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Another oral board question...
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That is the book I have, and the main one I am reading for the Oral's.
Also, I've heard that it is probably wise to go through "Anesthesia and Co-Existing Disease" by Stoelting once or twice.
Screw Ho. I already paid enough of my money to Jensen, and that was pretty much a waste. You don't need either of these things, unless you are completely incapable of organizing your own time and study efforts (which I hardly believe for the vast majority of you who, like myself, have successfully made it this far).
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I only paid cold, hard cash twice in my life for standardized test preparation - the MCAT and anesthesia oral boards.
As an undergrad, everyone and their uncle took Kaplan or Princeton Review in an effort to ace the MCAT. Kaplan had this very convenient course on my campus and it met a couple times a week so I always had at least that built-in prep time. I thought the textbooks were excellent - they taught to the test. In college, the quality of textbooks vary widely and are not always chosen for the right reasons (how many texts have you bought that were written by the course instructor?). Kaplan did a great job preparing students for the MCAT and people recognized this and came in droves, cash in hand, to take the course.
No one pays cash to prepare for the USMLE unless they are a FMG needing to absolutely nail it for a residency or have multiple fails. If someone could devise a course that really helped people nail step 1 and if this was really important to a LOT of people (many can get fine primary care residencies with mediocre step 1's, but you aren't getting into med school with a mediocre MCAT) then people would pay cold, hard cash to prep for USMLE.
Lots of people pay cold, hard cash to prep for anesthesia orals. I took Ho's course and I thought it was worth every penny. I think his textbook really teaches to the boards and his primer/workbook helps set the format for oral board preparation. If Ho didn't do a great job, people wouldn't sign up for his course. I grant you that many of us would pass on our own without help from courses like Ho's. But board certification in anesthesiology is damn important. What would you rather bring to a knife fight - another knife or an AK-47?
As an undergrad, everyone and their uncle took Kaplan or Princeton Review in an effort to ace the MCAT. Kaplan had this very convenient course on my campus and it met a couple times a week so I always had at least that built-in prep time. I thought the textbooks were excellent - they taught to the test. In college, the quality of textbooks vary widely and are not always chosen for the right reasons (how many texts have you bought that were written by the course instructor?). Kaplan did a great job preparing students for the MCAT and people recognized this and came in droves, cash in hand, to take the course.
No one pays cash to prepare for the USMLE unless they are a FMG needing to absolutely nail it for a residency or have multiple fails. If someone could devise a course that really helped people nail step 1 and if this was really important to a LOT of people (many can get fine primary care residencies with mediocre step 1's, but you aren't getting into med school with a mediocre MCAT) then people would pay cold, hard cash to prep for USMLE.
Lots of people pay cold, hard cash to prep for anesthesia orals. I took Ho's course and I thought it was worth every penny. I think his textbook really teaches to the boards and his primer/workbook helps set the format for oral board preparation. If Ho didn't do a great job, people wouldn't sign up for his course. I grant you that many of us would pass on our own without help from courses like Ho's. But board certification in anesthesiology is damn important. What would you rather bring to a knife fight - another knife or an AK-47?
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To answer your question -- no. I don't think any textbook will be enough for the orals. Odds are you already have the basal level of knowledge considering that you passed the writtens. I think the orals are really about doing a bunch of practice oral exams. It's one thing to say the answers out loud to yourself, and it's another thing to say the answers to someone else.
I took the Ho Course out of sheer paranoia. I did not finish his textbook, and probably only read a 1/4 of it, if that. As it got closer to the exam, I just found it hard to sit down and read. What I liked about the Ho course was a different group of people to do practice mock orals with. Except for my first mock examiner, who I had a hard time understanding and thought the case she gave was way too hard, the rest were very helpful. They gave good general advice and filled in some of my knowledge gaps.
Short answer -- pick a book that you are comfortable with and do a bunch of practice exams. That is my 2 cents worth.
BTW, when I got in there and the examiners started firing questions at me, I forgot about my nervousness. You don't have time to be nervous when you are answering questions. It is the downtime that gets to you.
I took the Ho Course out of sheer paranoia. I did not finish his textbook, and probably only read a 1/4 of it, if that. As it got closer to the exam, I just found it hard to sit down and read. What I liked about the Ho course was a different group of people to do practice mock orals with. Except for my first mock examiner, who I had a hard time understanding and thought the case she gave was way too hard, the rest were very helpful. They gave good general advice and filled in some of my knowledge gaps.
Short answer -- pick a book that you are comfortable with and do a bunch of practice exams. That is my 2 cents worth.
BTW, when I got in there and the examiners started firing questions at me, I forgot about my nervousness. You don't have time to be nervous when you are answering questions. It is the downtime that gets to you.
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I personally think the Ho book and course are well worth it. Of course ask me that in a couple of months after I get my results. Like someone previously mentioned, most of us already have the knowledge. Its knowing how to put it together in an oral format that gets some people. Dont assume just because you can do it in the OR that you can explain it to someone else on the fly. Whether or not you take the course..PRACTICE ....Having said that, Yao and Artusio is a great book too.
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I think you can get by without a review course if you organize your knowledge, outline answers to the basic questions you know you'll be asked (hypoxia, ABGs, hypotension, ACLS, etc.), and practice out loud as much as you can.
I didn't take any review courses but, then again, I have never been a review course kind of guy. I read the Ho text, snippets of Yao and Artusio, Board Stiff Too, and the Loushin prep for written and orals. I liked how his oral answers were structured. Not heavy on the scientific detail, but good, common-sense answers. There are many ways to answer a question and few are absolutely wrong unless you say something ridiculous. "What do you mean, I cannot intubate this neonate? I have SKILLZ! If I can't get a tube in, I'd just leave 'em on the table!" If you can adapt, come up with a reasonable plan, and defend your approach, you will pass.
Best of luck to this next crop of ABA diplomates!
Regards,
PMMD
I didn't take any review courses but, then again, I have never been a review course kind of guy. I read the Ho text, snippets of Yao and Artusio, Board Stiff Too, and the Loushin prep for written and orals. I liked how his oral answers were structured. Not heavy on the scientific detail, but good, common-sense answers. There are many ways to answer a question and few are absolutely wrong unless you say something ridiculous. "What do you mean, I cannot intubate this neonate? I have SKILLZ! If I can't get a tube in, I'd just leave 'em on the table!" If you can adapt, come up with a reasonable plan, and defend your approach, you will pass.
Best of luck to this next crop of ABA diplomates!
Regards,
PMMD
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I thought the exam was more about psychology of question answering than anything else. Knowledge is important but serioulsy concentrate more on how to answer questions. Practice aloud. MH, hypoxia, Mitral stensosis, etc managment should roll off your tongue like you have done it a thousand times.
My first examiner threw me off by having the demeanor which implied my responses were not right. i started questioning myself than started contradicting myself, eventually i realized i was spiraling then pulled my self out of it. The rest went fine.
Corallary to all of this is that in the end, even after babbling for 10 minutes, i passed the exam. When you screw up just move on and continue to do your best and forget what just happened and what you said.
My first examiner threw me off by having the demeanor which implied my responses were not right. i started questioning myself than started contradicting myself, eventually i realized i was spiraling then pulled my self out of it. The rest went fine.
Corallary to all of this is that in the end, even after babbling for 10 minutes, i passed the exam. When you screw up just move on and continue to do your best and forget what just happened and what you said.
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