Interview with Dr Rosmi Jafar

This is a transcript of an interview with Dr Rosmi Jafar. It is edited for clarity. Rosmi passed the FRCR 2B exam on her first attempt in 2022, after revising for 2 months. She explains how she prepared.

Q. Could you tell us a bit about yourself and your career to date?

My name is Rosmi Jafar from Kerala, India. I finished my residency in Bangalore and completed my senior residency in CMC Vellore. I had to delay sitting the FRCR 2B exam because of covid, and I finally managed to take the FRCR 2B exam this year.

Q. Please could you take us through your FRCR journey?

I started my FRCR 2B exam preparation in September 2022, 2 months before the exam. Since 2 months is too short a preparation time, I took a break from work. I spent about a month and a half reading and brushing up on my basic radiology knowledge. After that, I revised the radiology board exams for about a week.

Dr Koshy’s recommendations on the online viva course presentation explain how to prepare for the 2B exam, how to approach the different sections of the exam and how to tackle each section. That presentation helped me plan my FRCR 2B exam preparation and got me started on the revision.

I read through the rapids first for about 2 days. I got a few recommendations from Dr Koshy and found a lot of books that were helpful by Nigel Rabi and Nisha Sharma. I then went on to do the rapids and managed to score an 8. I started revision for long cases after the rapids and attended the South West FRCR Course with Revise Radiology and Dr John Curtis' Course, and a few other courses. In these courses, we went through notes to understand the different kinds of cases, and how to present and tackle cases during vivas. I also watched various radiology topic Youtube videos. My revision routine was in the order of rapids, then vivas, and then long case packets from Revise Radiology simultaneously.

I tackled each topic systematically, starting with MSK, then chest and so on. I divided each day into two halves. I then revised systems, long cases, vivas and rapid reporting packets. My revision plan included doing at least 3-4 rapids a day and 2 longs a day.

Q. Please could you tell us a bit about how you prepared for the FRCR? How much time did you spend on revision? What was your 2B preparation like? What resources and materials did you use for revision?

A course which helped me a lot was Dr Amdad Ahmed’s course. By the time I decided to sit the exam, all the hot seats were taken. Dr Ahmed takes the basics. Explains how to sit and present the case. Every candidate, he is strict and scores realistically. Drilled the way of presentation. Helped with long cases and vivas. SW FRCR - many examiners, different cases. Each examiner has different style of presentation and marking. You learn what to expect. Even from just observing, you can learn how to make changes to learn and get better.

You see a large no of cases

Q. What would you say are the big challenges/obstacles when sitting the FRCR exams as an overseas candidate / as a UK candidate. (Ask depending on where they are from)

Way of presentation is difficult, more oriented. No disadvantageous. Everything helps to prepare fro the exam. All the knowledge is there in over seas candidates. They just have to learn how to present,

Q: How has passing the FRCR changed your life?

FRCR has changed the life. Really helped to improve knowledge a lot. Rapid, Long cases, vivas. Taught to become a safe radiologist. How to prioritise the findings, what is relevant, what to communicate. Improved as a radiologist a lot. Thankfully for the experiences.

Q. How has Revise Radiology helped you in your FRCR Journey? What subscriptions/courses did you get?

I took all-inclusive (SW + Written) 3 months. RR played an important role. Everything began after Dr.Koshy’s webinar - how to fail the FRCR exam. How to mess up the exam, how to prepare, how to pass. He wa slikea mentor and helped in prep. The platform I really similar to the exam platform. Really helped int he final exam.

In rapids, the packets are not really balanced, really difficult. Not possible to finish in 30-35 mins.

Sometimes makes it demotivating when you don’t get a good score.

After that the new platform came up, stopped using rr packets. Then took RadExams packets - more balanced. Exclusively use that. used 50% of both platforms. used 80 - 90 packs.

In the actually exam - similar to SW or RR packets. Not straightforward. It's important how you deal with it. Th long cases also very useful - platform + difficulty of the case - very similar. The explanations are lengthy. You don’t have time to type it all in. In you can trim the answers a bit, simulates what to write int he exam.Not possible to do it realistically.

Q. What suggestions do you have to help us improve our subscriptions and courses?

Also cost - ex. 1-2 months plan. 3 months plan was too expensive. Difficult to pay.

Q. And finally - Why would you recommend Revise Radiology to someone sitting the 2B exam?

Yeah, definitely.Revise is a must for prep. Especially because of the platform. It shows what to expect in the exam. Long cases is great and balanced. If rapids is balanced, RR is perfect I wouldn’t need radexams then. Absolutely what you need for the FRCR exam. You can crack the exam in a short time.