The quick and dirty method. Go over your most recent ITE keywords and write detailed explanations to all your keywords. Openanesthesia.org helps with this. Excellent resource for written boards as they have various detailed explanations to keywords from last 5-6 ITE's or so.
Once that is done, it is question time. Keep doing questions. Hall and ACE questions were the best resources IMO. You will then start to glance at questions and recognize what keyword they are asking about immediately. You will be amazed at how many questions on the real thing are a reflection of this year's ITE. I was.
Begin thinking about those lists you need to make of things you can never remember long term. Try and make them here and there in the next few months and then just stare at them constantly as the test gets closer.
List examples:
Physiologic differences associated with:
-Age, obesity, pregnancy, Neonates
Lab values (FeNa, UrNa, Ur Specific gravity) for
-prerenal vs renal oliguria
Mech of action of all the diuretics
ABG in
-Neonates (birth, hr, day, 7 days), pregnancy, COPD, etc
Flow volume loops in intrathotacic vs extrathoracic obstructions
Pressure volume loops in AS, MS, AR, MR
PFTs in obstructive vs restrictive
You can make several lists on blood products and transfusion. There can be so many questions on transfusion medicine, it's ridiculous. I have a whole set of self-made index cards just on that.
-Monitors, machine, VA facts you think you need to remember.
You see on the real thing you could probably figure out which pressure volume graph is AS, but it might take you 3 minutes to figure out which direction is systole and so on. That is time wasted. You want to see that question and have that picture from your list imprinted in your mind ready to go so you can answer that question in 5 seconds and save precious time and move on.
Lastly, go over the openanesthesia.org keyword section on statistics a few days before the test. This is a way to maybe get 3-4 more questions right on real exam. Power, type I vs II error, Sensitivity vs Specificity, positive vs negative predictive value, etc. If you don't spend an hour or so reviewing statistics, then you are likely guessing on 3-4 questions come exam day. Spend an hour reviewing stats the night before the test, and you are likely going to answer all 3-4 stat questions correctly in one minute time.
