How to fail the CCE and AMC Clinical Exam by knowing too much medicine
Jan 21, 2025
I was out with a group of registrars who were preparing for the CCE examination, and there was a brilliant discussion about how to do a nappy rash physical examination. Lots of people started talking about cervical lymphadenopathy and bony tenderness and wanting to a hepatosplenomegaly assessment. Their rationale was that you had to do this to exclude langerhans histiocytosis (LCH)
LCH has a prevalence of 2/100,000. What that station was actually testing is whether you could reassure the mother that she wasn’t a failing mum (because the baby had a rash), which was her her primary concern. Those who focussed on the medical aspect without consideration of the broader case as per above (a) would have done an examination that was not indicated and (b) in doing so they run out of time to do the actual task of the station
People often fail this exam not because they don’t have enough knowledge, but because they have the wrong technique and the wrong structure. Thankfully, with the PassGP CCE Free Mock Exam and the CCE Examination Preparation Course, we pick up and fix all these things!
