Boards 2011 thread

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veo1

veo1

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Boards were hard this year. AP was a lot more difficult than expected. Has anyone else out there taken/scheduled to take the Spring 2011 exam?
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veo1 said:
Boards were hard this year. AP was a lot more difficult than expected. Has anyone else out there taken/scheduled to take the Spring 2011 exam?
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Just took it this week. I thought AP was mostly fair but certainly no cakewalk.

Several small details were tested not once but TWICE, which seemed a little unfair; those details got double weight without being doubly important.

I had not appreciated just how H&E-centric the test was going to be. Lymphoma DDx on H&E or Pap alone, no immunos or flow, is not something that I was really trained on or expecting to be tested on.

I will say that the test center was a lot more confortable than I expected and the quality of the slides was very good.
 
I would agree that the exam unlined my (maybe somewhat unfortunate) reliance on IHC and an under-appreciation of H&E.

Now just have to wait til Aug (usually the first week).

The fall application is not due until Aug 15.
 
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I found cytology really tough, totally agree with lymphoma diagnosis on paps, its next to impossible based on just one computer image.
 
Taking in 10 days. I'm gonna vomit now.
 
Any thoughts on CP from those who have taken it? Hard or do-able?
 
Anyone, previous or current test takers, think the John Hopkins Surgical Pathology Unknown Conference or the PIP slides were helpful for boards?
 
path28 said:
Any thoughts on CP from those who have taken it? Hard or do-able?
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Hard (as expected) but mostly fair to be honest, and I don't even pride myself in knowledge of CP. At least after the test I could look up most answers and know where I stand on the CP exam. There was an unsettling degree of discordance between me and my fellow residents taking the exam on both the AP slides and AP practical with images. Worst part is who knows what the right answers were! Reflects the subjectivity of anatomic pathology.
 
KeratinPearls said:
Anyone, previous or current test takers, think the John Hopkins Surgical Pathology Unknown Conference or the PIP slides were helpful for boards?
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JHU unknowns and PIPs are great for building your skill longitudinally, if you have time; I would not spend too much time on these during your review months, EXCEPT that the Hopkins site is great for when you just want to see a couple of cases of XYZ diagnosis and hear what some Hopkins attending has to say about them.
 
I was so sick of eating Panera Bread by the end of that damn test. It was pretty sweet getting trashed afterward and swimming in the pool on the roof however.
 
To veo1, Ombret, moodydoc, mario2010 and GtownCobra.
I’m starting to prepare for the boards. Is there any good (must do) material out there, based on your experience?
Please explain what you've used to prepare.
 
I'll post my experience on July 1st. I've received a few PMs regarding this topic also. I'm a bit weary of giving advice as I'm not sure who is taking the exam this Spring exam (I hope other members are doing the same....don't ruin the curve!) In the meantime just check out the Boards FAQ/sticky or the pathology wiki.
 
Is there a curve? I thought it was just a set passing score. I hope it's not the latter though!
 
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Pneumocyte said:
To veo1, Ombret, moodydoc, mario2010 and GtownCobra.
I’m starting to prepare for the boards. Is there any good (must do) material out there, based on your experience?
Please explain what you've used to prepare.
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To your question--I found Lefkowitch, Sternberg review book, and Osler/ascp course audio very high yield. The other thing that is high yield is your own experience, if you've been on the ball as a resident. Medical kidney and forensics were almost entirely absent from the test, and no EM, and very few translocations-->low yield.
 
I liked the JH Surgical Pathology website, I wish I would have read it earlier, can't say it helped with boards as much as with ddx in life.
 
Ombret said:
To your question--I found Lefkowitch, Sternberg review book, and Osler/ascp course audio very high yield. The other thing that is high yield is your own experience, if you've been on the ball as a resident. Medical kidney and forensics were almost entirely absent from the test, and no EM, and very few translocations-->low yield.
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Loved that detailed chapter in the Sternberg Review book on the anus (1 question....why waste trees like that!). I concur with your evaluation of the review material however. :luck:
 
WhiteSmile said:
I wanna be a dentist, so now I'm looking for some practice in SLC, Utah. Can somebody help me?
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Yes, this forum is a great place to find a job as a dentist in salt lake city.
PHP:
 
Thank you Ombret and Torsed.
Veo1, I'll check the forum on July 1st.
 
Hi Veo1,
It would be great to know about your experience on the exam prep and the exam.
Thank you.
 
Pneumocyte said:
Hi Veo1,
It would be great to know about your experience on the exam prep and the exam.
Thank you.
Click to expand...

I would honestly just stick to the FAQ/sticky on boards preparation. I started studying seriously in January. Didn't start hardcore studying until 4 weeks before my test date, however.

AP boards are really hard to prepare for I'd say. You really don't know what they are going to put on the exam. There was a surprising amount of neuropath this year....mostly non-neoplastic but gross images too! Non-neoplastic derm was also overrepresented I thought...and not the immunofluoresence/bullous stuff you'd expect to see. I'd just have to agree with what's been said previously in being a good resident, going to conferences, looking at study sets, etc. during the course of your residency. I went through Lefkowitch twice and went through most of the Osler AP lecture series. The cytology is hard and unrealistic. No one I know makes an on the spot 10x diagnosis on cytology..not even in classic cases which of course weren't on the board exam.

For CP, I went through all of the Olser CP review course and took notes from the lectures in my Compendium which is really the only book you need. Everything you need to know is in that book. Memorizing it is another story. There are so many random questions that your'e never going to know the answer to.

All in all a miserable experience. Fully expecting to retake AP (at least) in October. Good luck
 
Torsed said:
I liked the JH Surgical Pathology website, I wish I would have read it earlier, can't say it helped with boards as much as with ddx in life.
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Boards are a racket. The board is getting rich and fat off of us.
 
Ombret said:
To your question--I found Lefkowitch, Sternberg review book, and Osler/ascp course audio very high yield. The other thing that is high yield is your own experience, if you've been on the ball as a resident. Medical kidney and forensics were almost entirely absent from the test, and no EM, and very few translocations-->low yield.
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I'm surprised no one else commented on the GU. There must have been 25 mangled prostate biopsies- all ambiguous. Things you would stain, show around, and struggle with in real life.

My test was:
1/4 breast- mostly ambiguous usual ductal hyp vs ADH/ ALH vs DCIS
1/4 GU the germ cell stuff was heavy and difficult too.
1/4 Derm- neoplastic and alot of ridiculous inflammatory derm - the typical AP pathologist is going to know the difference between Hailey hailey and Grover disease, yah right.
1/4 mix of the rest.

I had essentially no medical renal, forensics, neuro, EM, translocations or molecular, and very little GI- which was usually a visual giveaway with a picky secondary question. Cytology was hard and more ambiguous than the rise. Lymph nodes were all morphology with no immunophentype- which would be malpractice in modern practice.

Overall fuchin dumb test. Hoping i got past it.
 
sirenomelia said:
I'm surprised no one else commented on the GU. There must have been 25 mangled prostate biopsies- all ambiguous. Things you would stain, show around, and struggle with in real life.

My test was:
1/4 breast- mostly ambiguous usual ductal hyp vs ADH/ ALH vs DCIS
1/4 GU the germ cell stuff was heavy and difficult too.
1/4 Derm- neoplastic and alot of ridiculous inflammatory derm - the typical AP pathologist is going to know the difference between Hailey hailey and Grover disease, yah right.
1/4 mix of the rest.

I had essentially no medical renal, forensics, neuro, EM, translocations or molecular, and very little GI- which was usually a visual giveaway with a picky secondary question. Cytology was hard and more ambiguous than the rise. Lymph nodes were all morphology with no immunophentype- which would be malpractice in modern practice.

Overall fuchin dumb test. Hoping i got past it.
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I couldn't have said it any better. Glad to hear some honesty on this page for a change instead of the customary "Ahhh..it wasn't that bad"

I love your emphasis on the ambiguity of this test. If I could sum it up in a word I'd say it was pretty damned ambiguous. Our test had lots of non-neoplastic neuro but I pretty much agree with the above assessment. There was one friggin translocation question..and it was so easy that it'll probably be thrown out when they see that 99.999% of test takers got it right. I'm sure there are at least 20-30 translocations that are considered fair game. To only test with one question is a travesty.

Two easy forensics questions (like a photo with a guy that got his head blown off with ridiculous answer choices on the cause of death like a. dog bite b. carbon monoxide poisoning c. drowning d. gunshot wound) Hmmm....that was a tough one

Rare dermatologic differential diagnoses. How many people have you met in your life with Hailey Hailey?

I thought the quality of the slides was actually pretty bad for a $2200 (or $1800) test. Why all the madness with having to exchange out slide boxes? Can they just order enough recuts for everybody? The virtual slides leave much to be desired too. I still don't understand the purpose of virtual slides.

Rant over. Will resume at a later time
 
Generally, people remember the things they found the most difficult or otherwise had to put a lot of cerebral activity/time into.

As an aside, I distinctly recall during preparation reviewing an image of "classic" postmortem animal activity which an otherwise superb AP resident swore up and down was an axe injury (given the available multiple choice options). Just sayin', people seem to be more wildly yet confidently wrong on forensic questions than most other questions.
 
KCShaw said:
Generally, people remember the things they found the most difficult or otherwise had to put a lot of cerebral activity/time into.

As an aside, I distinctly recall during preparation reviewing an image of "classic" postmortem animal activity which an otherwise superb AP resident swore up and down was an axe injury (given the available multiple choice options). Just sayin', people seem to be more wildly yet confidently wrong on forensic questions than most other questions.
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That's the problem with discussing exams... people are often wrong, but don't realize it (wildly, confidently wrong).

Just ask 4 residents leaving the boards what that high power view of 3 cells on a cyto prep represented, and you will see what I mean. The secret is to get more right than wrong, and to not miss the easy ones.
 
I logged into the ABP site today and the checklist for the 2011 Fall Primary exam registration tracking is now on there. I remember this happening last year- did everyone have fall registration appear in their profiles or only those who didn't pass?
 
Did you guys/gals find Osler AP and CP lectures useful for the boards? I plan to use these two + compendium for CP.

Thanks for any advice.
 
I agree that you remember the questions that gave you a hard time...but I seriously thought my exam was at least 40% hemepath!! I was dying.
 
hotdocmitch said:
I agree that you remember the questions that gave you a hard time...but I seriously thought my exam was at least 40% hemepath!! I was dying.
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Most people think that the boards overrepresents things that they aren't personally as comfortable with. I thought there was way too much breast path and too many parasites. My friend thought there was too much GU and benign heme.
 
FYI: i took last year's Spring test and we were given our results Aug 3rd or 4th so i'm guessing it will be approx the same time for this year.
 
Thank you, veo1 and HbyHA. The waiting is a pain.
 
Anyone received spring single certification results ? AP only ?
 
GIMME MY RESULTS!! <pulling out hair>....

so that I can start studying for next spring.
 
mario2010, I took AP only and haven't received my results. I think they all come out at the same time.
 
Wow!!! I passed!! Don't know how!! How's that for my 99th post!!!
 
Board certified here too!! Congrats to all who passed. If you didn't, you will get it next time. It's a beast of a test.
 
Well, I did pass the CP portion (though, I did not expect to have difficulties with this at all). I did not pass the AP portion (passed the practical but did not pass the written by 3 points). I pretty much knew I was hosed going into the exam for AP as I didn't prepare nearly as much as I wanted to. I know what needs tweaking and I suppose I will be back in Tampa taking this God awful exam in October.

Oh well. Should I even bother with a re-score? I suppose it's probably a waste of $50.00.

Anyways, congrats to all who passed! I hope to be with you guys soon :)
 
I passed both AP and CP!
 
I can't access my scores on the Pathway abpath.org under Board Correspondence. I took the exam in June as well but no scores!

Anyone else in the same predicament?
 
Just checked. Thank God i passed too. Congrats to everyone !!
 
spathology756 said:
I can't access my scores on the Pathway abpath.org under Board Correspondence. I took the exam in June as well but no scores!

Anyone else in the same predicament?
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Did you submit a medical license? they won't release ur scores without it...
 
cmz said:
Well, I did pass the CP portion (though, I did not expect to have difficulties with this at all). I did not pass the AP portion (passed the practical but did not pass the written by 3 points). I pretty much knew I was hosed going into the exam for AP as I didn't prepare nearly as much as I wanted to. I know what needs tweaking and I suppose I will be back in Tampa taking this God awful exam in October.

Oh well. Should I even bother with a re-score? I suppose it's probably a waste of $50.00.

Anyways, congrats to all who passed! I hope to be with you guys soon :)
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I have always felt like the rescore wouldn't help. That being said, I would do it.
 
Thank you so much for your response. Yes, my medical license is with the Board. Unfortunately it is supposed to expire July 31, 2011. That shouldn't make a difference though? I had my license renewed until July 31, 2014 several weeks ago but only updated it to the pathway website just now. Didn't make a difference though!

What do you think? I am so freaking out :(
 
spathology756 said:
Thank you so much for your response. Yes, my medical license is with the Board. Unfortunately it is supposed to expire July 31, 2011. That shouldn't make a difference though? I had my license renewed until July 31, 2014 several weeks ago but only updated it to the pathway website just now. Didn't make a difference though!

What do you think? I am so freaking out :(
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I bet that is the problem. I bet someone has to look at and approve the license. unfortunately, I bet you will have to wait until monday.
 
If you get a rescore, would be nice to know if it changes anything. Personally I agree it's highly unlikely to change, but $50 is a lot less than $1200 or whatever it is for a single re-sit these days and it otherwise doesn't hurt you.
 
I would not rescore. Before the exam was on computers I might have considered it, but now? How could anything possibly change?
 
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