Future Courses
Weekend Course ...
Intensive weekend course (non residential)
Held at the Institute of Psychiatry at Maudsley Hospital (South London), this two-day course will aim to improve your chance of success at MRCPsych Clinical Examination (CASC- Clinical Assessment of Skills and Competencies) by:
- Mastering the basics of Interview skills and information gathering
- Improving your communication skills which is one of the main attributes (and examined aspect)
of the Clinical component of MRCPsych part II - Practicing the management of common scenarios expected at real examination
In our experience most candidates who come this far (to sit the CASC exams), do not need to be told how to study or what to study. There is no deficit in the candidates’ knowledge base. That has already been appraised by various paper tests. The final component (and without this one the whole examination would be a fail) of the testing is CASC or Clinical Assessment of Skills and Competencies. As the name suggests, this is a test of both skill and competencies. This is supposed to be complementing the work place based assessment which is an ongoing, portfolio based assessment.
Our experienced teachers (Senior MRCPsych examiners) have found during actual examinations that candidates struggle not in the knowledge department, but in the most basic of clinical skills- how to talk to the patients (and relatives). It is not that candidates don’t know how to, but the problem is to do it in the pressure situation, in artificial environment with a simulated patient, in the given time. Most of you do well in real life patient situation but many of you fall apart rather dramatically in exam situation. Remember Miller’s triangle? Knows, or knows how is not enough; shows how, or does it, is needed.
This course is not a weekend assembly line OSCE practice. There are many courses out there that will let you do that. You can practice with (or on) your hapless friends and family free of charge, but without being totally comfortable in the basics of interview, you may be practising the wrong skills. Remember how never to learn driving by mimicking your dad? You only pick up what is bad! Honest feedback and sincere advice is what you need THREE weeks before the real test, not polite ‘hmmmm..you are ok really’!!
This course is not all about practising OSCEs although you will get plenty opportunity to do exactly that under examination conditions. All the actors will have experience in doing role-play for CASC and GMC performance review OSCEs. Many would have been ‘patients’ or ‘relative’ in real MRCPsych exams.
At the end of day one, you will feel more confident in approaching the CASC component of the MRCPsych exam. At the end of day 2, you will definitely be more confident of the real CASC exam. You will also leave with detailed written feedback from your performance in the 2 days of Role Play and practice and possibly a complimentary copy of a leading book on psychiatric assessment,(by lottery to 3 candidates). On Day 3 (optional and at extra cost) you will have a mock-exam under exam condition of all of 16 stations with written, oral and Video feedback. A DVD of your performance in some of the 16 stations will be in post within a week. Please read more about the Spring 2010 CASC Course in our blog.