DundeeChest 3.0

Posts Tagged ‘Learning Opportunities’

Sitting an exam soon?

Exams. Medicine is all about taking exams. End of year in medical school, finals, membership, fellowship, exit exams, revalidation. It never seems to stop, does it? It’s easy to get despondent – there’s so much out there to learn, and it all seems a very daunting. I’m irrepressibly glass half full, about pretty much everything, so revising for exams fills me with as much excitement as it does tripidation. How so?

The revision sites, the question books, the guides, the textbooks – they all give tests to let you know how you’re going. Getting the answers wrong could get you down – but the way I see it, every question you get wrong leads to learning something new, the correct answer hopefully. Each wrong answer is the first step to a new learning journey. Isn’t that exciting?

The same is true for all the ward teaching, the out patient teaching, the practical sessions, the tutorials. In my experience, the students I teach sit or stand like rabbits in the headlights whilst I ask questions – we’re not trying to catch them out, we just want to know what they know, so we don’t go over new material, and get an idea of knowledge base. The opportunity is there for you students – just ask.

Think about how much time you have spent saying nothing when asked a question over the time you’ve been a student. The time sat looking awkward, glancing side to side, gazing alternately at the navel or the ceiling hoping for inspiration. All that cumulative time that could have been spent learning something. Those of you who know me will readily accept that I’d rather be talking that listening to silence.

So next time you’re in a learning situation, and someone asks you a question you don’t know the answer to, rather than clamming up in silence, why not use that time more effectively?

“I don’t know” is my cue to tell you the answer; and you learn something. And I do like teaching you lot things. In person, or on-line.

Don’t forget Ask Dundee Chest, where you can ask us questions about respiratory medicine, or you can e-mail me by clicking here. About anything. I’ll reply. Honest.