Essay prediction spring2005

[khan1 0]

Dear

I am struggling to start my preperation is there any advice how can I approach the essay paper is there any predictions or is too early for that?

[amygdala1 2]

I would reccomend that you don't waste your time in the futile pursuit of essay guessing. Get good at writingand planning essays per se and learn your psychiatry then you can tackle whatever comes up. I have never had problems with the essay paper but equally have never spent time on essay predicting etc- just use what you know and write it down.

[Guest johnniespring]

i predict that all three questions will be linked in some way to psychiatry.

[Gurpal 278]

Essay predictions?

Here we go again

My advice is to forget about question spotting. Candidates can almost talk themselves into thinking that they know what is going to come up in the exam and consequently limit their reading. You may be lucky, you may be unlucky. Why put all your eggs in one basket?

What you need to do is to prepare lots of essay plans yourself so that over time you start to think expansively about the things that an essay can include. Read journals like Advances in Psychiatric Treatment so you can see what a good review of a subject is like. Not only will this improve the quality of your essays, it will also help you to revise for other parts of the exam.

The library section of this website contains links to useful articles to get your reading off to a good start.

[childpsych 1]

As regards teh predictions of the essays are concerned it is becoming more and more difficult to predict the topics as nearly all teh major topics have come up.

But there are certain basic principles of preparing for essay.

First is epidemiology - know you epidemiology facts about all the major mental diseases, addictions, pharmacological and psychotherapeutic facts.

Second is the broad specialities. This time concentrate more on old age psychiatry, pyschotherapy, addiction psychiatry and forensic psychiatry.

Thirdly do your pharmacology and psychotherapy very good

Fourthly see APT in last two years and also next APTs until that of April 2005. See what are teh major topics coming up.

Do the summaries of all these topics in your own words

In general psychiatry, Mood Disorder inlcuding Bipolar Affective Disorder, Perinatal Psychiatry and Personality Disorders is very important.

Other topics like Asylum Seekers and Stigma are also important.

There was a lot of talk that because Dr Bhugra is now the Dean of the College and has he done tremendous work in mental disorders in immigrants and asylum seekers so its a hot topic. Well upto now it seems its a myth as regards asylum seekers being the favourite topic.

Lastly it is very important that you should know ICD 10 diagnostic criteria for all the major mental illnesses becuase that can act as a safety valve should you feel difficulty in writing about that topics.

So in short the most important tips are

Epidemiology of all the major topics - learn it by heart

Diagnostic criteria of all the major mental illnesses

Pharmacology of all the major drugs

Psychotherapy - CBT, CAT, DBT, Group therapy, Family therapy etc and also as applied to topics like Schizophrenia, Bipolar Affective Disorder, Anxiety Disorders, Personality Disorders etc

I wish you all best of luck

[khan1 0]

I do understand You need to have a general knowledge about each topic but you need to know more about some topics so predictions dosen't mean focusing on some topic and leaving the rest.

Dear Childpsych

Thanks for your advice this what I was looking for

[anthonyc 0]

For a good summary of the research on psychotheraputic interventions read Introduction to Psychotherapy - Bateman it has a chapter on it. Should be enough for essay type question

[hammer 0]

I think the predications will not be valid in these months just study the basics and read some of important topics from journals

[thatsmepranths 0]

i think everyone has given the answer there.

when we were preparing for the essays,we predicted 5 topics and none came,we were thoroughly disappointed but still managed to pass so its about having a clear plan for as many essays as you can and try to prepare well for the HOT topics and hope for a good one!! good luck

[mercury 0]

Yeah rather than topic spotting,general essay plan for topics thrown up in the forum will be more realistic.This can be supplemented with std ref which can be cross indexed to apply to nearby topics too....networking!

[Thambirajah 0]

Instead of trying to predict easays it may be more fruitful to prepare for at least a dozen topics that are likely to appear in the essay paper. A sample of subject headlines may include:

1. Rehabilitation in psychiatry with sp. ref. to schizophrenia, drug addiction

2.Prevention in psychiatry with special reference to... [include primary, sec, and tirtiary prevention; tatgetted and universal prvention stategies, research on prevention and its difficulties eg. prevention of suicide]

3. Psychiatric Services for older adolescent and the rationale for it [Childrens NSF makes reference to 16 -19 services] It is useful to have in hand a list of features necessary for any service [Accessability, comprehensiveness, multidisciplinary nature, accountability(audit, evidence base), user involvement (highly polotical), etc..ets..

4. Continuituies and discontinuities of psychiatric illnesses from childhood through adulthood to oold age.

5. Transcultural issues in psychiatry: immigrants, ehnic minorities. focus on barriers to access on services, research, culturally sensitive interviewing of ethnic minirity pts., beliefs about illness and expalanatory models, application of Western psychotherapy to ethnic minirities. drug acetylation status in ethnic groups, service organisation.. (Ref Dinesh Bughra; the book abd articles in APT and others)

6. Disease concept in psychiary and its critique (an old topicbut keeps comming in arious guises)

These are just a few. The advantage of preparing alon topic based lines is that the material may also be useful in answering other questions.

[Guest rajashree]

many thanks dr thambiraja

rajashree

[Guest Psychgardiner]

don't forget basic essay plans on service provision/ setting up a service. this can then be adapted to whichever nonsense, oops hot topic of the day. also, easy to draw flow diagrams for service layout/ through-put / points of entry and exit (pardon the manager speak).

is it just me or have there been a lot of articles in APT on personality disorders...and that recent proposal paper about personality disorder no longer a diagnosis of exclusion??? :-*

[psychodoc179 0]

i think an essay on psychiatric morbidity in ethnic minorities / refugees /asylum seekers with service provision for the same could be a possibility for the coming exams.

but i agree with the sound advice provided above that its best to prepare plans for various topics rather than count on luck and just prepare for a few 'hot' topics.

[Chris 0]

The Essay Paper can be suprisingly tricky - partly because candidates don't really revise for the Essay paper as such. The knowledge is clearly there because people get through the ISQ papers but writing an essay is more than knowing all the facts.

I'd advise giving yourself a bit of time to practice structuring answers to sample questions and practice writing essays (try to get someone to read them to give you some tips) - it's often the structure and style of the essay that makes the difference between pass and fail.

Good luck !

[student 0]

1)How do you assess the risk of a dominant baboon becoming docile on 30th March?

Explain your answer in the light of recent evidences

:

2)How could you design a study which can predict the possibility of all the essay papers with 100 percent surity

Show how you can calculate the sensitivity specificity PPV ,NPV ,NNP,NNS and LR +VE (1-LR (UNIVERSAL NEGATIVE)

[Guest incover]

Ha ha ha!!!!

Other important topics to consider:

- Atypical facial pain and the embriology of the temporo-mandibular joint. Discuss this topic and its relevance in alcohol misuse (particularly those who insist in cramming in the container of the substance ingested)

-The incidence of PTSD in the elderly population in institutional care who have to endure saturday night television is rising. Discuss this statement with reference to the current evidence.

I'm sure one of these will come up!

[Guest grace]

Can we please keep the jokes to the section for jokes.

[Guest latizah]

HOTTTTTTTTTTT Topic

Euthanasia and role of psychiatry.........................

Very hot in America,Australia and Europe.

Neatherland is the first country....... Next ?

[jimbaxter 1]

Good news. I have hacked into the college computer and have all the papers. If anyone wants me to e mail them to them then let me know. It is illegal to do such a thing but my legal friend informs me that since i have done time in a hotel in cally road futher incarceration should be a breeze if anyone passes this on. the only thing i wil say is that this is not a joke. am i allowed to leae a contact number on this message webmaster.

we are the champions.

love from 'Nospmoht s retnuh'

ps fear and loathing the exam is no more xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[Kumar 5]

hey guys,

counting backwards......eh???

any hot topics on any of those courses that you guys have been to......for essay ....please share....will be appreciated.

thanks,

kumar