Basic 2021: Retake Edition

[eabs0711]

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I failed this basic this past June and am currently headed towards the November retake. I just feel incredibly alone as I don’t know any anesthesia residents outside my home program and I think I’m the only person in my class that failed (but I can’t be sure). Anyone out there prepping for a retake?

 

[Silo004]

Fam. Annotate Faust with Truelearn (do it twice) M5 notes and you'll be more than solid. We all do this thing alone. Best of luck bud.

 

[Gator7]

There were a few people that failed basic over the years at my training program.

None of them were good residents, had poor work ethic, didn’t study, and didn’t study any more after failing. All of them passed basic on the retake and graduated residency.

If that makes you feel any better.

 

[deleted697127]

I failed this basic this past June and am currently headed towards the November retake. I just feel incredibly alone as I don’t know any anesthesia residents outside my home program and I think I’m the only person in my class that failed (but I can’t be sure). Anyone out there prepping for a retake?

Residency is a grind. You are not alone. Everyone’s workload varies depending on how their rotations are scheduled. I had ICU and some other tough rotations immediately prior to CA2 ITE so I was definitely studying in anticipation of the ITE in the fall knowing i was about to get worked on rotations in the winter.

How did you study the first time? Studying is similar to playing sports. Running drills but only going through the motions without actually being present won’t work as well as consistent focused wholehearted effort.

Time alone staring at a blank screen with your mind wandering as you do a qbank won’t get you the results you are looking for. Make a study plan and stick to it. Be mindful of chronic sleep deprivation. If you start to zone out, maybe you should cut your losses and stop the session for the night. Don’t just punish yourself continuing to study if you know you are not being productive. You get used to studying the more consistently you do it. If you make good habits early in residency, the second half is a breeze.

I graduated 2019. Assuming there haven’t been drastic changes, it is my opinion that you should:

1) Pick one or two resources and master them rather than trying to rush through a zillion. I used m5 and truelearn for basic. In retrospect, I would have stuck with just truelearn for basic, ITEs, and advanced. Maybe using all the resources will make you a hero on SDN but my goal was 50-70 percentile. I didn’t see the value in trying to be the absolute best test taker. You won’t run out of stuff to learn focusing on one qbank. After a certain point extra effort is probably better off spent on reading material that will make you a better anesthesiologist that doesn’t really translate into improved test scores.

2) All subjects, randomized, timed test mode is superior to tutor mode. Tutor mode tends to be easier if you are tired but won’t train your brain how to handle pace and the emotions of not knowing a few in a row. In terms of standardized test taking strategy, it is very common for test takers to botch easy questions after particularly challenging questions. If you recognize a string of questions you got in a row wrong on a question set, this may be something to consider. If this happens to you, you may benefit from taking a second to slow down after tough questions.

Maybe Tudor mode works for some people in the OR but studying in the OR wasn’t for me.

3) Go through all of the answer explanations. Make sure you know why you got them wrong. Understand the explanations. Know why the wrong answers are wrong.

4) Your highest priority should be going over high yield questions. These are the most commonly asked questions that seem to repetitively come up. You need to make sure you get all of the easy gimme questions. If 80% of people get it right and you get it wrong, you need to figure it out.

You may think some of the questions are stupid and unhelpful in the operating room but testing is biased towards questions that can be asked that have more definitive answers. It is what it is.

4) Not all test questions are worth the energy required to master the topic. I can’t think of any off the top of my head but there are certainly some topics that are confusing for everyone that most people get wrong that make your head spin trying to grasp. This can kill your momentum studying for the day. I wouldn’t get too worked up trying to master these. These questions should be rare but they do exist. Likewise, every qbank has questions that are not yet perfected. If 20% of students each choose different answers, the question may be written poorly. I suspect these questions are a work in progress and will be rewritten eventually. It may still be valuable to learn the concept but I would feel less bad about missing this type of question than one of the basic questions everyone is expected to know.

5) This may be too late for someone retaking the basic as you presumably have already completed truelearn once but: Be wary of going through a qbank halfassed for a first time with the plan of redoing it more thoroughly at a later date or becoming overconfident with your results going through a test bank a second time. If you have already seen a question, you often may know what the answer is even if you don’t know the concept or why it is the answer. This can make it more difficult to figure out which questions you should dedicate more time to.

6) If you are confident that you know a question inside and out, going over the lengthy answer explanation and taking notes may be way more time consuming than it is worthwhile. Cutting out going over stuff you are certain you have already mastered can make you much more efficient towards the end of the qbank.

7) Definitely redo the questions you got wrong or that you marked off as needing to repeat in the weeks before the test.

8) Questions that require calculations and statistics are usually pretty easy if you know how to do them. I sort by subject and do all of these back to back a few days before the test as a reminder on how to get these easy points. I found myself being able to reason through these slowly but having seen them recently makes you much faster and gives you more time for other questions.

9) truelearn in 2019 was not as robust or consistent as uworld was for step 1. Everyone takes step 1 so there is more money and competition leading to the qbank being nearly perfect. For the advanced exam, i remember the first 1/3 of the qbank i did way better than i did on the last 1/3. I started out over confident and ended up a little discouraged. The difficulty of the questions did not seem to be consistent throughout the bank as I completed it in randomized blocks of 50. The last 60 or so questions in particular seemed to be questions that were confusingly worded with a low percent of test takers answering correctly. Not sure if i am the only one that had that experience.


————

Finally, don’t stick with a study plan that you know isn’t working for you. Forcing yourself to read back to back chapters that put you to sleep is not effective. I took way too many notes i never went over as a med student.

I am confident that going through the qbank thoroughly once and a second time through wrong answers is enough to pass the basic for the vast majority of residents. For someone who has already failed or with mediocre results going through the qbank a little extra effort is obviously expected. Good luck

 

[eabs0711]

There were a few people that failed basic over the years at my training program.

None of them were good residents, had poor work ethic, didn’t study, and didn’t study any more after failing. All of them passed basic on the retake and graduated residency.

If that makes you feel any better.

That kind of makes me sad actually. I have great evals, work really hard, was ear marked for chief (probably not anymore due to the basic failure). I can be a super nervous test taker and I just…blanked out at the exam. All of sudden, I knew nothing and flat out panicked. Now, I live with the consequences.

At least they passed I guess. Hope that means I do as well.

PS shocked they didn’t study after failing and managed to pass.

 

[eabs0711]

Residency is a grind. You are not alone. Everyone’s workload varies depending on how their rotations are scheduled. I had ICU and some other tough rotations immediately prior to CA2 ITE so I was definitely studying in anticipation of the ITE in the fall knowing i was about to get worked on rotations in the winter.

How did you study the first time? Studying is similar to playing sports. Running drills but only going through the motions without actually being present won’t work as well as consistent focused wholehearted effort.

Time alone staring at a blank screen with your mind wandering as you do a qbank won’t get you the results you are looking for. Make a study plan and stick to it. Be mindful of chronic sleep deprivation. If you start to zone out, maybe you should cut your losses and stop the session for the night. Don’t just punish yourself continuing to study if you know you are not being productive. You get used to studying the more consistently you do it. If you make good habits early in residency, the second half is a breeze.

I graduated 2019. Assuming there haven’t been drastic changes, it is my opinion that you should:

1) Pick one or two resources and master them rather than trying to rush through a zillion. I used m5 and truelearn for basic. In retrospect, I would have stuck with just truelearn for basic, ITEs, and advanced. Maybe using all the resources will make you a hero on SDN but my goal was 50-70 percentile. I didn’t see the value in trying to be the absolute best test taker. You won’t run out of stuff to learn focusing on one qbank. After a certain point extra effort is probably better off spent on reading material that will make you a better anesthesiologist that doesn’t really translate into improved test scores.

2) All subjects, randomized, timed test mode is superior to tutor mode. Tutor mode tends to be easier if you are tired but won’t train your brain how to handle pace and the emotions of not knowing a few in a row. In terms of standardized test taking strategy, it is very common for test takers to botch easy questions after particularly challenging questions. If you recognize a string of questions you got in a row wrong on a question set, this may be something to consider. If this happens to you, you may benefit from taking a second to slow down after tough questions.

Maybe Tudor mode works for some people in the OR but studying in the OR wasn’t for me.

3) Go through all of the answer explanations. Make sure you know why you got them wrong. Understand the explanations. Know why the wrong answers are wrong.

4) Your highest priority should be going over high yield questions. These are the most commonly asked questions that seem to repetitively come up. You need to make sure you get all of the easy gimme questions. If 80% of people get it right and you get it wrong, you need to figure it out.

You may think some of the questions are stupid and unhelpful in the operating room but testing is biased towards questions that can be asked that have more definitive answers. It is what it is.

4) Not all test questions are worth the energy required to master the topic. I can’t think of any off the top of my head but there are certainly some topics that are confusing for everyone that most people get wrong that make your head spin trying to grasp. This can kill your momentum studying for the day. I wouldn’t get too worked up trying to master these. These questions should be rare but they do exist. Likewise, every qbank has questions that are not yet perfected. If 20% of students each choose different answers, the question may be written poorly. I suspect these questions are a work in progress and will be rewritten eventually. It may still be valuable to learn the concept but I would feel less bad about missing this type of question than one of the basic questions everyone is expected to know.

5) This may be too late for someone retaking the basic as you presumably have already completed truelearn once but: Be wary of going through a qbank halfassed for a first time with the plan of redoing it more thoroughly at a later date or becoming overconfident with your results going through a test bank a second time. If you have already seen a question, you often may know what the answer is even if you don’t know the concept or why it is the answer. This can make it more difficult to figure out which questions you should dedicate more time to.

6) If you are confident that you know a question inside and out, going over the lengthy answer explanation and taking notes may be way more time consuming than it is worthwhile. Cutting out going over stuff you are certain you have already mastered can make you much more efficient towards the end of the qbank.

7) Definitely redo the questions you got wrong or that you marked off as needing to repeat in the weeks before the test.

8) Questions that require calculations and statistics are usually pretty easy if you know how to do them. I sort by subject and do all of these back to back a few days before the test as a reminder on how to get these easy points. I found myself being able to reason through these slowly but having seen them recently makes you much faster and gives you more time for other questions.

9) truelearn in 2019 was not as robust or consistent as uworld was for step 1. Everyone takes step 1 so there is more money and competition leading to the qbank being nearly perfect. For the advanced exam, i remember the first 1/3 of the qbank i did way better than i did on the last 1/3. I started out over confident and ended up a little discouraged. The difficulty of the questions did not seem to be consistent throughout the bank as I completed it in randomized blocks of 50. The last 60 or so questions in particular seemed to be questions that were confusingly worded with a low percent of test takers answering correctly. Not sure if i am the only one that had that experience.


————

Finally, don’t stick with a study plan that you know isn’t working for you. Forcing yourself to read back to back chapters that put you to sleep is not effective. I took way too many notes i never went over as a med student.

I am confident that going through the qbank thoroughly once and a second time through wrong answers is enough to pass the basic for the vast majority of residents. For someone who has already failed or with mediocre results going through the qbank a little extra effort is obviously expected. Good luck

This was an exceptionally kind response and I appreciate it. I can be a nervous test taker on a bad day and I just blanked out at my first attempt—this led to total panic and I knew I failed when I walked out.

I went back to exercise and yoga, have stayed on a strict study plan with true learn, pass machine, and attacking each keyword that showed up on my letter. Hopefully this is enough to get me over the line.

 

[ToKingdomCome]

Review the key words. This unfortunately happens. There were quite a bit of repeat questionss

 

[Copernicium]

Took it today since I deferred the June administration...

What'd you think?

Also, anyone who got top 10% on prior examinations, how many questions do you think you missed? How keywords did you get on your report?

 

[coffeebythelake]

Faust is a great resource for key concepts. Without getting into the nitty gritty. Hall is great for questions. Add another Q bank and I think u ought to do well.