GUIDELINES FOR FCPS PART 1 SURGERY AND ALLIED

Bismillah irr Rahman nir Raheem

Well, Apparently all the super duper surgeons become so busy immediately after passing their FCPS part 1 that they forget their juniors and don’t care to give a lil bit of their piece of advice which might help poor souls like us who always look up to somebody else :P Enough of the Rant :P Well I wanted to do that!!

Let’s begin the journey of FCPS part 1 Surgery and Allied!

As I prepared for my part 1 in 6 months so I’ll give a detailed guideline for 6 monthers but all of the following is applicable to 3 monthers too…

You’ll need following books/material:

Snell’s Review

Netters Atlas

Kaplan Anatomy

High yield Embryology

Pathoma for Pathology

BRS physiology

First Aid

Chandkians MCQ books/ Rabia Ali

Past papers

PHYSIOLOGY:

Do BRS physiology A to Z with special focus on all tables. TABLES ARE TO BE CRAMMED.I repeat. Pani mai Ghol k pee lo: P

An imp note: BRS is one of the best physiology books out there. I have read Kaplan too and trust me BRS has more to offer. There is not a single thing missing here .Kaplan is easy to understand but has many things missing. So I highly recommend BRS

ANATOMY:

Well I know u all must love Anatomy :P It’s such a beautiful pain in the neck!! :P

Snell’s Review of Anatomy is more than enough but u HAVE TO…U MUST..AND U SHOULD supplement it with Netters atlas images. Or else u r not gonna understand it. Focus on the images and illustrations more. They will help u remember stuff more in this case.

Those worrying about Big Snell. I have read it twice. It just has much detailed clinical, embryology notes and images that’s why it is BIG. Otherwise it is mostly covered in Snell’s review. Still if it’s hurting u and Big Snell on your shelf keeps calling you then only and only read Abdomen and pelvis portion from there

SOME IMPORTANT QUESTIONS WHILE PREPARING FOR ANATOMY:

1. Do we have to cram all Origins and insertions of Muscles?

Not All, kids!!..You have to memorize some tables esp. of muscles of shoulder girdle, upper arm

Muscles of Chest wall and Anterior abdominal wall BUSS! :P

No need to memorize origins and insertions of forearm, legs, hand and foot ☺

2. What is specifically imp in Anatomy?

Nerve supplies, blood supplies, lymphatic drainages should be on fingertips

3. Do we have to do relations?

      Yes my dear some relations MUST BE REMEMBERED:  Relations of both kidneys MUST, relations of URETERS are particularly important, liver, pancreas, stomach, spleen, all parts of duodenum, rectum, bladder, uterus..In short you should have very clear idea about relations of abdomen

And relations of structures in superior Mediastinum

Is k ilawa don’t bother about any other relations much ☺

4. How much clinical is sufficient?

All the clinical in Snell’s Review is sufficient ☺

PATHOLOGY:

This is solely for 6 monthers. Listen to Pathoma lectures and do whole of pathoma.it will take only 12 -13 days .This is Gem of a book. Ur concepts will become clear and concise.

Don’t even look at BRS pathology. Some thetas might try to convince u for BRS. I suggest u to not to listen to them at all. I dint even touch my BRS. Rather jisko BRS ka buht shauk hai She/he can take it from me all new and free of cost :D

For 2/3 monthers Pathology from First Aid is sufficient!

EMBRYOLOGY:

Do high yield embryology. It will take just 3 days to do whole of it. It’s very well written and a MUST READ Book. Don’t skip it at any cost

CRAM THE GERM LAYER DERIVATIVES. They are High yield

Still if you don’t find time for it then at least Do first 3 chapters, development of GIT, GU, CVS and CNS

NEUROANATOMY:

It is to be done from KAPLAN Neuroanatomy. It will take 4 days to complete.

Pay special attention to chapter 4, 5 and 10. Aur kuch na aye beshak but u should be a PRO in spinal cord section at least

Relationships of all CNS ventricles are very important. Don’t forget to do them

Histology:

Only these topics are enough:

Epithelia (very very important)

Spleen, lymph node, thymus ( there is a single chapter in Kaplan for these)

Types of collagen and cartilage

BIOCHEM:

Do it from FIRST aid and just the following topics:

VITAMINS

Names of Autosomal dominant and recessive diseases

And Do biochem MCQs from Rabia Ali to cover the rest of things

FIRST AID:

Do all the systems, pharma, general patho, micro, immune, and biostats from it

Skip the psychiatry portion and biochem portion except for the above mentioned topics

MCQ BOOKS:

Let me tell u what I did first .I didn’t listen to anybody. I focused on theory only and then did ONLY CHANDKIAN MCQs (only medicine and surgery portion. I read them first, marked the difficult ones then did them again) plus I did past papers of 2015

I DID NOT TOUCH Asim Shoaib at all..

My advice will be k if possible then do RABIA ALI portion of Anatomy, biochem, histo, embryo, neuroanatomy and behavioral science. Then do Chandkians surgery and anatomy portion just like I did and past papers of 1 previous year are must (Download them from FCPS 2005-2010 Batch )

SERIOUSLY NO NEED TO DO ANYTHNG ELSE. DON’T FRET ABOUT ASIM SHOAIB.DONT FRET ABOUT DOING WHOLE OF RABIA ALI…

SOME TIPS/COCERNS

FCPS group 2005-2010 is a big Depressor! If u r too happy in your life then open it and you’ll get a good reason for suicide! My advice is to Join only when u r done with theory. Then open it only to search Ambiguous questions. Then again the best thing is to Google things and search urself.cuz half of the members of that group will drive u crazy. Don’t waste your time there (P.S yess I hate that group. Sorry for the hatred speech!! )

Yes 70 percent paper is repeated especially paper A. sometimes what they do is that they keep the stem of the Question same but they change the options.

Online interface is very user friendly; u can skip a question once. Then in the end all the skipped questions start coming and u can’t skip again.

Time is very appropriate. It’s neither too much nor too less.

Confidence is what matters most in this exam (as told by successful seniors)

Believe in yourself. If you have worked hard you’ll get through. So don’t get depressed about the rumors regarding the difficulty level of paper

BEST OF LUCK ☺

P.S

DO READ the guidelines for FCPS medicine by Dr.Tauseef Omer as it was my only source when I was preparing. There are many important things mentioned there which I have skipped.

If there are any queries, You can ask me directly at my Fb page

https://www.facebook.com/aneeqa.qureshi.5

Dr.Aneeqa Qureshi

(KEMU Batch 2008-2013)

For more guide read: 

FCPS Section