AMC Part 2 and Bridging Courses: A review

Selamat Hari Malaysia to all Malaysians.

It has been ages since I last posted on this blog.

There has been a lot going on in the past few years in between the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, the vaccination drive and the return to pre COVID-19 way of life.

I do hope everyone is keeping safe and in good health.

So today I would like to post about AMC part 2.

There have been a few changes to the AMC Clinical exams since I passed it in 2019.

1. There is no longer any re-test offered if a candidate gets a borderline score. In fact my batch was one of the final cohort to be able to sit for the retest. The retest has 8 stations and the candidate has to pass 6 of them.
2. The passing mark is 10/14. There are 16 stations altogether with 2 stations being “pilot” stations that are not scored
3. AMC has not made it compulsory to pass certain disciplines i.e. paediatrics or obstetrics in order to have an overall pass

One thing I have noticed is that the passing rate for AMC part 2 has declined over the years.

The passing rate for AMC part 2 as quoted by Advanced Med is more or less 30%. It is one of the hardest exams to pass by far.

credit to AdvancedMed for this table

My wife recently sat for her exams 3 weeks ago and fortunately she was part of the 30% who did pass her exams.

She did both the HEAL course in 2021 and then the Alan Roberts crash course in 2023.

She has given me her permission to share her experiences. She took a break from clinical work for about 3 years. She decided to go back into medicine in 2021. She prepared and for her AMC exams after not seeing patients for almost 3 years. She decided to go for the 12 week HEAL course as she felt she needed more guidance seeing her prolonged absence. She sat for her exams in 2021 while working as a RMO working in ACT. Though she got better marks than when she first set for it back in 2018 she missed by one station. She took some time off studying and concentrated on her work for a few months before attempting again. This time around, we practiced together with past year questions and AMC clinical handbook scenarios whenever we had spare time. She enrolled in the Alan Roberts crash course that also included a mock exam. She sat for it a few weeks ago and she passed it convincingly.

Her comments on the HEAL course is that it is suitable for candidates who are rusty in their clinical knowledge. It is a good course that covers all the subjects that needs to be covered. HEAL is excellent in introducing the IMG to the Australian health care system that can be daunting and unfamiliar to those who have practiced their entire career in their home country. However, she feels that the course content is too focused on knowledge and not so much on how to approach the patient during the exam. The AMC exam is not just knowledge based, it is more of a game. There is a template to approach each patient and boxes the examiner ticks when each task is fulfilled. Knowing how to build the rapport with the patient is also taken into account. Having excellent clinical knowledge is always important however, in the exam setting, what the examiner really wants to hear are the key points in order to give you the passing mark. During her 3rd attempt, she already was working for 18 months, and is an Emergency Department registrar in one of the hospitals in Melbourne, she has seen a wide array of clinical cases and most importantly, learned how to talk to the patients. She decided that , in addition to our almost daily role-playing practices of clinical scenarios, she would go for the Alan Roberts one week crash course. She was given chances to participate in the role play and get to see the facilitators in action. The facilitators advised the candidates how they would approach the case during the exams by doing the stations themselves. She already had solid clinical knowledge, she needed to know the strategies on scoring as many points as possible for her to get the passing mark. Thankfully she did and I am proud of her accomplishment.

Now in summary, which course is suitable for you? Is HEAL or Alan Roberts better? It really depends on where you are in your career. My wife’s experience may not be the same as others. We all come from different walks of life even if we are in the same profession. Both courses have helped my wife in her final goal. I hope her insight would help guide you towards you passing the exam.

Till next time