Exams...

Today 30 odd Paediatric Doctors in Melbourne are sitting an exam. It is a multichoice exam with a two hour paper in the morning and a three hour paper in the afternoon. Most will have been studying for this exam in the majority of their spare time for about 12 months. All these people have had to do well in secondary school in order to get into a medical degree at University. They then have had to do a six year medical degree and then have had to get accepted into the Paediatric training scheme. They then do certain specified medical jobs with often long hours in order to qualify to sit this exam. They then pay (over $1,000) to sit the exam. Others like them will be sitting the exam around Australia.

In a few weeks they will get there results and a third will fail. I emphasise will because, regardless of their scores, the examiners (the Paediatric College) will take the bottom third of scores and fail them.

If they are in the lucky two thirds they will be lucky enough to sit an other exam in about six months. This will be a 'clinical' exam. They will fly interstate to a neutral hospital and have to examine patients in front of a panel of examiners. These patients are hand picked 'difficult' cases. Again they will pay to sit this exam, as well as paying for their airfares, accommodation etc.

If they pass this examination they are then 'advanced trainees'. After completing some further criteria (publishing papers or doing a PhD etc) they will then be able to join the college as Paediatricians, some 10+ years after starting training, and we will be safe in the knowledge they are well qualified for the job.

Who would be a doctor?