2018 ABA Advanced Results

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Can’t say I’m surprised, unfortunately.
 
They did the same bs to us last year
 
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I have no idea how it can be justified to take as long as it does. Also, be ready for the potential Armageddon the day it comes out where you have the website crashing continuously as everyone tries to check and simultaneously register for their oral boards.
 
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DM27 said:
I have no idea how it can be justified to take as long as it does. Also, be ready for the potential Armageddon the day it comes out where you have the website crashing continuously as everyone tries to check and simultaneously register for their oral boards.
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This happened last year... not the most fun.

What most of us found is that if you register for oral boards on the day the results came out you can pretty much get which date you want. If you wait a few days or weeks then... you might be taking a very late exam. So don’t stress about being the FIRST to register.
 
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What did everyone think? Hard? Easy?
 
Same for me.

As far as the exam, I think it was on par with previous years after reading old threads. Some oddball questions that I never would have thought to study for along with some reasonable questions.
 
Last year there were 2 or 3 "false alarms" of portal down for maintenance before it ultimately came out later than it ever had previously.
 
DM27 said:
I have no idea how it can be justified to take as long as it does. Also, be ready for the potential Armageddon the day it comes out where you have the website crashing continuously as everyone tries to check and simultaneously register for their oral boards.
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If their website truly cannot handle the traffic from <1500 newly graduated attendings, then they're doing things very wrong.
 
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abolt18 said:
If their website truly cannot handle the traffic from <1500 newly graduated attendings, then they're doing things very wrong.
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They can't handle a completely computerized test being returned in less than 6 weeks. They're already doing something wrong. Those tests are literally graded and on a bell curve the minute you click submit. What takes another 6 weeks? Sure, there were a ton of bad questions but even that shouldn't take 6 weeks to sort out.

Dermatology got their results back today. It's a test done over a week or two with physical slides and that's already back
 
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d9sccr said:
They can't handle a completely computerized test being returned in less than 6 weeks. They're already doing something wrong. Those tests are literally graded and on a bell curve the minute you click submit. What takes another 6 weeks? Sure, there were a ton of bad questions but even that shouldn't take 6 weeks to sort out.

Dermatology got their results back today. It's a test done over a week or two with physical slides and that's already back
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They already got your money. Why would they care about what service you provide. What are people gonna do? Refuse to take their boards?
 
d9sccr said:
Dermatology got their results back today. It's a test done over a week or two with physical slides and that's already back
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Don't worry, the punishment for not being smart enough for derm continues well after residency too.


;)
 
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i seriously hope the 2019 dates are not completely filled. Incredibly ridiculous if they expect everyone to register within hours of getting their advanced score report back...
 
caveat87 said:
i seriously hope the 2019 dates are not completely filled. Incredibly ridiculous if they expect everyone to register within hours of getting their advanced score report back...
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Well I can tell you that a 2 hour delay due to
Some IT issue means that I am now in the LAST week available at the end of September. Which is infuriating because now my subspecialty boards are delayed. And I’m not an IMG or anything- straight up Virginia farm boy with no failures or anything.
 
Arantius said:
Well I can tell you that a 2 hour delay due to
Some IT issue means that I am now in the LAST week available at the end of September. Which is infuriating because now my subspecialty boards are delayed. And I’m not an IMG or anything- straight up Virginia farm boy with no failures or anything.
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What has three letters and doesn't give a f*ck: A. B. A.
 
so... what are you supposed to do if you didn't get a spot?
 
ethilo said:
so... what are you supposed to do if you didn't get a spot?
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You email them and call them and hope that they open up more spots or pay to be on a waiting list; or you wait 'till the following year
 
Arantius said:
Well I can tell you that a 2 hour delay due to
Some IT issue means that I am now in the LAST week available at the end of September. Which is infuriating because now my subspecialty boards are delayed. And I’m not an IMG or anything- straight up Virginia farm boy with no failures or anything.
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What does your status as an FMG or IMG have to do with signing up for oral boards?

It's a first come, first serve process.
 
It is borderline criminal how bad the ABA seems to be at properly anticipating the need for oral board exam spots (especially since I assume 90% or more are filled by the people who just completed the advanced exam) which should be a fairly predictable number. There are many scenarios where people's jobs or at least initial raises are calculated based on passing the oral boards. I have a number of friends where their initial promotion (either in pay or position from instructor) is based simply on being board certified.

They are essentially charging you thousands of dollars to wait a year and as a convenient by product they are also denying you (in cases of people I know) $10,000-$20,000 in additional income for a year.
 
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It helps to wait to sign up. The folks that registered right after getting ADVANCED results are taking it in September. I, on the other hand, waited until today and I’m taking the APLLIED in April 2019
 
That has absolutely nothing to do with it. They just happened to open some new slots today. I signed up within minutes of getting my result and got April. The key message for the CA-3s reading this is to sign up ASAP.
 
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POW16 said:
That has absolutely nothing to do with it. They just happened to open some new slots today. I signed up within minutes of getting my result and got April. The key message for the CA-3s reading this is to sign up ASAP.
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But those new slots are better than last week in sept. Just called, apparently you can be put on a wait list. And change fee is 500 bucks!
 
POW16 said:
That has absolutely nothing to do with it. They just happened to open some new slots today. I signed up within minutes of getting my result and got April. The key message for the CA-3s reading this is to sign up ASAP.
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Actually, it does. My point is that the ABA opens up new slots. I just checked each morning until I found one I liked. Those that rushed now have to pay $500, and they MIGHT get a spot they desire. I simply waited and got the spot I wanted.
 
Yeah you got lucky congrats...You could have also ended with a crappy date or no slot at all. My point is that there are no guarantees if you miss the initial opening.
 
User21218 said:
So what’s the best review course for oral AND OSCE?
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There are tons of threads about the orals, I used UBP with good success personally and a couple of Just Oral Boards practice exams (didn’t have the access to examiners others might).

For OSCE just study the ABA website and content outline - it spells out exactly what is fair game and even says which blocks, CVLs and TEE views you’re expected to know. From there I hit NYSORA online for regional.
 
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I can second this. I used UBP PDFs with friends as practice and as independent study material. The UBP cases do not reflect the exam well, but as an aggregate they encompass the majority of the knowledge you will need to be able to discuss and utilize for the exam. The ABA practice stems you can find floating around replicate the exam almost perfectly, but they provide you no explanations or sample responses for the questions asked within the stems. The ABA Applied website describes EXACTLY what you need to know for the OSCE and even goes into what they are looking for in terms of answers.

My personal approach was I used UBP PDFs as practice and for studying content. Once I was comfortable with content for the 3-4 weeks leading up to the exam I focused on doing the ABA Stems with friends to be better prepared for the actual exam content. The week leading up to the test I went over all of the OSCE content from the ABA Applied website and watched relevant YouTube videos to reinforce regional content.

I passed and would 100% do this exact method again if I had to.
 
Also unless you have book fund money to burn, there really isn’t any need to buy the new UBP (or even used) - almost all programs have a set of older PDFs and nearly all of it remains relevant.
 
AdmiralChz said:
Also unless you have book fund money to burn, there really isn’t any need to buy the new UBP (or even used) - almost all programs have a set of older PDFs and nearly all of it remains relevant.
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So you guys are saying. UBP $4500 course isn’t necessary just reviewing old PDF’s ?
 
xtina0 said:
So you guys are saying. UBP $4500 course isn’t necessary just reviewing old PDF’s ?
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Actually I think I found the 6 files of UBP

so UBP + ABA stems + ABA osce blueprint is the secret recipe I guess
 
xtina0 said:
Actually I think I found the 6 files of UBP

so UBP + ABA stems + ABA osce blueprint is the secret recipe I guess
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Each person is an individual. I can’t answer what would work best for you, but this combo worked for me.

My wife HATED me by the end - I had her “examine” me and I was studying out loud by the end.
 
DM27 said:
I used UBP PDFs with friends as practice and as independent study material. The UBP cases do not reflect the exam well, but as an aggregate they encompass the majority of the knowledge you will need to be able to discuss and utilize for the exam.
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This. I bought all 6 of them for the $549 package, and they ship you booklets (I'm used to studying from books), which was nice, but my institution reimbursed me so that's why I was ok with buying it. I also practiced with my colleagues who were also studying for boards twice a week for about two months.

I also recommend Yao and Artusio's Anesthesiology: Problem-Oriented Patient Management. Not to read cover-to-cover, but to elaborate further on what you cover in UBP. I didn't use this to study, but after I took my boards (I passed), I kind of wished I did as my responses would have been much more fluid.
 
Now that score reports are out. Does our percentile matter ?
Is anyone else ever able to see our percentile score ?
 
xtina0 said:
Now that score reports are out. Does our percentile matter ?
Is anyone else ever able to see our percentile score ?
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Your residency program gets the result.

You'd have to give it to anyone else. Some fellowship programs will want to see your score report with the application.
 
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