Plastic Surgery in-service exam

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The plastic surgery in-service exam was last Thursday. Trying to get a sense of what people used to study for it. I feel like there is a lot written for the ABSITE, but not a whole lot for plastic surgery.

- Plastic Surgery Secrets ?
- Michigan manual ?
- old in-service exams?
- Selected readings? (which are awfully long-winded, but very thorough)

Do fellowships look at these scores?

Originally Posted by JimChang

Do fellowships look at these scores?

You bet.

--M

I always found old in-service exams to be the most useful aids.

Originally Posted by Moravian

You bet.

--M

It may have changed in the last few years, but when I was a plastic surgery resident applying for fellowship, there was no place on the application to put the inservice scores. Also, not a single interviewer asked about them. From what I recall from talking to my friends at that time, micro, hand, and cosmetic fellowships all did not ask about inservice scores. Dunno about craniofacial.

Your inservice scores will likely be pretty important to your plastic surgery program though. My plastics program had a minimum score requirement to remain a resident in good standing and be advanced to the following year.

Thanks for all the feedback. Does anyone use Plastic Surgery secrets? Is it a worthwhile read?

Jim-Dawg,

Unfortunately, the In-Service exam is hard to study for because many of the questions are frequently from out in left field). Your score on it, good or bad, doesn't reflex how good of a resident you are. Unfortunately though, programs seems to think it does. Anyway, I have found Janis' book "Essentials of Plastic Surgery" and old in-service exams to be the most helpful. I have also read Secrets twice. You will always do yourself good by reading PRS. There is also a cheap on-the-go mobile iPhone App that hits a lot of the salient points for review throughout the year-- the icon is the Venus de Milo.

I matched into a micro fellowship. I think 1 or 2 out of about 8 programs that I considered asked for the scores. I think they were more interested in USMLE scores that In-Service exams though.

Hope that helps.

BB

I don't think that most Hand/Micro/CF fellowships pay a whole lot of attention to in-service scores. In all of my Hand fellowship interviews I was never asked about them.

Best study aids would be the Janis book and old exams.

We ask the programs from where the residents came from to provide the exam scores. I agree that the scores don't reflect how good of a resident you might be, but it adds to the overall picture.

Hey all,

I've been using the Janis book and was how it compares to the Michigan manual as a pocket reference. Has anyone that's used both have any thoughts on how they compare? I'm trying to figure out which to keep as a pocket reference during AIs.

Thanks!

I find the Janis book to be very useful, but have not used the Michigan Manual. If the Janis book were updated with a little more info/edits, it would probably be the best hands down.