I sat for the April 2021, MRCS Part A exam and I passed with 90% which is a pretty high score despite my very busy schedule.

Here are 16 things I learnt on the journey to my MRCS Party A success.

1. While the exam is very competitive and boast of a very high standard, it's just another surgery exam, so it's doable.

2. While you don't need a course to pass the MRCS Part A exam, the complement of friends (even people you might never get to meet face-to-face from all corners of the earth) will help make the journey a more pleasurable one. It will also keep you on your toes and we'll oriented.

3. While the cost of writing the exam for the different colleges may be different, the exam itself is basically the same thing. This may not make so much difference while the current online format subsist, you might need to know the college that have center in your country or a nearby country when the exam eventually changes to the paper and pen format.

4. While it's generally accepted that you need 3 to 4 months to prepare for the exam, you need to know your own peculiarity and decide for yourself how much time you need. The exam is expensive, you don't want to waste your money. The earlier you start preparing, the better the outcome.

5. There are 3 main materials you need for this exam: eMRCS, Fawzia's Sheet and Recalls.

You might need to go through these materials multiple times to make them stick.

6. For the Paper 1 of the exam, Fawzia's Sheet and eMRCS is more than enough.

To even get better benefit from the Fawzia's Sheet, illustrated discussions of the Fawzia's Sheet such as these was of immense benefit for me:
-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx0bSe6WQ5c
-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBAROk4-fP0
-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqlOJ-2XLZ4
- The PDF file of Fawzia's Sheet is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-AfxoyT5iCClS8sXgFEX0Oi9TmIxdDFx/view?usp=drivesdk

7. The Paper 2 was a bit difficult for most people, especially Orthopedics, Vascular Surgery and Emergency and Trauma Management sessions. But I was able to wriggle may way through because of the video explanations of the eMRCS I have watched over and over which gave me a good background for these sessions.
- Orthopedics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PsR3Rh6a7I &
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khQaGBGkJC8
- Vascular Surgery
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKmJYLKRCp0 &
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOGVPXQRFcU
- Emergency and Trauma Management
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdFl7KE5dbU ,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvXi0XFPJY0 &
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cF8n07CJXIM

You can find the playlist to the whole discussion to Paper 2 here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkD6zQbF_09vGTndGyXIymMKBSVOTTVvc

8. Though I didn't use them, I heard PASTEST Past Papers are helpful, you can find them here: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=1KPp_Ndi3TekHgwgHI30MHHypuvmfH61o

9. Don't be too shy to ask for help. There are many things that will get you confused, ask. You will be surprised how many people don't know those things too. Some people might have even spent many hours to simplify it enough to explain it to you in seconds.

10. Even when you have the knowledge, time may be a serious issue. So you have to work on your speed and accuracy, the numerous mocks on Master the MRCS PART A (https://www./MasterTheMRCS/) will be of immense help. They helped me, and I know they can help you too.

11. You need to know ABG in and out, you will need it for both papers, and I heard you will need it for Part B exam too. Here is a simple explanation video I found:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOgb0HNSENg


12. I didn't mention any textbook because I didn't use any.
However, people have talked about finding Basic Sciences for the MRCS by Andrew Raftery very useful. (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fz7-TDPCx-w0HcrSnoDtPDiB0OB08FYy/view?usp=drivesdk)

You can also check out Reda Notes 1&2 (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1g1gwVHAI821wkWIv9e3zGp8U8_epTMyq/view?usp=drivesdk

& https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gIbUb5HEajEV7HYLZgYHUIKZ4bLSIjGj/view?usp=drivesdk)

Nasa Khan Note is also said to be quite nice (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gNSUVQgKjEFd7Nbe3UzTrN60GH9OVGoQ/view?usp=drivesdk).

These 2 materials are compilations of explanations to the answers in eMRCS with some illustrations to make them easier.

13. As I mentioned in earlier, eMRCS, Fawzia's Sheet and Recalls are your best bet to pass this exam.
However, most recalls are not properly organized and are mostly incomplete questions.

To mitigate this, Salah Bullets and Omaima Notes will come in very handy. They both extracted the juice from years of recalls and presented them in a format you can read over and over instead not wasting time on trying to figure out what a recall question might mean.

Salah Bullets: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fseLHYjydcILlFHYwJc1S7aBwCa6CAsq/view?usp=drivesdk

Omaima Notes: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gLdaQ0O1RN5F8WdGsZ3nY2e4__GY--uf/view?usp=drivesdk

14. For the Statistics and Audit part of the exam, you have the option of going through the questions in eMRCS and then reading the explanations, better still, you can use the Dr. Salah Statistics Note:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iNqGR9vaXow6khret9xdPZJnk3V7y1kj/view?usp=drivesdk

15. While all these resources are quite useful, nothing beats your OWN notes (handwritten or typed). It doesn't have to be elaborate, just something you can easily make reference to.

There are some important information you'll come across, usually very concise and sharp, that'll you will think you should be able to remember, but then with days and weeks in-between, you start trying to remember the fine details and even worse is that you may not be able to remember where you got the information from. That's where your own note usually come to the rescue.

I personally prefer the handwritten type as it strengths my 'hand-brain coordination' and make me remember them better, and longer.

16. While there are some people experienced some difficulties with the online format of the exam, either because of Internet connectivity or the computer issues, this number is quite low and it seems the Examsoft team is getting better with each passing exam. I have a feeling that the Royal Colleges may eventually to retain the current CBT format of the exam, even after the COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.
To reduce the possibility of having issues with the online exam, you should download your exams early, so that you only need to rely on stable network just at the time of login in and submission.

Also, you should go through the Examsoft mocks several times to familiarize yourself with the platform. It will save you a lot of headaches.

NOTE: DO NOT CONFUSE YOURSELF WITH SO MANY DIFFERENT NOTES, QUESTION BANKS AND GROUPS, YOU'LL KEEP RECYCLING THE SAME INFORMATION OVER AND OVER WITHOUT MAKING MUCH PROGRESS!

I wish you all the best in your preparation for the exam, you can do it!

Interesting, tho am a med student.. is MRCS, a British equivalent of WACS part 1 or Nationals.. and how does one apply for it

Thanks for sharing this Doc!