09 May, 2007

This Is What I Think...



"Good course...compulsory for anyone even thinking of attempting PACES!"
Dr VMA, Tunku X Hospital

"Intensive...it whipped me into shape; so crucial just weeks before the real exam"
Dr FBC, University Hospital

"The best course available locally...book early to avoid disappointment!"
Dr ABG, Oh Pee Dee Clinic

Very cheesy comments, reminiscent of those gosh-it's-so-good kind of remarks you'd find in the inside covers of paperbacks.

You see, I have been asked to submit a comment on last year's PACES preparatory course organised by the country's premier private medical university for use in their promotional flyers for this year's event (since I was a participant...and passed!) I presume they want only good comments, but the first thought that sprang to mind was, it's not cheap! Well, the PASTEST courses in UK cost much more, but I hear they are really good. The price has escalated this year for the prep course in Singapore, but then NUS brings in good tutors from UK. A few years back, they had Dr Praveen Kumar (the Kumar of Kumar and Clark)!

So what of the local course? I can't really compare, this being the one and only prep course I've ever attended, but we have our share of prominent local clinicians who are actual MRCP PACES examiners. Can't say much for the cases though, but then again the patients were mostly from my hospital so it didn't feel like we were seeing fresh cases. What was important to me though was the opportunity to size up the competition - people you would be up against on exam day.

But guess what? I walked out of the exam ward grinning and shaking my head in disbelief. I had for my skin station a gentleman with pachydermaperiostitis, which I took the trouble to read up after coming across this big word in PACES MRCP. And it's free.

Seriously.

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