Of all the exam components, this is the one where the candidates routinely underperform.
The successful candidate will actively look for particular signs which go with a particular case, and will then be able to spout a clever list of differentials. The templates offered below are aide memoires to help recall those signs, and help generate those lists.
A chronicle of previous hot cases is also available. It really is of purely historical interest, so the candidates may see what sort of patient makes it into the exam. Of course the college has never made their marking criteria available. It is impossible to guess what the examiners might have expected in any given instance.
| The Unconscious Patient |
| The Subarachnoid Haemorrhage Survivor |
| The Stroke Patient |
| The Patient with Weakness |
| The Diagnosis of Brain Death |
| The Cardiac Arrest Survivor |
| The Traumatic Brain Injury Survivor |
| The Multi-Trauma |
| The Cardiothoracic Surgical Patient |
| The Abdominal Catastrophe |
| The Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair |
| The Tracheostomy Patient |
| The Patient with COPD |
| The Assessment for Extubation |
| Difficulty Weaning from Ventilation |
| The Spinal Injury Patient |
| The Prone-Ventilated Patient |
| The Obstetric Patient |
| The Morbidly Obese Patient |
| The Long Stay Patient |
| The Critically Malnourished Patient |
| The Burns Patient |
| The Nonspecific Neurological Exam |