Hello! The purpose of this post is to share five tips for the OSPE (anatomy) exam.
I have always enjoyed the OSPE exam, just because it made me feel like I was on some kind of anatomy game show. For those who have not experienced this joyride before, OSPE has always been run like an OSCE (clinical exam) whereby you have 10-20 stations with cadaveric specimens on metallic tables and colour pins on specific parts of the cadaver. Students would have to identify the name / function / innervation / blood supply / lymphatic drainage of whatever it is the pins are piercing through.
As usual, I have the key-points outlined below so you can go to a specific section if you wish.
The question breakdown for the year 3 OSPE is as shown below.
It is obvious that MSK and repro were the heaviest systems to revise for anatomy, making up a total of 38 out of 40 questions. There were only 2 questions each from year 1 and 2. Hence, I revised MSK and repro in a lot of detail, making sure I covered everything in the anatomy workbook, down to the level of knowledge like the lymphatic drainage of the ovaries.
I know that those in 1st and 2nd year would have a different question breakdown. You surely would not be getting only 2 questions from the Year 1 & 2 syllabus, but you would have several systems that make up the largest proportion of questions. My advice is to get down to the nitty gritty for those systems and go over everything, even the stuff you do not think is worth remembering. Without revealing too much, I can tell you from personal experience that there were definitely a few questions in my OSPE where I thought: Hah! I knew they were going to ask this question. They just want to catch us out.
As for year 1 & 2 content, although there were only 4 questions in total from, like, 10 systems, that did not mean I gave up on revising year 1 & 2. What this meant was I had to think like an examiner and choose what I studied carefully.
I knew I would not be able to stand going into the exam not having revised Year 1 & 2 stuff, even if they only made up the minority of questions. At the same time, I could not justify taking time away from revising for systems and OSCE just to study for 4 questions. It was a real dilemma.
I started my anatomy revision with MSK and repro, then back & spine (which encompasses bits and pieces from year 1 & 2). Then, I gave myself 2 hours to revise both cardio and resp. The reason why I studied year 1 systems first was because if 2 questions were going to be tested from 2 systems (in year 1) versus 2 questions being tested from 5 systems (in year 2), the logical choice would be pretty obvious, right?
Why I only gave myself 2 hours to study 2 anatomy systems was to force myself to only study the fundamental stuff- things like identifying the great, middle and small cardiac veins. I knew that left to my own devices, I would end up trying to study everything in cardio and resp even though I did not need to.
This might sound preposterous, but like I said in my previous post on how I revised for my third-year exams, you cannot and should not attempt to study everything. You do not have to and it is unwise to try to do so, in the interest of time. If the med school was going to come up with 2 questions from cardio and resp, the questions would unlikely be something niche like being able to identify the trabeculae carneae or chordae tendineae.
As for year 2 systems, I only studied them closer to the OSPE, as I was too busy with other aspects of revision. I knew that if I had to choose, I would revise gastro, neuro and head & neck because those were the heaviest in year 2 anatomy.
I believe I revised year 2 anatomy on the night before my OSPE as well as the following morning, hours before the exam. I also revised year 1 anatomy again as well as MSK and repro once more before the exam.
How did I have the time to do all that?
Well, for year 2 anatomy, I really limited my revision to the bare basics. I already had active recall questions made for neuro, gastro and head & neck so all I had to do was go through the questions at breakneck speed. If I could not answer a question, I would immediately reveal the answer using the toggle function on Notion. As a rule of thumb, this is not an efficient way of revising but when you are short on time, it is the best you can do.
If you are wondering what I mean by active recall questions, check out my post on active recall and spaced repetition. Also, if you do not use Notion, it is a note-taking app I talk about in the same post.
Endocrine and urinary are pretty "light" systems for anatomy and a lot of their content overlaps with other systems, but I still made sure to skim over my notes and focus on the big stuff like identifying the isthmus of the thyroid gland or the trigone of the bladder.
As for how I revised MSK, repro and cardio/resp on the morning of the OSPE, I only went through my active recall questions that I have highlighted. More about that in my other post. This way, I only had a handful of highlighted ARQs to go through, thus saving precious time going through things I was already familiar with.
That way, when I went into the exam, no matter how the questions turned out, I knew that I had done my part in covering enough depth and breadth.
2. Use Complete anatomy
As I mentioned in another post, I would strongly encourage you to use Complete Anatomy during your revision.
When I was revising MSK, one of the things I did on this app was to have all the muscles on display, then hide them one-by-one (by clicking on the muscle-> hide) after successfully identifying each one, their movement, innervation, insertion, etc. That way, I would start from a full body of muscles and reduce it to bones by the end of my revision. Thus, I knew I covered all the muscles of the entire body.
On this app, I also revised radiology by making use of the resource bank filled with labelled X-rays and MRI images of different body parts.
To be honest, I find it difficult to explain in words how important this app has been in my anatomy revision. In short, without it, I would have found revision absolutely miserable and two-dimensional.
Hence, do yourself a favour and get this app for your revision. Check out the post I was telling you about to read more about five things I like about this app. If you would like me to do a walkthrough of my favourite features on Complete Anatomy, do leave it in the comments and ask me any questions you have pertaining to this app (specific things like "Can I isolate one muscle from the rest of the muscles?" or "does this app have quizes?")
Otherwise, I will leave it here for now. Go check out this app!
3. Practice with a friend
Another thing I found helpful was to go through anatomy with a friend. For MSK, my friend and I would use markers and draw on each other's arms and legs. That way, I was being forced to apply whatever I learned onto a real person. It was a lot harder than I had expected. However, it was also the most effective way of revising anatomy because patients are not going to present to us as cadavers (unless you are in forensics) or with their skin stripped off so we need to be able to visualise what structures in the form of muscles, nerves, blood vessels lie underneath their skin. That is why anatomical landmarks are so important.
I have a whiteboard in my flat, which my friend and I also used to draw body parts out and label them accordingly. Yet another form of active recall. At all times, I did not allow myself to read my notes before testing myself and my friend. Hence, I was relying solely on my own understanding. That way, the information stuck better because we learn best through humiliation.
Having said so, although it was undoubtedly useful, I found it time consuming to revise anatomy with friends. For the most part, I tested myself on my own, because it was more productive that way. Obviously, you should do what works for you!
4. Do quizes to get into "exam mode"
I would recommend you to test yourself with formative OSPE quizes on Moodle or MyMBChB. Do them under exam conditions and try not to let yourself read your notes immediately before doing the quizes. Alternate between revising your notes and quizzing yourself.
For example, once I finished revising MSK, I would start revising something else, then do the MSK quizes the next day. That way, I gave myself a one-day gap to process everything I had revised and to forget some. I think it is important to allow yourself some time to "forget" what you had revised because if you forget within hours or days, it means you did not really understand the content. Hence, I found this a more efficient way of spacing out my revision and challenging myself frequently with quizes and tests.
Also, look for past-year formatives on MyMBChB. Even though the formatives there often only consist of the questions and answers, without a diagram of the specimen, you can easily make an educated guess. The whole point is to figure out what type of questions are asked in the OSPE so you are mentally prepared. It is always good to know that you are not studying like a headless chicken.
If quizes are not at the top of your priority list, it would be worthwhile to move it up the ladder. Active recall is the single most important revision technique and what better way to test yourself than using the med school's own formatives. Occasionally, the people who set the exam paper might add a question or two from the formatives. In my OSPE, there was definitely at least one question I noticed that came out in the formative.
Whichever resource you use- Quesmed, Passmed, BMJ Examination, etc, they are all a form of active recall. You should neither only revise or only attempt quizes. It has to be harmonious blend of both.
5. Do not neglect radiology & histology
For the 3rd-year OSPE, we were told that there would only be one or two questions on histology and radiology. Even in normal OSPEs, it is the same.
In my opinion, histology & radiology are low-hanging fruits a.k.a easy points to score. I am not saying that you should memorise every histological image in Wheater's histology (which by the way, is the gold standard textbook to learn histology), but you should cover the histology of everything that is likely to come out for the exam.
For us, we were told that histology and radiology questions would come from year 3 only as we had already been sufficiently tested on year 1 and 2 stuff (which is total bogus, but you will not hear any complaints from myself). Hence, I only had to go over the histology and radiology of muscles, nerves, bone, and reproductive organs.
The histology question that came out for the year 3 OSPE was taken from our formative. So, yeah, this goes back to what I mentioned before about taking a look at the formative quizes again.
Last but not least, since you made it to the end, here is my bonus tip for you.
6. *BONUS TIP* (more for Abdn students, but med students from other unis can benefit too!)
Have a look at Rohen's anatomy atlas - we were told by the anatomy coordinators that some of the cadaveric images in the OSPE would be taken from this atlas. I conveniently turned a deaf ear to that piece of information because I was already strapped with work. However, after the OSPE, I finally took a peak at the pdf and oh my goodness gracious, some of the images were really taken from this atlas. This makes sense, as I imagine it is very cumbersome to source for cadaveric images on the internet for the purpose of an exam- what with familial consent and all.
Honestly, if I had flipped through the relevant parts of this atlas, I daresay I would have done even better for my OSPE because at the very least I would have been more familiar with the type of cadaveric images shown in the exam, even if I did not remember the exact one.
Anyway, a miss is as good as a mile.
Hope all these tips help and good luck for your OSPE!
Once again, I am happy to answer any questions in the comments 😜
Jie Fei