Questions and Answers
Q: What is up with the design?
A: I made this site with the new found time-and-energy after doing the primary viva in 2015. I was partially motivated by frustration with the numerous sites for different specialties that provide exam resources for exorbitant fees. To keep this site free (especially necessary as the content has been generated by others) I had to keep costs to a minimum, so made it without outside help and kept the design super minimalist.
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Q: How do I make the most of this site?
A: In general the vivas are well made and are excellent study tools. If you combine all the vivas on a set topic and study them together you will get a great feel of the topic and which points within that topic are the most important to know. Also be aware of the topics that come up most frequently as these are generally core topics and are likely to come up again.
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Q: Why are some topics in the syllabus not represented here?
A: All vivas since 2003 have been processed onto this site. If a topic is not present eg “Anatomy – Tissues and Structures” it is because all vivas that ask about that topic are better listed in other areas
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Q: Why are some vivas present in more than one topic?
A: There are a very small number of vivas that have been listed in more than one section because they were very difficult to classify precisely e.g. one viva with the clavicle features in both “Upper limb” and “Neck”. If you work systematically through topics the amount of duplication you will do is extremely small.
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Q: How are the exam years organised?
A: The suffix of -1 or -2 eg 2011-1 denotes whether the exam was the first (April) sitting or the second (September) sitting of the viva component of the exam. Since 2013-2 the exams have been subdivided into A, B, C and D components which are also noted.
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Q: There are a few vivas without exam year listed – where are these from?
A: Unfortunately due to the loss of some data there are a very small number of vivas that have not been catalogued by date.
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Q: Can I get through all these vivas in the few short weeks between the written exam and the vivas?
A: The whole point of this website is to study by topic – if you do five vivas on the same topic in quick succession you will know most or all of the useful information on this topic and thereby have an efficient way to get through the vivas. If you are really running low on time cut out the older vivas as the style and content of questions changes over time e.g. you could just study the ones from 2010 onwards.
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