Our book of 300 single best answer questions suitable for the level of the ‘Specialty Certificate Examination’ will be published next month, on August 13th 2021, from CRC Press.
It’s important to note that neither I nor my co-author Dr Henry Woodford have any idea what is in the actual exam. We have never sat it – so we can’t pass on similar questions to the actual question bank.
The examinable content for the specialty certificate exam (SCE) derives from the ‘knowledge’ part of the curriculum for higher specialist training is set out in the JRCPTB curriculum, which is currently being transitioned into a new updated form. It is, however, possible to work out what is ‘hot’ in current geriatric practise in the UK from blogposts, position papers and other teaching material such as the practise papers for the SCE provided by the British Geriatrics Society, recent guidelines from NICE or SIGN, guidance from the Royal Colleges of Physicians (for example the London college). It is also possible to get a feel for latest developments in geriatric medicine from the published literature, for example in the BMJ or Age and Ageing. A number of excellent websites also exist to help in exam preparation, including for the MRCP and ‘PassGeriMed’.
There’s plenty of guidance on the format of this assessment. The blueprint of the papers is published, so that you know roughly what the weighting is across topics. Whilst some geriatrics topics such as deprescribing, frailty or movement disorders are not easily obvious from the blueprint, it’s clear that it’s impossible to do well in the exam with a poor knowledge of general medicine, osteoporosis and orthopaedics or cognitive impairment (dementia and delirium especially, rather than disorders of consciousness which is the approach in SCE neurology).
And it’s possible to ensure that the exam is set at the appropriate standard. There is an expert standard setting group which is able to use state of the art statistical methodology. Also, there are safeguards, for example osteoporosis is also examinable in the SCE endocrinology and diabetes, and dementia is also examinable in SCE neurology. Whilst the specialties retain their own professional identity, the guidance for the setting of the ‘single best answer’ (SBA) questions remains consistent. SBA remains a gold standard for both undergraduate and postgraduate exams, and there is rigorous scrutiny of how the questions are drafted, the number of options provided, how options are randomised, and so on.
Certainly writing the book has made me realise how difficult it is to set the exam in reality (which neither me or Dr Henry Woodford do). The actual questions we’ve included don’t matter, but the reading around them is interesting, we hope.
Dr Shibley Rahman blog 