Board Review Stuff

[WalterSobchak]

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Ok, now it's 2006, and I am really getting serious about studying. I would like any opinions on study materials (Big Blue, Osler, etc), which did you use, and what did you prefer? If you are looking to sell something from the recent past, PM me and we can discuss it. Thanks

 

[davvid2700]

get mikhail morgan and read it over and over and over.. study.. keywords from the asa.. buy old intraining exams and doo every question and study them and finally buy anesthesiology boards by michelle starr and go over all the key words and explanations..


orals: Michael Ho, Michael Ho, Michael HO,..... yao and artusio,(know every case in dere)

 

[PGY2]

get mikhail morgan and read it over and over and over.. study.. keywords from the asa.. buy old intraining exams and doo every question and study them and finally buy anesthesiology boards by michelle starr and go over all the key words and explanations..


orals: Michael Ho, Michael Ho, Michael HO,..... yao and artusio,(know every case in dere)

I took Jensens review for both the written and the orals. I have heard good things about Ho's oral course. However, being that it was twice the price of Jensen's, I decided to go with cheap. I was impressed with Jensen's course. If you pass the writtens, you should do fine on the orals. The people who have problems are the ones who either dont speak english well, those who are afraid of public speaking, or who crack under pressure. The best way to get over this is to present lots of M&Ms during your residency. The other key is to briefly go over common scenrios/cases. Both courses do this well I gather.

 

[davvid2700]

If you pass the writtens, you should do fine on the orals. The people who have problems are the ones who either dont speak english well, those who are afraid of public speaking, or who crack under pressure. .

If you believe that you really missed the boat on the orals... probably barely passed... thats fine too.. but you dont wanna barely pass you wanna rock the boards and only one course can offer you the tools to become a consultant.. Not the Ted farios Hypotension algorhythm.

 

[PGY2]

If you believe that you really missed the boat on the orals... probably barely passed... thats fine too.. but you dont wanna barely pass you wanna rock the boards and only one course can offer you the tools to become a consultant.. Not the Ted farios Hypotension algorhythm.

David,

Whether I barely passed the orals or not, I will never know because it's a pass/fail exam. All that matters is that I passed on my first try. I cant comment on the Ho course... but seeing that you can comment on the Jensens course, you probably took both... meaning you probably didnt pass the first time and had to take the Ho course for the extra knowledge you didnt possess the first time. So go ahead and pump the Ho course and belittle me all you want, the extra grand that I saved was wisely invested in a sweet BMW attending ride.

The orals is just a test to show that you can effectively communicate and reasonably defend your anesthetic plan. It doesnt matter what you know, it's what you say. And it is usually the people who are afraid to speak up that dont do well... (my observation from the course). Every mock oral I did in the course, they said they would have passed me. I wasnt an exceptional resident, just one who learned to communicate well instead of being one of those on the other side of the curtain that just hides his head and is barely noticed.

 

[iron]

I didn't take a course. Very few residents at my programs did. The Chair told me that they sent residents who had difficulty with standardized exams to review courses. You will know if you fall in to this category. When you take the writtens 'for real' you've already taken it three times! And your program should have practice Oral Boards twice a year. Study for these to get the most out of them. As for actual book recommendations:

A few people the year ahead of me used Jensens Big Blue. It's very popular with the residents at my current program. You can buy a lot of books, spend a lot of money, but it's actually spending the TIME to use them that will make the difference.

I like Michelle Starr for very high yield review. It was also well regarded by an attending when I was a resident and a few residents at my current program.

I read most of Morgan & Mikhail. All of Eger's Pharmacology of Inhaled Anesthetics (freebie, small book from Baxter). I read journals every issue: Anesthesiology, A&A, JAMA, NEJM. I think the journals are what really helped me. They were interesting topical, impressed my attendings and the introductions/conclusions gave me lots of information on current, future trends, background into anesthetic mechanisms, physiology, you name it. It worked for me and I enjoyed keeping up with the latest.

For Orals, I used Board Stiff Too. And made myself practice out loud, write outlines. I think the journal reading also helped with Orals. And on a regular basis I'd come up with scenarios in the O.R. Just to pass the time. But you must practice OUT LOUD. In your head you can sound like a genius, but open your mouth and you'll prove that you aren't.

 

[UTSouthwestern]

In your head you can sound like a genius, but open your mouth and you'll prove that you aren't.

I have to clip and save that quote.

 

[davvid2700]

David,

Whether I barely passed the orals or not, I will never know because it's a pass/fail exam. All that matters is that I passed on my first try. I cant comment on the Ho course... but seeing that you can comment on the Jensens course, you probably took both... meaning you probably didnt pass the first time and had to take the Ho course for the extra knowledge you didnt possess the first time. So go ahead and pump the Ho course and belittle me all you want, the extra grand that I saved was wisely invested in a sweet BMW attending ride.

The orals is just a test to show that you can effectively communicate and reasonably defend your anesthetic plan. It doesnt matter what you know, it's what you say. And it is usually the people who are afraid to speak up that dont do well... (my observation from the course). Every mock oral I did in the course, they said they would have passed me. I wasnt an exceptional resident, just one who learned to communicate well instead of being one of those on the other side of the curtain that just hides his head and is barely noticed.

Dude,

I am not knocking you atall. If you can take the jensen course and save 1000 dollars and buy a bmw thats fine. Im just saying that your comment about if you can pass the writtens you can pass the orals is just not true. It aint!!!.
You need to possess far more knowledge for the orals and you need to kn ow it in perspective to be able to elaborate on it. I took jensen for the writtens and Ho for the orals. I took the exam once not twice. I think jensen was algorhthm approach to passing, Its good for the writtens but i think it falls short for the orals. You need a "understanding" of the issues at hand for the orals and that understanding does not come from "ted Farios" he likes to be called his last name first. for hypotension.

And the people who fail the orals are not the people who who dont like to speak up. they are the people who dont have an understanding of the issues. and that understanding does not come from memorizing facts.. it comes from not only memorizing facts but considering them in context and based on one particular clinical situation. ANd your mock oral examiner cannot say whether you passed or failed. Even the real examiniers cant say that because it goes into a computer and serious mathematics are used to see who passed and failed.