Advanced exam 2018 study plan

[MasterYi]

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Taking the exam this july, wanted to find out what the past couple test takers did to study and pass the written. Basic felt like more a potpourri of basic information, however for the advanced I have heard true learn is the consensus. Anyone have any insight on the pass machine? They "guarantee" passing, however on this forum not many people have advocated for it. Any one have their study plans and/or what they used?

Thanks in advance

 

[dchz]

Doubt is the greatest enemy.

 

[bellevueperson]

Did M5 advanced sections and TrueLearn once each and passed with 80+%ile. If you've been doing alright on ITEs, you'll be fine.

 

[dchz]

A true master is an eternal student

 

[Arantius]

CA3 here- also looking for prep plans. Took the ITE recently and wondering how to prep for the minutia. There were questions I literally haven’t thought of since step 1. Don’t really want to go back and study for step 1 stuff but maybe re-visit first aid? How else do you come across the minutia. Wasn’t in true learn or in the multiple ACE books I did, or Faust.

 

[MaximusD]

CA3 here- also looking for prep plans. Took the ITE recently and wondering how to prep for the minutia. There were questions I literally haven’t thought of since step 1. Don’t really want to go back and study for step 1 stuff but maybe re-visit first aid? How else do you come across the minutia. Wasn’t in true learn or in the multiple ACE books I did, or Faust.

My plan is to read M&M slowly and thoroughly and then do questions on the same topic from TrueLearn. Will let you know how that plan works!

It's awesome to be preparing for our boards... the end is nigh!

 

[dchz]

Never await victory

 

[txhorn]

Do what has worked for you in previous standardized exams. I hardly retain anything from passively reading, and Qbanks have always worked well for me. So I didn't change my approach to this exam - I did Truelearn. Supplementing with another resource and doing the Qbank twice probably would have yielded a 90th percentile. I wasn't that motivated though. Only reason I picked Truelearn was because it worked for the basic exam, and I'd already done M5 and Hall for the ITEs. Just a data point for you. Good luck, and don't stress out too much about it

 

[dchz]

Do not let your pride blind you

 

[anes121508]

Taking the exam this july, wanted to find out what the past couple test takers did to study and pass the written. Basic felt like more a potpourri of basic information, however for the advanced I have heard true learn is the consensus. Anyone have any insight on the pass machine? They "guarantee" passing, however on this forum not many people have advocated for it. Any one have their study plans and/or what they used?

Thanks in advance

I did quite a bit of prep for the basic and ITE's so when it came time to the advanced I simply did the TrueLearn q bank and reviewed my notes. The exam is not all that difficult to be honest. Truelearn q bank in my opinion is the best resource

 

[dchz]

Form before strength

 

[timgasman]

Taking the exam this july, wanted to find out what the past couple test takers did to study and pass the written. Basic felt like more a potpourri of basic information, however for the advanced I have heard true learn is the consensus. Anyone have any insight on the pass machine? They "guarantee" passing, however on this forum not many people have advocated for it. Any one have their study plans and/or what they used?

Thanks in advance

I would do anesthesiaqbank. They worked for me. Some questions appeared verbatim on the exam. Good resource. M5 also good

 

[dchz]

I will show you the path

 

[deleted697535]

I will show you the path

That's getting a bit annoying mate

 

[cf817]

I would do as many questions from as many different resources as possible....the test is so random...ace exams, M5, truelearn..do as many as you can...for me reading any formal textbook or review book didn't really help....just questions

 

[Amnesiator]

I did M5 CA-1 year, and found it decent, but too snarky for my taste.

CA-2 year I reviewed notes, and went through the Hall app questions. My %ile dropped.

CA-3 year I did TrueLearn ITE, and loved it. I started around Thanksgiving. I did all the questions, "starring" questions I definitely wanted to come back to. I took screen shots of good charts or graphs (like coronary blood supply and electrolyte EKG changes) and saved those to my notes app. Once I completed all the questions, I reset it and went back through an entire second time. Then I went through and did all the questions I got wrong, again and again, until I had 100% correct. Then I went through and did all the questions I starred along the way. I did very little studying outside TrueLearn, other than occasionally looking something up. The TrueLearn explanations are so in-depth. It made the process take longer, but I learned so much, and didn't need to rely on other sources as much. I came out with a 90th %ile.

For the Advanced exam, I decide to stick with TrueLearn, and signed up for the Advanced q-bank. I didn't find it quite as amazing as the ITE q-bank, but it was still very good. The Advanced q-bank definitely had fewer Basic questions on it, which for me was a detriment. Fortunately, I had my notes and screen shots to review. In the end, I passed, but I don't think I did as well as I did on the ITE (I never saw my score report, and never bothered to request a re-mail).

Now for the Applied in less than a month!

 

[vector2]

My 2 cents is don't gloss over all the nonsense that everyone usually glosses over, I.e. detailed CO poisoning management, toxicology, herbal supplements, transfusion medicine, anesthesia at altitude, OR electrical systems, statistics, ethics, informatics, echo, monitors, cvp/arterial waveform analysis, etc. If you have done well on ITE so far, your experience will typically be a bunch of gimmes about fundamental anesthesia which you will definitely know mixed with a fair amount of ridiculous esoterica.

 

[Amnesiator]

I agree with Vector. Meant to mention this above. There will invariably be some number of random left field questions. There's no way to prepare for those. Thus, there's no reason to worry about those. Just focus on the science, and do your best to not miss anything you can prepare for. If you get enough of the relevant questions correct, you can miss all the odd-ball questions and still comfortably pass. Most importantly, after the test, do not dwell on those random questions, it'll drive you insane if you let it.