Afghanistan Comprehensive Specialization Exam study plan

Map every major organ system onto a single-page diagram linking normal physiology to its three most common pathophysiologic failures, then redraw four of them from memory at week's end.

Recite from memory the mechanism of action, signature toxicity, and one clinical pearl for the 60 highest-yield drug classes, and score at least 80% on a self-built flashcard deck.

Work 120 mixed basic-science questions and log each miss by root cause (knowledge gap, misread stem, or faulty reasoning) rather than by topic label.

Build a comparison table of the gross and microscopic pathology of the ten most frequently tested disease processes, including one distinguishing stain or marker per row.

Convert the week-1 schematics into clinical reasoning by writing the mechanism behind ten bedside findings (for example, why hypokalemia flattens T waves).

Derive acid-base and fluid/electrolyte problems from first principles, then solve ten arterial blood gas cases without a reference table.

Interpret 20 electrocardiograms in under 90 seconds each and state the single most dangerous diagnosis to exclude for every tracing.

Commit to a fixed five-step schema for dyspnea, chest pain, and syncope, and rehearse it aloud on eight cases.

Sequence the diagnostic workup for the six highest-burden medical presentations in Afghanistan (tuberculosis, typhoid, brucellosis, ischemic heart disease, diabetes, chronic liver disease).

Distinguish the first-line management of endocrine, renal, hematology, oncology, and rheumatology emergencies well enough to state drug, dose, and monitoring parameter from memory.

Explain the indications, contraindications, and monitoring for the eight drugs most often implicated in serious adverse events in resource-limited hospitals.

Practice recognizing when a medical presentation requires surgical or obstetric referral and state the referral trigger explicitly.

Complete the internal-medicine sweep by teaching back the management of stroke, sepsis, and acute kidney injury to a peer or to a recorded voice memo in under ten minutes each.

Perform the primary and secondary survey of trauma in correct order and name the intervention that kills the patient if delayed at each step.

Compare the presentation and operative urgency of the six commonest acute abdominal conditions, stating the single finding that mandates immediate laparotomy.

Summarize perioperative risk assessment, wound healing phases, and the prevention and recognition of the five commonest postoperative complications.

Outline definitive management and expected complications for hernia, appendicitis, bowel obstruction, gallstone disease, and breast mass, matching each to its anatomic and physiologic rationale.

Describe burn resuscitation, inhalation injury recognition, and wound care planning for a patient presenting more than 24 hours after injury.

Cover the surgical subspecialty basics - urology, orthopedics, neurosurgery, otolaryngology, ophthalmology - at the level of recognition, initial stabilization, and referral threshold.

Rehearse the classification and management of shock, and explain why the same fluid bolus is right in one patient and lethal in another.

Apply the integrated management of childhood illness approach to ten sick-child scenarios and classify each as urgent referral, treat at facility, or home care.

Calculate pediatric fluid deficits, maintenance rates, and drug doses by weight for the 15 commonest pediatric drugs, showing the arithmetic each time.

Reconstruct the national immunization schedule and explain the contraindications and cold-chain requirements for each antigen.

Differentiate neonatal jaundice, sepsis, and hypothermia from normal newborn transition, and state the threshold for phototherapy or transfer.

Map antenatal care contact by contact, listing the screening test, counseling point, and danger sign to be taught at each visit.

Manage postpartum hemorrhage and pre-eclampsia/eclampsia as timed drills, naming drug, dose, route, and the escalation trigger at each step.

Compute incidence, prevalence, relative risk, attributable risk, sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values from raw 2x2 data and explain how prevalence changes the last two.

Distinguish the strengths, biases, and appropriate use of cohort, case-control, cross-sectional, and randomized designs, and critique one published outbreak report against that framework.

Apply the four ethical principles and the concepts of consent, capacity, confidentiality, and justified resource allocation to ten written dilemmas drawn from low-resource practice.

Distinguish negligence from complications and describe the professional obligations that follow an adverse event, including disclosure and documentation.

Rehearse breaking bad news and obtaining informed consent from a standardized script, then self-score against a five-item checklist.

Sit two full-length timed mock examinations and rank the seven domains by accuracy to expose residual gaps.