Assalamu’Alaykum :) You’ve probably got / are going to get a lot of different advice emails but I thought along with my notes I’d send a little bit as well on how I approached each exam + the resources I used so you have everything in one place. Everyone approaches things slightly differently, and there’s a lot of resources out there, so I think the main thing is to just stick to a few main ones for each cos otherwise it can be easy to get overwhelmed. I think there can also be a lot of fear mongering for 5th year lol, but just try to ignore it and stick to whatever plan you’ve made for how you’re going to go about things, it’s defo very manageable. There is a lot of content to cover but it’s obviously a really long year, and if you go about it in the right way and just work little and often by the time exam season comes around in like 10 months insha’Allah you’ll be very well prepared.
Specialties Written → start off doing PassMed (or QuesMed if that’s your thing but imo PassMed >>) for each specialty in the order that you have them placement-wise. This will make placement more useful as you’ll understand what’s going on, and will also give you a really good base understanding of each specialty. When you do a question, read up on that condition (iA my notes should have everything for each - I put them together as I did questions ranging from PassMed at start to when I did the harder questions and past papers later on, and also from using Ludley’s notes which are amazing would defo recommend). One thing I would say is I think it’s pointless just spamming through PassMed really quickly, especially at the start when you should be trying to get to grips with things. The questions are too easy comparatively to our exam, so there’s no point getting good at PassMed just through pattern recognition and buzzwords, instead try take your time and use each question as an opportunity to acc learn about each condition, because that will then be transferable to our paper. This will also make it easier to learn the more niche stuff for each condition later on, which is what gets tested. Also PassMed still does not cover everything, but the small extra conditions you’ll pick up via notes, other question banks and past papers as time goes on (I was still seeing some new small conditions the week before the exam I think that’s normal, esp. for paeds cos its so broad). I also made a page with corrections / key points (might not be that useful for you but have kept it anyway), just so I could always flick back and consolidate what I’d learnt. Again I would recommend doing this to make your first run through of PassMed the most beneficial. Because there’s so much content you might see a question on a certain topic and then literally not see it again for like four months, so if you make a page like that you can just keep refreshing what you’ve been over even if it doesn’t come up again in questions for a while.
My notes might be a bit too detailed for the start of the year, like i said i built them up through the whole year and were adding to them right up to the exam so don’t feel overwhelmed by the level of detail at the start, but it should have everything for the amount of detail you need to know by the end. There will be some stuff missing, like I mentioned before use Ludleys to plug in any gaps. Also some of the pages I made towards the start of the year might not be great, but if you can tell they’ve barely been worked on probs means I realised they’re not that relevant by the end of the year (you’ll also realise yourselves ofc as you go along what’s important/isn’t). Remember for specialties you just have to start with the basics and then build it up slowly through the year (you have 11 months), which is why I think it’s important to work little and often, it’d be very hard to learn everything in the level of detail you need by trying to cram at the end of the year.
The best questions to do after you finish PassMed/QuesMed are PasTest (it’s okay but imo kind of overhyped, questions are either really easy or really unecessarily hard, only abt 500ish Qs tho so still worth doing quickly), MakeAMedic Mocks (absolutely amazing, there’s 20 mocks, 600Qs in total, have really good explanations and probs give you a better indication of the standard in the exam, take your time with each mock to try and fully understand everything), RevMed (300Qs in total, same quality as make a medic, rlly good standard close to the exam). As I was getting to this later stage, after I’d done a question, I’d read the relevant condition in Ludley’s notes, cause imo they’re the most comprehensive notes there are, just to pick up any small extra things and remind myself of the detailed management for each condition (cos that is what mainly is tested + it also helps soo much for PACES). Then after you’ve done these start on past papers (don’t start too late, it’s good to get an idea of what kind of questions and concepts come up so you can tailor revision, and they do repeat a decent amount of questions).
PACES → majority of PACES imo is basically just knowing specialties content + management. My notes should have most things, Ludley’s notes and MedEd management guide are also very good for this. At the start of the year find an older year who’s willing to spend even just a few sessions with you going through some basic stuff, I remember even tho we only had a few sessions early in the year like September, they were super useful cos you can only really get certain insight from people that have done it. After you’ve had some sessions with older years, you can start practicing with each other. Have a solid history taking structure for each specialty, but that only makes up like 5 mins of the station. The rest will be counselling + VIVAs which like I said just requires specialty knowledge which you’ll pick up as the year goes on. On the drive I’ve included all of the resources including student made cases that we used. I did PACES the least by a long way out of the three, but just remember whenever you’re revising specialties you’re also revising PACES, so don’t worry if doing acc PACES practice takes a back seat cos doing written specialties stuff helps just as much for it. Main thing when practicing is to focus on counselling, explaining what the condition is and management in simple patient-friendly terms. Again, once you understand the conditions better this will become a lot easier. Some people say get into groups from september and start practicing, I think that’s quite over the top. I would say spend the first half of the year focusing on trying to understand the content and do some PACES tutoring with an older year, and then second half start practicing in groups and just build it up from there. Like OSCE it’s all just an act, just be confident and sound like you know what you’re doing and you’re basically halfway there.
Path → this is one of the main reasons why people start to get stressed, but I promise it’s acc not that bad. There’s a lot of content, but the acc content itself and the exam are fairly straightforward (unlike specialties where you can know the content but Q’s are still kinda hard). I’d suggest not revising by watching the lectures back, there’s a lot of waffle in each lecture that just makes everything seem more complicated than it needs to be for the exam, and also it will take up a lot of time. I used a set of older years notes (Lias), and they filter through and cut out all the stuff you don’t need to know. I decided not to write my own notes cos as opposed to specialties (which you acc need to understand the concepts and I think writing your own notes helps for that), path is so buzzwordy and just pattern recognition basically. Also don’t do any before January there’s no point.
I started in Feb/March time by watching the previous years MedEd lectures, there’s 10 in total (2 for each topic), they don’t cover everything but I think it’s good for giving you a general overview of what sort of stuff you need to know for each. Also it’s harder to use subsequent older year notes if you don’t have a vague understanding of things, which is what the MedEd lecs will give you and you can get through 10 quite quickly. From there, like I said, I chose one set of older years notes to use as a base, I used Lia’s and would highly recommend. I then just read throught them and annotated them with things I picked up from past papers, flashcards etc. so I had everything in one place. I’ve put my annotated version on the drive as an example, you can find her original notes on the notebank. I also used the MedEd path guide, you’ll figure out yourself as time goes on that some topics are better written in path guide and some are better from older years notes, it’s good to use both just to get different angles on things as well. There’s also some good brainscape flashcard decks, which basically go through buzzwords which is basically all path is, so I’d recommend doing those even if you’re not a massive flaschard person like me. Rukhy’s notes are also rlly good, but because they’re so concise you need to sort of already know whats going on to make full use of them, so you can start using them properly after you’ve been through all the content in a bit more detail via other resources.
You also need to know some ethics/law (only 5 Q’s in entire paper), I’ve included the two older year’s notes that I used for this in the drive, they cover everything. Make sure you do past papers earlyish, they repeat sooo many questions so this is very very important (literally like 40% of the paper is repeats I think). MedGems is a student-made question bank specifically for imperial path, it’s okay but still has a lot of niche things we don’t need to know, would still recommend going through it at least once but don’t get disheartened by it. I’m pretty sure the menti ‘5%’ does not exist, I still did them anyway cos I was lowkey scared but think the entire mark is just based off exam. There’s also a path viva the Friday after PACES if you come roughly top 10% in the paper, if you get it feel free to msg me I think they keep the stations very similar each year.
Also they just sent pass marks so thought I’d include if it’s useful:
Overall it is a tough year but insha’Allah it is definitely manageable and you’ll all be fine. Don’t start working intensely from now or because it’s such a long year you’ll end up burning out. Like I said for now just do a bit of passmed whenever you get a chance from now to start building up specialities knowledge. Exam season is a bit peak cos you start to feel how long of a year it’s been by the time you get to that point, but if you put in the work earlier in the year it will make it more manageable. I think the main thing people get caught up in is the fact there are so many different resources so like I said it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Insha’Allah my notes will help with that for specialties and PACES as everything is in one place and I tried to collate all the important information from the best question banks and notes. Alhamdulillah by doing the stuff I outlined above, I got around 90%+ in all three just to show you you can do well without going overboard on the amount of stuff you use, just use a couple of peoples notes that you like and learn them in depth while you do questions. Try not to stress too much, the exams literally don’t count anymore, and even if you’re aiming to do really well it’s possible just by doing what I’ve outlined. Sorry it’s longer than I thought it would be, but Insha’Allah this and the notes are helpful. There are probs some parts I haven’t explained/worded that well so if any questions or want some more advice about specific things can always email ([email protected]) or just msg me :)
GOOGLE DRIVE →
5th Year Resources - Google Drive
(just put this together quickly, if there’s anything missing I’ll add as I remember, but iA shld have the main stuff)