OSCE stations explained!

To read this post you have probably passed your first step of EPR!

Congratulations!

So what should you do next?

Usually you will get a letter, telling you passed the exam "lulus" in a certificate.
Keep the certificate as it will be needed later on when you are applying for Houseman.

After you pass, you can start studying for your 2nd step of EPR, which is the clinical part.

Time is really precious! Its advisable to start studying right away after you know the results but if you want to take a break, go ahead! Make sure you have at least 2 months to study for the OSCE.

When will you get your results?

You will know your result roughly about a month after the exam, if you did not receive any news, EMAIL them ASAP!!! Your results are probably out but you are not being notified by the authorities.

Results collection

You will receive an email to take the results from MMC.

If you could not collect by yourself, you may ask other to collect on behalf for you. 

But, your on behalf MUST submit an Original Authorization letter (prepared and sign by you) while collect the result.
If you fail to follow the guidelines. Your result will not be given.

Application

The application for step 2 is different compare to step 1.

They will give you a call when the venue is decided, usually 3 to 8 weeks before the exam.

I wrote about the schedule for the EPR exam in this post.

• IMU (Usually on July)

IMU provided 1 week course before the exam,
Cost: RM 900

Advantage:
1. If you stay in KL, distance to travel is less.
2. 1 week course to actually make you prepare your materials
3. To know all friends (to be colleagues) to study together!
4. A lot of food around the area

Disadvantages:
1. I heard there are less friendly? But I did not take the exam there, so it is very hard for me to judge.

• USM (Around Dec-Jan)

USM provides 2 days course before exam,
Cost: free of charge

Advantage:
1. the professors are very friendly, they try to answer all question that you have (even the ridiculous and stupid questions..>;<)
2. far from home, no distractions
3. There are guest house in USM university, there are a few places you can choose to stay, the price range from RM 80 - 200 (depends on what kind of facility you want)


Disadvantage:
1.  The location : it is in KUBANG KERIAN, KELANTAN! You will need to take a flight there which probably cost you about RM300 (two ways from subang airport, cheaper if you use KLIA air asia)
2. Food choice are limited, more to malay style. There are a few nice looking shop around but why eat those when we should try the authentic local food?
3. The 3 days course cant prepare you to pass if you didnt study by yourself !!! It is a revision session only to help us recall important key points, and to understand how the exam is conducted.
SO do not depend on the preparatory course they provided.

I will focus on explaining how USM application works in the upcoming post since I took the exam there.


EXAM Format

1. 16 OSCE stations

    Each OSCE station will be about 10 minutes, you have 1-2 minutes to read the question outside your station and later enter into the exam room after you hear the bell. The timer starts once the bell stop. So it is very important that you plan your time properly when you are reading the question. You can start planning what you are going to do once you step into the room.

 *OSCE : Objective Structured Clinical Examination

2. Short or long questions

Short and Long Questions are a must for the local students, therefore they will have a lot of sample questions. If you do have friends in local university, do not hesitate to ask those questions from them. It is useful to help improve the knowledge you need for osce.

DO take note that there are no short or long questions for the practical exam in EPR.  

However I am not sure if they will change the format or not, please ask the person in charge before you take the exam.

3. Skills tested

4. Compulsory Subjects 

No.	SUBJECTs	Stations
1	Surgery	2
2	Medicine	2
3	Orthopedics	2
4	Obstetrics and Gynecology	2
5	Pediatrics	2
6	Emergency Medicine	1
6a	Anesthesiology	1
7	Psychiatry	1
8	Radiology	1
9	Ophthalmology or	1
	Otorhinolaryngology (ENT)
10	Preventive Medicine / Family Medicine	1
	Total	16

All stations have the same weight that contributes to your final pass. So make sure you are able to score as much as possible in each station. This really helps boost your final score and help with the stations that you did not do so well.

I will update more on what materials to study soon in the next post!