How I studied for FCPS-1 Exam

I took the exam on 24th June, 2009 in Medicine & Allied. By the grace of Allah, I cleared it in my first attempt. Following is an account of my study and exam experience.

After finishing my housejob in Jan 2009, I started out my prep in Feb 2009. The first two weeks I studied rigorously (I was in high spirits). As March began, I joined a private medical college as a demonstrator in Anatomy. It was an 8am-2pm job. I mention this because I know many people who think its not a good idea to study for FCPS-1 while doing a job. I think thats not true. Its all a matter of organization, plus teaching jobs are best if you are studying for an exam. I actually got about 4-5 questions right confidently because I had taught them in class. So teaching Anatomy really helps. Anyways I studied for upto 2-3 hours in the morning time while in college (on many days I just couldn’t study because of the nature of the job). In the evening I used to study for at least 4-5 hours. So in total during good days I studied from 6-8 hours and on bad days I just didn’t study at all. Thats my general preparation overview. Now the actual stuff.

I started with Pathology RR by Goljan. I studied about 2 chapter before I realized that I like and know better about Patho, Physio and Pharma, and I absolutely hate & don’t know a lot of anatomy, biochem, immunology, micro etc. So I decided why not do my worst subjects first. The subjects I did first are actually the ones that people recommend to do at last due the nature of these subjects, that is you forget them more easily. But I tried the opposite and it worked for me. Since I was in high spirits in the start of my prep so doing worst subjects then worked great. Doing patho, physio & pharm during my burn out time was a good idea.

I initially decided to give at least 3 readings (as recommended by seniors) to each review book I was studying. Near the end however I had very little time left so couldn’t do even two readings of all subjects.

I used the Kaplan series with the lecture videos, replacing Goljan for Patho & supplementing anatomy with Snell’s Review.
The only two books I studied during the last 25 days were First Aid 2009 & Murad’s MCQS.

Book I Used:

Anatomy: Kaplan Lecture Notes (1 reading + watched embryo section of videos), Snell’s Review (Two readings). I did not do the MCQs in Snell’s Review because they were making me mad!

Embryology: High Yield (2 readings)

Histology: First studied Kaplan LN, but when tried to do MCQs from Murad, couldn’t answer even 40 % of them. So dug out my old copy of Laiq Hussain and skimmed through the relevant topics and high lighted important stuff in under 4 hours. It was possible because I had studied this book as an undergrad and knew what was where.

Neuroanatomy: Kaplan LN (2 readings) It was really easy & great.

Physiology: Kaplan Lecture Notes (1 reading + watched 2007 edition of videos)

Biochemistry: Kaplan LN (1 reading + kaplan videos)

Pathology: Gojan RR 1st edition (1 reading)

Immunology: Kaplan LN

Microbiology: Medical Micro Made ridiculously Simple (great & interesting book, good visuals). 1 full reading while high lighting stuff. Second time just studied the high lighted stuff in about one day.

Biostats: High Yield (1 reading), first two chapter of biostats in kaplan LN.

Here my sequence of study:

Immunology (1st read)
Micro (1st read)
Embryo (1st read)
Histo (1st read)
Neuranatomy (1st read)
Gross anatomy (Kaplan)
Gross anatomy (Snell’s Review)
Physio
Pharm
Patho
Gross anatomy (Snell’s Revew, second read), Immuno, Micro, Embryo ( all second reads)
First Aid 2009 & Murad’s MCQs ( last 25 days)

First Aid I read at least 2 times, some sections about 3 times. Murad’s MCQs I did two times.

I enjoyed watching Kaplan Videos( I watched almost all of them), Once I watched the video I would quickly read the relevant chapter in Lecture notes. After watching the videos reading the notes was a breeze. Some may disagree and say that its a waste of time to watch videos. For me its not. First I learn better when I listen something, second I remain more attentive and find it very easy and fast to read the chapters after watching the videos. Its like some else putting stuff into your head instead of you working hard to get stuff inside your head by you self. I also listened to some of Goljan Audio but since near the end I had very little time left so I gave up after listening the first few hours.

First Aid 2009 is the one book to be memorized as it is. Now matter how much you know your concepts if you can’t recall stuff you can’t do exam well. Memorization is the key. I did my last read of First Aid in about 3 days just before exam, & tried to memorize it at least for short term & it worked.

Murad MCQs are terrible. I took the time to check atleast 50% of MCQs and hardly 5 % were wrong, others no matter how stupid they were, were actually correct. So don’t underestimate the power of Murad, although this time hardly 5-10% of murad’s mcqs were repeated in exam. But still you get to know what sort of pathetic questions can be asked on exam. I first did Murad during my study and later did whole of Murad again quickly especially the ones I marked wrong. I had collected a lot of MCQs from internet, but in the end just didn’t have the time to even go through them.

Things that I would stress on:

First Aid
MCQs practice( Don’t be dishearted with Murad, cause even after studying hard, you only get less than 50 % of Murad’s MCQs right.)
In addition to Nerve supplies of all muscle, also memorize their action.
Some questions you get right simply by you instinct. So listen to you heart.

Thats about it.