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Soon to be pgy-1....

For those who took the absite this year (junior level exam), and did well, could you post what you found to be the best review?
 
I used ABSITE Killer, ABSITE Review and did questions from the Rush book.
 
Summary of the above:

The absite is on Jan 31
Results come out on March 15
PGY 1 & PGY2 Exam version is skewed more toward basic science.
PGY 3, PGY4 and PGY5 Exam version is skewed more toward clinical science
Generally has to be taken by both prelims and catagorical residents
Your score may affect your promotion and may even get you fired.
Fellowship directors look at your score
The test is very hard.

Available books/resourses are:

Rush Review
Mich State Review
The Surgical Review, Alturi et al
The Absite Review:by Stephen Fiser
Absite Killer: out of print
Pass The Absite (Q&A)
SESAP -Surgical Education and Self Assessment Program: from the ACS
Surgical basic science: from UPENN

BTW, what's the format of the absite? How long is it?
 
230 (or so...can't remember exact number) multiple choice questions. I believe we had 4 or 5 hours to complete it.
 
IIRC, 225 questions (at least for the junior exam), we had around 4-5 hours but most people finished in 3-4.
 
I used AbsiteKiller - got an old copy from a friend. Also used AbsiteRx.com. Was able to do questions on call nights and also do some reading online. I think SESAP is great, but the time commitment is rough.
 
Does anyone know what is the latest edition for the Rush Review? I have heard that a new edition is coming out soon. Anyone else heard the same? Thanks
 
DO_Surgeon said:
Does anyone know what is the latest edition for the Rush Review? I have heard that a new edition is coming out soon. Anyone else heard the same? Thanks
Click to expand...
There is a new (4th) edition coming out VERY soon....target date is Sept. 1st...realistically available in October or November.
 
New edition of Rush (4th) is available from Elsevier (or however you spell it). I pre-ordered it through the hospital rep and got my copy in the mail over a week ago.

I am wondering how much it actually is "updated" tho... All the references from Sabiston are from the 2001 edition...

-a
 
I recently purchased absiterx.com, and am very disappointed. I would not recommend it to anyone. It has more USMLE Step 2 type questions than actual general surgery questions.

I've answered about 10 questions on parasitic diseases and 10 on behavioral science type questions, and only done about 25 questions total so far.

Has anyone else had similar experiences?
 
Based on what I heard from my juniors and my experience with the senior level exam, my recommendations for ABSITE prep would be:

Junior Exam (PGY-1 & 2) Absite Review by Fiser supplemented by readings in text of your choice (Greenfield, Sabiston's or Schwartz)

Senior Exam (PGY-3, 4 and 5) Current Surgical Therapy by Cameron supplemented by readings in text of your choice (Greenfield, Sabiston's or Schwartz) if you desire.

For PGY-1s, you have about six months to prepare for this exam from the start of your residency. Don't try to read and memorize one of the big texts. You will end up frustrated and exhausted. Instead, read the common stuff and know well (Hernias, Choles, Appys, Endocrine). Don't forget to read and review the Transplant and Oncology as these subjects have loads of Basic Science material to test.

For PGY-2, you took the exam last year so you should be building on the foundation that you already have.

For PGY-3, your exam will be more clinically oriented. Cameron is great for this especially if you have a good basic science foundation.

For PGY-4 & 5, now we have to "get" the subtle stuff. We have the experience so again, Cameron is a great resource. I still find that I need to read things in one of the big texts.

For everyone: I set a reading schedule (30 minutes daily and 1 hour on weekends) and stick with it as closely as possible. I keep a running reading log on Excel where I log my papers read, journal read by subject matter along with my readings in Cameron & Sabiston's (I am a fan). I try to read "something" daily even if it's 30 minutes with a beverage in my hand in the evening. On weekends, I get a little more done.

Good luck as the last Saturday in January comes pretty fast when you are busy with rotations.
 
I am currently a fourth year resident and have always had very good evaluations from my faculty memebers. However, I must admit that I am a poor standardized test tatker. I have scored below the 2oth percentile the last two years on the absite and nom my PD is threatening to fire me based on this. First off, is this legal and secondly does anyone have any suggestions on what I should do as a senior resident at this point. Other than obviously doing better on the inservice exam. Thanks for any advice forthcoming.
 
Have heard that certain programs have old absite questions that they hand out or go over them with their residents for review prior to the exam. Is this a common practice or is it considered cheating? I have seen such practice and not sure if it's legal.
 
suguha said:
Have heard that certain programs have old absite questions that they hand out or go over them with their residents for review prior to the exam. Is this a common practice or is it considered cheating? I have seen such practice and not sure if it's legal.
Click to expand...


No surgical residency has the exam questions prior to the exam. The ABSITE exam comes from the ABS and is not released to the programs beforehand in order to "hand out" to the residents for review. The box is opened on ABSITE day (usually in front of the residents) and the books and papers handed out then. They are collected and the box is sealed and sent back to the ABS

Reviewing questions from the memory of previous test takes is NOT illegal and many programs do this.
 
pcrace - I'm not sure that they can fire you ONLY based on your absite score, but they can use it as part of why they're firing you. If you have anything else they can use against you in your record - and that could be a complaint from a nurse, a patient, who knows - they can put this all together and make a case to fire you if they want to.

Your PD probably does not really want to fire you, especially if you are otherwise a decent resident - then he'd have to find a new resident to replace you, and it's pretty hard to find someone for a 4th year spot - or go without a senior resident next year, certainly putting some strain on the call schedule, case coverage, and many other things. He's probably just trying to motivate you by making the threat. I agree, not exactly a nice way to motivate, but I bet that's his intent. He probably thinks you have not done well enough b/c you haven't tried hard enough and is trying to get you to take it more seriously. My advice is follow the advice of most of the people in this thread - read early and often and you can improve your score. Get the review books, do practice questions, consider attending a course - not only will it potentially help you but also show your PD you are seriously taking steps to improve. Maybe keep track of all you read and all the questions you do so you can show them your efforts if you should do poorly again. The PD just wants all their residents to do well, b/c if you don't pass the boards the program looks bad.
 
pcrace said:
I am currently a fourth year resident and have always had very good evaluations from my faculty memebers. However, I must admit that I am a poor standardized test tatker. I have scored below the 2oth percentile the last two years on the absite and nom my PD is threatening to fire me based on this. First off, is this legal and secondly does anyone have any suggestions on what I should do as a senior resident at this point. Other than obviously doing better on the inservice exam. Thanks for any advice forthcoming.
Click to expand...

Find yourself a good ABSITE/Written Boards prep couse and study your "rear end" off. Now would be a good time to get started. Since you are at the PGY-4 level, your ABSITE is going to resemble the written boards so one of those General Surgery Board Courses like the one Cornell puts on or SESAP from the American College of Surgeons. Your PD may be trying to light a fire under you. If you keep scoring this low, you will not past specialty boards which is a bad reflection on your program.

You cannot afford to write your poor performance off as "I am a poor standardized test taker". You have to teach yourself how to study for and pass these important exams.
 
Well you sound like a PD. Obviously I have passed all the required exams thus far. I barely pass them though. I have done prep courses, test questions, studied, etc.. However, I seem to always score at the low end of the percentile curve but enough to pass. So I am not trying to "Just pass it off as being a poor standardized test taker," as you so eloquently put it. I guess I don't know what else to call it. But thanks for the "helpful" advice!!👎



njbmd said:
Find yourself a good ABSITE/Written Boards prep couse and study your "rear end" off. Now would be a good time to get started. Since you are at the PGY-4 level, your ABSITE is going to resemble the written boards so one of those General Surgery Board Courses like the one Cornell puts on or SESAP from the American College of Surgeons. Your PD may be trying to light a fire under you. If you keep scoring this low, you will not past specialty boards which is a bad reflection on your program.

You cannot afford to write your poor performance off as "I am a poor standardized test taker". You have to teach yourself how to study for and pass these important exams.
Click to expand...
 
pcrace said:
Well you sound like a PD. Obviously I have passed all the required exams thus far. I barely pass them though. I have done prep courses, test questions, studied, etc.. However, I seem to always score at the low end of the percentile curve but enough to pass. So I am not trying to "Just pass it off as being a poor standardized test taker," as you so eloquently put it. I guess I don't know what else to call it. But thanks for the "helpful" advice!!👎
Click to expand...

I think that the one of the points njbmd was trying to make was you shouldn't think that your 'standardized test taking skills' is a significant factor in all of this. You did well enough on the ACT/SAT to get into a good college. Did well enough on the MCAT to get into medscool, well enough on USMLE (and likely the surgical shelf exam) to get a surgical residency. You've kind of proven that you ARE good at standardized tests at this point.

Starting off your post by saying "I'm a poor test taker" kind of does make it sound like you think your test taking skills are a major factor in your performance. I think reminding you that may not be the case is helpful advice so you know how to distribute your studying efforts.
 
I guess I have to be fairly decent at the standardized exams you have mentioned. I guess my problem comes down to this. At my PGY level last year only 15-20 questions separated the 10th percentile from the 75th percentile. Thats not a very large margin when you spread it out over 225 questions. When reviewing my answers with friends most often I missed questions in which I read the question wrong or just made some stupid mistake. So now I am trying to find a way from making these mistakes. I am taking a review course this upcoming weekend in DC, I have transferred Fiser's Absite Review to notecards and am memorizing it and am using the new sesap to review questions. In addition I am keeping up with my weekly Schwartz and O'leary assigned readings (one chapter each/week). Do you guys think this is enough or do you recomend a different approach or more!! I am all ears.
 
In my experience, by far the best online absite study material with high yield is absite.org. They claim that every question has been in previous absite in some form - I believe them. I have encountered many questions in absite that are very close to what they have in their database. They have put time and effort in their product. On the other hand, avoid absiterx.com - not worth $1. The questions are randomly collected from usmle, family practice and psychiatry - not related to absite at all. Bastards did not return my money either, after i used it only once.

Good luck!

daisygirl said:
Soon to be pgy-1....

For those who took the absite this year (junior level exam), and did well, could you post what you found to be the best review?
Click to expand...
 
Yeah, dude - I am totally with you. absiterx.com is a scam. Someone should sue these bastards - their claims on their site are all lies. Here is a sample quesion from their database - it has NOTHING to do with absite or surgery:

Which of the following is the best definition of affect?
A. an internal feeling a person has
B. internal emtions that others can observe
C. similar to mood
D. the external manifestation of one's internal feeling
F. the internal manifestations of a person's feelings

This above quesion is a medical school/psychiatry/family practice type quesion - it will NEVER be on absite. I am not sure who made absiterx.com, but SHAME on them for scamming money-poor surgical residents. I am still trying to get my money back.

JA

Swimdoc said:
I recently purchased absiterx.com, and am very disappointed. I would not recommend it to anyone. It has more USMLE Step 2 type questions than actual general surgery questions.

I've answered about 10 questions on parasitic diseases and 10 on behavioral science type questions, and only done about 25 questions total so far.

Has anyone else had similar experiences?
Click to expand...
 
suguha said:
Have heard that certain programs have old absite questions that they hand out or go over them with their residents for review prior to the exam. Is this a common practice or is it considered cheating? I have seen such practice and not sure if it's legal.
Click to expand...

Certain programs do this. It is considered cheating. Definitely not legal.
 
I heard that the ABSITE Review is an excellent resource. I have never used it myself. I highly recommend the ABSITE Review Course. Go to absitereview.com or call 1-866-462-2748. I took this course and it improved my scores. I have been using the same review course every year and my scores have been well above average. My program gave me an academic warning for not doing well on my absite three years ago, so I was forced to take a review course. My program has been one out of eleven programs in the country who has consistently have 100% pass rate for both written and oral boards for the past five years. Thus, there's a lot of pressure. I am using currently SESAP12 and the ABSITE Review course this year. In my program, we also have weekly mock orals which also serves as a good review for the absite and the ABS exam.
 
Has anyone downloaded the absite killer PDA thing ($15)? It looks kind of sketchy...........

It sounds like for interns, "The Absite Review" and possibly SESAP are the best resources?
 
When is the ABSITE this year? Jan 20th or 27th?
 
njbmd said:
For everyone: I set a reading schedule (30 minutes daily and 1 hour on weekends) and stick with it as closely as possible. I keep a running reading log on Excel where I log my papers read, journal read by subject matter along with my readings in Cameron & Sabiston's (I am a fan). I try to read "something" daily even if it's 30 minutes with a beverage in my hand in the evening. On weekends, I get a little more done.
Click to expand...

I also log my study hours every day - write it down when you write down your work hours. It really makes you accountable for how much you are doing when you have to write it down. The 30-60 minute a day rule sounds good, but make sure you do as njbmd says and make up for lost time on days off when you can. There are a LOT of days I can't get any study time at all - like busy call days, days when there is something I have to do after work and don't get study time in the evening, or days when you get home late and are just too tired...you can't just study 30 minutes a day on the 3 days of the week you have time and think that's enough - you have to do maybe 5 or 6 on a weekend day off to make up for a busy week when very little studying got done. And it has to be done consistently through most of the year, not just in the month before absite...unless you're one of those really smart kids I guess.
 
How much of a time crunch is there on the ABSITE? I didn't finish USMLE1/USMLE2 on time (just 2-3 questions short on each). Barely finished USMLE3 on time. Do I have any hope of finishing the ABSITE before time is called?
 
toxic-megacolon said:
How much of a time crunch is there on the ABSITE? I didn't finish USMLE1/USMLE2 on time (just 2-3 questions short on each). Barely finished USMLE3 on time. Do I have any hope of finishing the ABSITE before time is called?
Click to expand...

I can't give you specifics because I'm unsure, but one of my co-residents said he had a lot of problems finishing his USMLE steps, and he liked the ABSITE more because he had more time to finish (and he scored between 95th and 99th percentile on all his ABSITES so far).
 
Actually, as someone who takes their time on tests and is normally one of the very last ones done, I had NO problem finishing the ABSITE with plenty of time to spare. I went over the test thoroughly twice and still had plenty of time left. In my program (60 ish residents taking the ABSITE yearly), I was told no one's ever had a problem with time constraints.

It's 220 questions or so, and the "vignettes" (if they even qualify as vignettes) and questions are MUCH MUCH shorter and to-the-point than the USMLEs.
 
Has anyone taken the practice exams on absite.org? Any clue how to correlate those scores with actual ABSITE results? All these test prep sites seem to forget that one minor detail.
 
I got a copy of ABSITE Killer from a co-resident, and read about 15 of the 28 or so pages today, and I was pretty happy because it seemed high yield, and even had "Every Year" written next to ones I assume are on the test every year.

........but then I was browsing through Fiser's ABSITE Review, and I found all of the same high yield facts.....in the same format.....VERY similar.....

I guess my point is that from reading about it on here, ABSITE Killer seemed to be a mysterious golden study tool (hard to find, out of print) destined to get me a 99th percentile, and it does seem useful, but I wouldn't try to hard to get it if you already have Fiser's book, because the same info is in there in the same format, minus the "every year" note.

Of course, I've only read half......
 
After finding out that the test is 60% basic science, and after hearing from my senior co-residents that I should look at GI hormones, renal physiology, etc, I reached into an unpacked box and pulled out what was at one time my most precious possession: First Aid for Step 1, 2004, complete with multi-color highlighting and underlining, as well as high yield facts written in clever spots.


I'm planning on browsing through this, and concentrating on the physiology.....hopefully it helps.......
 
Is the Absite always on the last Saturday of Jan? Or always on the 31st of Jan? Or does it vary by program?
 
It is on the last Saturday of January, and is administered by the ABS, thus does not vary by general surgery program. Other specialties have their exams at different times of the year.

My last one is over now, though. 😛
 
Well, the ABSITE was today! It actually was not nearly as bad as I expected (I'm an intern). I didn't study nearly as much as I had hoped - I basically read about 2/3 of "The Absite Review" (I highly recommend), and 2/3 of "Absite Killer," (I ran out of time to finish reading both of these). My program also provided the residents with a subscription to absite.org, and I read the notes available there and did a handful of questions. I don't know how much this site normally costs, but it was of moderate value. I saw about 3 questions on the exam that were basically word for word from the absite.org practice questions, and I had only done about 45 of them. Some of the key facts in "Absite Killer" are labeled as "every year," and many of these did appear.

Frankly I thought the Surgery SHELF exam was far more difficult when I took that. Many questions were very easy and straightforward, a few were very specific and I'm not sure any amount of studying would have helped, and most just required a little bit of thought. Each question had 5 choices. I would say of the 225 questions, I had no clue on about 10-15 of them, and could only narrow down to 2-3 choices on another 25-30. I really felt that most of the questions I likely missed were ones that were too specific for studying to make much difference, i.e. either you know it or you don't, such as the fact that Question: Gleevec blocks the action of Answer: c-kit, which I happened to know only because we pondered using it to treat a patient of my mine with a rare tumor in Med School. I felt very good after the test, but I'm not sure if I will be able to improve much next year...

Does anyone have a sense of what percentage of questions answered correctly generally corresponds with what percentile performance?
 
madtowndoc said:
Well, the ABSITE was today! It actually was not nearly as bad as I expected (I'm an intern). I didn't study nearly as much as I had hoped - I basically read about 2/3 of "The Absite Review" (I highly recommend), and 2/3 of "Absite Killer," (I ran out of time to finish reading both of these). My program also provided the residents with a subscription to absite.org, and I read the notes available there and did a handful of questions. I don't know how much this site normally costs, but it was of moderate value. I saw about 3 questions on the exam that were basically word for word from the absite.org practice questions, and I had only done about 45 of them. Some of the key facts in "Absite Killer" are labeled as "every year," and many of these did appear.

Frankly I thought the Surgery SHELF exam was far more difficult when I took that. Many questions were very easy and straightforward, a few were very specific and I'm not sure any amount of studying would have helped, and most just required a little bit of thought. Each question had 5 choices. I would say of the 225 questions, I had no clue on about 10-15 of them, and could only narrow down to 2-3 choices on another 25-30. I really felt that most of the questions I likely missed were ones that were too specific for studying to make much difference, i.e. either you know it or you don't, such as the fact that Question: Gleevec blocks the action of Answer: c-kit, which I happened to know only because we pondered using it to treat a patient of my mine with a rare tumor in Med School. I felt very good after the test, but I'm not sure if I will be able to improve much next year...

Does anyone have a sense of what percentage of questions answered correctly generally corresponds with what percentile performance?
Click to expand...

Well, I think the Gleevec question was asking for mechanism of action, and Tyrosine Kinase was the answer, but I can't remember for sure.

I agree with you that the test had a lot of "gimmies." I'm hoping that they were just gimmies for me, and the rest of the residents around the country struggled, but realistically, I think there will be a small number of correct answers separating a 30th percentile from a 70th percentile, and they were gimmies to most of us.🙁
 
What raw score do you need to get 30th percentile? Do you need around 60% of the questions correct?
 
For those of you who have been keeping a log of your reading (great idea, I never thought of that for some reason)...

Do you also include your reading of how to do cases (eg from Chassin's or Mastery) in your log? How about stuff you read to prepare for presentations?
 
Always shoot for 80% correct on the test which means you can miss about 45 questions. That's a lot if you think about it. This will put you in the 80th to 90th percentile throughout all years.

From other residents experience:
1st year:67% correct=76 percentile
2nd year:81% corrrect=92 percentile
3rd year:76% correct=92 percentile
4th year:80 % correct=92 percentile

As you can see it varies. But if you shoot for getting 80% correct it will always put you in the safe range. And remember for the first years, you are laso being compared to all the prelims and ENT interns who really don't care about doing well on the absite.
 
Hi everyone

I scored 74% at PGY2 level last year and got 60th percentile
hope it is useful
 
For those of you that log your reading, what is the benefit? To see you r making progress in reading, know where to look for that one thing you can't remember??
 
Btw, when/how do we get back our absite scores? Is it mailed to our homes or does the school get it and pass it out?
 
school gets it and passes it out . . . . at least at our place
 
I received my score report today from the residency coordinator. I got more questions right than last year, but the percentile is WAY down... 😱
 
To Amy,

Wow your program is pretty quick about passing scores out. Could you tell us what level you are and what your percentages were?
 
In reference to some of the posts regarding absite preparation, how the exam is used for advancement, and performace and termination of employment.

I am a PGY 4 who performed poorly last year on the absite exam. I was told by my program director I had to bring my scores up or I would not have my contract renewed another year. I did well on the exam years one and two, poorly last year, however I have no good excuse.... It was very difficult studying at home after I had two kids... however... there's no excuse... I didn't prioritize my studies as I should....

This past year after being given the ultimatum I Read Cameron, Current Surgical Therapy cover to cover, I read Greenfield and most of Sabistons. THen from October to November it was review books. Fisher : The Absite review contained to much basic sci, the new senior edition was too succinct... it didn't cover the material enough to be very useful, though I did cram from it the night before... but I don't think it helped me with more than 2 ???'s. the best book I found was Martin makarys general surgery review book. it's like $75, our library had it... I think I got 20 ???'s from this one book. there are a ton of university websites which publish their own absite prep stuff for free which I also used...

Well my Program director called me up... I did great this year!!! phew
good luck guys...

PS even though it says the absite is not to be used as a tool for determining advancement... good luck proving that's the reason they use to fire you... Every resident in the USA has stuff they can find as legitimate reasons for termination... Just hit the books ASAP

good luck
 
Do you have any links to the university sites which post their absite review material? Thanks.
 
PGY-2 78 raw=66%tile
 
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