Paediatrics final exam experience

Today, I completed my final exam in Paediatrics.

The exam was scheduled to start at 8:30 am. When I arrived, there were already 6 students ahead of me. Shortly after, the first 3 students went into one room. About 45 minutes passed then the next 3 students went into another room. Around 9:45 am, the first student walks out and tells me that I should go in.

The examiner was Dr Hollódy. I am not sure who the assistant was, but she asked me to choose topics while Dr Hollódy started examining the next student. I pulled the following,

1. Diagnosis & Differential diagnosis of fever in infants
2. Hemophilias
3. Early and Late complications of neonatal illness

I grabbed some paper and sat down to write out my topics until it was my turn.

These are what my notes from the exam look like.

Finally, it was my turn and I began with Diagnosis & Differential diagnosis of fever in infants. I start by telling everything that was on my paper. I don't recall any questions from this topic and I move on to the next, Hemophilias. After I finished reading what I had written, she asked...

Doctor: Do you know the name of the famous family with Hemophilia? It was mentioned in the lecture?

Me: I don't recall.

Doctor: A Russian family?

Me: Sorry.

Doctor: It's okay, let's move on.

For the last topic, Early and Late complications of neonatal illness, I wasn't quite sure what she would want to talk about but I wrote about Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP). I explained ROP, and then she had some questions.

Doctor: You mentioned artificial ventilation, what other complications can be caused by artificial ventilation?

Me: Bronchopulmonary dysplasia.

Doctor: Okay, tell me about bronchopulmonary dysplasia.

Me: (thinking...)

Doctor: So it usually happens a few weeks after mechanical ventilation...

Me: Yes, and you can give corticosteroids to treat.

Doctor: Okay, what other complications could there be?

Me: Intracranial hemorrhage.

Doctor: Yes, what else?

Me: Seizures.

Doctor: Okay and what about a movement disorder?

Me: Cerebral palsy (CP).

Doctor: And do you know what part of the brain is affected in CP?

Me: (thinking...)

Doctor: (draws a brain with ventricles, highlights the white matter and writes PVL)

Me: Periventricular...

Doctor: Think white matter.

Me: Periventricular leukomalacia.

Doctor: Yes! Some other complications could be like hypoxia-induced encephalopathy (HIE).

Me: Oh yes. 

Doctor: What grade would you give yourself?

Me: A 4.

Doctor: I think so too. I really wanted to give you a 5 because you did so well in the other two topics. You have the knowledge, I just had to pull it out of you.

Anyways, that was it! That was my last exam. 

If you ask the rotational year students about the final exams, they will all tell you that Paediatrics is by far the hardest and I have to agree. The exam itself is not so bad, it's studying the material that we all struggled with. There are over 160 topics and the notes I studied from were well over 200 pages. So a lot of details. Preparing for this exam definitely took a great deal out of me, but my mom always says, "What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger." I can confidently say I am much stronger than I knew and I am a firm believer that everything worked out exactly the way it was supposed to.

Next up, the Hungarian medical state exam.