FRCS (Tr&Orth) FRCS ORTH

Make no mistake, the exam is tough. I sat it in '09-'10 and it's a decent 500 to 600 hours of work.

1. Get started reading early, perhaps 9 months before for Basic Sciences

2. Hit the orthopaedic hyperguide Question Bank online and try to do 80% of the MCQs. They are tumour-heavy, anatomy-light, baseball-overthetop, but VERY good MCQ practice. Get used to doing 50 questions in 25 mins, then work through the feedback in the next 35mins. I was getting 60% in unseen MCQs at the end, which got me a 80% average in the real paper.

3. Once the MCQ is done, start small group tutorials with two or three mates who are sitting with you. Twice a week, cover the topics. Get local consultants to viva you.

4. Practice reproducing the all the little drawings you can think of with pencil and paper. Eg: cross-section of nerve, stress-strain graph, brachial plexus, the physis, you know the ones.

5. Do a few courses in the two weeks before the clinical/viva. I don't think it matters which ones you do, it's the temporal link to the exam that's important. Don't do rubbish ones obviously...

6. Book list for FRCS (Tr&Orth)

7. Browse, but don't try and read all of, the last 12 months JBJS. Read as much Current Orthopaedics as you can.

8. In the fortnight before the clinical/viva go daily to your nearest elective hospital, and at 7am examine ALL of the waiting list patients before the operating teams come in. Get your exam technique slick.