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Sixth year Clinical Medical student, Ryan Purdy (Worcester College), placed first in the Royal College of Ophthalmology's annual Prize Examination.

Ryan Purdy © Ryan Purdy

The Royal College of Ophthalmology's annual Prize Examination is open to medical undergraduates. Ryan was one of 501 medical students from 40 medical schools across the UK and Ireland who took the exam this year. In addition, the following Oxford Clinical Medical Students also placed in the top 10%:

  • Mark Brookes (University College, Year 6)
  • Archith Kamath (Hertford College, Year 6)
  • Ryan Mamum (Corpus Christi, Year 5)
  • Peter Rae (Pembroke College, Year 4)

The Royal College of Ophthalmology advise that the standard of the exam is deliberately high and those students taking the top places are to be congratulated. The names of students gaining a top 20 place are published and the candidate gaining the highest mark is offered the chance to visit St John’s Eye Hospital in Jerusalem or a monetary prize of £400. 

Questions are mostly based on clinical ophthalmology but other areas covered include ocular physiology, anatomy and pathology as well as genetics of eye conditions and socio-economic medicine relevant to ophthalmology  (for example, blind registration or world blindness).  In the clinical questions all the sub-speciality areas within ophthalmology are covered.