Hello all, by the Grace of Almighty Allah, my parent’s prayers and a lot of hard work I passed PLAB Part 2 OSCE examination this week. I am just writing my experience for those who get intimidated by all the complicated preparations and I know there are many people out there who try to discourage people and give out wrong information before the exam to damage our self esteem which is most important for PLAB Part 2.
People had even said one ought not to cover ones head but I did. Believe me the Brits are NOT racist people, they give you merit where you deserve it. Firstly I am a housewife, graduated five years ago, took Swami’s PLAB Part 2 OSCE examination course for a week, and came back home, studied history and counseling from London PLAB handbook, Seven sisters and Kulkarni for about 2 months, then went 6 days before exam to Eastham again to practice mannequins. I wasn’t staying in Eastham, so would travel every day two hours to and two hours back from Eastham with a one year old son at home with my mother. It was really tough especially those six days before the exam. I believe more so because everybody had study partners there by the time I reached there. I wept for two days because everybody had told me you need a study partner. I do agree it helps and I was able to find an Indian doctor. God bless him and pass him in first attempt. He helped me with dose calculation and mannequins and different examination stations in last three days. That did help me clear my doubts.
I would recommend to everybody that it’s best to avoid being in Eastham at least three days before your exam if you can help it because people there generally make you tense. You know they ask this and that etc, whatever you’ve prepared beforehand is going to help you so don’t listen or pay any heed at all, because it’ll damage your confidence. Just look at the success stories; the people who made it through. Pray a lot, it gets you through if you've worked hard.
History and counseling stations are a lot these days, so you can just go through those even alone. Don't worry, that is just about confidence in the exam. Coming to the exam itself now, the GMC building is quite peaceful and once I entered there, I was less tense than in Eastham’s hubbub. It was all calm and quiet; they took our photos and saw our degree then showed the video on GMC's website. The last few words of the video hit home to me then, it concluded with ''it’s our chance to show them our skills that we've been working so hard at''. It made me realize...Insha-Allah I will, I have been working so damn hard for this, spending time, money, energy, neglected my family for a while, now I’d better be good, the stakes are too high, can't afford to go wrong. That mindset put me on a different level and I was more confident all thank to Allah because man is nothing in himself really, we make blunders etc.
All history counseling went really well, just do ask them all along are you with me, and let actor talk in counseling. I messed up my cervical smear station and I had nightmares about it, I put in speculum wrong way, but I apologized immediately and then took gloves off, I was so confused! But let me tell you, the examiners are really nice. I was very scared of them by all the stories that go around, but they’re very helpful and don’t make u tense. The trick is pretend you’re doing practice as you were in Eastham or with your study partner and go on about the exam ,and you’ll be fine. Trust me, if you let yourself be intimidated, you’re gone, and it’s your fault because it’s all in your mind, they are not doing it to you. Just relax, and in my experience once the exam starts, you get into the flow of it all and you perform better at each passing station. It is so because your fear of the exam is basically over at that point of time.
In the one minute between stations I absolutely washed out the last station, and because there was hardly time to read next station, I had to make the most of it then. So my advice to all the future plabbers, stay calm and confident when you’ve worked so hard. Keep your self esteem high, no one there is going to damage it but you could yourself by pessimism and negative thoughts. Set them all aside and take the plunge, if Allah could make me do it, a mother, a wife, a daughter in law, couldn’t study all the time too, He'll help you all too. Insha-Allah! But one condition though determination, persistence, positive thinking and prayers, and you’ll be writing an article like mine.
Good luck for your PLAB Part 2 OSCE examination. If you have any questions, mail me.
A Muslim lady doctor
Note: Originally posted at http://www.rxpgonline.com/postt33951.html
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