The UK Medical Licensing Assessment (UKMLA) is sat by final year UK medical students and consists of an applied knowledge test (AKT) and a clinical and professional skills assessment (CPSA). This book is tailored to help medical students prepare for both aspects of the UKMLA with a focus on ophthalmology and neurology helping medical students feel more confident towards exams.
Given the limited time medical students are often assigned for ophthalmology placements, it is of little surprise that ophthalmology is met with great fear appearing on medical school examinations. This book does a great job of providing a firm foundation for the user to develop thorough history taking and examination skills as well as answering multiple choice questions.
The book is well organised, taking on a UKMLA-centric approach. The contents page lists the specific conditions mentioned on the UKMLA specification and assigns a priority ranking system to help the reader focus on high-yield conditions, a unique and helpful feature of the book further reinforced by every chapter having a summary which maps out the chapter content onto the UKMLA specification.
Sections 1 and 2 focus on history taking and clinical examination, utilising diagrams and pictures to help readers visualise. I particularly like how it zooms in on specific presentations – for example, a red, painful eye or gradual change in vision, drawing out key aspects of the history or salient points of the examination to focus on, based upon the presenting complaint.
Section 3 focuses on specific conditions, providing a comprehensive overview on associated anatomy, definitions, signs, symptoms, visual representations of investigation findings and management. While I think some chapters go into more depth than needed at undergraduate level, the chapter summaries help to highlight the key pieces of information. Chapter 43 is specifically dedicated to neuro-ophthalmology.
What really sets this book apart is the exam-oriented approach it adopts. The inclusion of short, best-answer questions and clinical cases, reflects clinical scenarios of similar a difficulty to what an undergraduate medical student can expect to be tested on in the AKT and CPSA.
To conclude, this book is an invaluable resource for medical students preparing to sit the UKMLA examinations, worrying about ophthalmology related presentations. The book goes over and beyond what you need to know and is worth its value for those investing in a career interest in ophthalmology.
