Assalam o alaikum. I was going through GIT semester past papers last night and I thought I would share some tips for exam preparation with you people so that we all can prepare well for the exams inshaAllah.
My reason of posting past papers here was that they would aid in our learning process such that we will have an idea of what kind of questions come in the exam. We all study so hard for the exams, going through each and every detail from the book but why doesn't everyone score good marks? Why is it that only roughly 50 people from the class take the lead and score extraordinarily well every time? It is not that you are not intelligent enough. You just need to prioritize what to study first and remember only the details the examiner would expect from you. You need to skim through the details from the book and memorize only those that are required since that is going to come in the exam. But who will tell you whether you have to memorize the pathogenesis and genes and morphology for a disease? It is here that past papers come to the rescue.
Past papers give you an idea of the kind of questions that come in exam. The topics most frequently asked. The details of a particular disease that the examiner would like you to know. Alhamdolillah we got to interact with Dr. Mehmood from pathology department a lot this semester so we have a fairly good idea of what diseases are important and what can be asked about it in the paper and viva but since everyone doesn't attend classes, they can take benefit from these papers.
Don't read these questions just for the sake that they will be repeated as it is in the exam. I admit I did go through these past papers for the same purpose during the module preparation but we have seen from our past experience that only about 10-20% questions are repeated from the past papers so as of now, you should all be using these past papers to see which diseases are asked most about, what things about these diseases the examiners are most interested in, what type of questions come from medicine and surgery and what details about a drug do examiners ask you about. Our books contain immense detail about diseases. Not everything is to be learned. I hope you got my message.
Also, you should read past papers as if you are reading one line facts about diseases. In fact, this is what they actually are. One liners that give you a quick revision of the disease that you have already studied about. What I did last night was that while reading Sem6 2013 GIT papers, I would read the mcq, go through the answer and think about whatever I could recall about the disease. There was a sbl with no scenario written in the question and the question said the diagnosis is Hepatitis C. My thought process: Hep C and Hep B are quite similar to each other. What presentation would the person present with? Weight loss, anorexia, jaundice, ascites, lethargy, cachexia, anemia. What distinguishing feature would have made me choose Hep C and not Hep B? Both are transmitted sexually, through body secretions, through needles and transfusions and from mother to child but Hep C is mostly transmitted through needles and transfusion and Hep B is most commonly acquired from a HBsAg-positive mother. Why didnt I mark Hep A and Hep E? Both are acute hepatitis presenting with fever, myalgia, arthralgia, jaundice which are transmitted through fecal-oral route so the person must have a history of eating or drinking contaminated food or he must be a poor person living in rural areas with poor hygeinic conditions. See? There is no rocket science in what I did. I just recalled all that I could remember about these diseases. I might have missed out some major signs and symptoms, modes of transmission, investigations but you can always go back to the books for that. This brainstorming is necessary for our learning process and we all are sadly lacking at this.
Our teachers correctly point out that we study each and everything, we know all the details but we can't solve questions in exams just because we haven't practiced to apply our knowledge. When you practice questions at this stage during preparation, the exam questions will inshaAllah seem easier to you.
As far as going-through-the-syllabus-once rule is concerned, I would say that this approach makes us rather tired and we lose our interest in studying. At least this is how it goes for me. I was talking to a friend before the endo module and he said that he started revising endo patho from robbins and he wasn't even half way through when he got bored and switched to irfan masood but to no avail. He said he couldnt complete even patho before the module let alone other subjects. As experience has it and from what teachers and seniors tell us, the most common and famous diseases are asked more frequently in the exams than the rare ones. I go with the approach that when I am studying a certain disease from patho, I go and have a brief look at it from medicine and pharma so that I can integrate all my knowledge at one place that how the patient is going to come to me, what signs and symptoms I will gather from history and examination, what investigations I am going to order and what treatment I will give. It keeps my interest in studying intact and alhamdolillah I feel good while going through this new information.
How can you possibly study and that too study well when there is no interest in studying? When the only intention is to go through the syllabus so that you can at least clear the exam. This approach makes us feel tired and instead of doing our best and hoping for good grades, we end being so exhausted that we start studying just for the sake of passing the exams. The interest in scoring good grades diminishes. So I would like you to please go over this text and think about it. Let us make these prep leaves different from others and study with more zeal and enthusiasm to score even better grades than before. InshaAllah.
