- Dr Manal Musa
Earlier this year, the Royal College of Surgeons conducted the MFDS Exam online due to covid restrictions and uncertainty.
On 5th April, 2022, I appeared for the exam online. I was pretty nervous honestly. Exam stress was on one side and taking it online was a whole other worry as it was my first time taking an exam online.
The Royal College Exam Team had sent System Check method and guide well before the exam date but to be honest, the guides were multiple and in the form of extensive booklets. With the exam stress on my mind, I never found the time to read them properly until 2 days before the exam.
This was a drawback on their end too I suppose. The guide had demo videos too, that I had watched, but the text was too extensive. I believe it should've been to the point and shorter to make it reader friendly.
The requirements like having a separate WiFi connection, perfectly working computer and mobile devices for exam and invigilation, respectively and a couple more things like tripod etc would've been a hassle and pretty stressful to arrange and manage if I were alone. Thanks to my husband's support, I was relieved about this and had left it to him. Nonetheless, an online exam being an online exam, gave an unusual system error regarding the webcam that got me panicking but luckily it was before the exam started and my tech-geek husband fixed it.
After passing the system check, the screen went blank. I kept staring into it for a good 3 or 4 minutes because I had no idea what was going on. There was a chat box available on the bottom throughout the exam for assistance but unfortunately they weren't prompt in their replies. Also, I wasn't allowed to switch tabs or open anything else. So, after 4 minutes of anxiety, I got a reply that I would receive my exam link soon. Those 4 minutes seemed like forever.
Once the exam started, it proceeded smoothly. It was divided into 2 sections, 75 MCQs each with a 10 minute break in between. There was a timer on top of the screen and a progress bar on the side. You could flag questions you wanted to revise or attempt later on and there were no interruptions during the exam Alhamdulillah. I completed and submitted the exam within the time given that was 3 hours and the rest is history. :D
Overall, I would rate the exam experience as mildly intimidating, maybe because you are all alone in the room and there isn't anyone else who is taking the exam with you, or who is invigilating you. This adds to the exam anxiety. However, this is a very small issue and if you are well prepared and confident, I believe online exams do save a lot of time and money.
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