General information
Even though you’ve quickly settled into the daily routine at the pharmacy during your clinical year and have, in fact, put all the exam stress leading up to and surrounding the Second State Examination behind you, the accompanying teaching sessions will remind you, if nothing else, that there’s still an exam to come.
You’ll normally receive the registration form from the Examinations Office along with your Second State Examination certificate. You should just keep an eye on the registration deadline – or note it in your diary – so you don’t forget it. At this stage, you can only speculate about the actual examination period or date. You will only be given the exact date around two weeks before the actual exam. And, unlike with the second state examination, you won’t know who the examiners are until they are standing in front of you on the day.
At some point – for some, a few months; for others, a few weeks – before the end of the practical placement, the revision phase begins. The easiest way to start is with the lecture notes, as various lecturers also act as examiners for their own subjects. The Bavarian Chamber of Pharmacists makes updated or revised lecture notes available on its website. However, it’s definitely worth downloading all the notes (not just those relating to the lectures) for each block seminar shortly before the final exam. In some cases, subject areas are assigned to new lecturers/examiners, and one may explain it slightly better, slightly worse, or simply differently. However, you can also tick off quite a few lecture topics as ‘covered’ and, with a bit of confidence in leaving gaps, simply skim through them. As a supplement to the subject area of Business Administration, the free Sanacorp book is recommended; it summarises the lecture notes from the various (Sanacorp) Business Administration lecturers in a handy compact format.
Despite all the studying, with every day that passes as the exam approaches, you find yourself thinking that you know even less than you did the day before. This is perfectly natural and, with a few exceptions, has been the case for everyone. After all, the actual scope of the Third State Examination is vast. And, just as in real-world practice, you’ll never know everything on the spot – nor does anyone expect you to. It’s more a question of not letting yourself get flustered and, if there are gaps in your knowledge, saying that you can’t answer that precisely right now but can look it up here and there, rather than spouting nonsense. Later on in clinical practice, people’s lives may depend on it, and if you’re unsure, it’s better to err on the side of caution than to rely on half-baked knowledge.
When the big day finally arrives, you can’t wait to slip into your smart suit, having not slept a wink the night before. Outside the examination hall, you’ll meet one or two others in the same boat, as there are usually two people being examined at a time. When the appointed hour finally strikes, you’ll be asked by the examiner to enter the relevant room. There’s a large table here, with two empty chairs on one side, a pile of papers and reference material on it, and at the other end sit the four examiners and the secretary (who usually doubles as one of the examiners).
Once you’ve taken your seat, the first examiner usually hands one of the candidates a prescription or some other document and says, ‘We’ll talk about that in a moment.’ He then begins questioning the other candidate until the egg timer rings (really!). Then it’s the first candidate’s turn again, and they are immediately asked to explain the text they were given. Meanwhile, the other examiners remain silent or feign disinterest in what is happening. Once the current examiner has finished with both candidates, the same little game begins with the next examiner.
At some point, after an estimated thirty thousand hours – though it actually took just under two hours – the exam is over and both candidates are asked to leave the room. It is difficult to put into words the state of mind one experiences in the minutes that follow. However, this is irrelevant, as shortly afterwards one is asked to return to the ‘chamber of horrors’, though this is normally accompanied by the examiner’s handshake and the words “Congratulations! You’ve passed” from the examiner. The examiner then announces your individual marks in the two examination subjects, after which you’re already on your way out again. The state of mind that follows is also almost impossible to put into words. You’ve done it – you’ve achieved what you’ve been working towards for years. Now all that remains is to celebrate your well-deserved success before plunging into the day-to-day realities of your career a few days or weeks later. However, for administrative reasons, you’ll have to wait a good two months for one thing – your licence to practise medicine.