The Easy Guide to OSCEs for Final Year Medical Students, Second Edition (MasterPass)

Ordered this for my medical student daughter as her previous older edition was lost. She told me to get this one. She has no complaints.

I passed my final year OSCEs so this book must be good ;)

Overall a good guide.History taking - good, contains a range of differentials but it's limited (focused history taking for OSCEs masterpass book is excellent)Examinations - very good. Explains in a stepwise manner, contains diagrams (peripheral signs, scars, visual defects etc), tells you what the signs mean, gives an exemplar summary and common OSCE differentials.Clinical skills - good. Contains an intro (including an explanation of the procedure to the patient), equipment and procedureManagement of the acutely unwell patient - clear and stepwise (general, palpitations, pulmonary embolism, sepsis, hypoglycaemia, DKA, upper GI bleed)Prescribing - good, contains general tips and exemplar prescription charts of a few scenarios (GI bleed, asthma attack, COPD exacerbation, ACS, heart failure, hyperkalaemia)Communication skills - a good guide to explaining/discussing 27 scenarios.Data interpretation - good guide to CXR, AXR, interpreting ECGs and ABGs. Also contains common scenariosEvidence appraisal - I haven't been through this section yet but it goes through two sections (how to approach an abstract and explaining an article to a patient)The one major downfall of this book is that it does not contain any notes on psychiatry so I've been using Psychiatry PRN for that

Using this book for finals (alongside the OSCE Cases with Mark Schemes book), I managed to get the highest score I’ve ever got in an OSCE! I’ve always struggled with OSCEs and this book helped me a lot. It’s really useful for examinations, practical skills, comms etc but the section on history taking could be improved to include cases, I think. That’s why I used another book for history-taking alongside this one. Overall, it’s amazing!

Where has the Pschiatry section gone? It not in the Specialties version and its not in this version either.

I don't recommend it overall.