Adult Cardiac Anesthesiology Exam 2025 prep resources

[drmedstudent]

I was thinking of taking the boards this December. So I was wondering what the best resources are to study for the Adult Cardiac Anesthesiology Exam. So far from my initial search, I've come across these resources:
1. ARC review course (from SCA university)
2. ARC question bank (from SCA university)
3. True learn
4. Augoustides and Kaplan's Cardiac Anesthesia review book
Anyone use any of these and, if so, what did you think of them? Are there any other resources out there besides the ones above?

Thanks for the recommendations!

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[DrN2O]

Do whatever is the cheapest. 95% pass rate. If you are busy clinically and doing cardiac regularly, you will be fine. So:
#1 Yes if you are SCA member
#2 Maybe (probably overlapping or same question writers)
#3 What's that?
#4 You are probably reading it if you already have it.

Overall, it's very clinical, and perioperatively oriented (think ICU and cardiology).

 

[psychbender]

One and two were ok when I used them the first year. I don't know about number 3. Number 4 was trash for the exam the first year.

 

[Bertelman]

I wasn't a huge fan of #1. Really arcane discussions of cath procedures and arrhythmias that were simply not representative of the exam.

My 0.02? All the questions you can get. Coming from a guy that tried #1 in '23, and was on the wrong end of that bell curve. Did just fine last year, nothing but questions from Augustides and ARC.

I do cardiac every single day. But I'm years out of training. And our center doesn't do the VAD/transplant/failure stuff they like to test.

For reference, I typically score >50th on PTE exam. I don't suck at tests. Just that one.

 

[Leinie]

I was thinking of taking the boards this December. So I was wondering what the best resources are to study for the Adult Cardiac Anesthesiology Exam. So far from my initial search, I've come across these resources:
1. ARC review course (from SCA university)
2. ARC question bank (from SCA university)
3. True learn
4. Augoustides and Kaplan's Cardiac Anesthesia review book
Anyone use any of these and, if so, what did you think of them? Are there any other resources out there besides the ones above?

Thanks for the recommendations!

I read through Hensley over the course of the year leading up to the exam about three times, and finished off with Augoustides and Kaplan once through. I do cardiac and cath lab regularly, but no VAD/ECMO, and was over a decade out of fellowship. I probably overprepared, but took in in 2023 when it was more of a black box.

 

[teacher2md]

I did #1/2 and did well on the test. I made short notes and flashcards of all the trivia from the review modules. The question bank is just a compilation of all the questions contained in each module.

 

[DrN2O]

I did #1/2 and did well on the test. I made short notes and flashcards of all the trivia from the review modules. The question bank is just a compilation of all the questions contained in each module.

If that's the case, what is the value of paying for the ARC question bank? I did not find the the questions in the ARC modules very reflective of the questions on the actual ACA test.

 

[ThePlockIsHot]

I've been in a community cardiac practice for about 8 years, doing a lot of routine pump cases, structural, and some ECMO but no VADs, transplant, and rare aortic surgery. I did the entire Kaplan book (borrowed from a 2023 taker...) for 3-4 months prior to the exam, only looking at it while at work. I took some notes while doing the questions and reviewed the notes for the 2-3 weeks leading up to the test. Passed with a fine score (though lower percentile than I historically got on ITEs/boards). Honestly, I enjoyed most of the material and learned some things that I have now incorporated into my clinical practice.

One surprise was the additional $100 I now have to pay for MOCA each year (went from $210 to $310). That will be an additional 2k or so for the rest of my career which is a bit of a bummer. Maybe I should have read the fine print...

 

[drmedstudent]

Thanks for everyone’s advice! Sounds like ARC review course is the one to do for sure. Anyone use True Learn qbank? I used it for ITEs and Anesthesia boards as my primary source. Found it very useful and reflective of the actual exams.

 

[teacher2md]

Thanks for everyone’s advice! Sounds like ARC review course is the one to do for sure. Anyone use True Learn qbank? I used it for ITEs and Anesthesia boards as my primary source. Found it very useful and reflective of the actual exams.

Don’t waste your money on TrueLearn. I looked at it— the questions are basically just any “cardiovascular” question scraped from their ITE question banks. Not at all relevant to advanced cardiac anesthesia topics.

 

[anesthesiologyperson21]

The SCA University review modules were good. I think they were free with SCA membership. They have multiple choice questions at the end, most or all of them are from the ARC qbank. I still ended up buying the qbank, but I study best from question banks. Answer explanations were sometimes hit or miss
The Kaplan book had a lot of errors and seemed to focus on a lot of minutiae, so I just used it for the areas of knowledge I felt I was weak on. I didn't have a ton of patience for it though.
Didn't look into the TrueLearn bank.