Cardiology boards 2022

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alternatego

alternatego

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Hey folks, what resources are you using to study for your cardiology boards?

How much of a timeframe do you guess it'll take to study for them? I was too research-focused during my cardiology fellowship (something which I don't really regret but its still somewhat of a hindrance in hindsight) so my inservice scores were below average.

Love to hear what the forum members have to say re: board prep.
 
i am short on time. did not dedicate much time on ACCSAP/K2P. I hear mayo clinic board review is good.

my plan ACCSAP 1 pass with review of wron answers + mayo board review

would like to know what others are planning.
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Sapien3 said:
i am short on time. did not dedicate much time on ACCSAP/K2P. I hear mayo clinic board review is good.

my plan ACCSAP 1 pass with review of wron answers + mayo board review

would like to know what others are planning.
We Got This Realtor GIF by CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®
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I would add O’Keefe for ECG but I guess it’s also part of the Mayo Board Review these days. Practicing for the coding sheet for ECG, Echo and Cath is key.
 
are you all doing Mayo questions also or just mayo videos ?
 
alternatego said:
Hey folks, what resources are you using to study for your cardiology boards?

How much of a timeframe do you guess it'll take to study for them? I was too research-focused during my cardiology fellowship (something which I don't really regret but its still somewhat of a hindrance in hindsight) so my inservice scores were below average.

Love to hear what the forum members have to say re: board prep.
Click to expand...
Any study group going on to motivate each other and keep track?
 
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I

I am feeling stuck. Anyone feels this way!
 
So far I've been using K2P/Mayo videos, ACCSAP questions (taking abundant notes of both, when needed) and now 2/3rds done with O'Keefe online EKG tool.

What are you guys using for review of the echo coding section? I took the echo boards but did not pass them so that makes me a little nervous.
 
alternatego said:
So far I've been using K2P/Mayo videos, ACCSAP questions (taking abundant notes of both, when needed) and now 2/3rds done with O'Keefe online EKG tool.

What are you guys using for review of the echo coding section? I took the echo boards but did not pass them so that makes me a little nervous.
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I would love to hear of any resources to help with the echo and angiography portion of the exam! Nervous about it as well
 
what's an acceptable percent correct on ecgsource on their ekg portion to comfortably pass the boards?

overall, I find ecgsource to be quite inconsistent. Many ekgs meet criteria for LVH or sinus brady/tachy (at the borders), IVCD vs LBBB, LAFB, etc but are not being coded as such, so hoping the real deal isn't so vague.

also, is it ever worth to code non-specific st/t wave changes, feels like it's not worth the single point at the risk of 2 points if they decide it's not, same with LAA/RAA, seemingly not worth it in my opinion especially when the scoring is capricious as above.
 
When do we get to know the results of the exam?
 
aafisahar said:
what's an acceptable percent correct on ecgsource on their ekg portion to comfortably pass the boards?

overall, I find ecgsource to be quite inconsistent. Many ekgs meet criteria for LVH or sinus brady/tachy (at the borders), IVCD vs LBBB, LAFB, etc but are not being coded as such, so hoping the real deal isn't so vague.

also, is it ever worth to code non-specific st/t wave changes, feels like it's not worth the single point at the risk of 2 points if they decide it's not, same with LAA/RAA, seemingly not worth it in my opinion especially when the scoring is capricious as above.
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Might not be a direct answer to your question, but this was the passing score for the 2021 examination:

Total score: 200-800
Passing score for MCQ day: 320
Passing score for EKG/Imaging section: 352

Hope that helps a little bit. Gotta say I'm feeling anxious about this exam folks.
 
Question about EKG section: If there is LVH present, we are supposed to code LAD and not LAFB correct? Since LAFB is coded when no other reason for LAD is present? Asking because on the online OKeefe EKG website, they are coding LVH and LAFB together even though thats not what ECG Source suggests. Thanks!
 
ABIM blueprint mentions after blocks 1,2, and 3 we get an optional break. That is 6 hours(2hrs for 60 Q block) then a 30 min break.

if we finish blocks before 60 min, would the remaining time get added to the break? it is not specified in the blueprint. Could someone clarify this, please? TIA
 
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Wow, I don't know about you all but that multiple choice section was really rough. I felt worse about that than echo boards
 
My wife just took the boards. She said it was horrendously tough.
 
DONE!

the 1st day was rough. Long Q stem and not straight forward.
Day 2 better than Day 1 I felt.

Hoping for a pass . Good luck 🍀 everyone !
 
Wow very tough exam. Very high level questions. Much harder than ACCSAP. Much longer question stems got exhausting reading such unnecessarily long questions. Several questions were inappropriate to ask for a standardized test assessing general cardiology knowledge. EKG section was very tough and high level, only 1-2 straightforward ones. Mayo Clinic coding videos were not sufficient for EKGs and echoes.
 
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Very tough test indeed! I think the only silver lining is everyone found it tough, so hopefully passing scores are lower!
 
HeartOfCards said:
I felt this was harder than echo boards...
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i thought the echo part was the fairest at least, the ekg portion was straight BS and the cath images were very vague. the questions were basically opinions on patient management rather than testing your ability to do cardiology.
 
Garbage..not assessing medical knowledge..money making scheme.
 
Totally agree with everyone here. Ridiculous exam. Bombed the EKGs and Caths. Does anyone know if the Cath questions are combined with the Echo (like if you didn’t do so hot on Cath but did okay on Echo, you can make up for it).
 
Think you have to pass each section in order to pass, it’s not a cumulative score. Heard EKG is the main reason for failing the boards. Overall it’s a terrible exam, reflects nothing on your clinical knowledge
 
it was a rough test. much worse i thought than medicine boards, for example, in terms of how vague and tricky and impractical.

there is a good chance i failed despite aggressive studying, and i'm not a perfectionist trying to get a 90% or whatever 🙄

day 1 was random, had a number of questions that were trying to trick or just out of left field. long stems, yes, but often the details were just unnecessary. accsap was not a good representation of the questions, because those questions were mostly logical.

day 2 got worse.
ECG was ok, not too bad.
echo was a disaster; half the time it was hard to know what they were even trying to show. too many echo images to flip through in limited time. the echo coding sheet is WAY too extensive to remember all the stupid little diagnoses you're supposed to be coding for.
cath was slightly better than echo. the views they would show were POOR (poor contrast injection, incomplete views, didn't help to go frame by frame) which is not how things are done in practice, yet they want you grading severity based on poor views.

the fact that the pass rate dropped last year (86% last year and under 90% for the first time in years, with something like a 6 point drop in pass rate vs. the prior year) just fits with the very unreasonable nature of the images on day 2. it seems to me that they WANT people to fail to keep the pass rates low.

maybe i'm just supremely dumb. did others feel this way? is this how people's experience was in previous years?

my understanding is that you have to pass both day 1 AND day 2 to pass the test, but for day 2, the ECG and imaging score is combined. so that if you do poorly on imaging you can make it up with a good score on ECG. is this correct?
 
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mksa1982 said:
it was a rough test. much worse i thought than medicine boards, for example, in terms of how vague and tricky and impractical.

there is a good chance i failed despite aggressive studying, and i'm not a perfectionist trying to get a 90% or whatever 🙄

day 1 was random, had a number of questions that were trying to trick or just out of left field. long stems, yes, but often the details were just unnecessary. accsap was not a good representation of the questions, because those questions were mostly logical.

day 2 got worse.
ECG was ok, not too bad.
echo was a disaster; half the time it was hard to know what they were even trying to show. too many echo images to flip through in limited time. the echo coding sheet is WAY too extensive to remember all the stupid little diagnoses you're supposed to be coding for.
cath was slightly better than echo. the views they would show were POOR (poor contrast injection, incomplete views, didn't help to go frame by frame) which is not how things are done in practice, yet they want you grading severity based on poor views.

the fact that the pass rate dropped last year (86% last year and under 90% for the first time in years, with something like a 6 point drop in pass rate vs. the prior year) just fits with the very unreasonable nature of the images on day 2. it seems to me that they WANT people to fail to keep the pass rates low.

maybe i'm just supremely dumb. did others feel this way? is this how people's experience was in previous years?

my understanding is that you have to pass both day 1 AND day 2 to pass the test, but for day 2, the ECG and imaging score is combined. so that if you do poorly on imaging you can make it up with a good score on ECG. is this correct?
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100% a money making scheme hence the low pass rate, this isnt how you test competency of general cardiology by giving us 3 second clips of a blurry off axis echo image or 1 view of a coronary angiogram with 2 words of context. The MCQ were just as ridiculous and random. Standardized exams should be providing ideal conditions to test basic knowledge. Why do these feel more like aptitude tests than testing minimum basic knowledge? Thats not appropriate for a board exam. This exam doesn't test broad knowledge feels like theyre more out to trick you. All physicians really need to put pressure on ABIM.
 
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TAVR4life said:
100% a money making scheme hence the low pass rate, this isnt how you test competency of general cardiology by giving us 3 second clips of a blurry off axis echo image or 1 view of a coronary angiogram with 2 words of context. The MCQ were just as ridiculous and random. Standardized exams should be providing ideal conditions to test basic knowledge. Why do these feel more like aptitude tests than testing minimum basic knowledge? Thats not appropriate for a board exam. This exam doesn't test broad knowledge feels like theyre more put to trick you. All physicians really need to put pressure on ABIM.
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If someone knows how to create an online petition and posts it here(and other social media groups), we can all sign it and share with ABIM.
I will definitely be writing them an email today.
 
May19882014 said:
If someone knows how to create an online petition and posts it here(and other social media groups), we can all sign it and share with ABIM.
I will definitely be writing them an email today.
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I second this. Thank you for taking the effort in writing a letter. This is much needed. Advocacy on behalf of us to the ABIM itself. A ridiculous test that fails to actually test general cardiology. Please help to get this issue more aware of. I only see SDN as a channel to vent about this test. Nothing on twitter, linkedin, facebook, etc.
 
Still not able to forget about this exam and freaking out about results...still remember every ECG, echo and coronary angiograms on day 2. Picture quality was awful. This exam does not test any cardiovascular knowledge. Hoping for a pass!
 
alternatego said:
Anyone knows the approximate date when the ABIM released the scores of candidates who took the test on 2021?
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Was a quick turnaround..Nov 9 but I think there test dates were earlier than this year also. IC board scores were released last week and they took it a week before general cards so I suspect general cards will be next week.
 
Tough to wait results. Checking emails constantly. No signs yet.
Good luck everyone
 
What day of the week do they release results?
 
TAVR4life said:
Was a quick turnaround..Nov 9 but I think there test dates were earlier than this year also. IC board scores were released last week and they took it a week before general cards so I suspect general cards will be next week.
Click to expand...

I will say though that there were years where they didn't release the results until first week of January...
 
Will be release 5th Wednesday like last year. I assume this week after thanksgiving on the 30th.
 
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You think it’s taking longer because so many people did poorly and they need to curve it? Haha
 
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