Respiratory
Cardiovascular
Abdominal
Cranial nerve, upper limb or lower limb
Performance of examination
Signs elicited
Intepretation of signs
Understanding of diagnosis
Given the relatively limited number of exams available, these should well rehearsed and executed.
Total: 10 minutes
Examination: 6 minutes
Examiner discussion- presentation and questions: 4 minutes
Reasonable to aim to complete the examination in 5 minutes during practice to allow for 1 minute of processing time or 4 minutes on a co-operative volunteer without signs.
Sources of delay
Variable actors/ patients
Adequate exposure
Unclear signs
Signs
Primary differential with other differentials
Signs of complications or unwell
Complete examination- history, examination, observations
Investigations
Management
If confident can open with primary differential. Personally I think it is quite brave to state 'my diagnosis is' because most conditions are not diagnosed from clinical examination. For example, aortic stenosis is really diagnosed on ECHO, not examination. If confident, it can be useful to front load your presentation, but is higher risk.
It is very easy to forget some of the milder signs during presentation, hence finishing the examination with some time left is helpful to prepare for the presentation.
A good presentation can mask areas of low clinical confidence by explaining the topic on your terms and using up the examiner questions time.
The most unpredictable part of the station.
The examiner will want to:
Be clear about the signs you identified (and perhaps prompt you if you failed to mention ones you found)
Understand your logic between signs and diagnosis
Examine your understanding of the condition: pathophysiology, investigations, management
If you don't know, don't guess and keep your answers short- far better than saying something totally wrong
This part will be over quickly- try and hit the key points and avoid too much depth of detail
Written in 2026.