MENTOR OSCE COURSES
| All rights reserved. Copyright of Mentor Courses 2004-2019 |
Dr. Nigel Giam Mentor OSCE Course Director Senior OSCE Examiner Lecturer in General Practice MBBS(Hons), MRCP, MRCGP(Distinction) DRCOG, DFFP, DCH BSc(Hons) PGCertMedEd |
| Below are a sample of testimonials left by previous delegates. If you have attended a course and would like to leave a testimonial please click the submission box below. Thank you for all your kind comments! |
| Name : AN Med School : GKT Click here to view Name : Justin Liu Med School : Barts and The London I just want to say a big thank you to Dr Giam and his team for organising such a fantastic and inspiring course! Over the course of 2 days, we covered most, if not all, of the common topics that are likely to come up in finals, along with more challenging and unexpected topics thrown in throughout to keep us on our toes. What I particularly liked about the course was the format it took. It encouraged teamwork in small groups and thinking outside of the box in high-pressure situations, which is important when dealing with patients in OSCEs and beyond. Alongside this, what I also enjoyed were the personal touches from Dr Giam, who was willing to share uplifting stories about his journey and career whilst giving invaluable tips on succeeding in the OSCEs and beyond, and his team, who all had previous experience of being on this course before. Mentor OSCE Plus is certainly different to any other OSCE course I've previously attended. It challenged my thinking and allowed me to hone my technique and develop skills that I can implement not just in my OSCE but also in my daily clinical practice in the future. I feel much more confident in passing my finals now. Thank you! Name : NH Med School : SGUL Dr Giam is a kind teacher who makes you confident and self assured by taking you out of your comfort zone. This course is life-changing, I would recommend it to any medical student who needs a push to believe in themselves. Name : J Ong Med School : Manchester Relevant and to-the-point content; invaluable and personalised feedback to hone OSCE technique. Very engaging, would definitely recommend. Name : Will Brierley Med School : Barts and The London My second time on the course after previously attending in fourth year. I gained so much confidence from an examination point of view, but the benefits were way more than this. Dr Giam really provides a finishing school for any student who wants to do well in OSCEs. But beyond that, the course helps you to understand how much medicine can help one develop personally. How? He helps you to think medically, in a way that allows you the freedom to be confident and express yourself more. By the end of the course, you're actually looking forward to OSCEs, and inspired to becoming the best junior doctor that you can be! Name : Qian Med School : GKT A really intense two day course that focus heavily on the presentation of examination findings and OSCE history taking techniques. It is different from other OSCE courses, and everyone I have spoken to has found Mentor OSCE a better course. Dr Giam is a very experienced teacher and approachable person. I gained a lot of confidence in OSCEs through the course. Name : JK Med School : UCH Fantastic! Dr Giam and his team of Mentors have developed a course which is completely unique. It is a real confidence builder and focuses not just on how to perfect finals, but how to make a really good 1st impression as a junior doctor and beyond. I would highly recommend this course - it will change how you approach medicine forever! Name : MA Med School : BSMS The Mentor OSCE 1-1 course for finals is truly fantastic, I wish I had found it earlier in my final year of study. The one on one session is very similar to a real life OSCE scenario, you are taught how to structure your answers in a way that examiners really like and the DVD you receive of the 1-1 session is very helpful for highlighting any areas of weakness you may have which you can improve on with practice. I would thoroughly recommend attending this course in preparation for OSCEs. Thank you very much again for this experience! Name : John Denny Med School : GKT If any course is going to help you gain confidence in OSCE vivas and pick out holes in your knowledge that you didn't even know existed, then this is it! Worth every penny and cheap compared to most postgraduate courses. I would recommend doing this well in advance of exams to get the most out of it. **Highly recommended** Name : Harry T Med School : St Georges Dr Giam is a really inspiring teacher and role model. His positive energy is infectious and his anecdotes as a doctor - incredibly heart warming. He goes the extra mile - the small group work, the personal and supportive feedback on how to present, problem solve and keep calm under pressure. It is a course that goes well beyond the exam - it is actually life changing and no better start to this journey as a junior doctor. Fun- Strategic - Memorable - Go early - you won't regret! Name: Micky Tsui Med School : GKT "Simply put- this course helped me pass my medical finals and OSCE. This course does not just teach you medicine, but helps one reorient their approach with perceiving OSCEs (and to help you prepare for how gruelling it can be!). Also, I cannot say enough about how helpful, engaged and genuinely interested in our success Dr. Giam was. I went to many finals prep courses, but this was by far the best!!" Name : RV Med School : Leicester I would like to inform you that I have successfully passed my Medical School finals. I will always be grateful for your teaching during the course, it was most beneficial in the OSCE - I was able to structure my answers in the Vivas. I cannot thank you enough! Name : Susan Med School : GKT Absolutely fantastic! Dr Giam and his mentors make this course the best one that I attended! It gave me the confidence to present high yield cases representative of what can come up in an OSCE. There is a good mix of things covered across all specialities and you realise how much you have learnt when you hit the books and it all comes flooding back. Definitely recommend to anyone doing finals! Even if you do feel confident with your presenting skills, Dr Giam and his team will give constructive feedback to make you exceptional! Name : Charlotte Johnson Med School : Barts and the London Brilliant course. If it's at all possible made me, possibly over prepared for the exam. Made vivas seem less frightening and almost "normal". Dr Giam is very approachable and a brilliant mentor. Thank you Dr Giam and the Mentor Team! Name : RK Med School : GKT The main strength of the course lies not in providing lots of new knowledge to candidates, but rather, in teaching how to structure and present the knowledge you have with confidence and efficiency - an essential skill for final years. In particular, excellent advice was also given on how to structure an answer to questions frequently encountered in OSCE's. An insight into how to approach advanced communication stations was also given. Name : NP Med School : GKT I achieved a Distinction. If it were not for this course, I would not have attained this mark. Mentor OSCE is like no other course - it is totally focussed on exam and presentation technique, which goes way beyond the OSCE. The tutors and role players were simply brilliant! Thanks Dr G! Name : Ranga L Med School : GKT A superb course that is unique in that it whips you into shape for the all important last 2 minutes of an OSCE station which can really make or break you in final year. Well worth the investment for this entertaining, educational course! Name : AlP Med School : St Georges A truly different course. I really enjoyed the 2 min viva's! It prepared me well! Thanks!! Name : J Neo Med School : GKT Dr Giam's course isn't just about teaching you to pass exams. Instead, through refining your presentation skills under direct supervision you learn to become a more efficient thinker when approaching and discussing medical cases. I was lucky to be exposed to his philosophy early on in my final year, and this had a massive impact on my learning and development during all my clinical postings. What I learnt on this course goes way beyond exams and is applicable through the rest of our careers. Besides presentation skills the course also refines history-taking techniques and provides an excellent coverage of advanced communication situations. Having failed my OSCEs previously, my fear of them became much more manageable this year once I built the ability to discuss my reasoning confidently with examiners, and this only became possible when the things I said started sounding structured and sensible to me. The Mentor OSCE course helps in no small way with this. Name : NP Med School : Barts The communication stations were brilliant. The role plays very realistic and feedback excellent. Name : AM Med School : GKT Brilliant course, made the process of addressing presenting a lot less daunting and provided a great platform to continue practising from. I feel this helped not only for my OSCE but also for postgraduate examinations. Thank you to Dr Giam and his brilliant team! Name : RK Med School : Barts and The London I passed my finals, but more importantly, I improved on the wards thanks to the guidance provided on this course. It helped my histories and examinations to be more purposeful. It was a challenging course, but it pushed me to be a better student. I highly recommend this course! Name : AM Med School : GKT Excellent course - good, concise clinical knowledge and a stern but constructive approach to viva preparation that was sadly lacking from much of my medical school experience. Unreservedly recommended! Name : Alan H Med School : Imperial All the top yield stations covered in a very interactive way. I won't forget this for a long time! Name : Amy S Fab! The small group work and support was brilliant. Also to have recently qualified doctors to help as tutors was really invaluable. Name : KS Med School : St Georges Dr Giam's invaluable experience as a Senior OSCE Examiner is priceless. Top tips and how to appear confident during the viva were aspects of this course that are simply not provided by others. Name : CK I liked the way in which the course focussed on the high yield stations, but not just parrot fashion repetition. Problem solving and justification of working differentials was the best thing! Name : MM Med School : GKT I passed. Thank you for your guidance and input. Especially the role plays and having that hands on experience. Brilliant! Name : NA Med School : Cambridge Really innovative course. I loved the focus on the last 2 minutes. You are so right in that others just focus on examination which we can all do. It is the viva which is the most important aspect to be confident with. Name : JB Med School : Dundee Just like the real thing, but repeated OSCE circuits. Safe and fun learning environment. Name : AV Med School : GKT Very supportive peer learning environment. Everyone has to participate and being viva'd is the highlight!! Name : HP Med School : GKT I thought the course was pitched at just the right level. Really useful to have the viva practice - works very well going up as a group as it takes the pressure off you individually - so thank you. The tutors - Will and Isobel were great assets. Useful to have their input to make sure that we were working towards to right diagnosis during the case preparation part. Also good to have their own input with regards to where they felt they fell down/ did well, as that way you get both an examiners and students perspective. Again, great course - will definitely recommend it to year next years lot. Name : A Shah Med School : GKT The organisation, leadership and content selection of the course was outstanding. Your selection of high yield and high challenge OSCE cases was excellent and extremely pertinent to the exams. Moreover, your emphasis on fluent presentation and classification of answers will not only help us in our exams but will be an invaluable skill set as we enter our junior medical training. Constructive, direct and critical feedback was well balanced with encouragement and positivity. This is an unrivalled course with regards to preparation for OSCEs as well as life as a junior doctor. Name : SN Med School : Birmingham This course approaches the fundamental techniques to passing and doing well in OSCEs for finals. For me personally, it has changed my approach to revision - it has highlighted the need to revise in an organised manner using a systematic approach. I find I am retaining more of what I have been revising. It makes me feel less daunted and more confident about the actual OSCE examination - I feel well equipped. This is not a spoon feeding course - you have to work hard and you are worked hard. It teaches you how to present all that you have learnt in 5 years in a structured way. It was well worth it. Before I attended this course, I found it difficult to organise and remember my what I had read that very morning. This made learning medicine difficult. After 2 days of learning how to organise my knowledge and present it, I am seeing how it all fits together. I shall take all the tips from the course and will use it beyond finals and into my future career. The tutors are so dedicated and passionate about honing these well needed exam techniques that are rarely taught in medical schools, but which are essential for exams. Name : RV Med School : GKT Nigel - It was a pleasure to have been taught by yourself and colleagues on the course. I really liked the high yield nature of the cases, the level it was pitched to and the fact everyone had a stab at getting viva'd. I picked up some really useful pointers over the course including the way to structure answers under exam pressure and justifying your clinical decision making. Overall I found that this aspect of my training so far has finally been tapped into after being neglected for so long. Cheers, please keep in touch. Name : Selena Chester Med School : GKT I really enjoyed the course, it helps you to break bad habits and organise your thinking. Most people that I speak to, myself included, worry about presenting after examinations, how it should be structured, and generally what is expected of us. The course really helps with this. It emphasises the importance of piecing together signs as you go along to formulate a sensible diagnosis. The Dr's who came round while we were preparing cases were really good, they helped us to start to organise our thoughts before we presented. Name : Browen Deacon Med School : GKT Many thanks Nigel for your invaluable course. I loved your approach to teaching and it opened my eyes as to what was expected of me in the exam. In the event, I only dropped 2 stations. I also loved the informality at the end of sessions, a really great touch. Perhaps we will meet again when I am preparing for postgraduate exams? Until then, very best wishes and many thanks!! Name : G and S Med School : St Georges Course attended - Mentor OSCE Jan 2013 We both passed our Osces (and finals)! We would like to say ... "This course was the best revision course we have been on, and taught in a completely different way to anything else we've had at medical school. I am particularly grateful as I feel it will help me on the wards, as well as it helped me pass finals" Name : Henry Goodfellow Med School : Kings Excellent course! Puts you under pressure and makes you think on your feet in a similar way to your actual OSCE. Name : Naomi S Med School : Kings Thank you very much for the course - it was very different to other courses! The viva bit was especially useful, and taught us to structure our answers well! (And was made less scary doing it in a small group) Was also very good to go through the high yield stations, as they always come up! And the actors were brilliant! Thanks!! Name : ANON Med School : Barts and The London The Mentor OSCE weekend was an excellent experience and really helped give me an edge in my final year OSCEs! I was good at the examination and practical aspects of OSCEs but struggled when it came to history taking, presenting and answering questions which carry such a significant weight in the overall mark. Dr Giam and the mentors taught an effective approach in tackling these high pressure situations and offered a systematic way in answering questions. I think the focus being in a high pressured situation with questions being fired at you prepares you for the real day as you are a lot calmer having previously experienced it. The topics covered were pretty much what came up in my finals and so I felt a lot more prepared. Without this course I know I would have struggled. Thank you so much! Name : Joanna Natarajan Med School : Kings Mentor OSCE is very different to the other courses out there for medical students. It encourages you to think on your feet and under pressure. The OSCEs are probably the most stressful requirement for graduating as a Doctor and the Mentor OSCE course will help you achieve this goal. Name : SW Med School : Kings Intense format, challenging and high yield cases, and really having to push yourself under pressure for vivas! But still great fun and highly interactive! Practice with patient simulators was great, and learning how to organise your answers/knowledge is invaluable. Thank you so much! Name : Moji O Med School : GKT Mentor OSCE was a fantastic course. The vivas were very scary, but extremely useful!! It was exactly what i needed to step up my revision for finals. Money well spent. Name : AJP Med School : GKT Great course, really focuses on your ability to answer questions under pressure in a structured manner - useful for OSCEs and when facing any mean consultant on the wards! Also covers a great range of knowledge and skills in a short space of time. This course definitely improved my confidence both for OSCEs and for F1! Name : A Hartley Med School : GKT The MOST USEFUL OSCE revision course I went on by far. Was initially scary like the real exam, but you soon grow in confidence and learn how to handle viva questions effectively, through small-group work covering high yield stations. Would recommend this course to everyone! Name : Dr TK Med School : GKT Dr Giam is an enthusiastic and inspiring doctor, who gave me so much confidence for my final year. I was lucky enough to have a day of teaching with him through my medical school, and I immediately knew I wanted to go on the Mentor OSCE course. The session showed me the sort of things I needed to know for the viva part of the OSCE stations, and also gave me a good basis on which to plan my revision topics. I was a bit nervous before I went in case I looked stupid, but Dr G makes the course a 'safe place' to make mistakes and so to learn from them. Thank you so much! Name : Hursh Joshi Med School : GKT The final year of medicine is predominantly about your performance in the OSCE as statistically speaking the majority of students pass the written exams. I would highly recommend the Mentor OSCE course, and in particular encourage students considering it to book it well in advance of your exams (I think I attended it in January), as it is not a course that coddles you but instead gives you the information you need and also instills a way in which to approach stations and deal with viva questions, that you can then incorporate in your revision in the subsequent months. The teaching is very good, as it involves everyone in the room (no hiding places!), which is how it should be leading to finals, but it is not as daunting as it sounds as Dr Giam and his assistants are very patient and helpful in dealing with any problems/questions that are raised. Once more I would stress that the earlier you attend the Mentor OSCE course, the more benefit it will have in your exam preparation. Good Luck! Name : Yas Med School : GKT Very good course! Encourages logical thought processes and clinical reasoning needed for finals and strategies to fully showcase your abilities and knowledge during the viva component of the short case OSCES. Name : Lourdes Mariathas Med School : GKT Dr Giam's course was a crucial point in my revision, in that it gave me the opportunity to build up the confidence I needed to perform well in my Osce. It's a short course which covers all of the most important areas we need to cover for the syllabus. It's taught in a way we will remember it well as it fuses group work and individual questioning. I believe it was absolutely worthwhile and it definitely helped me get through Osce without having to do resits so I would recommend to everyone! Thanks again Dr Giam! Name : AN Med School : GKT The course really kickstarted my preparation for my final year OSCE. It prepared me above the level expected by the medical school so i was confident in my performance on the day. Would recommend any Kings students to attend! Name : Pratik Shah Med School : GKT The Mentor OSCE course was a very good course. What I particularly liked was that we were in small groups, which made it more interactive. Once in the day, you would also have a viva with Dr.Giam, which most people will find is a daunting prospect, however a useful one, as on some of the OSCE stations at Kings' Med school, they can ask you a few questions. Going on the course early is a good idea, as I found that the course helped me analyse my weaknesses in subject areas I was weaker at, which gives you time to work on those topics a few months before finals. |
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| MY OWN TESTIMONIAL My dear sister in law - Gaby - spent her life helping others less fortunate than ourselves. We lost her to cancer in August 2012, at the tender age of 31. Her husband, my brother - Dom Giam aka Ketsa has produced this truly beautiful meditative album dedicated to her. Proceeds will go to the Gabrielle Gray Foundation so we can continue to help those less fortunate than ourselves. Please do visit us and do have listen to the album. It's FAB! |
