Making Progress....

I have previously mentioned the progress test. dun dun duuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnnn.
I don't know whose idea this was, but i think they need their head looking at. Basically the idea is that the ENTIRE medical school, all 5 years, sit 1 exam at the same time. The same exam.
So for a first year you are basically going to fail. and the 5th years should be passing. and if the next time you sit it you havent made progress, they consider throwing you off the course! WOOOOO!!
It turned out to be the most fun exam Ive ever done...this is what the questions are like:

A 43 year old woman dies after a long and debilitating illness. A post mortem examination is carried out, and a neuropathologist notes that the brain shows well-defined areas of demyelination on naked-eye examination
What is the most likely diagnosis?
A Alzheimer’s disease
B Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
C Gerstmann-Straüssler-Scheinker syndrome
D Multiple infarcts
E Multiple sclerosis

The thing is with these questions is that the first years are meant to get SOME right, so despite the fabulous yet confusing red herring that is 'Gerstmann-Straüssler-Scheinker syndrome', we do all know that demyelination is generally a sign of E, Multiple sclerosis.

However, it is tricky to spot the ones you know from the ones that are in fact ridiculous, because we have no clinical training and the presentation of each question as a clinical case is slliiiightly offputting.

Others include-

You are a senior house officer on call when a 40 year old patient who is suicidal and known to be suffering from paranoid schizophrenia threatens to leave the hospital.
Under which section of the Mental Health Act can you detain this patient?
A 2
B 3
C 4
D 5
E 6

Trick to answering this one, Pick your favourite number.........
(answer: D)

I did take the exam seriously, and i did quite enjoy it because the lack of clinical now makes the end result of you being a doctor seem very far away. There was a point where my University Learned Knowledge failed me, and all i have to fall back on was 7 Seasons of E.R, Meridith Grey and Her Anatomy, House, my secret addiction that is BODYSHOCK (half tonne son/mom etc...) and when totally clutching at straws....Scrubs.
CSI wasnt at all useful, not even when dealing with BLUNT FORCE TRAMA....oh Horatio!

And when desparate and having to choose a drug to prescribe I picked the one that would sound best when screaming it across a trauma room with blood spurting in every direction.

I can see why they choose to examine us like this, but at the same time, it is incredibly demoralising to know you are going to sit an exam you cannot revise or prepare for and are expected to do badly in...

My favourite questions begin 'You are a senior house officer and your consultant calls you to prescribe...' because this is a little indication that IF you get through the exam, and all the subsequent ones, you WILL get there, and the medical school believes it, even if sometimes you dont.........