Angry oral examiners-- bad thing or really really bad thing?

[sbhfl]

Both examiners in one of my rooms were angry in an almost comical sort of way. Think, TV show interrogation but no good-cop bad-cop, just 2 bad-cops. Their body language and tone was borderline hostile-- hadn't experienced something like that since CA-1 year. The other room went much better.

Not sure if anybody else had any experience. I'm hoping it's just a quirk and is taken into account in scoring-- 1 room of really nice examiners and a second with polar opposite seems like a way to even things out.

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[deleted171991]

Oops!

I had one hostile interviewer, back in the day, but it was clear she was supposed to bully me. (I also had the second pair of interviewers tell me that it had been an honor to have me, which left me speechless, and I still had an awful 5 weeks of waiting for the results.) You basically need 3 out the 4 people to pass you, if I remember correctly.

Every interviewer's personality is taken into account when scoring, so, as long as you didn't say anything really stupid (and as long as you did give the right answers at a decent speed), you should be fine. Not finishing the questions in room 1 (as you indicated before the edit) is generally not a good sign, TBH. It will be a tough wait (you still have an 85+% chance of passing). Let us know how it ends.

 

[sbhfl]

Yes, oops. Thinking back I may have gotten off on the wrong foot with them early on and somehow never recovered. Or it may have just been planned from the start. Hopefully they weren't as mad as they were acting-- some of their reactions were obnoxious but may have been intentional to try get under the applicant's (my) skin. Still a bit mis-calibrated I'd say. I left that room in complete shock.

 

[psychbender]

I had one examiner in one room that was just an dingus. I understood that was his testing style, to try to throw examinees off, and I must have dealt with it well enough, because I passed. The disconcerting part was the junior examiner in that room kept switching her style, at times trying to come off as hostile like he did, then reverting to being unsure of herself in how she asked questions, then trying to be helpful. I was nervously thinking that there was insufficient data on her testing to correct for a possible bad evaluation. Eventually, I started cutting off the dingus examiner when he'd do the, "well what about..." and just told him what clinical situations would make me change my plan.

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[narcotics999]

I was a lucky one. 4 nice examiners who threw good bones.

 

[AdmiralChz]

I put my (very senior) examiner to sleep when it was the other’s turn to ask questions. That was pretty distracting.

 

[coffeebythelake]

One of my examiners was looking at her finger nails and acting like she wasn't paying attention during the case. Definitely distracting. However I was waaaaay too tired to pay attention (missed my flight x2, drove 14 hours and got there 1 hr before exam). Passed.

 

[T-burglar]

My examiners were pleasant enough. Although at the end of stem 2 my senior examiner was like “I don’t have any more questions...” which felt kind of abrupt. As if he was saying, “I’ve heard enough. FAIL.”

Can someone explain the grab bags to me a little better? Are they bonus points that are a chance to regain some lost ground or do they count against you if you don’t get through them all?

 

[pastafan]

Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth...I had 5 examiners. My first room went great despite incredibly tough stem. They were down to asking about second gas effect when the knock on the door came. Room 2 had 3 examiners. There was evidently a new junior examiner and a silent senior examiner was evaluating him. This guy was so bad that he had no clue how to ask a question that made sense. I had to ask him a few times to clarify his question and the senior examiner stepped in to help out by restating the question so it made sense. No bad cops.

I actually enjoyed my oral exam. Unlike the written, I knew when I walked out that I had answered their questions correctly and passed.

 

[DM27]

I had pleasant examiners so I got lucky on that.

The additional topics are as much a part of the exam as the larger main stem. No bonus points. There is also a set amount of them so if you happened to go fast they will start spitballing to pass the time (you aren’t supposed to finish early or late and one of their primary jobs which they are evaluated on is the ability to get you through ALL of the exam content). The stuff that is made up to pass time arguably doesn’t count.

 

[facted]

I had one guy who was a total douche. Learned after the fact that he was the head of the oral boards at the time. A senior examiner who was an attending of mine told me that HE was scared of him when he had tested with him in the past...

I wouldn't worry about finishing questions or not. No big deal there.

 

[deleted171991]

My examiners were pleasant enough. Although at the end of stem 2 my senior examiner was like “I don’t have any more questions...” which felt kind of abrupt. As if he was saying, “I’ve heard enough. FAIL.”

Can someone explain the grab bags to me a little better? Are they bonus points that are a chance to regain some lost ground or do they count against you if you don’t get through them all?

They should count against you if not covered, AFAIK. You get points for every answer, like in skating, on a 4-level scale, from like "completely disagree" to "completely agree", if I am not mistaken, and there is a passing total score. That's why one should not get bogged down in one question, and just say "I don't remember. I would look it up." and move on.

 

[Cocoloco]

I'll make you feel better. Took the exam last week. In my second room, I vomited. I spent the OSCE nauseous. At the airport, I got sick yet again to the point I took the next day off of work. Was it nerves or a bug? I may never know.

 

[T-burglar]

I'll make you feel better. Took the exam last week. In my second room, I vomited. I spent the OSCE nauseous. At the airport, I got sick yet again to the point I took the next day off of work. Was it nerves or a bug? I may never know.

Oh no, I’m sorry. I bet it’s not the worst they’ve seen. I bet some has vagald and **** themselves in the history of the exam

 

[DM27]

The scale used, to the best of my understanding is regarding the question "Did the examiner act as a perioperative consultant?" and it's on a scale of 1 to 5 represented by something along the lines of "No, Rarely, Some of the time, Most of the time, and All of the time", with most of the time and above representing passing and some of the time being acceptable...some of the time, but an examinee who is rated this way for most of the responses would be considered borderline at best.

Also, to the best of my understanding, the examinee is not really graded on extraneous time fillers or pathways they take themselves down, but they may factor into the overall gestalt of the grading for that section depending on the examinee's composure etc.

 

[Noyac]

I know everyone has weighed in on their experience. But mine was pretty chill. Except that I had one assh*le and the junior examiner with him kept looking at his scoring sheet and then marking hers. I was like, WTF i am getting scored twice by this prick.
The second room went much smoother. My stem was a AAA and I had just done one the week before. At the end of all the questions, which ended early, the senior examiner stood up and shook my hand saying, “nice job”. That was cool.

 

[BobLoblaw78]

I had an examiner leave his scoring sheet out in plain sight as I was answering the questions. It was all the same column so very good or very bad! LOL

Also, had a plan for bilateral cuffs or Alines and played it off as that is what I do for those cases. He straight asked my "Oh, so that is how you do it currently for those cases?" My answer with declining confidence "yes....well... I would....I....uhhhh... I actually haven't done that case....but that's what I WOULD do." I stressed that I had blown that one!

Got out of the interviews, just excited to be done. Walk on to the elevator with 10 other interviewees. I was even more excited to be leaving the building. I say "pass or fail it is a good feeling to be done with that!" I look to my right and this one guy has tears forming and starting to fall that looked suicidal. I felt kinda bad for feeling relieved. I made sure not to walk next to him in case he lost it.

 

[deleted171991]

I had an examiner leave his scoring sheet out in plain sight as I was answering the questions. It was all the same column so very good or very bad! LOL

That's most likely good. It's very unlikely that most of what you said was bad.

 

[Section31]

I'll make you feel better. Took the exam last week. In my second room, I vomited. I spent the OSCE nauseous. At the airport, I got sick yet again to the point I took the next day off of work. Was it nerves or a bug? I may never know.

You threw up in the exam room?!

 

[sbhfl]

You threw up in the exam room?!

That poster was very clear in saying that, yes, they did throw up in the exam room. I doubt it's the worst those examiners have seen.

 

[sbhfl]

Passed.