Practise clinical examinations with a timer from week one, not week ten

I left timed practice until the last month and was genuinely caught off guard by how short 6 minutes feels when you're examining a real patient. My advice: from 6 months out, do at least one timed clinical examination per week on a colleague or consenting patient. Use your phone stopwatch. The goal isn't speed — it's learning what you can realistically accomplish in the allotted time so you can prioritise. You'll naturally develop a tight, focused examination style that examiners prefer over an unfocused comprehensive one.