Monday, January 11, 2010

FCPS FAQs: How to apply?

EXAMINATION FEE RS. 9,000/-

A sum of Rs. 50/= is to be added in the examination fee in case application form has boon downloaded from the website.
Examination fee, as mentioned above, is to be deposited along with the application form on enclosed challan form in:
1. United Bank Ltd., CPSP Booth, Karachi.
2. Designated branches of UBLin the country (list enclosed) or Bank draft/pay order payable in the name of CPSP.
Postal orders, money orders or Personal Cheques are not acceptable.
3. Fee structure of Saudia Arabia is different from Pakistan.

REFUND OF FEE



Seventy five percent of the examination fee shall be refunded to the candidate after deduction of 25% fee for processing subject to:
1. Receipt of application for withdrawal from the examination if received on or before the specified date, 2. Rejection of the application by CPSP on account of ineligibility.
While applying for REFUND, candidate should write his / her NAME, CENTRE. SUBJECT and BANK
RECEIPT NUMBER.
In all other cases the fee paid for a particular examination will neither be refunded nor carried over to next examination in case of absence / exclusion from the examination for any reason, whatsoever.

FORMAT OF EXAMINATION

ALL SUBJECTS EXCEPT COMMUNITY MEDICINE
Paper-I & Paper-II: 100 MCQs of SINGLE BEST TYPE IN EACH PAPER.
COMMUNITY MEDICINE:

Paper-I 100 MCQs of SINGLE BEST TYPE
Paper-II 10 SHORT ESSAY QUESTIONS (SEQ)

SUBJECTS FOR EXAMINATION

• MEDICINE AND ALLIED
• SURGERY AND ALLIED
• PATHOLOGY
• ANAESTHESIOLOGY
• OBSTETRICS AND GYNAECOLOGY
• PSYCHIATRY
• DIAGNOSTIC RADIOLOGY
• OTO-RHINO-LARYNGOLOGY (ENT)
• DENTISTRY
• OPHTHALMOLOGY
• COMMUNITY MEDICINE

ELIGILIBILITY

1) M.B.B.S. (B.D.S. only for FCPS-I in Dentistry) or equivalent qualification registered with Pakistan Medical & Dental Council.
2) One year House Job in an institution recognized by PMDC.

APPLICATION FORM

Application Forms are available from Head Office of the College of Physicians & Surgeons Pakistan, Karachi or from its Regional Offices listed below on payment of Rs. 50/- or can be download from CPSP website.
Lahore
Next to INMOL Hospital, Block-D, New Muslim Town, Lahore.
042-9231320-5

Islamabad
Ravi Road, P.I.M.S, Sector G-8/3, P.I.M.S. Islamabad.
051-9261196,9262590-1

Rawalpindi
Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology, Rawalpindi.
561-9271002 Ext: 3050

Peshawar
Hayatabad Medical Complex, Phase IV, Hayatabad, Peshawar.
091-9217011,9217320

Abbottabad
1 Floor, Admin Office, Ayub Medical Complex. Abbottabad.
0992-381907-14

Multan
District Jail Road opp. Circuit House, Multan
061-9200946, 9200952

Faisalabad
Punjab Medical College, Faisalabad.
041-9210131

Quetta
CPSP Regional office, Near Cenar Hospital, ott: Brewery Road Quetta
081-9213434-35, 9202424

Hyderabad
CPSP Regional office, Sir Cowasji Institute of Psychiatry, Giddu Chowk Hyderabad
022-3860056-7

Larkana
Chandka Medical College, Larkana.
459369

Nawabshah
Peoples Medical College, Nawabshah
9370249

Muzaffar Abad
Abbas Institute of Medical Sciences, Muzaffar Abad
43902/43307 (0300-8501636)

Bahawalpur
Ouaid-e-Azam Medical College, Bahawalpur
886794, 884768



• Each application form must be accompanied with duly filled prescribed enrolment form.

• Application forms issued for recent examination only will be accepted.

• PLEASE NOTE THAT SEPARATE APPLICATION FORMS ARE TO BE USED BY FRESH & REPEATERS APPLICANTS.

VENUE OF EXAMINATION

Theory examination is conducted at Karachi, Hyderabad, Ouetta, Bahawalpur, Multan, Lahore, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Peshawar, Larkana, Abbottabad, Nawabshah, Kathmandu (Nepal) and Riyadh (Saudi Arabia). The choice of the city should be clearly written in the appropriate box in the application form. The CPSP reserves the right to delete a particular centre, or shift the candidates from one Centre lo another on account of logistic reasons.

Recommended books for FCPS-I (Paper-I)

There are 2 parts for fcps-1 syllabus, 1 is basic sciences and is common for all, and the 2nd part is specific for ur speciality ...

Recommended for FCPS-I (Paper-I)


MCQs Books:

*Muraad
Azeem Sheikh
USMLE First Aid

Physiology :

*BRS
*Pocket Guyton
Morgan (Selected Topics)

Pharmacology :

*BRS
*Lippincott
Morgan (Selected Topics)

Pathology :

*BRS (General Pathology)
Any

Anatomy :

*Snell's
Neuro Anatomy *Snell / High Yield

Histology

By Amir

Embryology

Langmann

Physics :

Old editions of Morgan
*Atkinhead
*G.D. Par Brook

Bio-Stats :

Notes

You can choose any one book of each subject, but studying two would be recommended.


Recommended for FCPS-I (Paper-II)

Radiology:

Snell's Anatomy (Gross anatomy, except muscle insertion/origin)
Neuro Anatomy (*Snell / High Yield)

*Spinal Cord, Brain blood supply

*Tracts

*All Cranial nerves
Histology by Amir
Embryology (Langmann)

Books for other specialties coming soon

* = important

  
                                                           PFMSG

what makes FCPS 1, a bit difficult??!!!

To me there are following flaws in questions that result in horrible consequences.

1- incomplete statements,you must guess,there is never a statemet that guide you to a definative point,something which is a qulality of a good question.

2-Using lab values without any references,How many of us rememeber all those hundreds of lab values,they must give normal values since they want to check our application of knowlegde not memeorisation of figures.

3- Questions with more than one True and Best answers,no kidding here,since statemets are deficient so there are more than one possibilities and all are correct in thier own ways.See the example question i gave earlier.

4- No way of checking how you perform in test,you are just told you are passed,how much you score,no one knows.Plus no feedback in terms of weakness or strenght for those who dont clear it.

5- Questions comming straight from Murad,now this is pathetic,you said 80% questions taht are answered correctly got deleted,dear you have seen many questions repeted from Murad and has been repeted in past.Now this trend made new exam takers to study this horrible book.


6- Mixing of question between basic and speciality paper,and across speciality papers.Now this is utten non-sense,they gave us many hardcore anatomy questions purely related to surgery,and i was giving exam in medicine and allied.Even sugery paper has many medicine questions,even some of gynae.Shameful for CPSP.


I m not aware but im sure there wont be any system to re-calculate you test score or release the key of questions so that we may know why we pass or fail.



                                                                                     Dr.Muhammad Yasir Adeel

FCPS 1 MCQs and scoring sYsTem...

what is the ratio of MCQS?

Out of 100 MCQS,

80% MCQS are those that have been previously tested and accepted.
20% MCQS are pilot/test MCQS that are new and never been tested before.


How their difficulty level is set?

category 1
20% are simple, straight forward and very easy MCQS (difficulty 0). it tests the basic knowledge which is supposed to be known by ALL.

category 2
40% are a little difficult and tests knowledge regarding the basic. (difficulty +) those who have sound previous knowledge or those who studied recently are able to answer.

category 3
40% divided into 2 groups, ( these MCQS mainly discriminates between 70%-80% or above scoring)
1) 20% (difficulty ++) those who studied in depth can answer
2) 20% (difficulty +++) here luck counts more then study

can u tell me the example?

category 1 MCQ,
Q which is the abundant circulating phagocyte?
1.neutrophil
2.monocyte
3.macrophage
4.lymphocyte
5.eosinophil

category 2 MCQ
Q what is the main cause of eosinophilia?
1.drug allergy
2.parasitic infection
3.blood transfusion reaction
4.type 1 hypersensitivity reaction
5.type 3 hypersensitivity reaction


category 3 MCQ
Q what is true regarding eosinophilia
1.in parasitic infection it is more than in type 1 hypersensitivity reaction
2.urine may contain eosinophils in interstitial nephritis
3.alpha granules contain Major Basic Protein.
5.eotaxin is released by neutrophils that attract eosinophils.

How they are scored?

now, here is the most interesting scoring system. To start with, i will say YOU MAY SCORE 99% BUT YOU CAN STILL FAIL. amazing but how??

category 1 MCQS are required must to be correct inorder to pass the exam. You have to answer most of them correctly, no matter how much high u score.

Average scores of FCPS 1 varies. Technically, one with good study is supposed to score above 70% and you can pass with this score (80plus scores are not uncommon, but above 85-90% impossible as far the pattern of examination is concerned) if u have done all category 1 questions right.

How the questions Pool is managed?

About the 80% from the pool questions,
In any exam,any MCQ which is scored right by 80% of the students is automatically deleted from the future pool and any MCQ which is scored incorrect by 80% of students is also deleted from future pool. hence any MCQ which is scored inbetween will keep in the pool and is likely to be repeated until and unless it is either scored 80% correct or incorrect, in which case it will be deleted

About 20% newly introduced questions
In any exam, aNY NEW MCQ will be counted if it is scored right by atleast 20% of the students, if not , it will be deleted and not counted at all. if mcq is done between 20-80% it will be counted and added to futurre pool. if the MCQ is done right by more then 80% students it will be scored and also will deleted from future pool.

Fcps Part-1 An Experience (critics), by Dr.Muhammad Yasir Adeel

On June 24th,i wrote my part-1 of FCPS,in PC hotel atd.I dont have many words to define how was it but one thing is sure,it wasnt for light hearted ppl.

I appeared in Medicine and Allied,and as expected got nothing much realated to it.Mostly the questions were from Anatomy and that too non-clinical.I fail to understand why they test such stuff which has hardly any clincal significance.

As we know,there are 2 papers,Each of 3 hours duration with 100 MCQs in each.I personally havent find much differece between 2 papers in terms of contents,the 2nd paper was supposedly "CLINICAL" and ideally should test more of Medicine.But that wasnt the case.The first 7 questions of Paper 2 were from Mars,and in greek anatomy.Something which was totally expected form unprofessional paper makers.But i hold on myself,remaining questions were similar,so i did roughly same.

What was horrible?

the scenarios were incomplete,they made you guess,rather than guiding to reach at some diagnosis,which should be the case.


There were more than 2 answers,i didnt say more than one,because that wasnt the case.I know that exam is SINGLE BEST answer,yet they never asked an perticular thing to pick the best.under such conditions,any answer can be best one.


Surgery questions in MEDICINE speciality paper.I dont know but why we need to know about blood supply of stomach for general medicine.


All in all i can say that questions werent made in a professional way,it appeared that the asked thier friends and relatives to make questions and then the put same questions in paper without even putting a thought in it.Ideally a paper should be such that it checks well establishhed facts,not minor things and not something which a Professor thing is right.We cant get into the brains to know the answer.An example of question

Plasmodium falciparum causes

1_ Black water fever

2_DIC

3_Hemolysis

4_Nephrotic Syndrome

5_forotten

Now just open Kumar,page 78 i think 6th ed both Black water fever and DIC are specific for falciparm,all plasmodia casues hemolysis and Nephrotic syndrome is specific for P-Malaraie.

guys i picked DIC but i know both 1 and 2 are specific and best answers for P-Falciparm.

there is no Trick in the stem it is as simple as i put.


What was Good about exam?

The environment was peaceful,although on one side of PC hotel there is Auto workshop and on other side a Primary school with kids making "No noise",yet the hall was diciplined.I omitted the part where 4 of my teachers including a professor came and sit right beside me and had Gup shup for an hour or so,since i reagrd it as a way personal.


toilet,water and lunch was alright.


Invagilators where good,and mannered.No complaints.


rest i dont know what he rest will be,the best part of the day was meeting with my frinds,and having some time together.


I salute all hose who clear this exam,since the know some telepathy.

Fellows,need our prayers,I might exagerrate but honestly i think i said not even half what was there.and those who appeared know this fact.

waiting for result.Do pray.



Note i didnt do an infringement of copyrights by posting the question,since CPSP site itself host the entire past papers.Which are easily accessable.