Cases, discussion & exam tips.
Read an image case and commit to your call, debate management, swap exam-day experiences, and share what worked when you studied — a friendly place to pressure-test your reasoning before the exam.
- Threads
- 61
- Comments
- 0
threads posted
replies shared
Weekly case conference with evidence update
Every Friday I review one interesting case from the week with two colleagues, each presenting the current guideline recommendation and one recent paper that might change practice. We limit discussion to 15 minutes per case and store the references in a shared folder. This keeps knowledge current without overwhelming reading lists.
Drawing surgical approaches from memory on alternate days
I alternate between drawing the surgical approach and the relevant cross-sectional anatomy for one procedure each day. I check against an atlas immediately after and correct errors in red. The physical act of drawing plus immediate feedback has improved my operative viva performance more than reading alone.
Building a personal differential tree for each common presentation
For every frequent referral (e.g., painful total hip, foot drop, paediatric limp) I maintain a one-page decision tree on a single A4 sheet. I update it whenever new evidence appears and review the whole set the week before the exam. This prevents the blank-mind moment when an examiner changes the stem slightly.
Recording and transcribing 10-minute viva answers
I record myself answering a full viva question then transcribe it verbatim. Reading the transcript reveals filler phrases and logical gaps I never notice while speaking. I re-record the same question after editing the transcript until the answer is under eight minutes and contains no repetition.
Monthly guideline comparison table
I maintain a living table comparing BOA, AAOS, and NICE guidelines on the same topic side-by-side. Differences in recommendation strength are highlighted. Reviewing this table every month has helped me answer the common exam question of "what does the evidence/guideline say in your country?" with precision.
Anatomy revision using both prosection and MRI correlation
For each joint or region I spend one session with a prosection and the next with the corresponding MRI slices of the same specimen. Labelling structures on both modalities in the same sitting improved my ability to interpret cross-sectional imaging in the clinical exam more than either method alone.
Peer teaching on controversial topics only
Instead of teaching standard topics, I prepare 10-minute micro-teaches on areas where evidence is conflicting (e.g., partial rotator cuff repair versus debridement). Teaching forces me to articulate both sides clearly and identify the exact point of equipoise, which directly translates to viva performance.
The one-slide summary technique for exam viva topics
For each common viva topic, create a single slide that contains only the classification system, key radiological landmarks, management algorithm, and one landmark reference. Force yourself to fit it on one page — the constraint itself teaches you what's essential. I built about 80 of these in Keynote and reviewed them as a scrollable deck daily in the 3 months before the exam. When an examiner opened with a topic, I could mentally project my slide and speak from it rather than searching.
Teach a topic to a non-ortho colleague: the best retrieval practice I found
Once a week I'd pick a subspecialty topic and explain it in plain language to my GP partner over coffee — no jargon, no shortcuts. Explaining compartment syndrome pathophysiology or the Scoliosis Research Society classification to someone outside orthopaedics forced me to actually understand it rather than pattern-match from memory. I was shocked at how many gaps this exposed. It's essentially the Feynman technique applied to exam preparation.
How to use operative videos strategically for the clinical exam
Watching full operative videos on YouTube is passive and time-consuming. Instead, I'd search for a specific procedure, watch only the surgical exposure and key steps, then pause and narrate aloud what comes next before resuming. For the FRCS clinical, being able to describe the surgical approach and steps for common procedures — ORIF of an ankle fracture, volar locking plate for distal radius, carpal tunnel release — is expected. This active narration method turned 2 hours of passive watching into genuinely high-yield revision.
Build your own radiology atlas from interesting cases you've actually seen
I kept a folder on my phone of anonymised X-rays and CTs from cases I'd been involved in, organised by subspecialty. Over 18 months of training this grew into a personal radiology atlas of ~400 images with my own annotations. Come exam time, I had actual clinical images I recognised rather than textbook ideal examples. For the clinical exam, where you're interpreting real films under time pressure, practising with 'messy' clinical radiographs rather than pristine examples is a huge advantage.
A structured approach to learning bone tumour histopathology for the exam
Bone tumours are the subspecialty most trainees dread because cases are rare and the classification feels arbitrary. I found it much more learnable by grouping tumours by their matrix product first (osteoid, chondroid, giant cell, etc.), then learning the age peaks and typical locations within each group. Building a table with columns for tumour name, age, location, matrix, and imaging hallmarks made the whole thing stick. For the exam you need to recognise patterns, not memorise a list.