2020 oral boards

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dipriMAN said:
Happy they finally did this to assure all the 2020 oral hoard class gets this done.

However, all of us about to register next month for t he 2021 exam are in complete limbo. I wish they would just commit to virtual exams for the entirety of 2021, feels like the same run around for our class.
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I’m willing to bet they do virtual for your class too. It really should’ve been done years ago imho.
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The OSCE is probably going to be similar to the computer based problems in Step 3. Complete waste of time and money.
 
Anyone have any updates or hints as to when in 2021 the make up exams will be? Some colleagues said they’re expecting January or February 2021.
 
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Can’t remember if I read this on the ABA website or the person on the phone told me when I called back in July but I think I heard they will start testing in March and will tell us about 3 months ahead of the day that we are going to be scheduled. Would be surprised if testing started before that.
 
The last email the ABA sent stated “spring 2021”. And that our dates are already selected but they will tell us in November. I’m just curious if anyone has heard differently?
 
Hi everyone! I will be taking my oral boards this coming year and wanted to know how you all prepared. I keep hearing about UBP. Is that a textbook or just stems and answers? I've heard about the Ho course, is that worth it? Is his review book good? Thanks!!
 
Is anyone here one of the lucky 88 that get to beta test this virtual exam in December? Apparently if you do that and fail it in December, you're able to take it in the spring with everyone else, no penalties.
 
DaisyBuchanan said:
Is anyone here one of the lucky 88 that get to beta test this virtual exam in December? Apparently if you do that and fail it in December, you're able to take it in the spring with everyone else, no penalties.
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Not surprised. ABA must feel like they need to deflect some of the inevitable issues they’ll have in December.
Although I will say, why not just have everyone in December test the system and automatically pass them.
 
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Has anyone had luck in emailing them back to change their date or time? Currently sitting on a 5am exam time I'm not excited about.
 
drsamzie said:
Has anyone had luck in emailing them back to change their date or time? Currently sitting on a 5am exam time I'm not excited about.
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You may actually have a real, working anesthesiologist testing you if they’re doing it before work, which is probably a good thing! (Compared to the academic, armchair warriors)
 
drsamzie said:
Has anyone had luck in emailing them back to change their date or time? Currently sitting on a 5am exam time I'm not excited about.
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in their latest email they state that if the date/time they originally gave us didn’t work then we can request a reschedule. Deadline for that is Friday I believe.
 
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Poohbear012 said:
Are you guys happy with assigned date/time? Any luck with getting it changed?
Also how are you guys studying for it and for how long?
Are there people taking it in december this year still?

As challenging and stressful this year has been, I have to say it flew by. I cant believe we are in mid November already.
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My date is in 2.5 months. Less time than I wanted to study but I also want to get this exam over with. Also I have no idea when they would reschedule me if I asked for one.

I’m using basically all the same materials I used when the exam originally got canceled. UBP, old ace mock exams.

I’m interested to see how this virtual oral exam goes and how they will standardize it.
 
Is anyone interested in practicing oral boards? I need a study buddy. but I don’t have an exam date yet. My exam could be in mid 2021.
raffithegiraffe said:
Hi everyone! I will be taking my oral boards this coming year and wanted to know how you all prepared. I keep hearing about UBP. Is that a textbook or just stems and answers? I've heard about the Ho course, is that worth it? Is his review book good? Thanks!!
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are you interested in studying for oral boards together? I will be taking oral boards next year , I need a study buddy. Please let me. Thanks
 
Does anyone know how many times we can take the board before they stop us forever and remain forever board not certified? I've heard it's 3?
 
what? we can take exam unlimited times? did not know this.
a lot of jobs ask for board eligibility.. how would you not be board eligible if you can take it forever
 
Most jobs have a time limit for board certification (2-7 years).
Board eligibility is now “ in ABA examination system”
There will always be a position in BFE that wants a body or AMC that would overlook the certification
 
Justice4all said:
Most jobs have a time limit for board certification (2-7 years).
Board eligibility is now “ in ABA examination system”
There will always be a position in BFE that wants a body or AMC that would overlook the certification
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many old folks graduated at a time when board certification isnt as 'required' and didnt take the test... i guess they would be disqualified from many jobs today until they pass the exam.
 
Has there been any updates on the content of the osce? Or anything to guide us in how to prepare? Or are people just studying the old OSCE content. Or is all that info pending...
 
soccerboy2288 said:
Has there been any updates on the content of the osce? Or anything to guide us in how to prepare? Or are people just studying the old OSCE content. Or is all that info pending...
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As of right now the virtual OSCE is exactly like it has always been except there is no Ultrasound portion. You can see the updated outline on the ABA website. There are example scenarios on the website too. lots of prep options out there that are fairly cheap for OSCE portion if so inclined.
 
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Good luck to anyone taking the test today or tomorrow! Let us know how it goes please.
 
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Vergie said:
As of right now the virtual OSCE is exactly like it has always been except there is no Ultrasound portion. You can see the updated outline on the ABA website. There are example scenarios on the website too. lots of prep options out there that are fairly cheap for OSCE portion if so inclined.
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Can you or anyone provide a link? Was hunting around the website but didn't see anything. Thx
 
Where can I find old ABA oral board stems/exams to practice?
 
Any idea how the logistics of receiving the prompts will work this year? Specifically interested in whether you will be able to glance at the prompt while answering the questions and/or write down notes during the period you’re given to read the prompt.
 
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david06 said:
Any idea how the logistics of receiving the prompts will work this year? Specifically interested in whether you will be able to glance at the prompt while answering the questions and/or write down notes during the period you’re given to read the prompt.
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Results are up for anyone who took the test on the 18th.

For the SOE - the prompts pop up automatically, and remains alongside another window next to it where examiners will be. You'll be able to see it at all times. I don't think I looked back. You can take notes.

For the OSCE - mostly the same thing for the virtual patients/surgeon or whatever. The prompts disappeared for the physiologic stuff - but they did warn that they would disappear.
 
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[shameless self-promotion]

It took me a while to wrap my head around how the oral boards are formatted and structured and the resources available on the ABA website, so I made a YouTube video on that and some of the resources I'm planning on using. I hope you'll check it out:
 
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Choo said:
Results are up for anyone who took the test on the 18th.

For the SOE - the prompts pop up automatically, and remains alongside another window next to it where examiners will be. You'll be able to see it at all times. I don't think I looked back. You can take notes.

For the OSCE - mostly the same thing for the virtual patients/surgeon or whatever. The prompts disappeared for the physiologic stuff - but they did warn that they would disappear.
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anyone aware of anyone who failed the 18th exam ? lol

also do they tell us how many of each type of osce questions there are? in terms of ethical vs TEE vs monitors... or is it completely random. can get 7 ethical stations and zero tee/monitor? or is it same for everyone.. for those who failed, osce do they tell us why you failed or do they give you a big F and thats it
 
Would not be surprised if there is some form of NDA, but is there anyone here who has taken the virtual exam who can share their experience. All I really want to know is if the process was smooth and seamless. And how sterile my test area needs to be. (My office area in my apartment is also doubling as my gym, and I already know I’ll have to take down my second monitor.)
 
The impression I got from the webinar was that we could expect 1 TEE station, 1 monitor station, and the rest an assortment of the "soft skills."

I cannot wait to put this test behind me, so I can instead stress about the 60 patients shoehorned into my 20-patient ICU.
 
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anbuitachi said:
anyone aware of anyone who failed the 18th exam ? lol

also do they tell us how many of each type of osce questions there are? in terms of ethical vs TEE vs monitors... or is it completely random. can get 7 ethical stations and zero tee/monitor? or is it same for everyone.. for those who failed, osce do they tell us why you failed or do they give you a big F and thats it
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One of my practice board examiners said one of his former residents was told he needed to take it again, so yeah, they are failing people still.

Also it’s been a real treat practicing on Skype and having my audio cut out right when I say something critical to answering the question. Please jerbus let the sound quality be okay on Zoom.
 
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0kazak1 said:
Would not be surprised if there is some form of NDA, but is there anyone here who has taken the virtual exam who can share their experience. All I really want to know is if the process was smooth and seamless. And how sterile my test area needs to be. (My office area in my apartment is also doubling as my gym, and I already know I’ll have to take down my second monitor.)
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i think only immediate area needs to be somewhat clean. in the q/a they said they can ask you to walk around with your laptop/camera to show the room. well i only got 1 room in my entire apartment (not including bathroom), so if t hey make me do that they will definitely see all the mess.
 
Thepassageofgas said:
One of my practice board examiners said one of his former residents was told he needed to take it again, so yeah, they are failing people still.

Also it’s been a real treat practicing on Skype and having my audio cut out right when I say something critical to answering the question. Please jerbus let the sound quality be okay on Zoom.
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i am not even bothering with practicing on video. i think if i fail, next round will probably in person, unless covid restrictions still not lifted yet by september
 
Justice4all said:
7 years. 3x has be scrapped for 7 years since your residency graduation. So possibly can be 7x
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you are only allowed to take the board exam once per year? i was told you can only reestablish eligibility 1x upon approval by ABA.
so if its 1x per year, you are looking at 7 attempts minimum and 14 attempts maximum. Hopefully pass oral bords in 14 attempts. I wonder what is the max # of attempts someone tried before passing haha

i thought about postponing my exam since dont have time to study with how busy it is, but then itd be way later, and id just be wasting 1 attempt since its only 7 years.. so i figured might as wel just take it and see how it goes and hopefully pass at least 50% of it so future tests will be only 1200$.
 
Not sure if this belongs in a different thread but I'm studying for oral boards coming up soon and would really like to nail down the most efficient approach to answer certain questions like "what are your concerns with this patient" "how would you induce this patient?" "how would you assess this patient?"

I seem to struggle the most with these very open-ended and multi-approach questions.

I did a couple mock orals with some of the colleagues at my practice, and honestly I feel like I'm rambling on and speaking in a very disorganized and unimpressive fashion when it comes to these questions. It may be because I've been studying UBP and their answers are paragraphs long and they make it a point to mention every single comorbidity in the stem.

Some feedback from colleagues that I found of value-

Q: "What are your concerns with this patient?"
"My most pressing concerns are A and B because...C and D" Pick 2 that are of highest priority and then let examiner further probe you for more if necessary

Q: How would you induce this patient?
Don't get caught up in mentioning specific drugs like lidocaine, fentanyl, propofol, etc but focus more on the precautions/preparations taken (aspiration prophylaxis, monitors, preoxygenation, difficult airway equipment, RSI, uppers/downers for HD stability during induction) and then let the examiner ask specifics about drugs if desired.

I'd be interested in hearing from those studying now for the orals or even better, those who have successfully passed, as to any systematic approaches taken on common oral board questions that worked for them. Many thanks!
 
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pasgasser2 said:
Not sure if this belongs in a different thread but I'm studying for oral boards coming up soon and would really like to nail down the most efficient approach to answer certain questions like "what are your concerns with this patient" "how would you induce this patient?" "how would you assess this patient?"

I seem to struggle the most with these very open-ended and multi-approach questions.

I did a couple mock orals with some of the colleagues at my practice, and honestly I feel like I'm rambling on and speaking in a very disorganized and unimpressive fashion when it comes to these questions. It may be because I've been studying UBP and their answers are paragraphs long and they make it a point to mention every single comorbidity in the stem.

Some feedback from colleagues that I found of value-

Q: "What are your concerns with this patient?"
"My most pressing concerns are A and B because...C and D" Pick 2 that are of highest priority and then let examiner further probe you for more if necessary

Q: How would you induce this patient?
Don't get caught up in mentioning specific drugs like lidocaine, fentanyl, propofol, etc but focus more on the precautions/preparations taken (aspiration prophylaxis, monitors, preoxygenation, difficult airway equipment, RSI, uppers/downers for HD stability during induction) and then let the examiner ask specifics about drugs if desired.

I'd be interested in hearing from those studying now for the orals or even better, those who have successfully passed, as to any systematic approaches taken common oral board questions that worked for them. Many thanks!
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practice with people who've been on the other side (real examiners) if possible. honestly i found most of my studying experience to be fairly useless, other than the 2 times i practiced with real examiners, who gave good advice. other than that, just remember, there will be a lot of time pressure (pretty much no time to think before answering the question).

And the other thing is a lot of people here have different experiences, most will pass (its like 85% pass rate), but also means 1 out of 6 fail. None of us (unless examiner) truly knows how they grade this stuff and each examiner is different as well. so take advice with grain of salt (including UBP). I thought UBP was good for knowledge, but the answers are 100x too long. time is super limited on the test and they have to get thru the questions. so get to the point
 
Do they give us BMI or ht and wt? do we need to calculate BMI on exam?
 
nikizee said:
Do they give us BMI or ht and wt? do we need to calculate BMI on exam?
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During practice exams when they ask about BMI or maximum acceptable blood loss...
1612538950922.gif
 
anbuitachi said:
practice with people who've been on the other side (real examiners) if possible. honestly i found most of my studying experience to be fairly useless, other than the 2 times i practiced with real examiners, who gave good advice. other than that, just remember, there will be a lot of time pressure (pretty much no time to think before answering the question).

And the other thing is a lot of people here have different experiences, most will pass (its like 85% pass rate), but also means 1 out of 6 fail. None of us (unless examiner) truly knows how they grade this stuff and each examiner is different as well. so take advice with grain of salt (including UBP). I thought UBP was good for knowledge, but the answers are 100x too long. time is super limited on the test and they have to get thru the questions. so get to the point
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Agree that UBP is way too wordy, I'm just using it as review of content (kinda shocking how much I've forgotten, esp with peds). Care to share to what advice was given to you by those examiners?
 
pasgasser2 said:
Not sure if this belongs in a different thread but I'm studying for oral boards coming up soon and would really like to nail down the most efficient approach to answer certain questions like "what are your concerns with this patient" "how would you induce this patient?" "how would you assess this patient?"

I seem to struggle the most with these very open-ended and multi-approach questions.

I did a couple mock orals with some of the colleagues at my practice, and honestly I feel like I'm rambling on and speaking in a very disorganized and unimpressive fashion when it comes to these questions. It may be because I've been studying UBP and their answers are paragraphs long and they make it a point to mention every single comorbidity in the stem.

Some feedback from colleagues that I found of value-

Q: "What are your concerns with this patient?"
"My most pressing concerns are A and B because...C and D" Pick 2 that are of highest priority and then let examiner further probe you for more if necessary

Q: How would you induce this patient?
Don't get caught up in mentioning specific drugs like lidocaine, fentanyl, propofol, etc but focus more on the precautions/preparations taken (aspiration prophylaxis, monitors, preoxygenation, difficult airway equipment, RSI, uppers/downers for HD stability during induction) and then let the examiner ask specifics about drugs if desired.

I'd be interested in hearing from those studying now for the orals or even better, those who have successfully passed, as to any systematic approaches taken common oral board questions that worked for them. Many thanks!
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For "How would you induce"... if you're at a point where they're asking that question then in addition to all the other things you mentioned they also probably want to know which technique and which drugs (but not necessarily doses). If you have, say, a combative trauma with an unstable cervical fx and neck swelling who you know just ate a baconator 10 minutes ago, they're not gonna let you get away with "I would administer topical and secure the airway awake as to avoid aspiration and SC injury. Next question"
 
pasgasser2 said:
Agree that UBP is way too wordy, I'm just using it as review of content (kinda shocking how much I've forgotten, esp with peds). Care to share to what advice was given to you by those examiners?
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most of what we study are useless. be prepared to explain everything you say. if you say i want to secure airway with xyz, be prepared for the question why? if you say you want to use rocuronium for induction, be prepared to answer why.

one examiner recommended i ask myself why everytime i choose to do something in the OR. 2mg / kg propofol for this healthy patient? why. why 2mg/kg? how fast should i push? how long will it take to work? why am i giving the medications in this order? etc
 
When asked why, what kind of answer are they looking for? This is what i am most familiar with in regards to onset/side effects/this is what the manufacturer recommends/this is what Miller recommends/his is what one esoteric paper recommends?
 
0kazak1 said:
When asked why, what kind of answer are they looking for? This is what i am most familiar with in regards to onset/side effects/this is what the manufacturer recommends/this is what Miller recommends/his is what one esoteric paper recommends?
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I wouldn’t use a paper to defend yourself on the boards as a general rule. If they ask why tie it back to the patient and the specific case. You should be able to defend yourself with a valid reason. There’s multiple right answers on the oral board imo as long as you’re able to give a valid reason and it’s not contraindicated.

When I took my orals they grilled me and questioned most of my decisions even though i knew I was right. it really made me lose confidence in my decisions and made me wonder if I’m an idiot. All they’re looking for is your rationale and that you have solid reasoning for your decisions. If they’re happy with your reasoning they’ll move on to keep the stem moving.

So for example . They might have a patient with a trauma patient with wrist fracture and a full stomach come in on one of your grab bags at the end. The question is what kind of anesthesia would you do ?

You can say general anesthesia with rsi. They’ll ask why ? prevent aspiration in full stomach

Or alternatively a infraclaciular block or supraclavicular block with no sedation. Why ? I don’t want to give them any sedation as they are a full stomach and can’t protect their airway if they are sedated.
 
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I've been looking over some old oral boards questions, and I dunno if they are old-er, but they love asking about thiopental. The US hasn't had access to thiopental since 2011.
 
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Those old questions also seem to always ask about placing a PA catheter in a CHF patient or big vascular case. I mean can you ever go wrong with saying "yes I would place a PA catheter to assess volume status and cardiac function" ? In practice, I can't remember the last time I've placed a PAC since I don't do cardiac.
 
'So what how would you induce this patient? '

'After placement of awake arterial line and TWO double lumen introducers, one with a PA Catheter, and the other with DLIC, and defibrillation pads, I would perform a awake fiberoptic intubation, with no sedation, and only give some midazolam after confirmation of EtCO2."

"For a ASA 1 18yo with no significant PMHx, coming in for a hangnail removal????"

"Yeah, cause you never know."
 
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0kazak1 said:
'So what how would you induce this patient? '

'After placement of awake arterial line and TWO double lumen introducers, one with a PA Catheter, and the other with DLIC, and defibrillation pads, I would perform a awake fiberoptic intubation, with no sedation, and only give some midazolam after confirmation of EtCO2."

"For a ASA 1 18yo with no significant PMHx, coming in for a hangnail removal????"

"Yeah, cause you never know."
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I would also make sure the availability of the heart room. Just in case we need to crash onto bypass. These hangnail cases can be deadly.
 
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