Key features exams test clinical decision-making. It is concerned with the application of knowledge and not knowledge recall. Therefore, key features exams start with a clinical problem presented as a clinical scenario. It would be prudent then for candidates to adopt a studying approach that focuses on the patient's presentations.

Books
Murtagh, General Practice.
Steven, Patient Presentations in General Practice.
Oates, Currow and Hu, Child Health - a practical manual for general practice.
Hunt and Marshall, Clinical Problems in General Surgery.

Medical magazines
RACGP Check magazine (members have access) - these are case-based approach to a medical topic.
Australian Doctor magazine - How to Treat (Australian doctor have access) - choose those that are problem-based, for example "Wheeze in pre-school children" 18th October 2011.

Medical Journals
American Family Physician - although this is an American journal, their educational articles contains algorithms. Algorithms are useful clinical decision-making trees and applicable to how key features expect candidates to think.
Australian Family Physician - this is an important evidence-based educational resource, but you need to be selective. Choose problem-based articles in the Clinical Section. For example the September 2013 issue has a good article on "Sudden Onset of Hearing Loss"

Recall papers - these are questions that past candidates recalled after their exams and write down. This is usually unreliable as the candidates have to recall the scenario which is usually fairly long, with long questions and menu of possible actions. Moreover, the scoring key is missing. The scoring key and its weighting highlight the thinking process examiners expect from candidates. Recall papers will not have these. So you may know the topic well but you may not have understood the key features of the case.


OSCE papers - if you think about it, an OSCE type case is a key features case drawn out over 8 to 19 minutes. Each case has some key features that candidates have to demonstrate to the examiner to get marks. OSCE cases are more easily available to study from - Wearne, Clinical Cases for General Practice Exams; 100 Cases series (available on eBook Library in the RACGP John Murtagh Library online for RACGP members) - each book has 100 cases and key questions for general practice, psychiatry, paediactics, surgery, medicine and women's health and ethics and law.

Clinical maps help you to summarise the key features and other pertinent information when dealing with a clinical problem. This is not only a good way to study for the key features exams, but the product (of a number of maps) is also useful when revising for the key features exam closer to the date. These maps may be better than textbooks because it provides a succinct summary, with short notes and key issues, of a clinical problem. Because the learner creates the maps ie reading and then writing a summary of the topic with key features highlighted, their study is more effective in retaining information, understanding the information and the key features.
http://mind42.com/mindmap/73d3afe0-a55e-433c-96d4-7bdb624a49cd

Creating exam cases makes you think about what are key or critical steps in data gathering, investigation and management. This needs to be a group activity so that collectively you have a sizeable number of cases to practise on.

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Dr Hung The Nguyen
hung@hmvtteachingspace.com