Disclaimer: These are my personal tips that helped me to pass my Fellowship and this is written independent of my prior involvement with the college. You will often receive a lot of advice and tips and my advice is to take the tips you think will work for you and ditch the rest (it's a bit like parenting advice!)
I’ll touch on all the things that helped me, and you can take and leave what is relevant to you.
Pictured: I'm not sure what Marshmallow is ready for, but she looks a bit defeated. Don't start the exam period like Marshmallow.
PRE-EXAM PERIOD PREPARATION
You need a complete set of notes prior to the examination period. My notes were a combination of notes from previous candidates, Tobias and my own additions. See if you can obtain a set of notes at the start of your residency from someone who has recently passed, and then build/subtract from these.
Over your residency you are living and breathing these notes and concepts obviously, and getting involved in resident forum, journal clubs etc is a good way to expand on your notes and summaries.
I think it is really important to have an understanding of everything pre the study period. So for example, you don’t have time in the study period to be ‘getting your head around’ big concepts like CORA, strain theory, hepatic encephalopathy. So understand everything once, even if you need to revise and remind yourself of this understanding (which you will, unless you are a genius).
Towards the end of my residency I made sure I had all the new papers from the reading list right up until around the Feb/March. I went into the reading list journals and downloaded all the papers from the last year and summarised these. It took about 2 full days and I slotted these into my notes so I had all the up-to-date literature at the start.
In regards to the reading list - There are so many papers to commit to memory that I didn’t focus on committing any papers not on the reading list to memory. I read a lot of the JSAP and Canadian vet journal ones for understanding, but didn’t focus on committing the authors to memory.
PRE-EXAM AND EXAM PERIOD MENTAL HEALTH
I think this is an important consideration. If something is going to really mess you up it’s 3 months with your own thoughts with minimal contact with people.
Overall it can be a rewarding time, but a tough time.
Below are just my tips for this, however I understand that this doesn’t necc apply to everyone.
1 - I engaged Helen D’Silva who was a sports performance psychologist. She gave me a bunch of study tips and tips for if I got stressed in the lead-up to the exam. In hindsight I wished I had booked a further appointment with her maybe around half way through the study period, which is typically where you start to melt down.
2 - My personal view is if you are a bit anxious or bit depressed or whatever it is - there is nothing like the exam period to really bring out the best of these traits! However, you don't have time during the exam period to work through these things. Therefore, try to at least develop a small bank of strategies for what you are going to do if you are feeling like falling apart. It’s much easier to cope with this period, if you predict possible things that might go wrong, then draw upon your resourcefulness and skills you have developed.
3 - Surround yourself with people who think you CAN do it. This is true not just for exams but also for life. If you surround yourself with people who think things are possible versus impossible there is plenty of evidence that you are more likely to achieve. You can get very caught up in bitterness and anger towards the process but if you let this overwhelm you, you will find it harder to get to the finish line.
4 - One thing I only realised in hindsight, is that I was grateful to myself for being kind to myself over the exam period. It sounds really stupid and I’m embarrassed to admit it, but at the end of each day I would tell myself I had done really well and that it was amazing I was learning all this new information. I actively tried to say positive things to myself.
5 - Also linked to mental health is gut health. There is a bunch of evidence behind this. If you can, get a bunch of meal prep done so you can eat healthily while studying. I was the healthiest I had ever been because I ate healthy food at regular intervals, exercised once a day and cut out alcohol.
STUDY TECHNIQUES
Have a plan and divide it right down into what you are going to cover each week and day, but then leave time for repetition. This is one of the MOST important comments. You will have forgotten what you covered at the start of your exam period, by the end of the exam period.
I had 10 weeks prior to the written exams. So for the first 8 weeks I divided everything up into 8.
I had an overall plan, then a weekly plan then a daily plan.
For my weekly plan:
Day 1-5 note taking – would fill at least 1 book with written notes.
Day 6 – repetition/study for my topic exam. Flagged bits with post-it notes that were not sinking in, so that in my last 2 weeks I knew I needed repetition of these things specifically.
Day 7 – practice exam based on what I had studied that week in the morning, afternoon off. Pm = catch up with a recent successful candidate to run through concepts I was struggling to understand (thanks Dr Nick Cleland)
For my daily plan:
I divided the word count for my typed notes 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 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.
Please note, my daily plan worked for me, but as you can see it is intense. If I had to do this again, I would take slightly longer than 10 weeks or cut the days shorter a bit. However I also wanted to be honest.
REPETITION
I wanted to highlight this again. In terms of remembering stuff, repetition is most key.
There are various Memory techniques - making up a story for the topics as described in the book ‘moonwalking with Einstein’ helped a little. I found it took a while to come up with the stories however, and then I had lots and lots of stories to remember. However practice what works for you.
I left time for repetition and revision. I had a 'to read in the last 10 days', then 'next 3 days' and finally a list of ‘to read the day before’ and then I had a ‘to read day of exam’. There is evidence to suggest that if you don’t know it by the day that it’s too late so I have mixed feelings about my ‘to read on the day’ pages. However having this just got my brain working and it helped me. I have always had a list of things to read day of exam, so potentially it is just a comfort thing for me.
PRIORITISING PAPERS TO COMMIT TO MEMORY
The way that helped me, was for each topic, I found it useful to have a short paper summary for each topic, all on one page. For each paper on the page I had an idea of where each paper fit into the evidence pyramid.
It is important that for every paper you consider where it falls on the evidence pyramid. There are a lot of cadaver studies and biomechanical studies, but these sit down the bottom with ‘background information’. If this is the only information you have available to make decisions, then you might have to use it, but you need to know it is low level evidence, and know/comment that it is lower down the list.
Year of publication doesn’t trump where papers fall on the evidence pyramid – so just because something is new or recent, doesn’t mean it is a better study.
Answer all your questions, with this pyramid in mind. I promise you that if you can’t understand the evidence heirachy/pyramid, you can’t pass the ANZCVS exam. This is because you get into the hole of putting equal weighting on everything you read, and then you get overwhelmed and lost in the literature. This doesn’t necessarily apply to ECVS as it is more of a ‘just learn the last 5 years’ and you get more factoid type questions. ANZCVS exam is meant to encourage your ability to decipher what is important and what isn’t, which is probably a better skill to have when it comes to treating patients (sorry ECVS candidates).
GENERAL TIPS WRITTEN EXAM
1 - Practice exams – you must factor these in to your study schedule. You learn so much from doing practice exams. Its not so much about whether you pass or fail the practice exam but just do them. It also allows you to practice how you can best use your perusal time. You can take written notes in your perusal time. I’m not sure if there is a right or wrong re how you use your perusal time, but practicing what works for you is key.
Question answering:
When answering questions I focused on getting the main points down, then used the literature to back up my answer. If you get a question saying ‘with reference to the current’ literature it can be really tempting to dive into ‘X said this and X said this’. The majority of the points are going to be for the information/main points versus the literature references. To structure your answer, answer the question first then back up the points with the literature.
Really spell everything out in terms of explaining your answer. Don’t assume the examiner knows that you have a baseline knowledge. If you mention disc fenestration, potentially give a brief outline of what this actually is versus thinking ‘they will know I know this’.
Examiners have to follow an answer key to some degree and there are no marks for off-tangent answers. If they ask about prognosis, don’t waste time talking about pathophys just to ‘show’ you know something. Spend time writing about something you know about.
Spell out full words when using for the first time.
Use scientific language and avoid statements like ‘I would’…. Rather say ‘literature suggests’….’the strongest argument at this stage is to…’
Also if there is weak literature surrounding something, then it is probably not wise to make strong statements. So an example might be you are asked to discuss the best treatment option for a procedure with reference to the literature. We know that we don’t have many (or any) clinically controlled comparative studies for a lot of diseases – intrahepatic shunts, ureteroliths in cats etc. So I didn’t want to use statements like ‘I would definitely do X based on these papers’. I would often comment on the limitations of the literature then discuss the pros and cons of various options before making a more vague conclusive statement.
An example - I was marking a practice paper and they beautifully described all the pros and cons of performing a cholecystectomy for gall bladder mucocele in a non-emergency situation with references to the literature but then they made a statement like ‘therefore, I would perform cholecystectomy as soon as possible’. I think it shows a better understanding, if you conclude with something a bit less finite like 'decision-making is clouded by lack of long-term follow-up studies of how many dogs go on to experience a rupture of their mucocele, however evidence suggests a lower risk with elective cholecystectomy and this is an important discussion point with owners" (or something....just to give you an idea). If you have a strong view about something with weak evidence, and the examiner doesn’t share that view, then it won't be in your favour. In reality, there isn’t really enough evidence on anything to support very strong views. Err on the side of caution.
I had another sheet of ‘papers that could be used in multiple answers’. An example was
Follette 2020 that discussed how complications are inconsistently reported, but also discussed how minor complications are more significant if the procedure carries minimal benefit. This brings me to another point that we should always try where possible to consider the morbidity to the patient as well. This shows a more complete, balanced understanding. The examiner wants to see that you can consider pros and cons on every procedure.
There will definitely be things you don't know, prepare to NOT let this affect your performance. Just access what you can in your memory, and don't bother going off tangent.
Read the question carefully and only answer the question
Stick to time as you can't pass if you only answer 75% of exam. You are better to answer the whole exam but less well than 75% really well.
PRACTICAL AND ORAL EXAM TIPS
As I went through papers, I flagged things I thought might be more likely to come up e.g. key papers especially if they had good images.
I went through BSAVA musculoskeletal imaging looking at radiographs and advanced images.
I figured this is probably more likely where you would get an anatomy question (although then I got one in my written) so I also made sure I revised common anatomy and approaches.
For the oral exam – remember it is not an interview. Oral exams can be difficult for some as they are worrying about how they sound, the expressions of the examiners etc etc and this sort of social interaction can take up brain space. I found it easier not to look directly at the examiners. I really just focused on drawing on my memory. The main thing is just to get the info out, and stay on topic.
They can ask the same thing twice, so go through everything again. You may be able to predict topics a little, as if there is something topical that hasn’t been asked in the written, it might be in the oral or practical. However don’t rely on this.
Repetition. Go through everything again as it can fall away prior to the practical and oral. I didn’t go back to work, and I used my time to go through everything again and go through pictures in the textbooks.
I hope this helps you guys. It is a tough thing to achieve, but you absolutely CAN do it. Good luck, and feel free to reach out to me with any further questions.
Abs x
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