Ophthalmology Written boards

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Studying for the written boards coming March 23, 2010. just got done with the provision series...anybody have any thoughts on the MOC questions???

Also if you had to pick a review book...what would it be Chern or Mass Eye and Ear...

Never taken the boards before but am wondering the degree of toughness of the questions in comparison to the Okaps?

Originally Posted by skydiver123

Studying for the written boards coming March 23, 2010. just got done with the provision series...anybody have any thoughts on the MOC questions???

Also if you had to pick a review book...what would it be Chern or Mass Eye and Ear...

Never taken the boards before but am wondering the degree of toughness of the questions in comparison to the Okaps?

MOC questions are too easy.

I used Chern review (good, brief layout) and MEEI questions (tough, so pushes you).

Definitely harder than OKAPs, but only 4-option multiple choice.

Thank you for your reply.

Where do you think the provision series stand in difficulty levels in comparison to the board questions.

Also what are people studying or people who passed studied to ace the ocular pathology section on the actual written boards?

Originally Posted by skydiver123

Thank you for your reply.

Where do you think the provision series stand in difficulty levels in comparison to the board questions.

Also what are people studying or people who passed studied to ace the ocular pathology section on the actual written boards?

Not familiar with Provision, so can't say.

Pathology is all about pictures. I recommend reviewing all the pics in the BCSC pathology book. I did not use a particular pathology review.

The board exam was today (2012).

I have a headache.

It seems like there is a portion of the test that is straightforward (if it were a US history test, then such question would be "who was the 2nd President of the US). Then there is a larger portion of impossible questions (using the US history analogy such question would be "who was the mayor of Turin, Italy on May 2, 1823?) I know I got a lot of those obscure questions wrong.

What should I do about the impossible questions? I am dead meat. The conferences in my residency were not too good. I've heard that some programs have excellent conferences and actually teach trivia and things related to those obscure questions. I am afraid that reading the books closely for a year until 2013 will not help enough.

Ugh.

Of the 250 questions, how many wrong can you get and still pass? 40? The really sharp people, the 99th percentile, might get 6-7 wrong. Based on the OKAP and comparing another person's score and the list of topics you got wrong, I think that if you miss 10 questions more, you are a bit more than 20 percentile lower. If so 33 questions wrong x 2 = 66 percentile less (33 percentile is about the cut off to pass) so I figure you can get 39-40 (33 + 6 or 7=39-40) questions wrong, that is it.

Originally Posted by Eyeuser

The board exam was today (2012).

I have a headache.

It seems like there is a portion of the test that is straightforward (if it were a US history test, then such question would be "who was the 2nd President of the US). Then there is a larger portion of impossible questions (using the US history analogy such question would be "who was the mayor of Turin, Italy on May 2, 1823?) I know I got a lot of those obscure questions wrong.

What should I do about the impossible questions? I am toast. The conferences in my residency were not too good. I've heard that some programs have excellent conferences and actually teach trivia and things related to those obscure questions. I am afraid that reading the books closely for a year until 2013 will not help enough.

Ugh.

Of the 250 questions, how many wrong can you get and still pass? 40? I think if you get 70 wrong, you are dead meat. The really sharp people, the 99th percentile, might get 6-7 wrong. Based on the OKAP and comparing another person's score and the list of topics you got wrong, I think that if you miss 10 questions more, you are a bit more than 20 percentile lower. If so 33 questions wrong x 2 = 66 percentile less (33 percentile is about the cut off to pass) so I figure you can get 39-40 (33 + 6 or 7=39-40) questions wrong, that is it.

Chill and await the results. You may be surprised. I felt about the same way about the WQE as I did about the OKAP. For all of them, I had similar anxiety. Did fine on all.

I'm just a med student, so I know nothing about all of this, but how difficult is the written exam compared to, say, the ophthalmology shelf exam taken in 3rd or 4th year of med school?

Originally Posted by Visionary

You may be surprised. .

The exam statistics look bad....

2009: 52 1st time takers failed, 70 re-takers passed
2010: 80 1st time takers failed, 36 re-takers passed
2011: 70 1st time takers failed, 60 re-takers passed

total: 202 1st time takers failed over 3 years
only 166 re-takers passed, leaving 36 failed. Over 10 years, that may be 120 people who cannot pass. That is a lot of education wasted..120 people.

The statistics show that 70-100 re-takers are failing.

If everyone passed, the number of re-takers passing would be about the same as the number of 1st time takers who failed. This isn't the case.

Ugh.

Is anyone aware of any other boards that have higher fail rates? I have lots of colleagues in internal medicine and seems like all their subspecialty pass rates are between low 80's to low 90's. When they complain about studying for it I'm just like give me a break. I've never seen/heard of any board pass rates consistently around 70% like ophtho...has anyone else?

Originally Posted by jbloggs

Is anyone aware of any other boards that have higher fail rates? I have lots of colleagues in internal medicine and seems like all their subspecialty pass rates are between low 80's to low 90's. When they complain about studying for it I'm just like give me a break. I've never seen/heard of any board pass rates consistently around 70% like ophtho...has anyone else?

None. I researched this last year. Don't forget that only US/Can residencies are even eligible to sit...unlike other specialties. Derm, Anesth, Rad....all in 90s. ABO claims that's not the case, but I got the figures straight from the other boards newsletters.

Originally Posted by Hemichordate

I'm just a med student, so I know nothing about all of this, but how difficult is the written exam compared to, say, the ophthalmology shelf exam taken in 3rd or 4th year of med school?

How does an algebra test compared to one on differential equations? Seriously, you don't learn jack about ophthalmology in med school.

Originally Posted by Eyeuser

The exam statistics look bad....

2009: 52 1st time takers failed, 70 re-takers passed
2010: 80 1st time takers failed, 36 re-takers passed
2011: 70 1st time takers failed, 60 re-takers passed

total: 202 1st time takers failed over 3 years
only 166 re-takers passed, leaving 36 failed. Over 10 years, that may be 120 people who cannot pass. That is a lot of education wasted..120 people.

The statistics show that 70-100 re-takers are failing.

If everyone passed, the number of re-takers passing would be about the same as the number of 1st time takers who failed. This isn't the case.

Ugh.

I didn't say "hey, I'm sure you passed--it's easy!" I know that statistics. It's just that post-test emotions are not necessarily indicative of performance. It is what it is. No sense in beating yourself up, when you don't even know how you did. If you passed, all that stress is for nothing. If you failed, you hit the books again and take another shot. The education is only wasted if you give up. I know for a fact there are folks who graduated from top programs who were first-time failers of the WQE and/or Orals.

Originally Posted by jbloggs

Is anyone aware of any other boards that have higher fail rates? I have lots of colleagues in internal medicine and seems like all their subspecialty pass rates are between low 80's to low 90's. When they complain about studying for it I'm just like give me a break. I've never seen/heard of any board pass rates consistently around 70% like ophtho...has anyone else?

Not that I'm aware of. I have lot of friends in other subspecialties and it seems like their board pass rates are in the mid-80s to 90s.

I still don’t have the results of this year’s written exam! Why does it take this long? It’s a bloody computerized exam! They should be able to give you your results right after everyone is done taking the test. Just venting….