ABO oral board preparation

[2020OU]

The oral board are in 13 days. I am in a panic. How should I prepare? So far, I have not put in the hours, just reading the Pemberton and Luviano books and kind of saying it aloud, occasionally talking to myself in the car while driving. That might be equivalent to 1-2 full days of studying.

The ABO told people not to take any courses but I am beginning to doubt that. What would you do at T-13 days?

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[Gonio5]

What, don't take any course? That advice is so bad it borders on sabotage. A course will help and certainly won't hurt. I took both the Colorado and Osler course and both are excellent. The exam is high stakes and nobody wants to fail. The Colorado course has probably already passed because I don't see anything online but the Osler is next weekend. I suspect that the ABO doesn't want too many people to do much better than others so they tell people not to take courses (so it's better for the group if nobody takes courses but better for the individual candidate to take courses).

At T-13, I would try to take time off work if that's possible. If not, just eat microwave dinners to save time.

 

[Bluesclera]

This is strange. Maybe you are just freaking out. I spent 2-3 months preparing for my oral exam. I initially just used Pemberton but soon realized in month 2 that I needed a study partner and formed a group to study with. We reviewed Pemberton cases and topics. Also heavily used ophthogenie to also perform mock oral prep. I also did two courses one was osler mock sessions near the final weeks of study. Definitely prepare for these types of exams as they are expensive.

 

[Gonio5]

This is strange. ...I also did two courses one was osler mock sessions near the final weeks of study. Definitely prepare for these types of exams as they are expensive.

I agree, very strange that the ABO doesn't want people to take any courses. They want people to fail???? More likely, it ruins the ABO's accuracy to evaluate exam questions because the course takers do better. So, it's harder for them to determine which questions should be thrown out when calculating the score???