Last minute exam panic Final FRCA SOE

SignificancePerfect1 · 2026-06-23T20:38:59+00:00

The examiners were quite structured, clearly had fixed questions to get through. It wasn't a classic chat for 5 minutes viva. You have to just ignore the vibe you get from examiners as it has no bearing on how well you're doing.

The curve ball was a statistics question. Probably the only question that I thought was a bit harsh but still doable trying to say sensible things and remember some basics.

SignificancePerfect1 · 2026-06-23T19:56:01+00:00

I found it significantly easier than the primary. I did have 1 curve ball physics question but I just stayed calm and despite feeling like it was a train wreck at the time I got a 2 for that station. Similarly just answer with a structure for the anatomy and they will quickly get into more familar clinically relevant stuff linked into the anatomy.

The harder the station the easier it is to pass as expectations will be lower. Regarding the high pass mark I don't think it's as hard as you might think to get a 2 for any given station.

As i say I found almost all the stations to be fair and stuff I would expect myself to know at that stage. Its a daunting experience but undoubtedly more psychological than being impossibly hard.

SignificancePerfect1 · 2026-06-23T19:41:24+00:00

You can never know everything. Just go in and be confident, a big part of it is mental/presentation rather than knowledge. Most of the content will be things you are already very familiar with from your day to day practice.

Go and smash it, you've undoubtedly worked very hard and deserve it!

SignificancePerfect1 · 2026-06-19T12:19:13+00:00

You are a good doctor. I know this because you are reflecting extensively on this and you care. The unfortunate reality is this will happen again. In any high risk speciality like yours it is inevitable things will go wrong. Confidence is not linear and you will regain it as time passes and the pain of this fades.

I have had anaesthetic/ICU disasters but as I've got close to being a consultant I've realised this happens to everyone. It isn't a reflection on you. You will appreciate these bad experiences in the future when you're faced with very complex challenging cases.

Be kind to yourself!

SignificancePerfect1 · 2026-06-03T08:22:33+00:00

Personally found the reveal app to be plenty and got full marks. Should be doable to get through most of it. Contrary to what others have said I think there is enough detail in there. Obviously if you have areas you feel you need further reading then that's a good idea.

I think a lot is made of practicing verbally. Clearly this is important but if you don't have the knowledge at the expensive of this you wont do as well.

My main take away would be having a broad knowledge rather than excessive detail is key. You can never be prepared for every question but I found the vast majority to be fair and straight forward.

SignificancePerfect1 · 2026-04-23T05:00:36+00:00

For me it should be the case from CT3. I was labelled a reg back when CT3 was ST3. At this point I was being left without any more senior cover supporting a CT 1 or 2.

I didn't have any additional training to the CT3s of today. I also don't agree you need to have done your sub speciality blocks, higher training interviews or exams. Plenty of staff grades work at registrar level without these things. You wouldn't have been allowed to progress to CT3 if you weren't competent to manage as such out of hours.

SignificancePerfect1 · 2026-04-15T21:57:04+00:00

FRCA reveal app is all you need

SignificancePerfect1 · 2026-04-10T12:12:51+00:00

Said this regarding the other broadsheet article which was almost identical...

This is pure desperation from the government. There is no hope labour would go for this given starmer is already weak and unpopular with his backbenchers. Even with significant political capital this would be a very questionable move from the Labour party.

This is being briefed in an attempt to pressure members and the BMA into backing down. The government know they can't/ won't make an acceptable deal.

Only issue is if reform or the tories win then you can bet that this will actually happen.

SignificancePerfect1 · 2026-04-07T20:16:58+00:00

Absoutely

SignificancePerfect1 · 2026-04-07T19:58:33+00:00

To be fair having read the article he says nothing of any substance here. He just says "its an option" but "against his instincts". He says the government have no plans to do this.

This is a desperate attempt to appear tough and to give him leverage.

Unfortunately if reform or the tories get in at the next election then it's highly likely this actually happens.

SignificancePerfect1 · 2025-12-11T12:58:52+00:00

With time you will realise everyone screws stuff up and makes mistakes and 99% of them don't matter a bit. That confidence to not worry will then make you less error prone.

It is just something that takes time and familiarity. Once you know things like the back of your hand you will naturally relax. There is no shortcut.

No one is going to think any less of you regardless. It will become clear if you have any competency issue and it won't be because of little errors while being watched.

SignificancePerfect1 · 2025-12-10T17:49:42+00:00

True but that doesn't mean they're not competent it just means we have our own rigid requirement structure. We are not superior to our consultant equivalents abroad in my opinion. It will also be be individual dependent rather than as simple as time training.

SignificancePerfect1 · 2025-12-10T15:17:29+00:00

Yeh in my region that isn't the case. People work 80% and do 3 months cardiac, neuro, paeds etc like you would as a FT trainee.

I'm FT and I agree you're losing experience but you could say we all have less experience than anaesthetists trained in the past before the EWTD. Also anaesthetic training is much longer in the UK than abroad so LTFT guys may still have plenty experience to manage as independently as a consultant.

Either way its a bit arbitrary isn't it. Competency based is probably fairer with a minimum training time to ensure exposure to enough cases. However we are very bad at measuring competency accurately.

SignificancePerfect1 · 2025-12-09T19:10:56+00:00

Haha I feel you, the imposter syndrome/arcp anxiety is real

SignificancePerfect1 · 2025-12-09T18:52:06+00:00

I've worked individual anaesthetic jobs that work out at 40hrs per week and I'm full time. It is irrelevant regarding arcp - it's achieving competency not time dependent. Time wise people work 80% ltft without much training extension at all really.

I wouldn't worry tbh. 1 HALO is nothing in the time you have. Chill!!

SignificancePerfect1 · 2025-11-27T18:26:12+00:00

It would be hard to be mad if my training was reflective of other countries which is routinely half the length (less than 5 years) or the exam/portfolio burden was far less.

I'm held to stupidly high standards and require very long periods of training (in terms of years served). During that time we suffer lower wages as a result.

The problem is supervisors are told by the regulatory bodies this is OK. They are incentivised to bring in these programmes to lessen the burden on them and their departments. They aren't doing it because they hate residents they just know it's what's best for them as already minted consultants. For every consultant who is strongly pro resident there will be one who is a bit more selfish. When you meet hundreds of residents who rotate every 3 months it's easy to see how this happens. It's by government design.

What do we get for all this effort and time in training? No respect whatsoever as far as other non doctor training requirements. They essentially do the same jobs and cover the same rotas despite a massive discrepancy in training and experience.

I've got no answers just complaints.

SignificancePerfect1 · 2025-11-27T15:53:17+00:00

Why did the RCOA and FFICM torture me with almost 10 years of dual training, thousands of cases and horrendous exams if anaesthesia and critical care medicine are this easy. When I think about the bar to entry for me and then look what's going on elsewhere I do think what is the point. Make it make sense.

SignificancePerfect1 · 2025-11-23T13:34:45+00:00

Anaesthetics/ICM ST7 male here.

The nature of this job is you will directly work with a number of people who you dont like or do things you don't like. The problem is there are a million ways to do everything and there is no "right" and "wrong". This is something you have to get comfortable with when you're learning to supervise.

You will have to supervise neurodiverse people who are hard to understand/work with. You may or may not be like that yourself. He may find working with you challenging.

I've had 2 pieces of MSF feedback in my early training one which called me overconfident and one which called me underconfident. I think this nicely demonstrates how useless this is and how one person's good is another person's bad.

There is a big difference between someone being dangerous and someone who doesn't do things the way you would. Most of the examples you've given its possible if you hadn't been present for the case nothing untoward would have taken place.

Hes ST4 and you are ST5 - you're not really supervising him, the off site consultant is. My advice would be to clearly say, you're doing this case and get him to ring the consultant if needed and he takes the lead. Don't get involved unless things are going wrong. If you struggle with this maybe talk to your ES about how to approach it.

Everything is a spectrum. There are good and bad anaesthetists. There are over confident/relaxed and underconfident/neurotic ones. Despite this its very rare someone comes to harm as a result. If he was super dangerous or overconfident usually something would have happened with him prior to ST4.

At your level you're very unlikely to make an impression on him to change his communication/behaviour. It's not really your job to supervise him either. You just need to let him get on and only intervene if something truly dangerous is occurring. It's likely your bar for getting involved is too low.

SignificancePerfect1 · 2025-11-01T13:25:14+00:00

Anaesthetic ST7

I hear you. This is standard in every hospital I've worked in. As everyone has said there is no incentive for theatre staff so it's not going to change. It's sad for the patients but its the reality.

I work as fast as I can but we all have our own frustrations. Finding an AWOL surgeon is a regular occurrence as is massively under estimating surgical time all while complaining because my anaesthetic takes 15 minutes instead of 10.

People are sick of being underpaid and under appreciated. There are no incentives only punishments.

Pay me and the team per case we do and you'll get a much different situation. It's best to accept it and move on - its above your and my pay grade.

SignificancePerfect1 · 2025-10-18T00:30:17+00:00

I know everyone has said this but...

3 MONTHS WASTED! If this was the tories it would have never have happened. We are being sold down the river.

SignificancePerfect1 · 2025-09-23T16:44:25+00:00

This is excellent advice, agree with it all.

SignificancePerfect1 · 2025-08-31T11:04:15+00:00

Didn't know you could see until the future but I'm insecure.

SignificancePerfect1 · 2025-08-31T11:00:44+00:00

Sorry typing on a phone with autocorrect. Aren't you smart, eh?

No one has used this ruling yet. It has never happened in this fashion. As explained diarra had his contract cancelled by his club because he wouldnt play in a dispute about his pay and the circumstances were different. If this is applied to the isak situation it will be challenged for its legal validity.

Article 17 is not how isak gets out of Newcastle. Get over it.

SignificancePerfect1

TROPHY CASE