Preparing for DNB Examination

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Preparing for DNB Examination Tips for DNB
candidates National Board Of
Examinations Ansari Nagar New Delhi-110029
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• Tips for practical examination
• Please form DNB club in your department with
  fellow DNB candidates in your speciality.
• Plan atleast 1 case presentation per day in the
  DNB club.
• Please remember that in adult learning
  situation, experiential and self efforts are
  most crucial. Your consultants can help you more
  if you have done preliminary efforts yourself.
• Have discussions with your consultants after
  you have discussed the cases in you DNB clubs.

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• In the present system of DNB examination you
  have to clear the practical examination with
  atleast 50 marks in clinical and 50 in viva
  component
• There are long cases, short cases, instruments,
  ward rounds, viva etc.
• In some specialities Objective Structured
  Practical Examination (OSCE) has been
  introduced by converting part of short cases and
  viva components, (ENT, Ophthalmology and
  Pediatrics).
• In principal OSCE would be introduced in other
  specialities as well in near future and this
  would be notified in Bulletin.

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• Examiners expect from you basic clinical
  competencies and basic steps in clinical
  history, examination, investigations,
  differential diagnosis and management.
• The examiners looks for basic points in your
  answers and if you have covered these you will
  get good marks.
• You will have limited time in your examination
  for preparation of cases and unless you are well
  prepared you may not be able to collect all the
  information in the specified time.

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• You should practice the skills of case
  presentation by covering key points in history,
  clinical examination, investigations,
  differential diagnosis, management for common
  types of cases.
• You should refer to the list of sample cases
  for clinical examination and practice in you DNB
  clubs.
• You should write these important key points for
  various types of cases in a diary.
• Remember good presentation in the examination
  is a skill and this differentiate a topper from
  a mediocre student.

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• Tips for Theory Examination
• Please form DNB club in your department with
  fellow DNB candidates in your speciality.
• Plan atleast 1 hour per day of regular self
  learning in the DNB club.
• Please remember that in adult learning
  situation, experiential and self efforts are
  most crucial. Your consultants can help you
  more if you have done preliminary efforts
  yourself.
• Have discussions with your consultants after
  you have discussed the topics in you DNB clubs.
  

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• In the present system of DNB examination you
  have to clear the theory examination first with
  atleast 50 marks before you get a chance to
  appear in practical.
• There are ten short structured questions in
  each theory paper.
• You will get 15-18 minutes to attempt each
  question.
• Usually candidates spend more time in initial
  questions and are left with less time for
  attempting the rest of the questions.
• you are expected to plan your question and
  write what is asked from you. For that you must
  read the question carefully and focus on the
  specific aspects asked.

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• Many a times our handwriting is not good and
  we are not able to convey effectively to the
  examiner.
• Many of us feel that writing more will fetch
  more marks but this is not true. The examiner
  looks for key points in your answer and if you
  have covered these you will get marks
  irrespective to the number of pages you have
  attempted.
• When you do not have much time in examination
  for some questions it is better to highlight key
  points, or draw flow diagrams or diagrams or
  writing key points in bullet form or putting key
  points in boxes or underlining these.

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• You can also improve you handwriting by
  practicing writing alphabets.
• Your letter size should be medium, not slanting
  too much to right or left, and round shaped.
• Remember good presentation in the examination
  is a skill and this differentiate a topper from
  a mediocre student.

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• Tips for Theory papers
• Better preparation
• Refer to previous short questions and write
  important questions topic wise (sample Questions
  and curriculum on website)
• Plan for attempting the questions
• (Important key points, flow diagrams,
  illustrations etc) on a diary
• Discuss with your colleagues ( Have DNB clubs)

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• Tips for Theory papers
• Better presentation
• Easy readability
• Margins- Upper, Lower, Right, Left
• Question number and question
• Letter size and shape( Too small/ big round /
  slanting out wards/ inwards etc)
• Spacing between words, underlying important key
  points/ sentences etc.

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• Tips for Theory papers
• Better presentation
• Easy readability
• Using bullets, flow diagrams, diagrams Boxes/
  squares etc. for highlighting key issues
• Logic organization of the contents or the key
  issues
• Avoiding writing controversial points
• One or two issues in one paragraph

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• Practice by planning for questions
• In your examination you will be having 10
  short structured questions in each theory
  paper. You are expected to attempt each
  question in 15-18 minutes.
• It is therefore important that you read the
  question carefully and plan on one page of
  answer sheet what would be key points and how
  will you illustrate your points by flow
  diagrams, diagrams etc.

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• Practice by planning for questions
• By referring to the sample questions you
  develop a plan for attempting these questions
• You should have a diary where you should write
  your plan for these questions. You should
  discuss this plan with your colleagues in DNB
  Club and later with your consultants.