Enjoying watching the soccer this weekend but thought I'd give you the low down on the course I went on.
I found it super difficult to pck a course as very little info is available and because they are so expensive I felt more apprehensive about making a bad choice. AFter much debate and searching, I wittled it down to 3 course:
1) The St Thomas' 7 day course costing £1200. So ths course was highly recommended by my Reg because he said they got you to practise stations on real patients. However, as it is very popular, I couldn't get a place on he course.
2) The PASTEST MRCS revision course. Costs £799 and you also get the online revision course for free. This course is run over a weekend so its only 2 days. I didn't go as I wanted something longer. A riend went and said it was excellent. Apparently you get grilled all day as the course is mostly in OSCE format and you go around in circuits. He felt it was very useful.
3) The Royal College of Surgeons' Applied sciences for the MRCS course. This is a 5 day course at the Royal College in London and costs £1000. I went on this course and thought it was fantastic. They explained what the format of the exam would be like, taught anatomy on cadavers in small groups and gave lectures on pathology and critical care. There were also lectures and an opportunity to practise comm skills stations. I think the highlights of the course were the lectures on critical care (very comprehensive) and the anatomy demonstrations. You also get critical care viva and a physiology viva books for free. The two problems with the course is that it didn't cover clinical examination or neuroanatomy.
I don't think you need a course to pass the exam but the royal college course really helped me prepare as I was most concerned with anatomy and critical care. Much of the stuff covered on the course came up in one way or another on the course. Hope you found this useful and if you have any experiences of the other courses please share with us.
Amel
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