How to Pass the FRACP Written Examination. Jonathan Gleadle

Introduction

      This book follows on from the successful ‘Passing the FRACP Written Examination. Questions and Answers’. We were encouraged by the responses of readers and trainees to generate this completely new text. It is similar in style to the first book in providing an array of multiple choice and extended matching questions which follow the current format of the FRACP written examination. Every question is chosen to reflect the RACP core training curriculum. However, this is not just a practice exam paper; it also provides an explanation of the answer with a mini review of the topic with referenced QR code links to the best recent review or relevant article in the area.

      We have endeavoured to ground many of the questions in clinically relevant cases recalling Osler ‘He who studies medicine without books sails an uncharted sea, but he who studies medicine without patients does not go to sea at all’ and we have sought to provide coverage of areas of medicine that are new, contemporary, or evolving. We hope that readers will use the book to help them define areas of their own medical knowledge that are incomplete and would benefit from focussed learning and revision. Whilst many of the questions are designed to be similar in level to those in the actual examination, some are specialised or difficult, designed to ‘teach’ particularly important issues, stretch the reader’s knowledge or to draw attention to contemporary topics. Furthermore, these questions often require clinical reasoning with many being two step questions where simple recall of knowledge is insufficient.

      Whist the main audience for the book is intended to be Trainees undertaking the FRACP written examination, we hope that it may be useful to physicians seeking to update their knowledge or to undertake other postgraduate examinations.

      Questions in the written examination are based on the curriculum and all candidates should familiarise themselves with the RACP curriculum for Basic Physician training, which is available electronically from the College website (https://www.racp.edu.au/docs/default‐source/default‐document‐library/knowledge‐guides‐for‐basic‐trainees‐in‐adult‐internal‐medicine.pdf?sfvrsn=38dc0d1a_4). It is vital to carefully read the most updated examination instructions in any past questions provided by the RACP.

      In undertaking the written examination:

      We hope that this book will improve your medical knowledge and thereby help you to pass the FRACP examination. Good luck! Clinical practice and biomedical sciences are constantly changing and today’s incontrovertible facts can quickly become outdated when a new trial is published or a new scientific discovery made. Therefore, trainees are strongly encouraged to keep up‐to‐date with their reading and learning, and to check appropriate drug selection, dosage and route of administration. If you have any questions or suggestions, please write to us care of the publisher.

      Jonathan Gleadle Professor of Medicine College of Medicine and Public Health Flinders University and Consultant Nephrologist Flinders Medical Centre Adelaide, Australia

      Jordan Li Associate Professor of Medicine College of Medicine and Public Health Flinders University and Consultant Nephrologist Flinders Medical Centre Adelaide, Australia

      Danielle Wu Adjunct Senior Lecturer College of Medicine and Dentistry, James Cook University and Consultant Nephrologist and General Physician Mackay Base Hospital Queensland, Australia

      Paul Kleinig Clinical Associate Lecturer College of Medicine and Public Health Flinders University and Consultant in General Medicine Palliative Care and Care of the Elderly Flinders Medical Centre Adelaide, Australia