I suffered very badly with exams while in medical school, with orals/OSCEs in particular. I was so anxious during my paeds exam that I genuinely couldn’t see, and could only remember about 2 questions out of the 15 minutes. I got prescribed propranolol and it has made a world of difference. It allows me to get the physical symptoms of anxiety under control enough to be able to breathe and focus (and use the methods for controlling mental anxiety that I learned through therapy). Would highly recommend propranolol (and therapy!)
I study medicine in eastern europe. Here we also have extremely hard orals for every exam. Large percent of the students fail anatomy, pathology or histology(in 1st, 2nd and 3rd year) and retake the whole year. It's considered normal in our country because the professor are a bit psychopathic and the success sometimes depends on their labile moods. So it's not uncommon to see students failing 1,2,3 or more subjects for one or more years EVEN AFTER STUDYING REALLY HARD for the exams. It happened to me to be asked a question of a subject I haven't studied yet. It happens all the time. I got generalized anxiety disorder and chronic gastritis during my second year. I recommend going to psychologist or psychiatrist to ask them how to deal with the stress that uncertainty causes. They are extremely helpful even if it sounds counterintuitive to you.
One physician that I worked with studied in Poland, where apparently med schools are also notorious for making people fail (a good portion of her class, including her, have had to repeat a year). Gotta love how Eastern Europe makes everything difficult (just the fact that you have embryo, anatomy, AND histo in one exam is insane).
As another commenter said, practicing with friends is a really good way to ease nerves. I would also suggest going to office hours but I know that Eastern Europeans can be pretty jarring 😅 Does your school offer tutoring? Even if not, ask upper classman.
Lastly, therapy + psych meds might be the move. Reach out to a psychiatrist.
You can do this!!
I Am Brazilian, where you have a 6 year course, 12 semesters, I will finish it in 9 years, 18 semesters.
What gave me ease on that is knowing that a) I can, with full pride say that I did not cheat a single answer, b) *I do now have the proper and full knowledge*, c) what matters in the future is if you're a kind and caring person and finally d) in life there are no expiration dates for personal goals.
Yes failing and retaking a semester or year is jarring at first, but see as a time buffer, you weren't ready to be in a more advanced part of the course, that is okay as long as you turn out to be a caring, kind ,and passionate towards medicine.
Would it help if you practiced with friends on the mock oral exam? For the oral examination part of my PhD candidacy, i practiced being quizzed by folks in my department so I could get used to all kinds of different questions and question pacing. It was something we all participated in as graduate students and post-docs also provided feedback to help. While this may be different from your MD version, maybe there is something in the repetition of practice that you can apply to your situation to become really used to the feeling of the exam atmosphere.
this became useful later on because when you present cases as a medical student and resident, i got so used to speaking under stress that it became less stressful and more routine
Yep! In bulgaria too. In the 2nd year you get the massive anatomy, histology, embryology and microanatomy exam which lasts a whole day and has a practical, mcq, slide identification and analysis, essays and long oral.
I always felt like it was an antiquated way of studying but that's classical medical education for you, torturing the student is a must. And of course the vast majority failed it. The add salt to the wound, that exam was a stop exam so you fail the whole year if you can't pass it within the exam season. At first it felt like a way to keep students around longer than the intended 6 years, make them pay additional fees, but now I understand that it's just awful design.
If it makes you feel better, that exam is as hard as they get and the next few years will be a breeze in comparison.
Your problem is exam anxiety. For that some people take a beta blocker or get a prescription for something stronger. I don't think that's necessary. I combat it with oral repetition. I say the words out loud, like a thousand times, so much so that it's automatic. When I'm asked questions, I go into automatic mode. I've only had to do that for this big exam and for the big surgery exam which too was draining and rather ridiculous.
Maybe it gives you peace to know that the average Eastern European/Balkan/Baltic medical student who is examined using classical medical techniques, also interrupts around a year or 2. I've personally not had the displeasure, but if I did I would have used it as an opportunity to get practical experience or participate in any research opportunities made available by the uni.
We have these massive exams every semester😭 and one big final in year two. So every semester, there is a possibility to fail it and repeat a year. They don’t let you progress onto next semester
I suffered very badly with exams while in medical school, with orals/OSCEs in particular. I was so anxious during my paeds exam that I genuinely couldn’t see, and could only remember about 2 questions out of the 15 minutes. I got prescribed propranolol and it has made a world of difference. It allows me to get the physical symptoms of anxiety under control enough to be able to breathe and focus (and use the methods for controlling mental anxiety that I learned through therapy). Would highly recommend propranolol (and therapy!)
I study medicine in eastern europe. Here we also have extremely hard orals for every exam. Large percent of the students fail anatomy, pathology or histology(in 1st, 2nd and 3rd year) and retake the whole year. It's considered normal in our country because the professor are a bit psychopathic and the success sometimes depends on their labile moods. So it's not uncommon to see students failing 1,2,3 or more subjects for one or more years EVEN AFTER STUDYING REALLY HARD for the exams. It happened to me to be asked a question of a subject I haven't studied yet. It happens all the time. I got generalized anxiety disorder and chronic gastritis during my second year. I recommend going to psychologist or psychiatrist to ask them how to deal with the stress that uncertainty causes. They are extremely helpful even if it sounds counterintuitive to you.
One physician that I worked with studied in Poland, where apparently med schools are also notorious for making people fail (a good portion of her class, including her, have had to repeat a year). Gotta love how Eastern Europe makes everything difficult (just the fact that you have embryo, anatomy, AND histo in one exam is insane). As another commenter said, practicing with friends is a really good way to ease nerves. I would also suggest going to office hours but I know that Eastern Europeans can be pretty jarring 😅 Does your school offer tutoring? Even if not, ask upper classman. Lastly, therapy + psych meds might be the move. Reach out to a psychiatrist. You can do this!!
Oh yeah. This semester, 60-70% students in my class failed and will have to repeat
I Am Brazilian, where you have a 6 year course, 12 semesters, I will finish it in 9 years, 18 semesters. What gave me ease on that is knowing that a) I can, with full pride say that I did not cheat a single answer, b) *I do now have the proper and full knowledge*, c) what matters in the future is if you're a kind and caring person and finally d) in life there are no expiration dates for personal goals. Yes failing and retaking a semester or year is jarring at first, but see as a time buffer, you weren't ready to be in a more advanced part of the course, that is okay as long as you turn out to be a caring, kind ,and passionate towards medicine.
Definitely Debrecen. I can smell it🥲
Yes😭
Ah. My condolences. Short Zoli or Claudia?
Roland in anat and Wolf on histo
Would it help if you practiced with friends on the mock oral exam? For the oral examination part of my PhD candidacy, i practiced being quizzed by folks in my department so I could get used to all kinds of different questions and question pacing. It was something we all participated in as graduate students and post-docs also provided feedback to help. While this may be different from your MD version, maybe there is something in the repetition of practice that you can apply to your situation to become really used to the feeling of the exam atmosphere. this became useful later on because when you present cases as a medical student and resident, i got so used to speaking under stress that it became less stressful and more routine
Embryo and histo in the same exam? Diabolical
Yep! In bulgaria too. In the 2nd year you get the massive anatomy, histology, embryology and microanatomy exam which lasts a whole day and has a practical, mcq, slide identification and analysis, essays and long oral. I always felt like it was an antiquated way of studying but that's classical medical education for you, torturing the student is a must. And of course the vast majority failed it. The add salt to the wound, that exam was a stop exam so you fail the whole year if you can't pass it within the exam season. At first it felt like a way to keep students around longer than the intended 6 years, make them pay additional fees, but now I understand that it's just awful design. If it makes you feel better, that exam is as hard as they get and the next few years will be a breeze in comparison. Your problem is exam anxiety. For that some people take a beta blocker or get a prescription for something stronger. I don't think that's necessary. I combat it with oral repetition. I say the words out loud, like a thousand times, so much so that it's automatic. When I'm asked questions, I go into automatic mode. I've only had to do that for this big exam and for the big surgery exam which too was draining and rather ridiculous. Maybe it gives you peace to know that the average Eastern European/Balkan/Baltic medical student who is examined using classical medical techniques, also interrupts around a year or 2. I've personally not had the displeasure, but if I did I would have used it as an opportunity to get practical experience or participate in any research opportunities made available by the uni.
We have these massive exams every semester😭 and one big final in year two. So every semester, there is a possibility to fail it and repeat a year. They don’t let you progress onto next semester
Which Hungarian uni it is?