CB
Started by golidavid963
throwaway404
Full Member
Anyone has recommendations on where to practice echo coding for the cardiology boards? I've failed this POS exam 2 times due to day 2 and it's all because of the coding. I know about ECG source and I'm going to try something called CathEd (CathEd – Master Angiogram Diagnosis) for cath coding.
Is anyone aware of a tool to practice coding for echo? I need to pass this BS exam this year.
Is anyone aware of a tool to practice coding for echo? I need to pass this BS exam this year.
Okeefe online has Echo practice as well. about 50 examples.
Are you still looking for study buddy?
Hi - I wanted to see if 2-3 people who are doing a retake of the boards wanted to do 2-3 zoom sessions (2 september, 1 october) to review Day 2 coding together?
Ideally each of us coded above average for 1 subsection (ekgs, echo or cath) so we can rely on that persons coding strategy to be successful for each section.
I would offer my echo coding. EKG was worst for me. and Cath average.
I am finding with ekg source and okeefe. Not sure if I overloaded my strategy and just coded too much. Wanted someone who is better coder to watch me code so Ibvan stick to a strategy that actually works.
message me here and we can chat
Ideally each of us coded above average for 1 subsection (ekgs, echo or cath) so we can rely on that persons coding strategy to be successful for each section.
I would offer my echo coding. EKG was worst for me. and Cath average.
I am finding with ekg source and okeefe. Not sure if I overloaded my strategy and just coded too much. Wanted someone who is better coder to watch me code so Ibvan stick to a strategy that actually works.
message me here and we can chat
I'm down. Would love to review coding.
I’m down, what time though
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Question for people -- I am on the cath section and noticinga lot of discrepancies with coding
Mayo video and coding suggests -- 1) code the prominent finding and 2) if you see other vessels you should code amount of disease (whether insig, mod or severe)
I'm doing Okeefe now and they are deducting point if I code additional vessels with insignificant stenosis though.
For prior test takers who passed -- how do we code?
Mayo video and coding suggests -- 1) code the prominent finding and 2) if you see other vessels you should code amount of disease (whether insig, mod or severe)
I'm doing Okeefe now and they are deducting point if I code additional vessels with insignificant stenosis though.
For prior test takers who passed -- how do we code?
joan88hugo
New Member
for those who've taken and passed the boards, can you share how you were scoring on accsap or okeefe?
I asked the same thing last year, no one replied.
b0dysnatcher63
New Member
I got at least 1 or 2 nsr with like irbbb that I was like fk Im missing something but hey day 1 sucked for me bad, which worries me.
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joan88hugo
New Member
missed some major congenital echo diagnoses. hopefully can pass
Hello guys, Finally done with my cardiology boards. After so much of hard work and preparation, I wanted to share a quick impression of the exam. Day 1 felt uncertain, and I’m still not sure how it went, though I hope it was okay. Day 2 was much better. I am optimistic.
My day 1 was quite challenging with long, complex questions and limited time. Many required multi-step reasoning, and the two-minute limit per question made it hard to analyze everything properly within 2 hours of block time. I often had to choose between two close options without full confidence, even after extensive preparation, likely due to time pressure.
How did everyone else feel about day 1?
My day 1 was quite challenging with long, complex questions and limited time. Many required multi-step reasoning, and the two-minute limit per question made it hard to analyze everything properly within 2 hours of block time. I often had to choose between two close options without full confidence, even after extensive preparation, likely due to time pressure.
How did everyone else feel about day 1?
Day 1 was weird, lot of weird murmurs and things that didnt seem to quite make sense. Day 2 felt like a curveball. We are all told to expect lot of STEMI, Brugada, WPW for ECG and didnt quite see that. Similar to lot of congenital for echo. It didnt feel like the test that was advertised I guess. Def overcalled things on EKG and Echo.
Same-
Day1: didn’t feel too complex but weird, some questions were not well written at all. I marked at least 15-20 questions each block. Lol
Block 1 was tough, 2 felt easy even took a bathroom break in it. Couldn’t hold, lol. The other 2 blocks 60% felt ok
Day 2- EKGs, at least 10-15 not sure how much to code, didn’t want too keep digging. Or just didn’t know, felt better with echo and cath might have overcoded there, hopefully they don’t subtract a lot on that. Cz it was reasonable coding.
But still I think it was in no way bread and butter cardiology stuff.
Day1: didn’t feel too complex but weird, some questions were not well written at all. I marked at least 15-20 questions each block. Lol
Block 1 was tough, 2 felt easy even took a bathroom break in it. Couldn’t hold, lol. The other 2 blocks 60% felt ok
Day 2- EKGs, at least 10-15 not sure how much to code, didn’t want too keep digging. Or just didn’t know, felt better with echo and cath might have overcoded there, hopefully they don’t subtract a lot on that. Cz it was reasonable coding.
But still I think it was in no way bread and butter cardiology stuff.
Was I the only idiot that didn't realize you could enlarge the images?? I found out during the echo section if you click and drag the corners of the box you can expand the image. I took the whole ekg section with my nose almost touching the screen they were so small. May have actually kept me from overcoding or just screwed me - who knows.
Day 2 is an absolute farce and should be removed.
Day 2 is an absolute farce and should be removed.
Absolutely scared of day2. I feel like there were too many ambiguous sinus rhythm vs sinus tachycardia. Missed an A flutter and A tach. Feel so ****ty right now.
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b0dysnatcher63
New Member
I coded an aivr that could perfectly be a junctional left bundle but meh I went all in
I remember Okeefe said they test AIVR every year so hopefully we are right !
Most likely in December 2025. If you see the trend the results were out on Dec 2nd, 21st and17th, in 2022, 2023 and 2024 respectively.
joan88hugo
New Member
nervous for these results, missed 5 core echo diagnoses
Registration/Application for subspeciality Initial Certification exam opened today, Dec 1st. In the dropdown menu, I don’t see a Cardiovascular Disease option. What about you all? Do you see the CVD option? Hopefully the results will be released soon now that registration is open..
Yeah I don't have it either, but I don't think it means anything! Unless some one will say they have that option 🙂)
But yeah exam sucked!!. I felt that day one was worse than day 2. I marked so many questions. So many questions were confusing. And I passed Echo, Nuc, RPVI with no issues. This exam was much harder!!!
But yeah exam sucked!!. I felt that day one was worse than day 2. I marked so many questions. So many questions were confusing. And I passed Echo, Nuc, RPVI with no issues. This exam was much harder!!!
Yes, I agree that the exam was difficult and much harder than ACCSAP/ITE by the ACC. A good number of questions seemed weird and confusing, with very close answer choices. Time management is also crucial, and there’s no time to go back and review marked questions. As you mentioned, Day 1 is not easy at all. For me, Day 2 was manageable for Echo/Cath (Imaging), but the EKG section was difficult even with extensive preparation. I’ve passed Echo and other boards just like you. The imaging cases are fewer than 37, as we know the maximum limit is 37, and sometimes we get fewer than the maximum. The exam becomes more challenging when the options are not exactly what we expect. Often, the choices are somewhat close, and we have to select the relatively better answer. For example, out of five options, three may likely be wrong, while the remaining two are partially correct. In such cases, we need to choose the relatively better partially correct answer. In 2022, the exam was held at the end of October like ours, and their results were released on December 2nd. In 2023 it was delayed due to some issue with lot of qs. Hopefully, the results will come out in the first or second week of December, and expecting pass rate close to 95% this time🙂
For next year’s applicants, the ‘Cardiovascular Disease’ option appears in the menu when they try to register for the exam, but I don’t see it. What does that mean? Hopefully some good news but not sure if we can assume that exclusively based on this clue🙂
Possibly because we’re all pending results for initial certification we just took!
As said by Russo Evan unless someone has that option to register for exam now, it doesn’t mean anything.
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True, but just curious.
Yes, that part is obvious. if someone doesn’t make it, they will be able to register for the exam. Here, we are waiting for the results and there is no option to register for the exam, and the possible reason could be that the results are still pending. I got it. Thanks for your time.
I feel so terrible to be honest. Also took nuclear, echo, RPVI. While I didn't crush tese came through ok. Day 1 felt rougha and vague. Day 2 felt really rough to be honest.
results came out this morning. thankful that i passed. BUT i played basketball on Saturday and didn't sleep Saturday night, then got 3 hours sleep Sunday and Monday night. I felt like I was going to pass out on Tuesday. It was a VERY difficult test. I took echo and nuc boards and thankfully the studying from those helped ease the preparation for this test. The cath/ECG coding wasn't bad.
Couple of thoughts
1. ECG source almost replicates the test. I would do 5-10 ECGs every day in the 8-12 weeks leading up to the test.
2. Mayo videos are great review and a lot of questions from Mayo show up on the test
3. ACCSAP is too easy but it's probably the best option available. I wish I had saved my notes from echo boards because those would have been helpful (there was a lot of stuff I remember studying for echo boards that I just didn't have time to review for ABIM CVM). Save your echo boards notes!
4. ACC videos are pretty good if you have the time. There's some good resources in there and if you have the time to watch those videos it'll help a lot.
5. Physical exam is heavily tested. Know your murmurs/exam findings.
6. I would not use O'keefe for anything. I found the materials to be very poorly edited/reviewed
7. Mayo video on cath/echo coding is great. I would also find the sheet and make sure you can identify everything on the echo/cath/ecg coding sheet.
Couple of thoughts
1. ECG source almost replicates the test. I would do 5-10 ECGs every day in the 8-12 weeks leading up to the test.
2. Mayo videos are great review and a lot of questions from Mayo show up on the test
3. ACCSAP is too easy but it's probably the best option available. I wish I had saved my notes from echo boards because those would have been helpful (there was a lot of stuff I remember studying for echo boards that I just didn't have time to review for ABIM CVM). Save your echo boards notes!
4. ACC videos are pretty good if you have the time. There's some good resources in there and if you have the time to watch those videos it'll help a lot.
5. Physical exam is heavily tested. Know your murmurs/exam findings.
6. I would not use O'keefe for anything. I found the materials to be very poorly edited/reviewed
7. Mayo video on cath/echo coding is great. I would also find the sheet and make sure you can identify everything on the echo/cath/ecg coding sheet.
I agree with above. After a few attempts I passed on both days this time.
Day1. I did accsap and mayo videos- make notes and revise those, focus of interest changes every year, sometimes more EP, sometimes more CHF/congenital. Agree with knowing ur murmurs well, I always left them for the end, during the exam u don’t get much time to think. The teat questions will be frustrating and take away time. Hard to predict which ones are test questions. Accsap and mayo videos are good but not enough but know that very well so do get median score atleast. There’s still stuff that’s not covered in the above source.
Day 2- I found the mayo videos on coding very helpful. EKG were still tricky. Echo and Cath not so much, just know what to do. I also did cathed. It’s ok for practice don’t agree with many of its coding. For ecg last year I did ecg source this year okeefe. Whatever u do atleast do all the ecgs once. So plan early maybe 5-10 EKG a day
Good luck for those planning for next year. There is light at the end of the tunnel. It was 3rd time for me.
Day1. I did accsap and mayo videos- make notes and revise those, focus of interest changes every year, sometimes more EP, sometimes more CHF/congenital. Agree with knowing ur murmurs well, I always left them for the end, during the exam u don’t get much time to think. The teat questions will be frustrating and take away time. Hard to predict which ones are test questions. Accsap and mayo videos are good but not enough but know that very well so do get median score atleast. There’s still stuff that’s not covered in the above source.
Day 2- I found the mayo videos on coding very helpful. EKG were still tricky. Echo and Cath not so much, just know what to do. I also did cathed. It’s ok for practice don’t agree with many of its coding. For ecg last year I did ecg source this year okeefe. Whatever u do atleast do all the ecgs once. So plan early maybe 5-10 EKG a day
Good luck for those planning for next year. There is light at the end of the tunnel. It was 3rd time for me.
Failed day two by a few points and by extension the whole thing.... Did a mix of Okeefe and EcgSource. Honestly pretty puzzled on what I would do different next time around. The fact that coding is this opaque is absolutely asinine. Tempted to give them the $250 for a rescore given how close my margin is but I doubt it will change anything.
I did very well on day 1 with combination of ACCSAP, targeted Mayo videos and Boardvitals. There were multiple questions that I got correct only due to board vitals. Unfortunately I dont have any advice for day two and I'm at a loss for what i'm going to do next time around.
I've never failed an exam up to this point and have had above average scores on ABIM, Nuclear, Echo and RPVI.
I did very well on day 1 with combination of ACCSAP, targeted Mayo videos and Boardvitals. There were multiple questions that I got correct only due to board vitals. Unfortunately I dont have any advice for day two and I'm at a loss for what i'm going to do next time around.
I've never failed an exam up to this point and have had above average scores on ABIM, Nuclear, Echo and RPVI.
dr.joel1991
New Member
I am a second time taker I passed this time. Same boat as you, never failed a test or exam in my life. Did well on my other boards. Day 2 is what got me. What I did was ecg source and o Keefe. Also lots of advise on undercoding.
Ekg - 2-3 diagnoses and you move on
Echo - overcode
Cath- just answer the question and move on.
Good luck. I was crushed last year. Didn't know what to do, but you can do it!
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