (also pictured :) with my questions from the week. ⁠

I divided the word count for these chapters into 5 (5 days) then I divided this by 13 hours. I studied 13.5 hours a day. 13 hours planned + 30 mins catch up. I started at 8am and studied until 10.30pm and took exactly 1 hour for exercise. I ate breakfast, lunch and dinner in the office. I took a melatonin at 10pm so I was sleepy by 10.45pm. I replied to messages from 10.30pm - 10.45pm and tried to be asleep by 11pm to get 8 hours before up at 7/7.30am. ⁠

Weeks 9 and 10 - summary weeks. I repeated the previous 8 weeks of content in the first 10 days and made summaries of my summaries. The next 3 days I made very brief A3 sheets of what I wanted to look at the day before. The day before (most stressful day of my life, however I stuck to the plan) I read these notes and highlighted anything I wanted to read the morning of the exam. The morning of the exam I couldn't sleep so I arrived at the college at 6.30am and I read my final highlights. ⁠ For all the topics, I made large mind-maps of the literature. This exercise makes it clearer what papers are more important than others. I have posted previously on the evidence hierarchy, but I think this is important. Knowing the recent literature also seems key, but with a focus on the papers that are up the hierarchy. ⁠ I found ways of remembering things with weird stories in my mind. I think the most important thing though was finding some form of repetition. ⁠ Between the written exam and the practicals I had papers I had pulled out and printed that had useful pictures, and I also went through all the text book reading list pictures. I think there is a lot to be said for 'pattern recognition'. By this I mean recognition of pictures of key surgical complications especially fracture critique and just recognising quickly what is described by an image/radiograph etc. ⁠ Finally - people always ask - how did I do this with two kids? There is no secret to this - my husband and parents did 99.9% of everything in these 3 months. I hugged them at bedtime (sometimes). The guilt was unreal. For the first few days after finishing, it was really weird (the kids called me Nanny), but within a week (and with a new kitten bribe) ;) all was forgotten and things were surprisingly normal. You haven't ruined your children's lives as your mind has tricked you into thinking you have. It required a very supportive family though. ⁠ There are probably more tips. I am happy to help, if you think I can. If you are sitting these exams and want to chat, I am just a phone call away (usually I phone people on my way to and home from work). Helen D'Silva is the excellent performance psychologist I have previously chatted about. She is also a huge advocate of females in leadership. We get along well. ⁠




103 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


bottom of page