Unfortunately the Solicitors acting for The Royal College of Psychiatrists have instructed us to remove this. However you should be able to find these instructions in any past Essay Question paper. The college sells past essay papers.

(tell us what you think of this action by the college by writing to opinion@mrcpsych.com )

Please read following advice fully, before you decide to follow or ignore them.

Essay needs to be of a reasonable length, not too long or short. However the length of reasonably sensible material one can put down on paper in forty five minutes is somewhat variable from person to person. Following advice may help you to find out the length that suits you.

Choose two topics that you can comfortably write an essay on.

e.g. ¤How do you diagnose psychotic illness in a patient arrested by police for breach of peace?

      ¤Write an essay on the importance of physical examination in psychiatric practice?

Time yourself and give yourself just one and half hours and nothing more.

Formulate your essay plan, and write two essays on your chosen topics following good essay writing techniques. (some of which are outlined below)

When you are done you would know how much to put down in paper, so that you won't try to expand on a extensive essay plan and run out of time, or only have little time left for the second essay. (a common problem with many candidates)

(don't forget to mark your essay, you can be harsh, and learn from your mistakes)

• Good essay writing techniques
  
  Find out the hot topics by talking to people, looking at journals, and other media. (we also would try to include them in the site)
  
  Find out interesting and important topics that appear in the exam time and time again. (e.g. resistant schizophrenia, CBT, community care, service provision, etc)
  
  Make a list of all these important topics and study them, better still make essay plans, you will be able to use at least parts of these on the day.
  
  For each topic make a list of few key references, and study them.
  
  Before the exam aim to write few full essays as well. (it will be better to get somebody to mark your full essays, rather than essay plans)
  
  You may write the first one or two without time restrictions but keeping within your essay size (see above). If you try to produce material of good quality in these attempts these will give you a standard to aim for later on and also at the exam when available time is limited.
  
  Later on when you write practice essays it is always better to write two essays giving you one and half hours rather than writing one in forty five minutes.
  
  
  
  Examiners will look at 

•    legibility, (readable hand writing) layout literacy and
     spelling

•    development of ideas and use of logical arguments

•    sound knowledge and coverage of subject

•    use of research findings and references

Therefore it is important always to keep these in mind when you are writing, as at the examination when you are under pressure and anxious it is easy to produce material of poor quality (difficult to follow hand writing is the biggest enemy) especially if you lack practice.

Essay practice in a group is an excellent way of covering a lot of material effectively in a short time.

Allocate time for targeted reading. Making your own notes or mindmaps® of important journal articles is a good strategy. At least read the abstract (and make your own abstract) of the important research papers.



Suggested reading


   
Text books

• British Journal of Psychiatry (essential to look at least twelve issues before the exam)

• Psychiatric bulletin (as above)

• Evidence Based Psychiatry 

• Advances in psychiatric treatment