CA-1 Advice

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Iluvpassingas

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CA-1 here in need of some advice. I'm not the best standardized test taker, but I'm in the mood to study from now till the March ITE and destroy it.

Just wanted your input on this study plan:

Lange Anesthesia (hopefully will have gone through twice)
Hall Q Book (again, hopefully, twice through)

Now the tough one, what is the better review book(s) that I should use (assuming I have access to both) Faust vs. Big Blue? I just want to stick to one, and use it for my ITE and eventual board exam. If anyone with experience with these two books can chime in, and tell me if I should go Big Blue or Faust?!?! I can't decide!!:thumbdown:

Thanks! And congrats to all those that PASSED the writtens, now on to the next one!

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dear lord dont worry with big blue right now. read faust if you want, but your daily reading, the hall book and the ACE questions are more than enough for the ITE (and the written boards for that matter)
 
Faust for sure. Much easier to get through as each chapter is at most a couple pages and you can cover one chapter a day, week, whatever. If you know Faust cold by the time you take your boards and have done lots of questions, you'll be just fine. If you start now and continue reviewing, you'll probably be able to recite Faust from memory ;-) Agree with idiopathic-- don't bother with Big Blue now. You can skim through it before boards to see if there's anything that you didn't get from Faust, but it's not as clinically relevant to your day to day anesthesia life right now. Faust has quick, useful chapters that focus on basic concepts in an organized fashion.
 
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Thanks for the advice. I'll go with the above and focus on Faust for now with my daily readings.

I'll bump this if any more of you experienced veterans want to give more advice in regards to preparation for the ITE's for CA-1s.

Anesthesia rocks!:thumbup:
 
My advice is don't do anything special: prepare for your cases each day, read up on those, and maybe do a little each on basic concepts (eg airways, monitors, muscle relaxants, volatiles, local anesthetics, ect). How you do as a CA-1 doesn't really matter...what matters is that you're not the bottom quartile and that you show marked improvement when you take it again as a CA-2. When it really matters is when you're a CA-3 because it'll be a indication of well you are prepared or not prepared for the real thing.
 
My advice is don't do anything special: prepare for your cases each day, read up on those, and maybe do a little each on basic concepts (eg airways, monitors, muscle relaxants, volatiles, local anesthetics, ect). How you do as a CA-1 doesn't really matter...what matters is that you're not the bottom quartile and that you show marked improvement when you take it again as a CA-2. When it really matters is when you're a CA-3 because it'll be a indication of well you are prepared or not prepared for the real thing.

As above. Study to do well in your cases and pay attention in conferences. That should be more than enough at this point in the game.
 
Lange Anesthesia (hopefully will have gone through twice)
Hall Q Book (again, hopefully, twice through)
Faust
Big Blue

Any of these is fine provided you can make yourself read it once and read it twice. They all contain the same info. The resident's problem is not the quality of the book, it's his/her ability to actually read through it. Many residents are not consistent enough in their reading during residency and fail to read comprehensively (i.e. read the whole book, not the same few chapters over and over).

The Hall questions are pretty tough, I gave up on them and didn't even use them to prepare for my real boards (and I passed).
 
Starting in January of CA 1 year I read all of Lange (M and M) and did Hall Q's.

ITE 39 (97%)

My plan this year: General textbook (reading new Vacanti et al text), Specialty texts, Hall Q's again and ACE exams.

It is important to do well as a CA1 if you plan on fellowship b/c you apply by Nov/Dec of CA2 and some programs ask for ITE scores. One study has also shown that of all the tests you have taken, including USMLE, the CA1-year ITE correlates best with passing the written boards. Many of my CA2 counterparts did not do so hot on the ITE and are hounded by faculty to read more.

If you use Faust, that is fine but make sure you read a solid text for a strong foundation. Faust is great later on for review.

My 2 cents.
 
Starting in January of CA 1 year I read all of Lange (M and M) and did Hall Q's.

ITE 39 (97%)

My plan this year: General textbook (reading new Vacanti et al text), Specialty texts, Hall Q's again and ACE exams.

It is important to do well as a CA1 if you plan on fellowship b/c you apply by Nov/Dec of CA2 and some programs ask for ITE scores. One study has also shown that of all the tests you have taken, including USMLE, the CA1-year ITE correlates best with passing the written boards. Many of my CA2 counterparts did not do so hot on the ITE and are hounded by faculty to read more.

If you use Faust, that is fine but make sure you read a solid text for a strong foundation. Faust is great later on for review.

My 2 cents.

1 year bump.

I'm currently using Vacanti. I'm finding it very good and the explanation to be more in detail to Baby Miller. I read the first 25 chapters in Baby Miller, and I read through the introductory chapters of Lange. I'm currently going through subspecialty chapters (physiology and anatomy) in Vacanti. Did you end up using this book? Did it help even more or not as high yield? I'm a CA-1, BTW. Thanks!
 
Is Baby Miller plus Hall along with reading up on cases enough for ITE 6 month? I see people constantly bashing Baby Miller because it's not detailed enough but it got me 99% on AKT0 and AKT 1 month so I want to try to keep using it
 
1 year bump.

I'm currently using Vacanti. I'm finding it very good and the explanation to be more in detail to Baby Miller. I read the first 25 chapters in Baby Miller, and I read through the introductory chapters of Lange. I'm currently going through subspecialty chapters (physiology and anatomy) in Vacanti. Did you end up using this book? Did it help even more or not as high yield? I'm a CA-1, BTW. Thanks!

I ended up reading M&M again and also read Stoelting's Coexisting Diseases, which is fantastic. Did the Hall Qs and 2 sets of new ACE questions. Scored 43 (97%).

Plan on Vacanti and new ed of Coexisting this year along with ACE q's. I plan on hitting it pretty hard starting in Jan since the real thing hits at the end of July and Ill be a new fellow with little time for comprehensive review. I haven't decided whether I am going to finally use Big Blue (dept pays) and just annotate the crap out of it so when I do review for the real deal I have a nice resource.

Good luck. Reading M&M, baby Miller or Vacanti and doing review Qs is great prep for the ITE.

Baby Miller is a great resource. No it shouldn't be your one source to learn from as a resident but for board review there is no doubt that it is high yield if you know it like the back of your hand. Baby Miller and Hall's review are a winning combo for the ITE.
 
I ended up reading M&M again and also read Stoelting's Coexisting Diseases, which is fantastic. Did the Hall Qs and 2 sets of new ACE questions. Scored 43 (97%).

Plan on Vacanti and new ed of Coexisting this year along with ACE q's. I plan on hitting it pretty hard starting in Jan since the real thing hits at the end of July and Ill be a new fellow with little time for comprehensive review. I haven't decided whether I am going to finally use Big Blue (dept pays) and just annotate the crap out of it so when I do review for the real deal I have a nice resource.

Good luck. Reading M&M, baby Miller or Vacanti and doing review Qs is great prep for the ITE.

Baby Miller is a great resource. No it shouldn't be your one source to learn from as a resident but for board review there is no doubt that it is high yield if you know it like the back of your hand. Baby Miller and Hall's review are a winning combo for the ITE.

You're a CA-3?

Please let me know what you think of Vacanti for ITE prep when you start using it. After I end up finishing this book in hopefully a month, I'm going to start doing Qs. Did you read Coexisting Dz's cover to cover? I'm finding the anesthesia texts, especially Vacanti, to have what Coexisting Dz's likely has anyway? At any rate, I may go through this book a second time, or maybe M&M or Baby Miller a 2nd time. Haven't decided yet. I'll move on to Big Barash and Faust starting Christmas.

In terms of Qs, I have Hall. I will try to get my hands on ACE from an upper level. Also, I have the Barash Q book too.. is the barash book worth it?
 
You're a CA-3?

Please let me know what you think of Vacanti for ITE prep when you start using it. After I end up finishing this book in hopefully a month, I'm going to start doing Qs. Did you read Coexisting Dz's cover to cover? I'm finding the anesthesia texts, especially Vacanti, to have what Coexisting Dz's likely has anyway? At any rate, I may go through this book a second time, or maybe M&M or Baby Miller a 2nd time. Haven't decided yet. I'll move on to Big Barash and Faust starting Christmas.

In terms of Qs, I have Hall. I will try to get my hands on ACE from an upper level. Also, I have the Barash Q book too.. is the barash book worth it?

Yes, CA3

All texts have a section on disease but not in the detail of Coexisting IMHO. Yes, cover to cover. I love the book.

Sounds like you have a plan. Q's are key.

One of my co-residents used the Barash Q book and liked it. I never and most likely will not use it.
 
I think the best determinant of your ITE performance is how much you read throughout the year, regardless of what that is. That said, for questions I think ACE > Retired 1990-1996 questions on the ASA website >> Hall. I don't think Hall is very representative of the ITE or written boards.

I think Baby Miller is terrific. Big Blue is very good but not worth the expense. I don't like Faust or M&M. I've never seen Vacanti. Stoelting and a big text like Miller or Barash should be staples for any resident although they are less suited to review..
 
I guess the issue for me is how does one find time to read 2 texts "at the same time" (i.e. anesthesia text - i.e. baby miller, and coexisting dz's) and do questions while being efficient?
 
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