MED4200: Integrated clinical studies

OSCEs (40%), written examinations (40%), written VIA (20%)

This unit is an absolute nightmare. It creeps up on you and is not much fun. Basically this unit consists of four exams, one OSCE which is held over two days, one written exam on paediatrics and women's health, one written exam on psychiatry and general practice, and one mammoth exam that can assess anything you learnt over the least four years (the dreaded VIA...). These exams are worth about 30% of the degree, with the VIA weighing in at 20% (more on this in a review on MED4000 where it will make more sense), and happen on consecutive days in the fabled and brutal "week of hell".

The key to this unit is preparation, you NEED to be well prepared in advance. If you're the type of person who's left things until SWOTVAC until now, that will not work given the SWOTVAC is only 1 week and the rotations may be working you hard until the last Friday of semester. Hence, you need to be studying consistently throughout the year.

How I went about things was detailed in my MED4190 review, so I'm not going to bother repeating things, but in terms of prioritising study, I think the following are useful tips:
- Year 4 is the most important year to study, then Year 3, then pre-clinical years; the VIA is 80% Years 3 and 4, so that's where the money is at
- Try and cover a year 3 topic every week, eg. cardiology; you should have enough time to cover each topic twice before directing focus to the big topics of cardiology, respiratory medicine, gastroenterology, and endocrinology towards the end of the year
- If you're going to study pre-clinical content, keep it to epidemiology and clinically relevant anatomy, those are important topics
- Make notes, you won't remember things and notes can help to jog your memory, use your bag of studying tricks for this one
- Don't neglect ECGs and radiology
- Make sure you practice OSCEs with mates, make lists about likely conditions to come up and practice to time!
- If you are feeling stressed and feel like you need a break, please take one; your mental health is the most important thing this year and you need to be at your best to survive the "week of hell"
Unfortunately I can't give specific details on the exams due to Faculty rulings, so that's basically it. I've mentioned how I went about my units that make up these exams in previous reviews, so anyone wanting to know more about it should peruse those. To anyone who has to do this unit, I wish you the best of luck, it's probably the toughest unit Monash offers to anyone from any degree. So very glad it is over

Many, depending on the series of lecture

Yes, 7 papers were released by the Faculty, although the Faculty still maintains threats to expel students from the course if they are caught compiling past questions or distributing or using unofficial past compilations. All past compilations have been removed from the MUMUS site. Many EMQ/MCQ books can adjunct exam preparation.

2/5

MUMUS lectures are recorded with screen capture.

as with my previous reviews of units thus far in the degree. You'll need to combine your resources from those years and pick and choose what you need most, ideally you'll have noted from which you can study from instead.

varies as it depends on how much you want to study, I'd recommend at least 3 hours a night. This unit consists of a four examinations and occurs throughout the year. There are revision lectures run fortnightly by MUMUS.

Semester 1 and 2, 2015