Running Out Of Time In The Clinical Exams

Running out of time is a major risk in the clinical exam.

Ever felt that you keep running out of time? Or that you don't know how much detail to include in each case?  You aren't alone. 

Answering the clinical exam is a tightrope between too much information that you run out of time, versus giving enough information to cover the breadth of the score sheet.

As such, running out of time is a major risk for most candidates. If you run out of time because you spent too much time in the first part of the question, you cannot by default score for the later components of the question which you have not attempted. 

How can you address this? 

One technique is to compare how much detail is expected, relative to how many minutes each station is.

The Clinical Exam Bank deliberately has stations which are of different time durations, ranging from 10 to 20 minutes. Whilst the structure of each answer remains largely the same in both, the amount of detail varies substantially.

How to use the Clinical Exam Bank:

• The practice bank contains cases of shorter duration, whilst the additional practice bank contains cases of longer duration.
• Take a note of how much time is available when you start the case. 
• Use the first few minutes for preparation time.
• When the clock reaches the end of preparation time, commence the station.
• Click "Submit" to advance to the next part of the station.
• If the station has a timing prompt, be sure to press "Submit" at the allocated time, to mimic the progression of the case in the real examination.

When the time runs out, the station will close to mimic an examination situation. Simply reload the scenario to see the answers after you have finished. Take a note of the amount of detail in each case, and how much this varies between the shorter and longer cases. 

The Clinical Exam Bank and timer functionality is available on the PassGP Mobile App, so you can study wherever you are.