🧠 Building Clinical Reasoning Skills: Mock Cases for Practice

Strong clinical reasoning is essential for success in both the AMC MCQ and AMC Clinical Exam. Examiners assess not just knowledge, but how candidates gather information, generate differentials, and justify safe management decisions. One of the best ways to sharpen this skill is through mock cases.

🔹 Why Clinical Reasoning Matters in AMC Exams

• MCQ Exam: Tests the ability to choose the “best of five” option, not just recall facts.

• Clinical Exam: Examiners look for structured thinking—how you move from history and findings to diagnosis and management.

• Real practice: AMC expects you to think like an Australian doctor—safe, patient-centred, and evidence-based.

🔹 How Mock Cases Improve Reasoning

• Simulate real exam conditions (time-limited, structured).

• Force you to verbalise thought processes.

• Highlight gaps in knowledge and weak areas.

• Encourage use of a systematic approach (history → examination → differential → management).

🔹 Sample Mock Cases for Practice

1. Chest Pain in a 55-Year-Old Man

• Key steps: Rule out ACS first, then consider PE, pneumothorax, GORD.

• Focus: ECG interpretation, emergency management.

2. Shortness of Breath in a Child

• Key steps: Asthma vs bronchiolitis vs pneumonia.

• Focus: Severity assessment, initial stabilisation, safe discharge criteria.

3. Confusion in an Elderly Woman

• Key steps: Differentiate delirium, dementia, infection, metabolic causes.

• Focus: History from carer, medication review, immediate investigations.

4. Fever in a 3-Year-Old

• Key steps: Exclude meningitis/sepsis early, then consider viral illness, otitis media, UTI.

• Focus: Red flag recognition, parental reassurance.

5. Abdominal Pain in a Young Woman

• Key steps: Appendicitis, ectopic pregnancy, ovarian torsion, gastroenteritis.

• Focus: Targeted history, ruling out emergencies, safe referral.

🔹 How to Practise Mock Cases Effectively

• Role-play in study groups: One plays doctor, another patient, one examiner.

• Use timers: 8 minutes for clinical stations, 84 seconds for MCQs.

• Seek feedback: Focus on reasoning, not just answers.

• Document learning points: Write one-line summaries after each mock case.

✅ Bottom Line

Practising mock cases regularly transforms passive reading into active reasoning. By simulating exam scenarios and refining structured approaches, candidates build confidence, speed, and the clinical judgement expected by the AMC.