ABSITE Blues

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Are results back yet anywhere??

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Bummer, our program coordinator is out of the office for the rest of the week. Guess we're not seeing them until next week.
 
Feeling blue again. I've never seen a patient with Plummer-Vinson or MEN, but if I do, I will be ready.
 
Feeling blue again. I've never seen a patient with Plummer-Vinson or MEN, but if I do, I will be ready.

The annual appearance of this thread is my reminder to start studying for it....

Imagine if we spent all this time studying useful stuff.....probably save a few more lives.
 
Dr. Thanatos, your patient is coding! Quick, what's the mechanism for microsatellite instability?





*I have never seen that listed as a question on the ABSITE nor has anyone ever suggested it!
 
One of the many good things associated with having graduated is that I never have to take ABSITE again. Also very glad that the written boards were much more like the senior exam rather than the junior (which I sucked at taking)
 
One of the many good things associated with having graduated is that I never have to take ABSITE again. Also very glad that the written boards were much more like the senior exam rather than the junior (which I sucked at taking)

While I felt things would be similar for me, I've been assigned as the "ABSITE Mentor" as part of my new gig...this means lectures, question-writing, etc....so I believe my ABSITE Blues will continue for quite some time.
 
One of the many good things associated with having graduated is that I never have to take ABSITE again. Also very glad that the written boards were much more like the senior exam rather than the junior (which I sucked at taking)
when do you switch to the senior exam? Please say PGY-3.
 
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Dr. Thanatos, your patient is coding! Quick, what's the mechanism for microsatellite instability?





*I have never seen that listed as a question on the ABSITE nor has anyone ever suggested it!

Exactly. I do this thing with the medical students where I ask them a series of very basic questions (what would you give someone with a BP of 170/95, what would you give someone for postop pain and at what dose, what postop fluid should I give) and very very rarely are they able to get any of those right. In fact with the exception of the fluid, I've only had one student in four years who could get the first two right and it turns out he was a pharmacist before med school.

Then I ask them to name 5 manifestations of tertiary syphillis, a disease which basically doesn't exist anymore, and they always get it right. Every time without fail.

It makes you wonder about our education as a whole. Every year I spend a significant amount of time re-learning peptide YY, moya moya, tryptophan to serine to niacin as it relates to Diarrhea, Dementia, and Death. But every time I work with a new attending and he uses a different brand of stapler I don't how to work the damn thing and look like a *******.....thats getting a little old.
 
Exactly. I do this thing with the medical students where I ask them a series of very basic questions (what would you give someone with a BP of 170/95, what would you give someone for postop pain and at what dose, what postop fluid should I give) and very very rarely are they able to get any of those right. In fact with the exception of the fluid, I've only had one student in four years who could get the first two right and it turns out he was a pharmacist before med school.

Then I ask them to name 5 manifestations of tertiary syphillis, a disease which basically doesn't exist anymore, and they always get it right. Every time without fail.

It makes you wonder about our education as a whole. Every year I spend a significant amount of time re-learning peptide YY, moya moya, tryptophan to serine to niacin as it relates to Diarrhea, Dementia, and Death. But every time I work with a new attending and he uses a different brand of stapler I don't how to work the damn thing and look like a *******.....thats getting a little old.

Sorry, but but this is so hilarious (only because I am now on the other side-you too will get there).

One of the things that constantly annoyed me was the fact that those who could regurgitate that crap most effectively for the junior exam were always considered the smart ones, meanwhile too many of them can't convert that knowledge into practice. Take those students who can name all the manifestations of tertiary syphilis-if by chance they were to come upon a patient who actually had it, some of them wouldn't be able to recognize it and provide the appropriate treatment.

One of the things I liked about my med school was that they made an effort to join the basic science to the practical application in disease. While all the basic science didn't really stick (I will forever have to look certain stuff), I certainly felt more prepared for internship than others seem.
 
Get ready. Next year the absite is going back to one exam
 
Yup, PGY-3!
And the difference is not the type of content, but just the proportion of clinical:basic science?

It makes you wonder about our education as a whole. Every year I spend a significant amount of time re-learning peptide YY, moya moya, tryptophan to serine to niacin as it relates to Diarrhea, Dementia, and Death. But every time I work with a new attending and he uses a different brand of stapler I don't how to work the damn thing and look like a *******.....thats getting a little old.
I have actually seen Moyamoya once (was watching the cerebral angio)...but I completely agree.

Get ready. Next year the absite is going back to one exam
and what will it be like?
 
I'm not sure if we know the exact composition bit in 2014. There will not be a junior and senior exsm. Just one test
 
Bump. It's that time of year again. My role now is that of an administrator of blues rather than the recipient, but I certainly feel your pain.

Please remember to go to the ABS website. On there, they give you the entire breakdown of the test, including what % of questions will come from each category, and they basically admit that the test will mirror SESAP and SCORE.

Good luck!

SLUser
 
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I guess I disagree. The score qbank has been essentially my sole studying tool for the last 5 years, and I have done fairly well each year. It sucked a lot more 5 years ago, but even then, just by brute force, if you do 1500 questions, you will have seen everything that is on the ABSITE.

You just have to have a sense of which questions are relevant, which questions are bad questions, etc.

I've never cracked Fiser or DeVirgilio, so cant say for sure. Agree with "all you need to do to pass is to not be a ****ty surgery resident" but the difference between 60 and 90%ile is just how much you wanna work the month of January.
 
:shrug:

Once bitten, twice shy I guess.

I went whole hog on SCORE last year - did close to 2000 questions, re-reviewed the ones I got wrong. I figured with the new test SCORE would be the best resource.

Got my worst score in years (despite being a PGY4 lab resident and being in the PGY3 pool for %ile purposes). So I decided to do something different with it this year.

Eh. As long as I don't bomb it I'm not too worried. I don't think fellowship directors really care that much unless your scores are atrocious (at least that's what my mentors keep telling me).


ABSITE scores matter to fellowship directors. I previously posted an article on it from JSE (http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/fellowship-chances.801419/#post-10658650), Link to article here: http://www.jsurged.org/article/S1931-7204(10)00035-8/abstract

That being said, I think it's extremely hard to get 99s or even 80+ every year. Having gone over hundreds of applications for CRS and MIS fellowships, it's not too common. Just be sure not to demonstrate a slow, steady decline over time....that's a red flag to me. Also, where you train and LORs are definitely more important. Certain fellowships don't place much weight in ABSITE scores, but they seem to be the ones who can't afford to (e.g. Transplant).

As for SCORE, I know with near-certainty that many of the questions were purchased from a third-party vendor rather than written specifically for SCORE, which would explain some of the inconsistency....some SCORE questions are excellent, others are absolutely horrible and in the wrong format. I believe that, over time, the bad questions will be weeded out, but it will take time.

What I can say with certainty is that reading SESAP 14 and 15 will be beneficial to your ABSITE score.

This close to the test, I think doing questions and flipping through Fiser/ABSITE Killer is suitable, with no deep reading.

Along the lines of what vhawk said, I believe a low of what determines your ABSITE score is out of your control, and related to your hard drive. The main thing we know to be predictor is your USMLE step 2 score. Vhawk has never read Fiser, although most of us see it as the ABSITE bible. I had a resident who also never used conventional resources, but always scored 99.....

Good luck!
 
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What I think is very unfair is that there are collections of old questions floating around out there and if you are fortunate enough to get your hands on it your score will absolutely go up, but since it is technically not allowed they are not uniformly available. If you don't have access to those then doing all the SCORE questions as well as SESAP is very helpful (had a few questions that were the same as SCORE almost word for word, while SESAP is tricky because some of the questions came out of the explanations, so if you only read the explanations for the ones you got wrong you might miss out-I found this to be true for the written board exam as well). But, yeah, the year I got handed a packet of questions from someone (I don't recall who) that was clearly not from any published book my score drastically changed despite not doing much else different because a lot of those questions were on the exam.
 
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I did SESAP for the first time for my written boards. I realized that a lot of oddball questions from ABSITE from years past were directly from SESAP. I would still recommend Fiser and ABSITE for Boards and Wards, but SESAP is a good resource too, especially since the junior and senior tests are combined.

The ABSITE scores matter but not in the same way as USMLE step 1. Every point doesn't matter. Its not the overriding part of your application like step 1. Just a part of your 5 year file.
 
I used the black fiser from day 1. Read ACS for most and Cameron for some topics. Took notes from the ACS and placed post-it's on fiser. Got 98 on my first year. I Just red my notes and the black fiser book beginning Dec. of each year. Got 99 in all exams. Same questions are being asked over and over.

Applied for a second fellowship this year. What I understood from the previous interview trail is that, ABSITE may open some doors. But letters, where you have been trained and the phone call's have much more importance. Many places are OK with 60's. if you are from MGH or Hopkins scores don't matter anymore. Same for a dedicated lab year with a leader in the field who would make calls on your behalf.
 
Any news yet on when results should be coming out? I imagine sometime this week.

By the way, am I the only one who thought this absite was a lot harder than last year??
 
I thought it was very hard last year and and i marked 30-40 more questions this year. Doesn't seem like a good sign
 
who knows? I didn't think it was that bad, just a lot longer than I remembered. its a crapshoot on these percentile scored exams
 
Its taken them longer this year to release results, I wonder why... Last year, I had my score March 1st. I bet the programs already have our results though.
 
Any news yet on when results should be coming out? I imagine sometime this week.

By the way, am I the only one who thought this absite was a lot harder than last year??



ABSITE 2015 RESULTS are out. this is the worst i've ever scored.
 
As a prelim with a sub-50 percentile score, my hopes of having a job next year are forever gone. Currently looking at engineering schools willing to take me in.
 
Random question: how are absite scores reported to fellowship applications?

My score has fluctuated wildly during my research years, from best to worst I've ever done. I've been told I don't have to report my research year scores, but I'm curious to hear from someone who actually has filled out an application for any fellowship.
 
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My percentile almost halved! Damn

yup. me too. 10 percent higher would have gotten me in the 98th percentile according to my friend's score. cray. i'm in the sub 50 percentile!!!! it would be interesting to see the curve or to see which questions we got wrong instead of "Peds- applied science" BS report
 
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yup. me too. 10 percent higher would have gotten me in the 98th percentile according to my friend's score. cray. i'm in the sub 50 percentile!!!! it would be interesting to see the curve or to see which questions we got wrong instead of "Peds- applied science" BS report

The curve is always very compressed, and a few questions either way will really affect your percintile rank. Saying "10% higher" isn't exactly easy to do either. Namely because those 10% would include the more difficult questions on the exam. I can't remember where I saw it, but I thought that the 50th percentile hangs out around a raw score in the low to mid 70s , and then drops off very fast in both directions.
 
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Random question: how are absite scores reported to fellowship applications?

My score has fluctuated wildly during my research years, from best to worst I've ever done. I've been told I don't have to report my research year scores, but I'm curious to hear from someone who actually has filled out an application for any fellowship.
SSO Required them as part of fellowship application. I reported the scores and then the board provide verification.

By the way guys, while you can't post exact questions, if you wish it is okay to post things like there was a lot more pediatric subspecialty questions than last year etc.
 
There were a lot more random nitpicky questions that when I googled the answer afterwards were based on crappy single studies from the mid nineties that don't reflect actual clinical practice in any way.

Is that too specific?

Well, they did say it was going to reflect the SCORE curriculum/questions. So with random, nitpicky questions they held true to their word.

I can't explain why, but there was a certain "the most likely thing is X" question related to laparoscopy that annoyed me.
 
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I know it sounds crazy, but I think I'm going to start taking the ABSITE again next year. It's offered to faculty, and could potentially help me prepare the residents for the exam. I'm not sure how they'd calculate a percentile, though...

I can't prove it, but I still firmly believe that SESAP and SCORE questions are the key to success, given that you have the ability to ignore the poorly-written questions and focus on the good ones. The ABS website straight up says that SESAP and SCORE are their intended sources for question subjects.
 
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I second that. I didn't find SCORE useful last year and didn't find it useful this year either. It just seemed like an inefficient use of time with poor question explanations. I got an impressive score last year and hopefully similarly this year when my program decides to tell me my score.
 
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Anecdote...but I bailed on SCORE this year and did better than any other year.

I'm apparently the most anti-score person out there.

dude... i just can't with score. too choppy and disjointed. the questions are vague. i went to APDS last year and everyone was all rah rah-ing score curriculum and i wondered whether 1.) they actually read this material and 2.) if they were just saying it was great because that is apparently the "in" thing to do.

that said, i don't have my absite back yet, but am assuredly going to do poorly. my reading game needs to get way stronger.
 
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I decided to get on board with what all the kids these days are doing and I tried Anki for the first time. Someone built an ABSITE flashcard deck which if you go through the whole thing you will have basically memorized Fiser. I thought it was really helpful. I also did all the DeVirgilio questions online, and went through the ones I had missed a second time.

I'm in the lab, so I had more time - but last year I was disappointed in my score so I felt like I needed to study more. At some point I think it is more the effort than the materials.
Please link these flashcards. I lived by flashcards for med school (made thousands, purchased the premade BRS ones)... I must have these
 
Anecdote...but I bailed on SCORE this year and did better than any other year.

I'm apparently the most anti-score person out there.

I also didn't touch SCORE this year and saw my score go up. While it's true there are questions right off the exam, you have to suffer through so many terrible questions to see those that it ends up being low-yield overall. I did all of SESAP and the TrueLearn question bank, and thought it worked pretty well. I also intermittently do the Rush Review book throughout the year along with my normal reading.
 
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I didn't make it quite through 4000. The nice thing about the software is it's really quick to go through cards, and you can just click right through the ones you know cold and not see them again.
Sounds like its customizable/"smart"; that's nice.

You kids have it so easy these days. :p
 
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