Written boards 2014

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

okayplayer

Senior Member
Lifetime Donor
15+ Year Member
Joined
May 15, 2005
Messages
1,526
Reaction score
1,746
Are you guys starting to ramp up the studying? Time for me to get my ass in gear.

My plan is lots of questions (M5, ACE, OpenAnesthesia, Matthes book primarily). Fill in major gaps with M&M. As of yet I've not done much of either but that's got to change!

Members don't see this ad.
 
Are you guys starting to ramp up the studying? Time for me to get my ass in gear.

My plan is lots of questions (M5, ACE, OpenAnesthesia, Matthes book primarily). Fill in major gaps with M&M. As of yet I've not done much of either but that's got to change!
I would like to know what the M5 book and Matthes book are please? I am using all that you mentioned with faust.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
One month left. So painful to study. Pretty much focusing on M5 and OpenAnesthesia Qs at this point because they are the least painful and seem highest yield.

Hoping for a pass.
 
I'm with you okplayer. 4 weeks then life begins again! Anyone with words of advice as to how they studied for the last few weeks of crunch time?
 
I went through m5 and hall twice each, and about 600 ACE questions. A buddy recommended the Matthes book a few week ago and I like it a lot. Many of the questions are challenging (the pharmacology section killed me)....but it covers a lot of material which I didn't see in m5 or hall (never liked hall!) We'll see if it works. One month left guys...time to power through :)
 
Written boards used to be 7-10 days after residency.

Now they are around 28 days after residency.

Do you guys work right after residency? Or take the month off?
 
I took one week to move and get set up in my new town and then I start. It sounded good on paper because I wanted to start making money and my group wanted me there so they could take vacation because they are stretched fairly thin (small group). I thought I would be okay with less study time because I had been consistently 65-85th percentile on every ITE and AKT. Now I am regretting it because I am not anywhere near where I need to be with my knowledge base and I feel pulled because of the move, setting up the house, and the new job. Time to quit bitching and just get it done.
 
I started my fellowship on July 1st.. It was painful.

I recommend doing as many questions as possible. Hall was probably the most high yield. Ace questions were okay. A few guys I knew did M5 and had a great things to say about them.
It's a tough test..Good luck!
 
Members don't see this ad :)
i don't like the format of M5. Would rather like more of a usmleworld type scenario where u can take timed tests and see how udid by subject at the end. anesthesiaprep does this, buit their questions suck!
 
Crunch time. Last minute preparations? Good test taking snacks? Other than my usual studying, I did hall, kombrick, m5, anesthesia prep and open anesthesia for keywords with less than <50% correct. Maybe over kill but one can never be too safe.
 
I found Matthes much better for my study techniques.

Hall has been recycling between editions with minimal, if any updating. To my eyes, it didn't reflect what was asked on ITE or what ABA has been putting out for questions.

I abandoned Hall beginning of my CA-3 year, and haven't missed it.

My only critique of Matthes is that I would like: If the question is related to a known keyword at time of publication, tag it in the answer. Anything outside of keywords from it seem to be stuff that is high yield.

I have taken the month off while waiting for licensure and final employment stuff (got ill in my CA-3 year, wanted to get better and finish rather than delay and do all at once.) So I have been putting in some good time during the day, and letting the mind decompress and Zen so I can focus on the exam.
 
Hall and Baby Miller. That is all you need.

In my opinion, writtens were on par with, or even slightly easier than, the ITE's.

A few more random/bizarro questions but hard to say if those are experimental topics or what. Still lots of softballs. Good luck.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Confused about this old ITE question.

Following pneumonectomy, a paralyzed patient being mechanically ventilated has the following arterial blood gas values: PaO2 71mmHg, PaCO2 55 mmHg, pH 7.29, SvO2 45%. The most likely explanation for this SVO2 is:

A) decreased red cell mass
B) high cardiac output
C) hypothermia
d) peripheral left to right arterivenous shunt
e) ventilation/perfusion mismatch.

Listed answer is A. ? What am I missing
 
I think they are saying B ( high CO ) would increase mixed venous above normal, C (hypothermia) would do the same in a paralyzed pt i.e. Lower metabolic rate, no shivering. D, left to right shunt should also increase mixed venous. Choice E, V/q mismatch can lead to a decrease in mixed venous, but the arterial pO2 is high enough to exclude that as the best answer. You're left to assume A, as a low enough Hct will cause your O2 carrying capacity to drop, O2 extraction ratio to increase, and mixed venous to fall, even in the face of adequate arterial pO2.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Wanted to use some necromancy to resurrect this thread. The reason is for books and methods that you think got you through it.

Started early in my CA-3 year. I used the Matthes question book as my primary book for questions. I also bought all the questions from Open Anesthesia. Big Blue was a guide for the psychology of the questions (i.e. the thought process behind what they were asking,) and I read Barash again in my last year.

Questions I got wrong were researched, and I entered them into word documents made by keyword subject and reviewed again. Barash was my book to go to for further reading. By the end, I ended up writing 439mb of notes, most of which I started at the start of my CA-3 year.

I was pretty intense with it. I was staying with some friends in July. When we went out to eat with one of their parents, I was multitasking holding a conversation (the Dad was happy to be surrounded by guys, he had raised all girls...poor bastard,) and going over the OA questions. Everyone was cool with it, and I thanked them for their patience. For the month of July, I was up early, and read, read, read, until around midnight. I zoned out the world to the Dark Knight Trilogy soundtrack, Backdraft, and Gladiator. None of it got old. Yes, I had that "Rise" chant going through my head the entire exam. But it kept me going.

I took two nights completely off during the entire time, both times were to go clubbing to let my brain unwind with the gothic music. And, it let me view some rather interesting and cute people of the female human persuasion.

Day before, I checked into the hotel early, got some food, pool time, re-read things before going to sleep. Got to the test center early, warmed up a bit with one bank of the OA questions, left all the electronics in the car, and went into the testing center.

So, what did everyone else do?
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
I used M5 extensively. In the few months before the CA3 ITE I worked my way through M5. Did well on it, which I attribute mainly to that question bank.

In the few months before boards I did the following:
1. Went through M5 again very slowly and took tons of notes on the explanations as I went through.
2. Found my missed key word reports from CA1/2/3 ITEs and looked up every single missed key word topic on either OpenAnesthesia (this is awesome they have that feature) or google if I couldn't find it on OA
3. Did 2-3 ACE sets and took notes. They were good but I felt it was taking me too long to get through
4. Did the OpenAnesthesia questions from their app and took notes
5. In the three days before the test, all I did was review all of my notes from the past few months (probably 500 pages worth at this point). This was very helpful for jogging my memory, especially on easy to forget topics (statistics, resp phys equations, how various diseases respond to SCh/nondepolarizers/etc).

I did not take any time off before boards except the weekend before, but I was diligent about coming home every day after work in July and putting in 3-4hrs, no matter how exhausted I was.

It worked for me. Good luck to you all.
 
I did M5, all Ace books 5a-11a, open anesthesia questions, bits of big blue. I think ACE was most beneficial.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Took the month off before to move and study. Did nothing for ite as a ca3 and did ok (65%ile). Studied 4-5 hrs/day for 3 wks prior. M5 for 2.5 wks, open anes questions in between. Finished with an ace or two and last two days reviewed notes from m5. Felt very prepared and was very glad to have the month to study and relax.


Posted using SDN Mobile
 
I admire the tenacity of many of my colleagues on here. I am almost embarrassed at the lack of preparation I put into this thing, but to be honest I put a fair amount of TIME preparing for the ABA. It's just that I can never seem to cover the ground that many claim. It's been that way through all of med school as well for the Steps.....

Read through Jensen x2 with annotations in 3 months leading up. M5 x1 in the 2 weeks prior to the exam. Probably M5 x1.5 in the 2 years prior.......

I don't recommend this at all, but I just don't know how folks make it through multiple Q banks, multiple times through........ Same for USMLE World. I recall people making it through 2 and 3 times +.......

I'm glad that, while reading and development never ends, this standardized testing business is coming to a slow down period. Just think of our last 8 YEARS. Steps1,2,3. AKTs. ITEs..... ABA...... Yikes.
 
It's all about repetition, concept recognition, and your ability to recall. I did old study guides, hall, m5, anesthesia prep, OA keywords, then reviewed high yield websites for tee, nyosora, dlt/one lung ventilation, and ob basic physiology review. All about 6 weeks prior to my exam. I skimped out on neonatal and pedi and do not regret it. Passed pretty easily.
 
I did M5, all Ace books 5a-11a, open anesthesia questions, bits of big blue. I think ACE was most beneficial.

ACE is by far the best resource for written boards. I didn't start using ACE until after my last ITE, which is why my ITE scores were either failing or barely passing. Needless to say, after doing nearly 11 ACE exams, I not only passed the real thing, but my score was CONSIDERABLY better than any of my ITEs.
 
Did anyone else's score report have a huge coffee stain on it? I am trying to figure out who to blame- the ABA, the mailman, or my wife. No one is confessing but I have a few leads.
 
Yep, big old coffee stain on the bottom left of the envelope. Guess whichever ABA worker got the job of mailing the letters also was unfortunate enough to lose some coffee. Luckily, most of it did not seep through to my actual report ...
 
So funny, I too had a coffee stain all over my report. At least I could still confirm I passed. I didn't really care much about the rest of the info.
 
Let's see, what did I do...I read BB 3 times and made notes with info supplemented from the Ace exams as well as read Matthes twice. I buried my 65 y/o father in early July from lung cancer so mostly what I did was pray that God wouldn't be so cruel as to take my father and let me fail this freaking test as well. Fortunately I just had to face the one horrible situation. July sucked.
 
Top