IGNOU MMEL 106 Practical for PGDGM: Orthopaedics Practical, SDC, Log Book and Exam

IGNOU MMEL 106 Practical: orthopaedics for PGDGM doctors

IGNOU MMEL 106 Practical is the 4-credit Orthopaedics Practical of the Post Graduate Diploma in Geriatric Medicine (PGDGM), Course 6 in the January 2024 Programme Guide. It sits beside MMEL-104 Basic Geriatrics Practical (6 credits) and MMEL-105 Clinical Geriatrics I Practical (12 credits), and it is the orthopaedics practical, built around the musculoskeletal examination of older patients.

The material is a Practical Manual in three blocks (imprint July 2023) and a log book. No assignment is set for MMEL-106, and none of the three blocks prints a marks or exam rule, so those come from the Programme Guide. This page puts both documents side by side.

Across practical courses, the practical side worries learners more than the theory papers do, and people who write their term-end theory papers with ease can still stall at this stage. MMEL-106 is a course of its own, with 50 internal and 50 term-end marks kept apart from the MME theory papers.

At our desk, 70 to 80 percent of learners start moving only in the final month before a due date. For MMEL-106 that month is now: the December 2026 practical course fee closes on 30 November 2026.

We also meet learners who find out about a practical component late in the session. In PGDGM, 22 of the 36 credits are practical, and MMEL-106 accounts for 4 of them.

MMEL 106 Orthopaedics Practical blocks: nine units from hip to physiotherapy

The IGNOU MMEL 106 Practical manual runs to three blocks of three units each, printed with continuous page numbers (Block 1 from page 7, Block 2 from page 51, Block 3 from page 125). Each unit opens with objectives, and eight of the nine close with Check Your Progress questions and answers (the knee unit ends with Let Us Sum Up). The table below maps each unit to the bedside skills it trains and the tests or devices it names.

Across practicals, we see learners hold three versions of the method at once (the manual’s, a counsellor’s and one copied from a senior’s notes) and stall over which is right. For MMEL-106 the guide points to e-Gyankosh and YouTube for how to present a clinical case, and the spine unit links its own examination video, so start there and ask your PSC/LSC counsellor where they differ.

Two PSC/LSC spells, then one-to-one practice at an SDC

IGNOU MMEL 106 Practical is learnt in two places. The Programme Study Centre or Learner Support Centre (PSC/LSC) runs two practical spells a year, tentatively May-June and September-October, and the first spell is clubbed with the induction meeting. During the spells you are posted to departments such as community medicine, medicine and orthopaedics, seeing cases in the OPD or ward as the LSC counsellors decide.

The Skill Development Centre (SDC) is where you practise those skills on your own. The guide describes it as a district hospital, a First Referral Unit or a private set-up identified by IGNOU, with no more than five learners per SDC counsellor, a posting spread over the year and a focus on one-to-one learning. At the SDC, one counsellor each comes from medicine and from orthopaedics, so an orthopaedics counsellor is among the SDC counsellors. The guide notes that no community medicine activity is set at SDC level.

Most learners we hear from are working, many with families too; theory counselling is usually optional, while practical sessions generally are not. For MMEL-106 the guide makes the spells compulsory, and attending them at the PSC/LSC is the first requisite for the term-end practical; a doctor who cannot make one asks in advance for the alternate spell, which is usually arranged zonally.

Practical sessions run on fixed dates, sometimes at a hospital some distance from home, and across courses we see a missed notice cost a learner a whole cycle. The PGDGM guide gives only tentative months for the two spells, so the exact MMEL-106 dates have to come from your Programme In-charge or Coordinator.

Advice passed between friends at different centres often turns out not to match. For MMEL-106 that is built into the guide itself: the SDC schedule varies from learner to learner as per convenience, so a colleague’s SDC days are no guide to yours.

What happens on the orthopaedics day of the term-end practical?

The term-end exam for IGNOU MMEL 106 Practical is held at your Learner Support Centre, usually once a year in November or December. The guide spreads the examination over three days, one day for each discipline, and the Programme In-charge or Coordinator announces the schedule. One of those days belongs to orthopaedics.

• Pattern: long and short cases, slides or spots, and a viva. The guide changes the case only for MMEL-104 (a family work-up); it prints no such change for MMEL-106.
• Examiners: three external examiners, from community medicine, orthopaedics and medicine, and four internal examiners from your own Learner Support Centre (one from community medicine, one from orthopaedics and two from medicine). An observer from IGNOU may also be present.
• Log book: you carry it to the examination and hand it in there.
• Marks: 50 term-end marks, and the guide asks for a minimum of 50% in both the internal and term-end components of each PGDGM course, MMEL-106 included, for clearing it.

The guide does not list which slides or spots will be shown. Block 3 Unit 2 does say you must be able to identify splints, tractions and implants and know where each is best used, which is the closest the manual comes to describing that part.

A viva is easy to treat as a formality, yet across practical courses we see neat paperwork lose its value when the learner cannot explain what was examined and why. The MMEL-106 term-end practical includes a viva, and you hand in your log book at the same examination, so be ready to explain each hip, knee and spine case you recorded.

Learners who contact our desk are often unsure if their practical includes a viva. For MMEL-106 the answer is yes: the guide’s term-end pattern has long and short cases, slides or spots, and a viva.

Your patients, your findings, your signatures

We do not sell MMEL-106 log books, case records or practical files, and nothing on this page is meant to be copied into one. The Appendix I certificate in the guide has a declaration that the information is true to the best of your knowledge, and it is signed by your counsellors at the PSC/LSC and the SDC.

Ready-made practical files circulate online, and some learners hand them in with a new name and enrolment number on top. Copies from several learners at one centre stand out, and the viva shows who cannot explain the work. MMEL-106 adds a check of its own: each case in the log book must be countersigned by the respective counsellor, or it is not considered for internal assessment.

Some learners submit AI-written text as it stands, which is one more reason the same material keeps turning up. An AI summary of hip examination is no substitute for the MMEL-106 findings you recorded at the bedside.

How the IGNOU MMEL 106 Practical internal 50 is split

For IGNOU MMEL 106 Practical, the guide gives internal assessment and the term-end assessment equal weight, 50 marks each out of 100. MMEL-105 and MMEL-106 share one internal scheme of five parts, each weighted at 20%.

The SDC row is what separates this scheme from MMEL-104, whose internal marks come from the PSC/LSC alone. The guide is not consistent on the minimum: its marks table prints the internal 50 with 25 in brackets, while its text asks for at least 15 marks to be declared through the internal component. Clearing the internal component is itself a requisite for the term-end practical. A learner who falls short repeats the practical activities at the PSC/LSC and the SDC, with a fee equal to the readmission fee for practical courses.

Three causes come up again and again in our work: rules reach learners late and differ by centre, practicals assume time and presence that distance learners rarely have, and the record is treated as paperwork rather than proof of skill. The MMEL-106 internal scheme touches each one, with two printed minimums, an SDC posting spread across the year and an SDC counsellor marking from your log book.

Writing orthopaedic cases into the log book

The guide supplies a separate log book for each of the three PGDGM practicals and describes it as the record of the activities and cases you perform. Its rules for the MMEL-106 log book are short:

• Write each case recorded at the PSC/LSC or SDC then and there.
• Get it countersigned by the counsellor concerned; an unsigned entry is not considered for internal assessment.
• See the number of patients the log book sets for each skill.
• Carry the log book to the term-end practical and hand it in there.

In practical records we see more marks slip in the writing than anywhere else, and it is also the easiest part to put right. For MMEL-106 the SDC counsellor marks on performance and the log book, so the entries carry part of the internal 50.

Before: “Saw a patient with knee pain in the OPD, examined the knee.” After: an entry that names the findings (effusion on patellar tap or the bulge test, range of movement, deformity) and the differential the manual teaches for an older knee, such as osteoarthritis against gout. Evaluators across practical courses look for that link, and in MMEL-106 the SDC counsellor reads it in your log book.

A log written in one evening at the end of a posting gives itself away: the same lines repeat, entries land on Sundays and holidays, and the last case reads no better than the first. The MMEL-106 rule to write each case then and there, and to get it countersigned, is the guard against that.

Presenting a hip, spine or hand case the way the manual sets it out

The IGNOU MMEL 106 Practical blocks follow one examination order that suits both the log book and the long or short case. Block 1 Unit 1 sets it out for the hip, and the later units repeat its shape for each joint:

1. History: presenting complaints, then leading questions and relevant negative history for the differential diagnosis.
2. General physical examination and systemic examination.
3. Local examination in the positions the patient can manage: walking, standing, sitting, lying.
4. Inspection, palpation, deformities, movements, measurements and special tests, then the neighbouring joints and distal neurovascular status.
5. Findings presented head to toe and proximal to distal, with negative findings stated, then a differential diagnosis.

The manual also says that when a patient cannot stand or move the hip, those negative findings belong in the presentation too. The spine unit asks you to watch its examination video before reading the text.

Practical write-ups usually expect a fixed order, and a missing step costs marks. In MMEL-106 that order is the manual’s own: history, general and systemic examination, then inspection through special tests, closing with the differential diagnosis.

In test-based practicals we see the same slips: a test done but misread, or a conclusion that the recorded findings do not support. The MMEL-106 manual builds each differential diagnosis from the findings, and its Check Your Progress questions test the link, such as which deformity Thomas’s test assesses.

We have seen work written on assumed data with nothing real behind it. In MMEL-106 each case must be one you saw at the PSC/LSC or SDC, countersigned by the respective counsellor.

Practical form, fee and the date for IGNOU MMEL 106 Practical

To sit IGNOU MMEL 106 Practical you fill the practical term-end form (Appendix II of the guide) and deposit it with your Programme In-charge or Coordinator. The fee rule differs across the documents read for this page:

• The Programme Guide says on one page that no separate fee is paid for the practical form, and on another that the examination fee is Rs 250 per paper.
• The July 2026 Common Prospectus sets the practical examination fee by credits: Rs 300 up to 4 credits and Rs 500 above, so MMEL-106 at 4 credits falls in the Rs 300 slab.
• SED’s notice for the December 2026 term-end examination gives 30 November 2026 as the last date for the project, internship and practical course fee, paid only through your IGNOU Samarth Portal login, and says no fee is accepted after that date.

The Appendix II form also prints “April 31” as a date for the June examination, a day that does not exist, and “October 31” for the December examination, so confirm this cycle’s form date with your Programme In-charge and take fee dates from the current notice.

Many learners who ask us about fees mix up the Rs 300 and Rs 500 amounts. For MMEL-106 the prospectus slab is Rs 300 at 4 credits; the Rs 500 slab applies to MMEL-104 at 6 credits and MMEL-105 at 12.

Many learners expect IGNOU to push each last date by a month and plan around the second date. We do not predict extensions; for the MMEL-106 fee this cycle, the SED notice states that no fee will be accepted after 30 November 2026.

Four requisites before you can sit the exam

The guide lists what a learner needs before the IGNOU MMEL 106 Practical term-end examination. Its sentence promises three requisites, but four are listed:

We see counsellor certificates reach the exam stage unsigned. The MMEL-106 section of Appendix I needs two signatures where MMEL-104 needs one, so ask both counsellors before your postings end.

Learners who keep no proof of submission have nothing to point to when marks go missing. For MMEL-106, a copy of the Appendix II form you deposit and a record of the fee payment from your Samarth Portal login are worth keeping.

The learners who come through practicals smoothly begin early, check rules with their own centre, write up each case on the day it is seen, get each signature while the counsellor is still at hand, and can explain any page of their record unaided. For MMEL-106 those habits cover the spells, the log book and both Appendix I signatures.

Theory guess papers that sit beside the IGNOU MMEL 106 Practical

Our shelf for PGDGM holds solved guess papers for the three theory courses. They are study reference for the theory term-end exams; none of them is a log book, a case record or a practical file for IGNOU MMEL 106 Practical.

For the other PGDGM practicals, the IGNOU MMEL 104 Practical page covers the Basic Geriatrics manual, its family work-up and its single-signature certificate.

Questions PGDGM doctors search about practical status and results

Before the orthopaedics day of IGNOU MMEL 106 Practical, the order that matters is simple: both spells attended, each SDC case written up and countersigned, the Appendix II form deposited, the fee paid through Samarth by 30 November 2026, and your own cases ready to present.

shrichakradhar.com is an independent publisher, not affiliated with, authorised by or endorsed by IGNOU. Our guess papers are study reference material; the MMEL-106 log book, case work and examination are the learner’s own.