AMC MCQ Examination
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AMC MCQ Examination. The AMC is comprised of two parts, AMC MCQ which is part 1 and AMC Clinical Exam which is part 2. I have only cleared part 2 hence will only share my experiences rather than hypothetical conjectures. AMC MCQ examination is held every few months in venues within Australia and offshore eg Dubai. It is a computer based exam, wholly taken with the mouse. There are 2 papers, morning and afternoon, each paper 3 and a half hours long, comprising 350 MCQ questions each. It is the lengthiest post grad exam I am aware of, and I have cleared FCPS part 1 too, believe me FCPS part 1 is child's play. This exam needs some serious devotion and good luck ofcourse. Unlike USMLE exams all you have to do is pass this exam to be eligible for employment, although a top score is a great help. the scoring system is very confusing and most ppl you will ask will tell you their own version. I willl try to clarify it. The pass marks change everytime depending upon the candidates. All the candidate's results are put on a scale, called the AMC scale. There are 80 masterly questions and the rest are nonmasterly. You must score above 60% of the candidates in the masterly questions and above 50% of the candidates overall. Which means that no matter what you score, you have to be in the top 40% in the masterly and top 50% overall to pass. The exam is purely clinical stressing on management of different diseases and their diagnosis. So only clinical material should be studied in preparing for this exam, even pathogenesis is useless. You have to concentrate on symptoms, diagnosis and management. The subjects included are Medicine Surgery Obs/Gynae Paediatrics Psychiatry Dermatology ENT EYE Public health/Ethics Pharmacology This is a very well rounded exam and the paper is fairly distributed to cover almost everything, rare and common ailments, every system. medicine and surgery get the larger share but almost every topic is covered. Eg if you do not study ENT, you will end up answering 5 to 10 questions incorrectly. Public health is easy and so are the pharmacology questions. Nothing can be left for choice.
Transcript of AMC MCQ Examination
AMC MCQ Examination.
The AMC is comprised of two parts, AMC MCQ which is part 1 and AMC Clinical Exam which is part 2. I have only cleared part 2 hence will only share my experiences rather than hypothetical conjectures.
AMC MCQ examination is held every few months in venues within Australia and offshore eg Dubai. It is a computer based exam, wholly taken with the mouse. There are 2 papers, morning and afternoon, each paper 3 and a half hours long, comprising 350 MCQ questions each. It is the lengthiest post grad exam I am aware of, and I have cleared FCPS part 1 too, believe me FCPS part 1 is child's play. This exam needs some serious devotion and good luck ofcourse.
Unlike USMLE exams all you have to do is pass this exam to be eligible for employment, although a top score is a great help. the scoring system is very confusing and most ppl you will ask will tell you their own version. I willl try to clarify it. The pass marks change everytime depending upon the candidates. All the candidate's results are put on a scale, called the AMC scale. There are 80 masterly questions and the rest are nonmasterly. You must score above 60% of the candidates in the masterly questions and above 50% of the candidates overall. Which means that no matter what you score, you have to be in the top 40% in the masterly and top 50% overall to pass.
The exam is purely clinical stressing on management of different diseases and their diagnosis. So only
clinical material should be studied in preparing for this exam, even pathogenesis is useless. You
have to concentrate on symptoms, diagnosis and management. The subjects included are
MedicineSurgeryObs/GynaePaediatricsPsychiatryDermatologyENTEYEPublic health/EthicsPharmacology
This is a very well rounded exam and the paper is fairly distributed to cover almost everything, rare and common ailments, every system. medicine and surgery get the larger share but almost every topic is covered. Eg if you do not study ENT, you will end up answering 5 to 10 questions incorrectly. Public health is easy and so are the pharmacology questions. Nothing can be left for choice.
The books I recommend for preparing for this exam are as follows:
Anthology of medical conditions (available online at amc.org.au)Annotated compilation of MCQs (available online at amc.org.au)
Oxford handbook of clinical medicineOxford handbook of clinical specialitiesUsmle step 2 Lecture notes SURGERY ( only for Surgery)Pretest MCQ books Usmle step 2 (Medicine, surgery, obs/gyae, paeds, psychiatry)ABC of DermtologyECG made easy (or any ECG book you are familiar with)
Past papers
I have grouped the books in different stacks for a particular reason which will be evident once you commence study. The Anthology of medical conditions is only useful for the photographs it contains which are repeatedly given in the exam, learn the diseases of the photographs. The Annotated... is useful as it gives you an insight into the exact type of questions asked, so that you know what to look for while studying every disease. It is by no means concise. The Handbooks are the most important books and need to be studied cover to cover, no exceptions, even the smallest details are vital. These are the mother books and the Step 2 books, by Kaplan and the like are deficient in management etc., they are not a substitute and should be avoided. These hanbooks are more than enough if studied thoroughly. The Pretest books are widely availabe, atleast in Pindi, and have the exact type of questions which are asked. They are excellent for preparation and should be repeatedly attempted. The paper is very long and 3 1/2 hours are not even close to sufficient for attempting it, these Pretes books will make you used to reading Stems and looking for the vital data and calculating Responses. Finally the past papers are very important, as usual, I was unfortunate to have not used them, but I hear they are available in Pindi, Prince Book Depot.
Time needed for preparation: 4 months.
