Nine steps to FRCA success
“I’m FRCA positive…. Whoop!”
Only those who have gone through
these exams will truly appreciate
what that statement means! The hugs
and handshakes you receive from
colleagues when they congratulate
you are littered with unspoken
communication: “I feel the pain you’ve
been through and I feel your relief!”
If the RCoA want the exam to be a rite
of passage, we should congratulate
them on achieving this aim. So how
did I manage revision, life, children
and work? Here are my tips; I hope
you find them useful…
1. Pick a quiet time of your life
and start early
My CT1 year started with three months of anaesthetics,
then nine months of maternity leave. My first child was
eight months old when I started revising for the Primary.
I tried to revise, return to work and manage home life
with a baby, coming up to winter. This was never going
to end well! As the onslaught of winter bugs arrived,
revision time dwindled and so did my morale. The best
advice I received was to stop – so I did! Whether it’s
babies or something else, plan for quiet.
2. If you mistime it, stop. Try again
I started revising again in spring. This was better – less
bugs meant more sleep. My clinical confidence was
improving, allowing me to turn to books. My first child
was two years old when I passed the Primary. When it
came to the Final, I had learnt from past experiences:
I started revising eight months before the exam at the
start of spring!
3. Be disciplined and get those
around you on board
I have a lovely non-medic husband. This helped when
coordinating childcare but posed a challenge when
finding study time, so we negotiated and agreed terms.
Every week I would stay late twice to study. Another day
I would drag myself out of bed at 5.30 A.M. and go in
early to study (madness I know!) He would occupy the
kids for one weekend day until around 2.00 P.M., then
normal family life would resume.
My mum helped a lot during Primary; she had just the
one grandchild, so depending on her was easy. By the
time the Final came around she had five grandchildren,
and so we bit the financial bullet. Full-time nursery it was
– this enabled me to be mum at the weekend without
having a nervous breakdown about not finding enough
study time.
My family understood that I needed to give it my all.
And that’s how we went forward, as a team. United in
our desire to pass.
4. If you don’t do the time you won’t pass
The syllabus is too wide and too deeply examined to wing it by
cutting corners. I strongly advocate starting early.
What I will say is that 30 minute chunks got me through both
exams. When you are shattered just say “Okay 30 minutes, learn
one thing”. You’ll find a few 30 minute chunks a day – for me
it was lunchtime, waiting for meetings, sitting outside the kids
rooms at bedtime. I stopped folding the washing, that became
my husband’s job.
5. Find some study pals, pick wisely
and not too many
This is REALLY important. For the Primary I found three great
people while revising for the OSCE/ viva. If you’re a lone worker
that’s fine, but this is a talking exam so find people to revise
with if you can.
For the Final (I’m about to get super mushy so bear with me),
I found three different friends. We revised together for the
written. Once every few weeks we’d meet after work and
teach each other core topics. It started in May and finished in
December. I can safely say I love these three and they know it.
The support and knowledge we have shared is unparalleled
from anything I have experienced before – it was like we were
trapped in a bunker fighting for survival, and on that fateful
day in December when we all passed… we were freed! We
will forever be pals based on the experience. Ok I’m done –
dramatics over with! Find good people.
6. Practice anywhere with everyone
Talk to podcasts, yourself, animals. People will offer viva practice
– those that don’t just hand them a book and they’ll test you, if
they don’t they’ll send you off to find someone who will. I even
taught my five-year old about mechanisms of extravasation
injury on the train to Legoland (remember 30 minute slots)!
7. Pick a good Deanery
I’m in the Northern Deanery and I am going to shout about it
from the rooftops. What an ace place to work. We have great
consultants, supportive, accommodating, understanding and
helpful people. My fellow trainees are wonderful – giving up
their time to teach, viva practice, share resources or just offer
words of wisdom.
8. Find the right frame of mind
There will be dark times, times you feel you don’t deserve it,
times you’ll believe you are never going to know enough, times
you feel like a failure. Take solace in the fact that if you feel this
rubbish you’re probably working hard enough.
9. Keep it in perspective on the last
lap, as the bell rings. This drove me
mad when people said it… but
it’s true.
One of my study pals said she was envious of my home
situation!!! “Eh?!” I exclaimed. She replied “You have a part of
your life more important than these exams, when you go home
you don’t have time to stew cause you’re in ‘mummy mode’ ”.
She didn’t have that luxury. (study pals = good people!) When
you’re stressed and it’s too much, look at your little monsters,
be grateful for your mandatory off-switch!
I really thought I would never get through the final and
considered pulling out a month before the viva. My revision
wife and my real life husband emotionally blackmailed me into
sitting it –I’m glad they did. Even if I hadn’t passed it was worth
a shot.
This exam is really quite like giving an anaesthetic, it’s all in the
preparation, timing and team around you. Good luck to those
sitting it – I’ve got my fingers, toes, legs and arms crossed for
you. I understand what it means, and although you cannot pass
this exam on luck alone I’m not daft enough to ignore that you
need a bit of luck too.
Selena Sehgal
ST4 Anaesthetic Trainee
Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle
Twitter: @selena_sehgal