Cardiology board 2020

[Sam1987]

Anyone took the board today?
it was very tough 🙁

Good luck tmw

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[BelaMedicine]

yes..they test so much random BS..totally miss the big picture

 

[disorder]

Absolute destruction. Don't know what "cardiology" I'm supposed to be practicing.
ACCSAP and Mayo were not enough.

 

[BelaMedicine]

I agree. I don’t know how else I could have studied to anticipate the insanity

 

[Sam1987]

Even today was not good
I did ecgsource twice
Okeef
But still it was tough!!!!

 

[disorder]

Day 2 equally brutal. Did ecgsource x1 and did not feel comfortable at all.

 

[mello_xello]

I agree with you all. The question stems were long and twisted, each one trying to get you! Not a single straight question! The short questions were one-liner fact-based and clinically irrelevant. I felt we could have used more time on day 1 with these long stems. I expected day 2 to be better but there was some (albeit less) esoteric stuff. I hope the ABIM isn't trying to lower the >90% pass rate for this exam so that they can reap more money from us considering they are losing money from the collaborative pathway wherein re-certifiers pay ACC for annual ACC-SAP

 

[Sam1987]

I hope the ABIM isn't trying to lower the >90% pass rate for this exam so that they can reap more money from us considering they are losing money from the collaborative pathway wherein re-certifiers pay ACC for annual ACC-SAP

I hope not 🙁

 

[BelaMedicine]

Overall I felt the entire test was trying to trick. Which really made me

 

[BelaMedicine]

The issue with the second day is if you are close with the coding but not exactly what they would they want you get points detracted. The system is actually very unfair

 

[confusedboi]

Does anyone know for the imaging portion especially for echo and cath, is it all or nothing? I wonder because the example file from ABIM (https://www.abim.org/~/media/ABIM Public/Files/pdf/certification-related/cvd-sample-cases.pdf), for the angio example, per the provided answer key in the document, you had to mark each vessel so even if you had just marked the crux of the issue and didn’t mark the other vessels, you don’t get any credit?
That seems rather harsh...

 

[Sam1987]

I hope we will get the results soon. I know many are taking the board on December. I hope we don’t have to wait until January🙁

 

[HeartlyPunny]

I spoke with them a month ago, the timing is supposed to be independent of the December test.

 

[Sam1987]

It’s so annoying that we don’t have the results yet!
IC board was one week after general and they got the results last week!

 

[Sam1987]

It looks like they will not release the results until the December applicants finished their test

 

[Sam1987]

It’s almost 2.5 months since we took the board and no results yet!!! So weird
Interventional cardiology took the board 2 weeks after GC and they got the results in Nov!

 

[ThatQuestionGuy]

Scores are out, passed

 

[Sam1987]

Thanks God!
Passed!

 

[disorder]

Passed. Was more worried about this one than echo.

 

[bostoncardio]

Passed. Was more worried about this one than echo.

I actually agree. I found echo to be challenging, but I had many more questions where I was unsure on the general boards. I was amazed to see that the passing score for the general boards was 320 though, while I got above 600. I guess other people must have thought the test was hard too, or my self-confidence should have been higher. I usually am pretty accurate with knowing how well I did on an exam, so I was surprised.

 

[TAVR4life]

Did the December test takers also get their scores?

 

[HeartlyPunny]

I would assume so, as they assign scores after all the questions have been adjudicated. I doubt they would change anything. But, I guess you'd have to find somebody who you knew took in December and ask.

 

[disorder]

Everyone got scores at the same time.

 

[Sam1987]

Did the December test takers also get their scores?

Yea for sure

 

[Omegapathman@hotmail]

What did everyone use to pass general cards boards? Any experience with Pass Machine?