Final FRCA Viva Weekend

Places Limited

Application Form

Accommodation

Director’s Notes

• This course will only be of value to those candidates who survive the SAQ/MCQ hurdle and who have been invited for the SOE in London.
• Candidates will be asked to show their RCA Candidate Number.
• The cheques of those Applicants who apply but who subsequently fail to ‘get a viva’ will not be presented for payment but will be destroyed.
• Mersey Deanery Trainees wishing to attend these courses are asked to contact Dr Gray immediately after having received their RCA Candidate Number.

* Candidates wishing to leave early may do so following the Course Assessment

Those wishing to stay on to review Course Material may do so until 16.00.

Comments from Most Recent Course

“Very well coordinated course.”

“What I needed was discipline and to answer under pressure. ”

“Best organized course I’ve ever been to. ”

“Great exposure to viva material, thank you. ”

“Learned how to behave under pressure. ”

“Well organized, lots of practice. ”

“Very well organized. ”

“Thanks to everyone including John for making it an enjoyable course. ”

“It was very useful for importing viva technique and well worthwhile. ”

“Amazing toilets, kept clean even on Saturday and Sunday. ”

“Catering very good. ”

“Good organization. ”

“Good selection of cases.”

“Managed to generate sufficient stress. ”

“Good overall, very tiring but worth it.

“Highly recommended, thank you Dr Gray. ”

“I am glad I came for the course. ”

“Excellent course. ”

“Worked efficiently.”

“Well organized. ”

“Question booklets were of high quality. ”

“As always, well organized and totally enjoyable. ”

“Allows us to recognize weakness but still enough time to correct them. ”

“Tremendous amount of revision occurs in this time.”

“Best course I have attended. ”

Candidates were invited to score thus:-

1 = Waste of Time& Money ← → 5 = Excellent

Average Score - 4.40

Comments from Previous Courses

  "Good practise"
"I liked the two to one situation"
"Lots of ground covered"
"Thoroughly enjoyed"
"Very hard work"
"Very good experience being an examiner - gained insight into features of good candidate and also how boring it all is"
"Also I think you need a fixed number of people on the case to make it run more smoothly"
"I do feel this weekend was a worthwhile experience"
"Good course"
"Well organised"
"Thank you for organising this course, it was worthwhile"
"Organisation - very good, Meals - good, Value - good"
"Otherwise excellent, a lot of effort has obviously been put into the question books"
"It was useful"
"Course definitely improved presentation skills"
"All aims achieved"
"Fee fine"

‘Organisation was excellent.’
‘This course has saturated me with more formal vivas than I could ever have arranged myself.’
‘Excellent to go through long cases – very difficult to practice.’
‘I would recommend this course to my peers as I feel it improves one’s probability of passing by double.’
‘Very relevant viva material, good mix of clinical and science vivas.’
"Will regard as essential practice before the exam"
" To be recommended to everyone preparing for the viva!’
‘Tough weekend but worthwhile.’
‘Quite ingeniously organised.’
‘The course format and repetitive practice at speaking is extremely useful.’
‘The course definitely achieved it’s objective, my presentation skills have improved.’
‘Excellent preparation – scary and intensive!’
‘My heart-rate now doesn’t go beyond 85bpm before and during vivas.’
‘Long and short cases were brilliant.’
‘My sympathetic systems were in less of an overdrive by the end of the course"
‘This course will] benefit future generations of anaesthetic trainees.’
‘I regret that I didn’t do this course last time as I imagine I failed due to my bad viva technique’
‘ ‘Very helpful – makes me feel confident of facing the examiner on the big day.’
‘I feel much less panicked by thought of vivas.’
‘Very useful experience.’
‘Fantastic course. Definitely the best ever intense viva practice that one can have in the limited time!’
‘Organisation was excellent.’
‘This course has saturated me with more formal vivas than I could ever have arranged myself.’
‘Excellent to go through long cases – very difficult to practice.’
‘I would recommend this course to my peers as I feel it improves one’s probability of passing by double.’
‘Very relevant viva material, good mix of clinical and science vivas.’
"Will regard as essential practice before the exam"
" To be recommended to everyone preparing for the viva!"
‘Tough weekend but worthwhile.’
‘Quite ingeniously organised.’
‘The course format and repetitive practice at speaking is extremely useful.’
‘The course definitely achieved it’s objective, my presentation skills have improved.’
‘Excellent preparation – scary and intensive!’
‘My heart-rate now doesn’t go beyond 85bpm before and during vivas.’
‘Long and short cases were brilliant.’
‘My sympathetic systems were in less of an overdrive by the end of the course"
‘This course will] benefit future generations of anaesthetic trainees.’
‘I regret that I didn’t do this course last time as I imagine I failed due to my bad viva technique’
‘ ‘Very helpful – makes me feel confident of facing the examiner on the big day.’
‘I feel much less panicked by thought of vivas.’
‘Very useful experience.’
‘Fantastic course. Definitely the best ever intense viva practice that one can have in the limited time!’

"Excellent practise for communication skills."
"Exposed some areas of knowledge gaps."
"Excellent organisation."
"Good practise."
"Gradual improvement in examiners and examinees noticeable."
"Good experience."
"Informative."
"Has taken the toad away from my throat!"
"Very useful course."
"Should be very helpful on the ‘real day’."
"Real confidence boost."
"Excellent idea."
"Excellent kick-start to the final few weeks. This course has set myself and my colleagues into a sound method of practice and revision. Still need to work at confident delivery of my knowledge but have realised I do know enough to pass even at this stage but just need to deliver it in an attractive, non-jittery fashion."
"Thank you, excellent course."
"Worthwhile {albeit briefly}."
"It certainly is a fantastic kick-start towards my viva preparation."
"I am so pleased that I am taking this course and am certain that it’s going to increase my chances of passing the viva."
"Well organised."
"Thank you very much and will definitely recommend it to my colleagues taking the exams in future."
"Overall, very good practice. I feel less nervous at the moment."
"Good factual learning by osmosis."
"Very good."
"Useful."
"Good. Made me realise that I have to catch up and be more slicker."
"Very useful examining!"
"More useful being examined!"
"Overall, I felt it was very useful."
"Gives insight into the examiner’s mind."
"Very long, but don’t see any other way."
"Very well organised."
"Very stimulating. I realised I know more than I thought I did. A tremendous morale booster."
"EXCELLENT!!!!"
"No criticisms."
"Good opportunity to practise speaking – lots of knowledge gaps & phrasing problems can be exposed."
"Good organisation – liked the coloured books."
"Very good exercise."
"Would be good to look at ‘bank’ viva questions at end of day as optional extra work."
"Will definitely be recommending in future."
"Great experience."
"I would never have subjected myself to this amount of practice."
"Highlights areas I need to improve."
"Excellent course."
"Revised many topics. Improved presentation styles. Understood problems as an examiner."

"Excellent practise. Hard work but worth the effort."
"Thank you!"

"Certainly reduced my anxiety towards the end of the weekend"
"Good opportunity for vivas practice"
"Overall this would defiantly have changed my outlook & management of the exams"
"I heartily appreciate the efforts of team organizing this course"
"Full marks for organization"
"Very friendly and helpful staff"
"Good hospitality"
"Like the idea of walks and exercise"
"Very good course – Prepares you for the final day"
"Course well organized well"
"Content was very helpful"
"Good viva practice – made me less fearful of examiners"
"Worth my while, certainly will recommend"
"Good practice"
"I set high standards to myself & often get disappointed when my lack of knowledge is exposed. Having watched others perform I have realized that we are all in the same boat"
"This course had really given me an insight as to what an examiner feels"
"Being an overseas doctor it has helped me to overcome my shy nature to a certain extent"
"Very well run"
"Good timing"
"Good course. Involving good amount of viva practice. Interaction and knowing other colleagues was fine"
"Course was definitely useful in gaining confidence and defining the ways of answering the questions"
"Good experience"
"Learnt a lot"
"Well organized"
"I had lots of practice. Helped to improve my talking skills"
"Thanks for such a good course"
"Enjoyed it"
"Very useful course"
"Good experience both being viva’d & examining other candidates"
"Very good course"
"Give a picture of what we can expect in London"
"Very good organization, well done & Thank you"
"Good organization, great benefit, reduced the pre-exam tension"
"It has been a useful exercise"
"I enjoyed being on other side of the table"
"Thank you for all your hard work"
"Good range of exercise"
"It improved my viva skills confidently"
"Its nicely organized course in terms of learning the viva technique"
"I found the exposure quite useful as we got a lot of viva practice"
"The sessions as examiner helped us see how we come across as candidates and the difficulties in making each other understood"
"Having all the viva material to go through helped us do concentrate in those areas we do not know"
"(The Mersey School) should be commended for holding such a course for the final FRCA"
"Good course; definitively gives insight into exam environment"
"Valuable for exam preparation"
Good cover of more observe topics"
"Wide range of topics prepared"

"Prepared for worst and best situations"

"I fell my presentation skills have been refined."
"Thought it was well organised + glad it’s not me doing it."
"Excellent practice, even though exhausting!"
"This course has helped with the fear factor of the viva scenario."
"It has been most beneficial in getting an insight into the view of the examiner."
"There is a lot more to passing the viva than just knowledge. This experience has helped to teach me one or two more tricks to playing the viva girl."
"Enjoyable, good experience being at being both ends of the table, learning to be a good candidate."
"Feel that my chances of passing this exam are higher."
"A confidence boost."
"Another excellent Mersey course. The lessons learnt would not be possible without attending."
"Thoroughly enjoyed. Will recommend!"
"Good exercise in viva technique. Thanks!"
"Enjoyed the course!!"
"Thank you for organising this course. It definitely has changed the way I would answer a question. I am sure I wouldn’t be afraid on the day in London."
"Clearly a lot of preparation gone into this course – thank you. An exhausting weekend but necessarily so!"
"Very useful course. Very exhausting! Very useful acting as an examiner to identify good + bad characteristics."
"Definitely gained confidence + improved my presentation. Able to talk more freely with fewer mental blocks even in subjects about which my knowledge base is relatively poor."
"Excellent. Good bank of questions. Actually v. good to be Viva’d (sic) by peers at same knowledge level in exam conditions. Worthwhile experience."
"Excellent breadth of topics that wouldn’t have ordinarily considered."
"Good fun – very good value for money."
"Coming from Belfast I have few opportunities to practice relevant Vivas as many of the examiners are unfamiliar with the London exam. Gave me an excellent insight + sheer volume has been fantastic. Self-funded and was well worth it. Will be recommending to colleagues in Belfast."
"Excellent course – felt the questions were of a high quality & well structured. Good use of weekend to polish skills/knowledge prior to the big day."
"Reduced inhibition and fear of Vivas."
"Thoroughly enjoyed the course and the ‘ exam conditions’ experience."
"Superb. Very worthwhile exercise, encouraging reflection and development of technique."
"Exhausting but useful."
"Excellent organisation! Thank you very much Dr Gray."
"I feel I know what is expected from the examiners to pass and how easy it would be to slip + fail."
"Great practice close to the exam. Lots of opportunity to observe other candidates and their good/bad techniques."
"Reduced stress of facing Viva."
"Well organised, really appreciated."
"As realistic as I think it could be."
"I feel that doing this course has significantly improved my chances at the Viva."
"Excellent course."

Well organised. Clinical cases well structured and balanced
Great opportunity to practice timing and exam environment atmosphere
I have certainly learnt one good thing i.e. to pause. It helped me to get my thoughts together rather than repeating the question or saying ok which I used to do. I think this course has helped me to get more confident in myself in facing
Finally, the fear of VIVAs seems to fade out but I am certainly not sure I am going to enjoy the day in London. But I must thank you for the well organized VIVA weekend.
Very useful. Realistic stress levels. Good range of cases
Overall very good course. Good material

Got sufficient VIVA practice
Very useful

Well organized, good structure, exam atmosphere element good
Good notes. Good food and refreshments. Overall: excellent for final FRCA preparation!
Observation and control of walking exercise was not strict enough
Feel much more relaxed about being VIVA’d
Good opportunity to learn by osmosis
Very good course. Masses of material. Good to rotate between different examiners
Balance ok with the time for VIVAs / reading
Very useful
Removed my inhibition of talking
Only problem I had was maintaining concentration for final VIVA session on Saturday as 3 sessions is v. long! However exposure to a phenomenal amount of VIVA questions in one weekend, excellent course – Thanks.
Excellent course – thank you
Excellent course
Definitely seen improvement in my technique
Good case mix
The numbers, esp. No 3, was excellent: definitely a hard worker. We must show appreciation for the background people.
Very useful – practice makes perfect!
Keep up the god (sic) work!
Good organisation
Very helpful course. Understood what I should do and what I should avoid
I thoroughly enjoyed the course. I felt it very useful. It build in me confidence to answer without fear. Thank you.
Very useful. Improved my presentation skills. Had the feel of the exam
Surprisingly, Dr Gray was pleasant.
The real eye opening - Particularly, what to answer (because we always try to explain in detail) For example: pre-op optimisation: HDU, fluid, invasive monitoring, antibiotics. So I learned how to answer in short sharp manner. I will always pause and speak slowly and clearly. Good VIVA practice even in the absence of real examiners. Thank you.
Suggestion: the laminated sheets may be put earlier so that we can go through it at our own pace rather than skip the lunch because we already have lot to go through. It may also initiate healthy discussion to present blunders being committed.
Really good. Good VIVA practice
A mighty fine weekend, faultless. Thank you Dr Gray, Michael, No 3, 7 No 7.
I was very close to punching my very final examiner (I didn’t cry though)
Very useful
Would recommend to anyone appearing for final VIVA
Excellent organisation
Definitely helpful
Good VIVA practise
Very good course
Very useful preparation
Good balance between study time and VIVA time
Course is very good: informative, oriented, boosts confidence
Very well organised
Refreshments- excellent
Worth of money spent
Thank you
Great course as usual
Excellent refreshments as usual. Thanks Mike!
Thank you for your hard work and efforts
Organisation and all helpers were excellent
Excellent course which lets you appreciate how hard it can be being an examiner! (almost feel sorry for them… almost)