Top 10 Best Resources For OSCE

Are you preparing for your Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE)? Looking for the best resources for OSCE can be difficult since the exams cover a wide range of topics.

With a myriad of resources online, how do you know which ones will be useful?

OSCEs assess the candidates’ competence, knowledge, and preparation by subjecting them to 15 stations simulating real-world medical situations. In this post, I will show you a list of the best information sources that will help you holistically prepare for everything — from anatomy to interpretation of results.

Oxford Handbook Of Clinical Examination

The OSCE encompasses such vast coverage that it is difficult to study individually. Luckily, the Oxford Handbook of Clinical Examination compiles everything into one handy book.

It is a complete guide on everything you need for the OSCE. The information written in the book covers the essentials, including history taking, examination, procedures, communication skills, and more.

The handbook includes over 140 detailed illustrations and diagrams that aid in learning. These photographs and drawings can help students better understand the theories, complications, and other problems they might encounter in the exams and in real life.

The latest version of the Oxford Handbook is its 2018 edition. This edition covers every new development in the medical field up until March 2017. The authors added new chapters including information on body language and non-verbal communication.

The Oxford Handbook of Clinical Examination is concise, portable, and comprehensive. As such, the book earns its spot on the top of the list as one of the must-haves for medical students studying for the OSCE.

Test Banks

Active recall is a process that strengthens your ability to retain information by retrieving it from your memory. When it comes to active recall and preparing for the OSCE, practice tests and test banks are your best friends.

If you are looking for online test banks, the best ones are Passmedicine, Amboss, and BMJ OnExamination.

Passmedicine

Passmedicine provides quality online revisions for medical exams. Starting in 2009, Passmedicine hosted multiple tests on different medical topics. One of their test banks includes around four thousand different questions made by practicing doctors.

The website shows your progress by placing you on a histogram along with other candidates. In addition, they feature spaced repetition, timed exams, performance analyses, and more.

You can access a free demo of each of their tests. If you want to gain access to all their products, you can opt to pay a small registration fee.

AMBOSS

AMBOSS features exams on nine topics from medicine, surgery, pediatrics, and more. Collectively, their exams have more than 5,700 unique questions to help test your knowledge and skills.

AMBOSS offers personalized plans so that you can work on your weaknesses and improve your strengths. You can also access their questions and exams on the desktop and the AMBOSS app, whichever is convenient.

Most importantly, they have a direct link to Anki. Anki is an app that helps you create and review flashcards from your phone. As such, you can test yourself using the app during your free time.

You can sign up on the AMBOSS platform so you can get a no-risk free trial for five days.  

BMJ OnExamination

BMJ OnExamination is a huge platform for medical students. Their collection of questions covers all necessary topics for practice ranging from general practice to specialized areas like anesthetics.

BMJ OnExamination created an app to allow you to practice questions while commuting or during your free time. The app features daily questions and performance feedback to show you how well you are performing.

Although they have free questions, most of their tests require payment. Nevertheless, their large catalog of high-quality questions made by professionals makes the prices reasonable.

Geeky Medics

Founded nine years ago, Geeky Medics is an online medical education platform that hosts guides and PDFs made by practicing doctors. The guides cover all topics necessary in the OSCE: Clinical examinations, procedures, communications, data interpretation, and others.

In addition, Geeky Medics also have articles about surgery, medicine, and anatomy. You can access their extensive and comprehensive guides for free on their website or app.

Aside from these, Geeky Medics also has a YouTube channel, a podcast, test banks, and paid products that are sure to help all med students in the OSCE and other exams.

MedMastery

Medmastery is a CME-accredited site that offers numerous courses, workshops, and webinars. Their products cover topics from surgical cases and interpreting CT scans to preventing burnout and improving learning.

Medmastery requires you to sign up to access their courses. The pricing for the subscriptions may be quite high, especially for students. However, since they target practicing doctors, you can expect all of their products to be high quality.

Medmastery’s basic subscription is around $350 annually. You can also try their services out and register for free. If you are unhappy with Medmastery, they have a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Online MedEd

In Online MedEd, you can access a wide range of instructional videos. Online MedEd is composed of numerous doctors that aim to make medical education easier than they experienced.

Online MedEd provides resources in the form of online videos. All of their videos are available for free, as long as you can handle the ads that come with them.

Their video topics cover all medical fields, from the basic sciences, cardiology, and even tips for internships and residency. If you want to, you can pay for their products, which will include the video without advertisements, flashcards, question banks, and companion notes.

Aside from individual topics and videos, Online MedEd also offers a complete four-year curriculum. A team of medical practitioners created the course to make medicine easily understandable.

Radiopaedia

The OSCE tests many areas, including the interpretation of scans and imaging. When it comes to content about everything related to radiology, Radiopaedia is the best.

Radiopaedia is a radiology resource that aims to be the best radiology reference the world has ever seen. Starting in 2005, Radiopaedia hosted an immense encyclopedia of x-rays and other scans for all the different systems and sections of the human body.

The resources are open to editing and compiled by practicing radiologists and radiology trainees worldwide. In Radiopaedia, you can find numerous scans, cases, and articles that will help you better understand and interpret MRI scans, CT scans, and everything related to radiology.

The best part about Radiopaedia is its commitment to providing its extensive resources for free. Radiopaedia commits itself to being freely accessible forever to help those with lower — and middle-class incomes.

Acland Academy

Learning anatomy became slightly difficult due to the pandemic. Luckily, Acland Academy and their Atlas of Human Anatomy are available.

Acland’s Atlas of Human Anatomy is a paid product that contains over 300 videos of real human anatomic specimens. These videos include content about the joints, muscles, tendons, bones. The videos include even the most minuscule parts of the body, like the inner ear.

The Atlas presents a full, detailed 360-degree view of the specimens. The files and videos are an acceptable replacement for in-person anatomy studies. These specimens and videos include narrations and labels to help medical students study human anatomy right from their phones or computers.

Aside from these videos, Acland Academy also offers interactive and timed multiple-choice exams that will help prepare students for practical tests and the OSCE. These exams track students’ performances and provide detailed feedback on what needs to be worked on.

The Acland Academy Atlas of Human Anatomy is available on their website through paid subscriptions. However, you can try their services out for free for the first forty-eight hours.

Online Lectures

The COVID-19 pandemic made schools, universities, and institutions find new ways to continue teaching and educating students. However, medical students already had online courses even before the lockdowns.

When it comes to online courses, Osmosis and Dr. Najeeb’s Lectures are the best options for medical students.

Osmosis

Osmosis is a widely used platform for teaching and learning medicine and healthcare. Many institutions use Osmosis to teach, like the Morehouse School Of Medicine, Miller School of Medicine, and more.

Osmosis offers a massive online resource for learning each and every topic for all fields of medicine. They have a blog that offers information about how to study and that has sample medical questions.

Their detailed notes, question banks, and videos are available for aspiring MDs, DOs, Pas, NPs, RNs, Dentists, Pharmacists, and others. However, these products and courses require membership which can be for six months, one year, or two years.

Dr. Najeeb Lectures

Dr. Najeeb’s medical lectures are one of the best resources for medical students. His video lectures cover a vast number of topics on almost all courses in the curriculum, from physiology to genetics and pharmacology.

His highly-informative videos range from thirty minutes to three and a half hours in length. Up until now, he is still adding to his extensive catalog by uploading regularly. You can access his 400+ video lectures for free on YouTube.

Aside from video lectures, Dr. Najeeb also offers paid courses for mastering medical school and the USMLE Step 1. His courses include more than 800 videos which you can access for a small membership fee.

Life In The Fast Lane

Life in the Fast Lane is a website made by Australian clinical care physicians. Through Life in the Fast Lane, you can access a wide range of resources, including the basics and interpretation of ECGs, pages covering topics on critical care, and more.

They also have a library on toxicology, intensive care, and more. Aside from informative blogs and resources, Life in the Fast Lane also has a podcast and a dictionary of 3500 eponyms.

As their name implies, Life in the Fast Lane focuses primarily on critical and emergency care topics and situations. You can access all of their posts, files, and resources for free on their website.

OSCE Stop

OSCE Stop is a one-stop resource for OSCE essentials. OSCE Stop is an organization that helps medical students and beginning healthcare professionals improve their practical skills through free and accessible guides and files.

OSCE Stop’s content is a collection of guides on how to take histories, diagnosing common complaints in different fields, and others. The guides also include medical examinations, procedures, improving communication skills, among others.

The organization also offers content on interpreting data. These comprehensive guides include interpreting ECGs, radiographs, CT and MRI scans, and ultrasounds. OSCE Stop also provides tutorials on how to interpret blood tests, urine tests, and even cerebrospinal fluid tests.

Aside from examination and practical skills, OSCE Stop also has resources on how to make discharge summaries, death certificates, notes, reviews, and more.

Medical professionals and practicing doctors compiled and created the guides on their website, so you can be sure of their quality. You can access OSCE Stop’s complete and extensive resource library for free on their website.

OSCE Stop also sells its own book to help medical students review for the OSCE.

The OSCE is an exam that haunts most medical students. The exam covers a wide range of topics that will test students as if they are already doctors.

Studying for such a broad range of topics is difficult. However, if you know the best resources for OSCE, you can be better prepared for the exams and increase your chances of getting a high grade.

If you want access to our full library of guides and free courses for med students, check out the Med Vault!

This is a completely free library of step-by-step eBooks & video courses that can help you on your medical journey!

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I hope you enjoyed this post about the top ten best resources for OSCE. If you did, I suggest that you go and check out the posts below:

• How To Study For Step 1 [Get A 250+]Keys To Studying With Anki [Med School Tips]
• How To Get Into Medical School With A Low GPA [Step-By-Step]
• How To Study In Medical School [Ultimate Guide]
• How I Studied Less Than 5 Hours A Day In Med School
• How To Study Pharmacology Effectively [Full Breakdown]

Until the next one my friend…