Should I treat things as I go or wait until I finish my assessment?

There is no wrong answer to this question, so if you feel strongly one way or another I’d say go for it.

Personally, I would lean towards finishing your assessment first.

The advantages of this approach are that:

• You have a complete overview of the patient.

• You can effectively determine your priorities for treatment

• You show the examiner your priorities, rather than appearing to treat anything you can think of as it arises.

• Treating more than 2 things always leads to time issues in an exam (often one treatment done well can be the best option)

• You can pause after the assessment and choose a treatment, which is based upon your prioritisation of the patient’s problems, and choose an outcome measure that is appropriate for that treatment.

• If you treat everything along the way what outcome measure will you use? Will it be sufficiently related to your treatment?

The advantage of treating as you go can be:

• You are already in that place (eg. lying on a plinth) so you don’t waste time moving between locations.

• I can’t think of any others (and I don’t actually believe the advantage above is a big deal)

Sometimes treating as you go will work, and there are plenty of people who have passed the exam operating in this way. But I have also heard the stories of many candidates who did this and got themselves muddled, then ran out of time.

The choice is yours, but make sure that in the exam it is a conscious choice and not just a result of your anxiety.