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bosco77

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so, that was pretty tough but doable.

the servers froze and they had to throw out all of the virtual microscopy slides because they would not load or go to high power without becoming pixelated.
They will only be grading the glass for our particular exam, I see that as a good thing, others maybe not.

now just 3 months to wait to see the results.
good luck to all those still to come.
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nice, what do you wish you would have studied more?
 
bosco77 said:
so, that was pretty tough but doable.

the servers froze and they had to throw out all of the virtual microscopy slides because they would not load or go to high power without becoming pixelated.
They will only be grading the glass for our particular exam, I see that as a good thing, others maybe not.

now just 3 months to wait to see the results.
good luck to all those still to come.
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Wow - are you serious about this? Incredible that for all that money and time, the ABP can't make sure the exam functions properly.
 
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yes. it was kind of stressful because for 30 minutes they kept saying they were working on it and then added 10 minutes to the clock even though it the program had stopped working 25 minutes before, and finally they announced everyone should just go to lunch and they would not count that part of the exam.

As far as what I wish I had studied its tough to say, the breadth (and sometimes irrelevance) of the questions makes it difficult to zero in on any one area. If I fail I am not sure what my revised study plan would consist of. So it would be best to not fail.

Topics that were not heavily tested were medical renal (lots of tumors though), neuro and mucle (a good number of brain tumors though) bone path and forensics. They were only a handful of questions all told.

For CP there were 7 panels, with only one a straight ID and even that had 2 antibodies. Lots of micro and heme. And a few lab admin question that were just idiotic.
I would like to ask that person wtf they were thinking submitting one of them, I wish I could be more specific but that whole confidentiality thing is standing in the way of a lot of people having a good laugh at how outside the scope it was. (sort of like the question on the RISE regarding Maslow's pyramid and attainment of self-actualization).

Anyways just put in the study time and keep a good attitude and you will probably be ok.
 
I sang it before and I'll sing it again: All their stupidity at the ABP gonna cause someone to snap and "come back from lunch" with an AK-47. The stupid, cocky, screw you attitude gonna get em' in the end. Seems like they don't realize ITS PATHOLOGY....half the people in this field are half looney to begin with, not good to push people like that.

Classic about the virtual slides craping out....remind me again what the point of that is? Probably some nabob trustee pushing its use on boards to prove some silly obscure paper he/she wrote about telepathology.
 
Yeah I took boards on the day the server kept crashing. I was fortunate enough to be able to complete the virtual microscopy slides though. To me they were MUCH easier than the glass slides (many of the glass slides came down to 50/50 on two choices...features of both lesions..etc.) They made the blanket statement "You wont be penalized for this. We are throwing out the VM, only your glass slides will count." So my concern now is they throw out what I know that I got right, leaving only the more challenging material as the basis for my grade?!?! Does anyone else think this could be a problem? :scared:
 
ermonty said:
Yeah I took boards on the day the server kept crashing. I was fortunate enough to be able to complete the virtual microscopy slides though. To me they were MUCH easier than the glass slides (many of the glass slides came down to 50/50 on two choices...features of both lesions..etc.) They made the blanket statement "You wont be penalized for this. We are throwing out the VM, only your glass slides will count." So my concern now is they throw out what I know that I got right, leaving only the more challenging material as the basis for my grade?!?! Does anyone else think this could be a problem? :scared:
Click to expand...

Absolutely. If they fail you, you should lawyer up.
 
bosco77 said:
yes. it was kind of stressful because for 30 minutes they kept saying they were working on it and then added 10 minutes to the clock even though it the program had stopped working 25 minutes before, and finally they announced everyone should just go to lunch and they would not count that part of the exam.

As far as what I wish I had studied its tough to say, the breadth (and sometimes irrelevance) of the questions makes it difficult to zero in on any one area. If I fail I am not sure what my revised study plan would consist of. So it would be best to not fail.

Topics that were not heavily tested were medical renal (lots of tumors though), neuro and mucle (a good number of brain tumors though) bone path and forensics. They were only a handful of questions all told.

For CP there were 7 panels, with only one a straight ID and even that had 2 antibodies. Lots of micro and heme. And a few lab admin question that were just idiotic.
I would like to ask that person wtf they were thinking submitting one of them, I wish I could be more specific but that whole confidentiality thing is standing in the way of a lot of people having a good laugh at how outside the scope it was. (sort of like the question on the RISE regarding Maslow's pyramid and attainment of self-actualization).

Anyways just put in the study time and keep a good attitude and you will probably be ok.
Click to expand...

Although you're avoiding some specifics, publishing how many of certain types of questions there are is, I think, out of line. Maybe they shuffle the questions around every week though. Still, I don't think you should be putting that on the internet.
 
I said absolutely nothing that would indicate an answer or even hint at an actual question besides the broad categorization that you could find on revision of the info provided by the ABP.
I hope I dont get a job where you are working, you seem like a putz.
 
Just took AP today. All I have to say, I hate the boards...that is all. :(
 
bosco77 said:
I said absolutely nothing that would indicate an answer or even hint at an actual question besides the broad categorization that you could find on revision of the info provided by the ABP.
I hope I dont get a job where you are working, you seem like a putz.
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Now now, no need to resort to name calling. I just don't think this forum should be used for sharing boards info. Relax.
 
A friend of mine who took it today said the server for the virtual slides crashed again and that portion wasn't scored for today's AP exam either. During the break one of the staffers said that ABP may be scrapping virtual slides for this exam cycle in light of this. Apparently they're using a new vendor for the virtuals this year.
 
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malfunctioning computers... as if pathology board exam takers aren't already stressed out enough... so they're going to invalidate 20% of the exam? (not sure what percentage of the exam is virtual slides)

aplasticcrisis said:
A friend of mine who took it today said the server for the virtual slides crashed again and that portion wasn't scored for today's AP exam either. During the break one of the staffers said that ABP may be scrapping virtual slides for this exam cycle in light of this. Apparently they're using a new vendor for the virtuals this year.
Click to expand...
 
scienceguy19 said:
malfunctioning computers... as if pathology board exam takers aren't already stressed out enough... so they're going to invalidate 20% of the exam? (not sure what percentage of the exam is virtual slides)
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Be careful! Apparently you're not allowed to tell what % of the exam is virtual slides on this forum ;)
 
wow! medical renal, neuro, muscle and brain. how useless in a general community practice setting.
 
mikesheree said:
wow! medical renal, neuro, muscle and brain. how useless in a general community practice setting.
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It depends.

I know of community hospitals with a lot of neurosurgery. And if you are in one of these supergroups that cover 8 hospitals with one of them doing kidney transplants having a renal pathologist could make sense.
 
Ok. We can't talk about what questions are on Boards. But we can discuss resources. What study resources do you find most helpful? Osler lectures are pretty solid for the most part. I'm not sure how helpful the chemistry sections are.
 
Additionally, I've heard non-neoplastic derm is a waste of time to review... any comments? I'm sure psoriasis will be on the test... but it can be so complex and rely on clinical Hx so much... I'll probably focus elsewhere (unless I hear otherwise)...
 
I remember that high power in the virtual microscopy on my exam was pretty useless and pixelated, and there were questions that required it to make the distinction between the answer choices. I just figured the technology was bad, but maybe there was a problem then as well but no one knew any better. I was just happy I didnt have to deal with virtual microscopy with dermpath boards.

On a related note, when I took Step 3, I remember that after each order/step/etc. on the clincial case scenarios, the computer would take at least a minute to get to the next step in the case, even though for the practice CCS cases that I downloaded, each step was practically instantaneous. I figured that the real test was supposed to be like that and that the practice cases on my computer were fast because they were practice cases. I took me a while to figure out that the problem was with the computer at Sylvan that day. Fortunately I passed with a wide margin anyway but if I hadn't I would have been really upset.
 
Hah. Yeah our residents were there on Monday too when the virtual slide servers crapped the bed. Apparently ABP switched from Olympus to an Aperio system this year. You would think that for $2200 x n suckers they have taking the test they could run the system through some tests first.
 
Is this Aperio technology supposed to be a sneak peak of digital pathology?

digital pathology FAIL

DrBloodmoney said:
Hah. Yeah our residents were there on Monday too when the virtual slide servers crapped the bed. Apparently ABP switched from Olympus to an Aperio system this year. You would think that for $2200 x n suckers they have taking the test they could run the system through some tests first.
Click to expand...
 
As a reminder, please do NOT post information about exam questions.


Organizations can get very picky about people posting exam questions online or sharing them. As a reminder, when you take the boards you sign a form saying you won't distribute or share questions or your scores could be forfeited. Don't be that person.


If you have a question about whether something is ok to post, then it probably isn't ok to post it. It seems fine to me to say "there were a lot of medical renal questions" but anything more specific than that is pushing it.

I deleted a couple of posts that were pushing things. If you see others, report them and they will be addressed.
 
Out of curiosity had anyone evr challenged the constitutionality of that


yaah said:
As a reminder, please do NOT post information about exam .


Organizations can get very picky about people posting exam questions online or sharing them. As a reminder, when you take the boards you sign a form saying you won't distribute or share questions or your scores could be forfeited. Don't be that person.


If you have a question about whether something is ok to post, then it probably isn't ok to post it. It seems fine to me to say "there were a lot of medical renal questions" but anything more specific than that is pushing it.

I deleted a couple of posts that were pushing things. If you see others, report them and they will be addressed.
Click to expand...
 
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scienceguy19 said:
Is this Aperio technology supposed to be a sneak peak of digital pathology?


ABPath FAIL
Click to expand...

FIXED.

There's nothing wrong with aperio. The virtual system they had worked fine last year when I took it and Im sure they switched to a cheaper vender to keep more money for themselves and failed to properly setup and test the system.
 
gbwillner said:
Additionally, I've heard non-neoplastic derm is a waste of time to review... any comments? I'm sure psoriasis will be on the test... but it can be so complex and rely on clinical Hx so much... I'll probably focus elsewhere (unless I hear otherwise)...
Click to expand...

It is a waste of time but there was alot of it I thought. I flipped through Rapini the night before- like the whole thing- but I felt like it didnt help anyway. But it was a wash as most people afterwards thought the inflammatory derm was ridiculous.
 
sirenomelia said:
FIXED.

There's nothing wrong with aperio. The virtual system they had worked fine last year when I took it and Im sure they switched to a cheaper vender to keep more money for themselves and failed to properly setup and test the system.
Click to expand...

They switched because the Olympus system was no longer being supported. They had been in negotiations with Aperio for the last two years before switching. Seems like nobody tested this beforehand. What a shame.
 
Nobody tested it beforehand? Sounds like a QA failure. Bring in the CAP inspectors.:laugh:

aplasticcrisis said:
They switched because the Olympus system was no longer being supported. They had been in negotiations with Aperio for the last two years before switching. Seems like nobody tested this beforehand. What a shame.
Click to expand...
 
We have an Aperio system at my residency program and we have found the Aperio servers to be pretty unreliable. It's therefore not too surprising that the ABP have been having trouble with these servers, if that is indeed what they are using now. Aperio's digital imaging software (ImageScope) is quite good though. For those of you who have taken the boards this year (when the servers were working), can you confirm whether you used ImageScope software on the digital microscopy section, or at least can you confirm that the software that they use is better than the lousy software that they provide in the sample digital microscopy questions on the ABP website.
 
Hey, do they allow ear plugs or provide headphone things during the test?
 
jp123ok said:
We have an Aperio system at my residency program and we have found the Aperio servers to be pretty unreliable. It's therefore not too surprising that the ABP have been having trouble with these servers, if that is indeed what they are using now. Aperio's digital imaging software (ImageScope) is quite good though. For those of you who have taken the boards this year (when the servers were working), can you confirm whether you used ImageScope software on the digital microscopy section, or at least can you confirm that the software that they use is better than the lousy software that they provide in the sample digital microscopy questions on the ABP website.
Click to expand...

I just don't know why we don't color by numbers. There is no point in having digital images on the board exam in my opinion. I can't explain the rhyme or reason.
 
Well, it should be a lot easier to "guarantee" that everyone has access to the exact same thing with digital slides. Not a dozen different recuts of varying quality. I imagine it (different glass slides) is a very easy point for one to attack when complaining about the exam, anyway. Not to mention cost, at least theoretically. Glass slides don't last forever, but accumulation of digital slides provides a bank one can dip into at will -- so long as it actually WORKS on exam day. Why they don't just pre-load the files on all the computers is beyond me...seriously, serving from off-site is imminently prone to problems both in and out of your control, generally much easier to have an off-site administrator/tech remotely troubleshooting, or bring someone on-site just for exam days. At least for something as mission-critical as this, IMO. But, what do I know?

None of which is to say that digital slides are suddenly how everyone does or should practice pathology, but testing one's real-world ability to practice is not what most exams do or are designed to do. Even so-called practicals. At any rate, the whole thing is moot if it doesn't work come exam day.
 
Yeah, I think they ultimately want to have the whole thing be digital for purposes of uniformity and (theoretically) convenience. Then they could ditch the crappy scopes too. Agree they should just load all images onto the computers.
 
MirkoCrocop said:
Hey, do they allow ear plugs or provide headphone things during the test?
Click to expand...

Yes, bring your own.


I wonder if this is the same material that they will be using for MOC. If so, its not going to be a pretty sight.
 
Path or bust said:
Yes, bring your own.


I wonder if this is the same material that they will be using for MOC. If so, its not going to be a pretty sight.
Click to expand...

They provide you with ear plugs should you want them; i always studied with a pair in but didn't need them for the test, it was pretty quiet.

per the guidelines you're only allowed to bring your ID and yourself, and a sweater...it was freezing in there. though the dude behind me was eating tic-tacs. Or magic beans, I couldn't tell.
 
Are antigen frequencies given or are we expected to come in knowing them?

I guess realistically there would probably be only one question asking to calculate the number of bags you'd have to screen ... would be great to get the percentages because then it's an easy point.

(blood bank makes my brain explode)
 
When do we get results? 6-8 wks after our test date or 6-8 weeks after the whole May-June cycle?
 
I think 6-8 weeks after the last group.

Last year I think the results were issued sometime around the August 1st.
 
Tiki said:
I think 6-8 weeks after the last group.

Last year I think the results were issued sometime around the August 1st.
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That sounds about right. I remember they came online around 6pm on a Friday, late July or very early August.
 
They'll come out about the time you think you're starting to recover from the ruptured ulcer you developed while anxiously waiting for them in the first place.
 
I think they were released the last Friday of July last year. I remember I was waiting at the airport to board my plane when I got a text message that they had been released. I spent the next 10 min frantically trying to log in to the crappy ABP website before my plane took off. Then I spent the next 3 days drunk!
 
I just took them last week, so I'm not really in a rush to get the results. I'm just enjoying the feeling of not having to study day and night, despite the fact that I have an entire apartment to pack.
 
i feel for y'all. there was no web when i did it.

as an aside, i did voluntary MOC. what seems to be percolating amongst big hospital credential commitites and insurers is " why aren't the pathologists getting re-certified Q 10 years? Everyone else does"
i think the carriers and hospitals credential coms ( not of their own initiative) will mandate this and I did it early. I am good until 2017
 
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Has anyone else decided to stop checking answers because when you confirm you missed one it makes you sick?
 
mikesheree said:
...snip...
...what seems to be percolating amongst big hospital credential commitites and insurers is " why aren't the pathologists getting re-certified Q 10 years? Everyone else does"
i think the carriers and hospitals credential coms ( not of their own initiative) will mandate this...
...snip...
Click to expand...

No-one is accusing credential committees or insurers of knowing what they are doing. It really goes back to the old "if all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you?" Basically, just because someone else does it or someone else wants it doesn't mean it's useful or smart. Doesn't mean it's readily avoidable either, of course. It's just not to be confused with being inherently a useful thing for everyone to be compelled to do. Also doesn't change what ABP has already done.
 
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