Essential tips from a CO1 examiner
Article by: Dr Mark Teo
Want to make the most of your revision and refine your technique? Dr Mark Teo, Chair of the CO1 Exam Board, shares his insights to help candidates excel in the CO1 exam.
The CO1 exam spans the full breadth of the curriculum as detailed in the ‘RCR Guidance for the First FRCR examination’, so your revision approach needs to be structured with plenty of time to cover it all. Make full use of your local teaching and trainers (especially physicists) to aid your understanding of the topic material. The exam board consists of both clinical oncologists and non-medical specialist examiners to ensure both the scientific accuracy and clinical relevance of the material being examined.
Deciding whether to sit all four papers
The long standing debate – Sit all four papers or focus on a few?
Sitting all four:
- Advantage: Even if you are prioritising a few papers only, this approach gives you a practice run on all the papers helping you understand the exam style and pacing.
- Disadvantage: Financial cost, time pressure and stress revising for all four papers.
Focus on a few:
- Advantage: Helps you focus your revision when revision time is limited and stretched alongside your day job.
- Disadvantage: Having fewer attempts per paper with the limited number of overall attempts to pass the CO1 exam.
Choose based on your readiness and personal exam strategy, not on what others are doing or have done.
Exam preparation: Read the curriculum
The curriculum is your revision roadmap. Every question examined is blueprinted to it, so use it to guide your revision strategy. The breadth of learning is extensive, and it is near impossible to cover every detail from all the recommended reading material. Find your favourite source(s) from the recommended material to form the core of your revision and build from there with the other resources.
Identify your weaker areas of understanding early, especially in the application of radiobiology and physics concepts so you can get focused teaching on these topics.
Past examiner reports are an invaluable resource for focused areas of study highlighting the level of depth expected and recurring pitfalls made by candidates.
Pharmacology is more than cytotoxics and targeted agents. Candidates often overlook supportive medications; for example, analgesics, antiemetics, bisphosphonates. These are routinely tested because they reflect real world oncology practice so a solid grasp of these agents can secure easy marks.
Medical statistics is about understanding the principles for applying statistical concepts in clinical research and trials, and the interpretation of the medical literature, to enrich your development as a future oncologist. The number of formulae you need to know is limited.
Sitting the exam: Technique matters
When you’re in the exam, read the question carefully. The examiners deliberately minimise unnecessary detail, so every word is relevant. Avoid over interpreting or adding assumptions. Any clinical vignettes will be written to be true to current standard practice.
Each question has one single best answer. Every question undergoes rigorous quality assurance by multiple clinical and specialist examiners every sitting to confirm its accuracy and avoidance of misinterpretation.
Ensure you have planned your time so you can answer every question and keep to your plan. Distractor answers are written to distract so don’t get bogged down by a tricky question to the detriment of finishing the whole paper. Most candidates will pass, so a few tricky questions do not mean failing the paper.
Finally, make sure you are well rested before the exam – don’t agree to that locum overnight on-call no matter how much they offer. The exam is mentally taxing so you need all your wits with you.
All the best!