ABA Basic Exam

Read something. Anything. And do some questions here and there too.

 

Seriously, if you read most days and prepare for cases, then you'll be fine. Can do some ITE questions (ACE book) or Hall or whatever near the time of the exam. IT'll be fine. It was a 97% pass rate...

 

Yao is good. Also the UBP books were helpful. The new Faust too. You'll be covered with those 3 things.

 

Never mind, that post was oral board advice

 

Where do they list the pass rate? Also, did everyone get a percentile?

 

Nobody gets a percentile...

 

i would recommend using some of the online qbanks because now that the test is online u have to feel comfortable looking at a computer screen and doing timed exams.

 

Friend did Pass Machine. Thought it was a waste of time. Failed. N = 1.

 

I got key words with my pass letter and about a month later a congratulations for being in top 10th percentile. I wasn't sure if they gave out percentiles to everyone; didn't ask my co-residents as it was merely a curiosity.

 

Did they send out letters for people who got higher than 10th %? Anybody?

 

Not that I am aware of. They did send out a histogram with the national score distribution comparison. There was one individual at our program that tied somebody for the 4th highest score in the country. Nobody knew for sure who it was until that individual received a letter stating they were in the top 10%. If you take the histogram into account, they clearly were higher than top 10%, but there was no recognition other than top 10%.

 

If you score 90th percentile or above, you get a recognition letter. If you fail, you get a score so you can know how close you were, as you prepare to retake the exam. No one else gets a score. The program director gets a histogram that shows where each resident scored but it has no names associated with it, so the only ones they know for sure are if someone failed or if someone got 90th percentile or better. The rest of the resident's scores just show up as blips on the histogram. This gives them an idea of how many beat the bell curve and how many almost failed, but no idea of which individuals fall into each of the groups.

 

You do indeed get a letter stating you got in the top 10th percentile. Would've much rather preferred an actual score report since I didn't do that hot on CA-1 ITE. For the record, I used pass machine (which I thought was pretty meh except for Naveen Nathan's lectures) and did all the Qs, did all of M5 board review, went through 2-3 ACE exams, did pretty much all the Hall q's, and read a little bit of baby miller and M&M. Reading is overrated for tests, just do a million questions.

 

Did you do all that prep you mentioned before ITE, before/after, or just after ITE in prep for Basic?

I'm currently doing M5 questions one block at a time, reading/taking notes, and then listening to pass machine's relevant section. And then reviewing text for that section in Baby Miller. Takes about 2-4 days per topic depending on call schedule, reading for cases, weekends, etc. About 60-90 minutes per day; not too bad, honestly.

I should finish Pass Machine and almost all M5 questions before the ITE; plan on redoing all the M5 questions/reading my notes and adding Hall Q's and pass machine lectures again between ITE and Basic.

I also use the OpenAnesthesia app and keywords during long cases, long breaks, or on call when it's tough to truly "study."

Should also mention that the University of Kentucky on iTunesU has a series of lectures that are dedicated to the Basic Exam, haven't listened yet but I imagine they're very good, as most of the other lectures I've listened to are.