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Notes -
Welp. Exam's in 4 hours. I've studied on and off for 6 months, and very hard (by my standards) for at least 2. I've been a complete shut-in for two weeks.
My performance is at the point where I'll probably pass, but that's not a guarantee. A minor fluctuation in cut-offs (due to the scoring system and thresholds) could still make all the difference. The MRCPsych Paper A can vary from 40% to 60+% percent pass rates from batch to batch. Hopefully they'll be a little more lenient this time, as the last go had the most failures of recent history. I can kinda see through the matrix now, when it comes to awkward questions and terrible phrasing.
I'd have liked to go into it right after a full night's rest, but my sleep cycle wouldn't allow for it. Still, I'm hardly sleep deprived. Wish me luck folks, I could use some right about now.
Edit:
Reassuringly, the actual exam had me go what the fuck at roughly the same rate as the dozen mocks I did. Maybe even better! I could have wrapped up the whole paper in 45 minutes instead of 3 hours, but I opted to take a leisurely two just to triple check, not that that made much of a difference.
I would say that >50% of the questions had answers that I could have answered in my sleep. For the rest, I had far more 50:50 tossups between two plausible seeming options out of the five per question than I did examples of total ignorance. I did spot a few questionable questions, such as 5 different options for a description of schizophrenic mannerism, of which one was perhaps slightly less wrong than the rest. Most of the time, my intuition lead me the right way even where I wasn't completely certain of the correct answer.
Then there are the stupid questions:
Which test is required before prescribing atomoxetine and Ritalin (separate questions)? The correct answer would be none, because there isn't a single test that is strictly required or even strongly suggested according to standard guidance. That wasn't an option, so I opted for blood pressure (almost certainly correctly) because well, they're stimulants, but that's almost totally irrelevant in practice.
Then they asked us about the method of action of vortioexetine, presumably regarding its antidepressant effects. The answer is "nobody fucking knows", but sadly that wasn't a choice either. I went for 5-HT1A agonism because well, it does do that, and it's a common mechanism for many antidepressants. Sigh.
With the benefit of hindsight, I think I achieved the desirable goal of minimizing regret. I didn't make any stupid mistakes, or unforced errors. Where I was wrong, it was usually due to arcane trivia or genuine ignorance. Many claim that the mocks are harder than the real deal, and I'd say that's probably true for this one. The typical passing score is low 60s, I already did better on average on most mocks, and I estimate >=70% on the actual paper. Which is very likely a pass! Still too early to celebrate, but I'm not touching another fucking textbook till the results are out.
Thanks to everyone who wished me well, I appreciate it <3
I feel like I have stepped into the role of nagging elder relative at this point buttttttttttttt.
Medical board exam questions usually come in two flavors: 1. "We are required by weight of history and other requirements to put this in here" (which usually involves historically important acknowledge of ye old white men and deprecated theories, as well as political drivel), and 2. "No really I need to know you know this for practice" (at times especially because people aren't actually doing it).
Vitals monitoring is common for a ton of meds some of which isn't really that important some of which really really is (like say venlafaxine). In the times of Telehealth reminding doctors they actually should be doing this is kinda important. Depending on clinical specifics cardiac monitoring is also not unreasonable for ADHD meds. Granted the necessity of this is probably a bit reduced in a less.....um, lawsuit laden? environment but that doesn't mean that on paper you shouldn't be doing these things.
Perhaps most importantly they told you that none wasn't an answer so that tells you that there is something you misunderstood, didn't know, or that they were hiding behind "most likely." It's not worth fighting them about in your own head, especially because you were able to figure out the trick.
Likewise yes yes we don't really know how anti-depressants work, but you can just say the receptor of interest and move on with your life lol.
Anyway bitching like this is usually a sign that you passed, and these exams are mostly designed to make you feel like "wtf" walking out after them.
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