Basic exam

[Not NPO]

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How did it go guys???

 

[NCMED101]

That was incredibly out of left field. Have no clue if I even passed or not

 

[TexasDoc2388]

That was incredibly out of left field. Have no clue if I even passed or not

You passed.

 

[hununuh]

That was incredibly out of left field. Have no clue if I even passed or not

Was it very different from ITE? I will be taking the exam in 1 year

 

[abolt18]

I thought it was pretty ridiculous. Stupid questions testing irrelevant minutiae. So, the usual type of board exam. Huge overemphasis of a single subject (5+ questions about the same exact thing).

 

[MirrorTodd]

I did not feel that it matched up to the Truelearn question bank very well.

 

[abolt18]

I did not feel that it matched up to the Truelearn question bank very well.

Or reality.

 

[MirrorTodd]

What's the time frame for results? Two months as always?

 

[Not NPO]

Does anyone know what % we need to pass?

 

[gaspasser127]

Does anyone know what % we need to pass?

I think it’s a percentile thing and for the past few years it’s had a 90ish% pass rate.

I agree tho - lots of questions completely out of left field. If I had another month to study for that exam I don’t know what else I could’ve studied to know that material.

Whatever - i just hope i passed.

 

[Silo004]

These replies ...

Anyway took the exam.

I didn't think it was terrible.

Most of the questions made sense and seemed somewhat fair. I went through true learn >1.5 times, scoring 58% the first time and >90% on the second time through after very thorough reading of answers and notes. I also got through about a 1/3 of Faust and did all the basic Hall questions. I made a lot of anki flash cards but never used them.

From what I could remember, there was a decent amount of anatomy w/ and w/o ultrasound and about as much pharmacology as I expected, a fair amount of airway management questions and stuff about hormones from step 1 that I think I was able to piece together. They made it clear that you should understand the fundamental concepts about anesthetic gases, the NMJ, NMBs, IV fluids composition/indications, respiratory/cardiac physiology and the perioperative environment.

Stats questions were simple. There were some questions about management protocols, legal stuff that I thought were lame.

There were no specific CYP enzyme questions, YMMV.

I want an ultrasound anatomy, pharm, IV fluid question or two back. Of course there were some random factoids that I completely guessed on and probably got wrong. But I thought I gave a good performance overall. I hope to -- expect to? -- pass, but by no means do I deserve the 90th percentile notification.

An aside: There is not much on this exam from google searches re: how to study, what the exam feels like. This website and others have been there for me from MCAT through Step 3, but I found the BASIC exam reflections to be few and far between. FWIW, my program has not been the most supportive of us re: time to study and I was not comfortable until about a month before the exam. Cheers.

If I had to do it over again, I would have read Faust cover to cover before starting the Trulearn questions, made sure I understood pulm, cardio, renal and hepatic physiology well -- I think I did -- and been much more systematic with my pharm review.

 

[anbuitachi]

These replies ...

Anyway took the exam.

I didn't think it was terrible.

Most of the questions made sense and seemed somewhat fair. I went through true learn >1.5 times, scoring 58% the first time and >90% on the second time through after very thorough reading of answers and notes. I also got through about a 1/3 of Faust and did all the basic Hall questions. I made a lot of anki flash cards but never used them.

From what I could remember, there was a decent amount of anatomy w/ and w/o ultrasound and about as much pharmacology as I expected, a fair amount of airway management questions and stuff about hormones from step 1 that I think I was able to piece together. They made it clear that you should understand the fundamental concepts about anesthetic gases, the NMJ, NMBs, IV fluids composition/indications, respiratory/cardiac physiology and the perioperative environment.

Stats questions were simple. There were some questions about management protocols, legal stuff that I thought were lame.

There were no specific CYP enzyme questions, YMMV.

I want an ultrasound anatomy, pharm, IV fluid question or two back. Of course there were some random factoids that I completely guessed on and probably got wrong. But I thought I gave a good performance overall. I hope to -- expect to? -- pass, but by no means do I deserve the 90th percentile notification.

An aside: There is not much on this exam from google searches re: how to study, what the exam feels like. This website and others have been there for me from MCAT through Step 3, but I found the BASIC exam reflections to be few and far between. FWIW, my program has not been the most supportive of us re: time to study and I was not comfortable until about a month before the exam. Cheers.

If I had to do it over again, I would have read Faust cover to cover before starting the Trulearn questions, made sure I understood pulm, cardio, renal and hepatic physiology well -- I think I did -- and been much more systematic with my pharm review.

whats faust?

 

[Robotic Wis-Hipple]

If it’s any consolation I thought the Basic was esoteric at times, but the Advanced was kind of a joke. It actually felt odd that the test was supposed to be proof I knew all of anesthesia.

 

[DM27]

From my experience, the basic was a more exaggerated version of most anesthesia exams I have taken. ~80% of it is simple one-step knowledge and honestly questions that anyone not getting confused should be able to get the vast majority of correct. These questions are so easy they are often forgettable. The remaining 20% is a total hodgepodge of esoteric garbage or questions involving drugs or pathologies the average resident has never heard of. Often the remaining 20% has a common theme (lots of questions on toxins, lots of questions on blood transfusion, etc.). These 20% are the memorable ones that make everyone feel like they failed.

I walked out of this exam thinking I may have failed it. The only other exam I have felt this way about was the applied exam (oral boards). I passed the basic and got one of those >90% letters so obviously my perception was either very wrong or they throw out a ton of questions.

You can have faith that you passed it purely because the odds are VASTLY in your favor, and if you're someone who haunts SDN you likely care about your specialty slightly more than average.

 

[Dam272]

I felt it was tougher and more unnecessary and “stupid” information based than ITE

 

[Silo004]

whats faust?

 

[ERRES2288]

I wonder what the percent correct needed to pass. My guess would be about 65%-68%.

 

[Not NPO]

Where did you get those numbers from?

I wonder what the percent correct needed to pass. My guess would be about 65%-68%.

 

[agolden1]

I'll echo some of the other sentiments from this discussion

Lots of one step questions, with a couple that required a little more complex navigation. Devil is definitely in the details here! I actually went back to a couple of sections of my copy of first aid for step 1 (particularly the end chapter pharm sections) as review for this and actually wish I had spent a little more time with it. Memorizing the pharmacology boxes from the IV and inhaled agents cold in Morgan and Mikhail also has a role here. Actually, just in general Morgan and Mikhail is a very useful text for this exam, but you can't just go by the numbered points. Many testable points end up just being a random sentence that you find after you get a question wrong. Maybe combine that with some chapters from Costanza physiology if you feel like you are weak in physio?

Truelearn was great for ITE, less good for this, but did have some relevant questions. I did Hall as preparation for the ITE and found there weren't alot of questions that showed up which were related to the material from it. I felt like there was much more from Hall that showed up on the BASIC, but still don't know if I would spend the time going through that bank again.

Probable pass, but made some really dumb mistakes so not at the sdn 90th percentile. Whatevs.

 

[Dam272]

I'll echo some of the other sentiments from this discussion

Lots of one step questions, with a couple that required a little more complex navigation. Devil is definitely in the details here! I actually went back to a couple of sections of my copy of first aid for step 1 (particularly the end chapter pharm sections) as review for this and actually wish I had spent a little more time with it. Memorizing the pharmacology boxes from the IV and inhaled agents cold in Morgan and Mikhail also has a role here. Actually, just in general Morgan and Mikhail is a very useful text for this exam, but you can't just go by the numbered points. Many testable points end up just being a random sentence that you find after you get a question wrong. Maybe combine that with some chapters from Costanza physiology if you feel like you are weak in physio?

Truelearn was great for ITE, less good for this, but did have some relevant questions. I did Hall as preparation for the ITE and found there weren't alot of questions that showed up which were related to the material from it. I felt like there was much more from Hall that showed up on the BASIC, but still don't know if I would spend the time going through that bank again.

Probable pass, but made some really dumb mistakes so not at the sdn 90th percentile. Whatevs.

I agree with the mentioned points

 

[mnbmen]

Passing score isn’t determined ahead of time. A committee all take the exam then each person says what they think the passing score is and what percentage of people should pass. Then they compare that to the actual curve of scores and choose a cutoff somewhere between where the committee thinks the passing score and number of people passing should be.

 

[26B]

Is the turnaround time for scores 5-6 weeks usually?

 

[abolt18]

Is the turnaround time for scores 5-6 weeks usually?

July 16th last year.

 

[MirrorTodd]

Do we find out the results ourselves or does our program tell us? Cause if it's the latter, they're making us wait til Aug 13 (our quarterly review).

 

[abolt18]

Do we find out the results ourselves or does our program tell us? Cause if it's the latter, they're making us wait til Aug 13 (our quarterly review).

I believe the pass/fail should be visible on the ABA website when you log in.

 

[zyovka]

Someone mentioned July 15th, this upcoming Monday. Go guess if this is for real?

 

[CoconutDreams]

So is today the day?? I’m tired of waiting! This is so ridiculous!

 

[agolden1]

Exam results are up for people at my program. No email though I guess.

 

[D4C]

Saw mine on the ABA portal.

 

[CoconutDreams]

Same here. Very relieved!

 

[zyovka]

Yeah, I saw mine on the portal. How does it work in the program? Does the PD get them also?

 

[Silo004]

Yeah, I saw mine on the portal. How does it work in the program? Does the PD get them also?

I'd imagine PD knows before you.

 

[ASMS_anes]

Failed the basic exam.. I feel devastated and can’t come out of the shock.. any advice or study tip you guys can share. I’ll appreciate it

 

[26B]

Failed the basic exam.. I feel devastated and can’t come out of the shock.. any advice or study tip you guys can share. I’ll appreciate it

You can retake it in November, right? I don't think it's going to have a hugely negative impact as long as you pass on the retake.

As far as resources, I thought Truelearn was decent, and that was the only thing I used for the ITE and the Basic. The Basic did seem to have a lot more basic science questions than the ITE, so maybe adding something like M5 would help. I've heard that M5 focuses heavily on the basic science stuff.

 

[ASMS_anes]

You can retake it in November, right? I don't think it's going to have a hugely negative impact as long as you pass on the retake.

As far as resources, I thought Truelearn was decent, and that was the only thing I used for the ITE and the Basic. The Basic did seem to have a lot more basic science questions than the ITE, so maybe adding something like M5 would help. I've heard that M5 focuses heavily on the basic science stuff.

I used true learn. I did some of basic questions on Halls and M5, but not all of them

 

[Silo004]

Can confirm that residents find out before PDs.

 

[IkeBoy18]

Can confirm that residents find out before PDs.

Thats definitely a change from 2017 when I took it. PDs found out first then.

 

[ucladoc2b]

Can confirm that residents find out before PDs.

Yes. Our PD frantically texted everyone to log on to the ABA portal and email him the results.

 

[zyovka]

Has anyone received a letter from the ABA? On their website, they mentioned, that the results will be mailed on July 25th. Nothing here yet. Last year, our residents received like a page with a list of keywords that were not answered correctly.

 

[ucladoc2b]

Has anyone received a letter from the ABA? On their website, they mentioned, that the results will be mailed on July 25th. Nothing here yet. Last year, our residents received like a page with a list of keywords that were not answered correctly.

Apparently mine is sitting in my mailbox.

 

[gaschicago]

Did any one get a top 10% letter along with their results?

 

[abolt18]

Did any one get a top 10% letter along with their results?

Nothing of that sort haha but I did get my letter today that says "you passed!" And has subjects of the questions I missed

 

[hununuh]

Senior residents at my program got the keyword list today as well. I don't think they got the letter though. I heard one of them saying that she only got 21 keywords, so she thinks she will get the top 10% letter later.

 

[Dam272]

Got Top 10% letter yesterday

 

[hununuh]

Got Top 10% letter yesterday

Congrats! How many keywords (wrong questions) did you have, and how did you study for the exam? I will be taking it in next year.

 

[abolt18]

Got Top 10% letter yesterday

Congrats! I got the same letter yesterday.

For the person asking study resources:
Truelearn, UK Anesthesia YouTube videos, ACCRAC podcast, and our departmental morning lectures they had for our class every day for the month of May (following the book "Anesthesiology Core Review. Part 1: Basic Exam")

 

[Dam272]

Congrats! I got the same letter yesterday.

For the person asking study resources:
Truelearn, UK Anesthesia YouTube videos, ACCRAC podcast, and our departmental morning lectures they had for our class every day for the month of May (following the book "Anesthesiology Core Review. Part 1: Basic Exam")

Hey. Congrats to you too

 

[Dam272]

Congrats! How many keywords (wrong questions) did you have, and how did you study for the exam? I will be taking it in next year.

My recommendation is study real hard for the ITE, sets a solid base. My program has excellent lectures that helped a whole lot. I supplemented it with Truelearn, own notes from Miller (not baby), and some M5 questions (not really worth it)

 

[mnbmen]

I had 30 keywords and got the letter.

 

[Beeftenderloin]

Anyone else out there who hasn’t got anything in the mail yet?