Get through revision

By Rosemary Gow in Revision on Tuesday, April 7, 2009 @ 10:21

It is safe to say revision for membership exams is not top of the list of anyone’s favourite activities but something no doctor manages to avoid.   Devising a system of rewards seems to work well in our house.  This began many years ago when a simple star chart on the fridge encouraged quick potty training and has been repeated in various guises over the years to promote learning to read, times-tables, homework completion (I could go on but it really would be very boring) until by the time GCSEs, ‘A’ levels and degrees came around the goals were being self-set and the rewards self-chosen.  The same can apply for ‘grown up’ MRCP revision – treat yourself when you complete every 3 hours of revision, mock exam, practice paper or 100 MCQs. 

This brings me to my suggestion of a suitable reward for a completed period of study.  If you are female, enjoy a good love story with attitude (we all know we should be reading ‘literature’ with a capital ‘L’ but sometimes life’s too short) and have not yet discovered the ‘Twilight’ novels by Stephenie Meyer you should begin studying immediately for your end of year exams/finals whatever.  I cannot think of a better reason to complete a couple of hours revision than a chapter of Edward and Bella and with four books to discover and a fifth on the way you’ll be on that PasTest SpR Management Course before you can say ‘vampire’.