“Just read the guidelines”

If I had a FFP3 mask for every time I’d been told this, I would have a very successful Ebay business right now.

Revising for this exam is not as simple as that. For a lucky few, perhaps it is – those with truly amazing memories and who get lucky with the questions.

For the rest of us mere mortals, it requires a bit of hard work but it doesn’t need to be something that takes over your life. Here’s some advice:

1. Start early. I recommend starting learning right from the start of your training – at least 18 months before your exam. Aim to pick a topic a week and get your head round it. Choose something you’ve seen at work. Start your more intense revision 6 months before your exam
2. Sign up for our site and use our questions to identify areas of weakness.
3. Practise writing essays. The knowledge required is really different to that for MCQs. Our site is based on MCQs and EMQs but they are not all realistic exam questions. Instead, they’re designed to help you build up knowledge for essays. Get a colleague or consultant who marks exam questions to look through them. We are working on the essay section of our site for later in the year.
4. Keep revisiting things that are hard to remember – focus on assays e.g. how inhibitor titres and Bethesda units are performed and calculated.
5. Use a selection of resources – here are some favourites
   A. BSH guidelines – British guidelines very relevant to the exam
   B. Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (RCOG) guidelines – for all that pregnancy related haematology
   C. European guidelines – e.g. European Leukaemia Network when there isn’t a British guideline
   D. How I Treat articles in Blood and British Journal of Haematology – much more practical and easy to read than the guidelines
6. Focus on what’s current – it might come up. Examples would include CAR-T cells, Patient Blood Management, and the most recent SHOT report.
7. Use these other good websites:
   www.haembase.com
   www.ihaematology.com
   www.blood-academy.com
8. Leverage your time and listen to podcasts whilst commuting
   www.bbguy.com – the Blood Bank Guy does the best transfusion podcasts
   www.blooducation.co.uk – from Dr Suzy Morton and Dr Helen Parry – exam focused interviews with the UK’s finest haematologists