MCPS Family Medicine study plan

Build a one-page map of the top 15 adult primary care presentations (hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, COPD/asthma, thyroid disease, CKD, anemia, anticoagulation, infection, GERD, headache, back pain, fatigue, preventive screening, polypharmacy) and rank them by your baseline confidence.

Work through 40 board-style items on hypertension and diabetes and write a two-line rationale for each miss that names the discriminating fact.

Draft a personal antihypertensive and glucose-lowering selection algorithm that ties drug choice to comorbidity (CKD, heart failure, pregnancy potential, cost).

List the adult preventive screening intervals you must recall cold (colorectal, cervical, breast, lung, AAA, hepatitis C, osteoporosis, immunizations) and self-quiz them aloud.

Convert your week-1 error log into 25 flashcards and review them on three separate days.

Practice 30 items on endocrine, renal, and hematologic adult problems, timing yourself at 90 seconds per item.

Write short worked explanations for the five adult topics you scored lowest on, each ending with the single best next step in management.

Rehearse interpreting common adult labs (CBC, CMP, TSH, HbA1c, urinalysis, INR) by writing the three most likely causes of each classic abnormality.

Build a growth-and-development checklist covering well-child visits from newborn through adolescence, including the milestones and red flags you must recognize.

Work 35 items on pediatric fever, otitis media, bronchiolitis, asthma, and gastroenteritis, and record the age-specific dosing or referral threshold for each miss.

Assemble a prenatal care timeline that names the tests and visits by gestational age, including first-trimester screening, anatomy scan, glucose tolerance testing, and group B streptococcus screening.

Practice 25 items on contraception, abnormal uterine bleeding, and cervical cancer screening, and write the contraindication that drives each answer.

Draft a one-page labor and delivery triage sheet covering preterm labor, preeclampsia, postpartum hemorrhage, and fetal heart rate categories.

Complete 30 items on menopause, osteoporosis, infertility basics, and sexually transmitted infections, and note the screening interval or treatment threshold behind each.

Write a screening-and-counseling script you could deliver in under three minutes for a patient due for mammography, cervical screening, and colorectal screening.

Map the notifiable disease reporting requirements and adult immunization schedule into a single lookup table.

Work 25 community medicine items on outbreak investigation, sensitivity and specificity, lead-time bias, and study design, then recalculate two problems by hand.

Work 30 items on acute abdomen, hernia, wound care, burns, and postoperative complications, and write the classic presentation and first step for each missed diagnosis.

Build a fracture and injury pattern table linking mechanism to expected finding for the ten most commonly tested musculoskeletal injuries.

Practice 25 items on joint pain evaluation, low back pain red flags, and osteoarthritis versus inflammatory arthritis, and state the test that best separates each pair.

Demonstrate on yourself, in writing, the Ottawa ankle and knee rules, the Canadian cervical spine rule, and the approach to a septic joint.

Work 30 psychiatry items on depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, substance use, and suicide risk, and write the screening tool and first-line treatment for each missed diagnosis.

Draft a medication safety checklist covering interactions, renal and hepatic dose adjustment, pregnancy categories, and the drugs that require monitoring levels.

Practice 25 pharmacology items on antibiotic selection, anticoagulation reversal, and adverse effect recognition, and record the mechanism behind each missed answer.

Write a five-minute safety-planning and motivational-interviewing dialogue you could use in an actual visit.

Work 25 pathology and laboratory items on anemia workup, electrolyte disorders, acid-base interpretation, liver enzymes, and tumor markers, and solve three acid-base cases step by step.

Build an ethics decision framework covering capacity, informed consent, confidentiality, minors, and end-of-life care, and apply it to five short vignettes.

Practice 20 communication and professionalism items on breaking bad news, medical error disclosure, and interpreter use, and write the opening line you would actually say for each scenario.

Review your cumulative error log and flag every item you have missed more than once.

Retake a full-length mixed practice exam under timed conditions and record the score by domain.

Review only repeat-miss items and the ten highest-yield facts from each domain, and retire cards you now answer correctly twice.

Rehearse a two-minute test-day routine covering pacing, flagging strategy, and how you will handle a question you cannot reason through.

Write a final one-page summary of the twenty facts you are most likely to forget and commit to reviewing it the morning of the exam.