MCQs in Paediatrics for the MRCPCH, Part 1 PDF

Preface

Multiple choice questions are now a standard component of examinations in medicine. Most postgraduate examinations like the MRCP (UK) and the MRCS, as well as other examinations conducted abroad, use multiple choice questions to test examinees' knowledge of basic sciences and its application to practical real life clinical scenarios. The MRCPCH is no exception. This book is intended to assist paediatricians everywhere in their preparation for the MRCPCH examination.

All the questions in this book have been based (with modifications) from the popular Ram's MRCPCH Teaching website, which has had over 40,000 hits to date. I developed this resource over the past few years to assist trainees taking the MRCPCH examination in the UK and abroad. For the purpose of this book, however, all answers have been extensively revised and extended to cover more of the subject. Wherever possible, references have been added to assist further reading. Some of the choices within the questions have also been modified to reflect changes in the pattern of the examination over the last few years

The questions themselves are not grouped by subject or by topic. Instead, I have set the questions in the form of 10 papers, each composed of 30 questions, to mirror the format of the examination, where each question consists of an initial stem followed by five items identified by A, B, C, D and E. There is no restriction on the number of true or false items in a question. It is possible for all the items in a question to be true, or for all to be false. Each item is independent of the others. The actual Part I examination is designed to assess a candidate's knowledge and understanding of the basic clinical sciences relevant to medical practice and of the common or important disorders to a level appropriate for the entry to higher specialist training. Questions may be set on the relevant principles of cell, molecular and membrane biology, on immunology, on genetics and on biochemistry, as well as on anatomical, physiological, microbiological and pharmacological topics.

Candidates indicate their answers to the questions by completing an answer sheet, which is machine-read by an optical mark reader (OMR). The output from the OMR is processed by computer. The computer allocates marks according to the candidates' responses, calculates their scores and derives statistical data relating to individual questions, and then produces this information in printed form for the examiners. To this end, Answers have been provided at the back, and scoring sheets have been added in order to facilitate the simulation of examination conditions. Much effort has gone into ensuring that all specialties and topics relevant to the MRCPCH have been covered within the framework of the sections. It has also been an arduous task to compose each of the questions and answers while continuing clinical duties, and I hope that the readers will appreciate the breadth of coverage and agree with most of the answers provided.

Finally, I hope that readers will find that this book does not completely satisfy their eagerness to learn and stimulates further reading on the topics covered. I express my gratitude to the thousands of users of my website, who have contributed in small and large measures to make the publication of this book possible. I hope they find this book more detailed, and in many ways, more complete, than the website itself.

Author: P. Ramaranyan