Book excerpt: This book is intended to help medical students with their preparations for medical short case examinations, and through this process enhance the depth and breadth of their knowledge of clinical medicine as well as their clinical skills. Though particularly useful to students sitting their final clinical exams, it will also be of interest to more junior students, particularly those who face medical short case clinical exams in their early clinical years. It aims to be useful whether the exam format is traditional or in more modern variations such as the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE).