B is For... Books and a tip for Burns management

There aren't many books specifically for MCEM

For Part A:

Question books - never underestimate the benefit of practicing MCQ's

• Get Through MCEM Part A: MCQs (Get Through Series) - AKA the Red One
• Divided into sections on specific areas covered by the exam such as anatomy, physiology,   pharmacology, microbiology, etc.
• As well as 3 mock papers.
• Gives answers and good depth of explanations.
• Recommended by most and is of similar standard to the exam itself.

• MCEM Part A Practice Questions (Oxbridge Medica's Revision Series) - AKA the Green One
• Again divided into key topics for each chapter, the chapter sizes seem weighted to reflect the exam.
• What I like the most is that answers are on the reverse of the same page as the question. This means you can use the book in short spells, or even in the rare event of spare time on the shop floor.
• This one seems harder to get hold of via the internet (amazon/ ebay

• Practice Papers for MCEM Part A - AKA the Blue One
• 8 practice papers back to back.
• Seems to be similar standard to the exam, my scores prior to taking the paper reflected my final score in the paper.
• The smallest book in terms of physical size but given its structure it doesn't lend itself to "quick" bites. Better to sit and practice as mock exams.

Other Books:

• Revision Notes for MCEM Part A
• Essentially the syllabus but annotated with bullet points, is also as you would expect a little bit bulky. Notably contains a few errors, but there really aren't any alternatives based on the syllabus directly.
• Can be useful for a quick dip on specific topics, but leans towards specific facts rather than explanations of base principles. Useful when used with other book.

• Basic Medical Sciences for MRCP Part 1, 3e (MRCP Study Guides)
• This might not be specifically for us but with the degree of overlap of basic sciences this is a book worth a read. Anecdotally the content seems to correlate with some common Mcem questions
• It is also worth having your favourite anatomy text and a specific microbiology book.

For Part B:

• Revision Notes for MCEM Part B
• My goto book at the moment, covers the whole syllabus in good depth with common exam topics and tips flagged up.
• Includes example SAQ's based on each chapter and previous papers.
• Get Through MCEM Part B: Data Interpretation Questions
• About to start this one and will update it as I work through it, but it written by some of the team behind the Bromley courses so has some credibility.

For Part C: - I'm not quite here yet so watch this space...

AND Finally...

For those who have made it to the bottom of this post a bite of information...

Parkland formula for fluid requirements for the first 24 hours in burns:

Burn Surface Area (BSA) x Weight (Kg) x 4             BSA x W x 4 (8/16)

Notably the clock starts at the time of the injury and half should be given over the first 8 hours, the second half over the next 16 hours. If a patient arrives 1 hr post injury you have 7 hours to give the first half.