​Surgical exams are hard and the cirriculums are enormous.

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I know, because I failed my final written exam in plastic surgery training (FRCS Plast) : I scored 151 - the pass mark was 158. 

After I made and studied this ANKI deck, I  passed with a score of 183 (pass mark 154) - the harder the exam the lower the pass mark!

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The difference wasn't working harder. I was already putting in the hours. I'd read 2 of the main textboooks front to back, memorised the UK guidelines and had worked hard as a trainee. The problem wasn't understanding the material or experience.

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The problem was recalling exact details, under timed exam conditions

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Those tiny details, when then answers are similar, or are all reasoable options, are the difference between passing well and failing.

When you're faced with a long clinical vignette and five plausible answers, success comes down to remembering the small details:

• Are neutrophils or macrophages dominant on day 3 of wound healing?

• Is the most common thumb duplication Wassel I or Wassel IV?

• Is serratus anterior a Mathes & Nahai Type I or Type III muscle?

• Does the radial nerve pass through the triangular space or the triangular interval?

• Is ulnar nerve compression caused by the ligament of Struthers or the arcade of Struthers?​

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​​​​The list goes on so for the next sitting I converted my notes , sourced directly from key text references and UK guidelines into high-quality ANKI flashcards, 7800 to be specific. Using ANKI's spaced repetition, on my computer, on my phone, during on calls, between cases, I used the Plastic Surgery Board Exam ANKI deck to recite details from across the entire curriculum and passed the exam, with good margin too. The only thing i'd change is I would have started using ANKI, by subspeciality, from the start of my training as I worked in the subspeciality.

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I could see a more junior friend having similar struggles for his MRCS part A exam. I faced the exact same problem when I sat my MRCS. So we compiled the MRCS accelerator ANKI, based on the MRCS cirriculum AND popular high-yield topics.  As with any good story, he also passed on his next attempt

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Don't just take my word for it, TRY ANKI HERE