Echo board studying tips

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Totally thought there was a 15 minute break in between each block, but nope, its 15 minutes total. If you don't use the tutorial, then those minutes get added to your break time, but I used that time to write down all my formulas.
 
sunny350 said:
Hi, still feeling bad after exam. 10-12 questions I still feel could had been correct just silly mistakes. Some topics had no idea.
I prepared well but exam is tough than ase tests where I scored 70%. Hopefully I pass
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Same around 70% on ASE. So many questions which i feel i overthought and made mistakes. Not sure if there is any correlation between ASE questions and the exam. I usually score average or above average on tests not sure how to take this. Do you usually do well on exams?
 
Yes I have usually scored well in ITE, Boards and Steps. Same way I felt , over thought on lots of questions . But talking to other who passed, they all felt terrible but score well in results.
I think 60-65% is pass minimum based on prior threads. Am sure few questions will be taken off as experimental too. So keeping finger crossed
 
Results are out ! Passed 69'th percentile !

Congratulations to all !
 
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I passed the recert! Definitely harder than the first time around!
 
Passed! Thank god for Mayo videos and Klein! Anyone have any idea when results will be updated on the NBE website?
 
Crushed, 96th%ile (granted, already pteexam and cceexam testamur and been practicing cardiac anesthesia for 4 years).

Used Klein, ptemasters, mayo vids, whole bunch of other random YouTube vids, and Matthew's TEE book.

Everything fair except congenital. I thought I knew cyanotic and non cyanotic lesions, repairs, variants, etc pretty well and I still only did a couple pts better than the mean.
 
Whew, passed as well!
I wanted to share my story because I feel like a lot of people share their success and it can give a false sense of imposter syndrome.
I failed last year, I did all the things- klein/mayo videos/acc videos/the practice test; but ultimately I was not in a good head space and between family issues and covid killing our fellow education, it probably wasn't a good time for me to take the exam. When I failed, I felt like I didn't deserve to be a cardiology fellow and genuinely considered quitting.
Because of a good mentor who convinced me otherwise, I decided to stay in the program and study for the test again. The difference between last year and this year was that last year I was simply trying to memorize instead of actually learning the material... This year I took the time to actually read and annotate Otto and I passed in 80th percentile.
Congrats to all who passed and to those who failed, don't give up!
 
Poor baseline echo knowledge with 1 month of intense study on a light rotation.
Klein x2
ASE video x 1
Echo SAP x 2
Didn't watch a single Mayo video or took any note

Passed with 40th percentile. The key is to have a firm understanding of concepts and try to do as many questions as possible because questions do repeat.
 
Passed. 65%. Youtube, mayo, klein. My thoughts: This test is a money scam that does not test clinical echo acumen.... like at all. It is sad that we (as mostly cardiologists) actually tolerate stuff like this... That being said the studying process is worth it as I feel comfortable with my echo knowledge as a result. Props to you hufflepuff for hanging tough. I would not have paid for this thing again especially with how little it matters for the vast majority of jobs.

I don't know how so many people say this exam is "fair" when half of it was congenital and physics. Zero emphasis on bread and butter clinical echocardiography.

Don't mean to be negative and congrats on everyone who passed. Just saying the truth...
 
shouldigomd said:
Passed. 65%. Youtube, mayo, klein. My thoughts: This test is a money scam that does not test clinical echo acumen.... like at all. It is sad that we (as mostly cardiologists) actually tolerate stuff like this... That being said the studying process is worth it as I feel comfortable with my echo knowledge as a result. Props to you hufflepuff for hanging tough. I would not have paid for this thing again especially with how little it matters for the vast majority of jobs.

I don't know how so many people say this exam is "fair" when half of it was congenital and physics. Zero emphasis on bread and butter clinical echocardiography.

Don't mean to be negative and congrats on everyone who passed. Just saying the truth...
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Agreed. It’s a money scam. Let’s call it what it is. Doesn’t test your ability to read bread and butter echo and half the stuff that I memorized for the test I forgot a week later.

GI doesn’t have ‘ERCP’ or ‘endoscopy’ boards. It’s sad that cardiology has all these random certifications that fellows are forced to take to be competitive for job markets. As if COCATS 2 and 3 years of fellowship training aren’t enough? Give me a break.
 
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shouldigomd said:
I don't know how so many people say this exam is "fair" when half of it was congenital and physics. Zero emphasis on bread and butter clinical echocardiography.

Don't mean to be negative and congrats on everyone who passed. Just saying the truth...
Click to expand...
If it was only on bread and butter, it would be like 50 questions long and everyone would get >90% of them right. Echo is fairly straightforward except for the 5-10% of edge cases where you need adjunct imaging.
 
aafisahar said:
If it was only on bread and butter, it would be like 50 questions long and everyone would get >90% of them right. Echo is fairly straightforward except for the 5-10% of edge cases where you need adjunct imaging.
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That is the point exactly. We aren't in medical school anymore and these tests should be designed to ensure people can read echo at the quality required for clinical practice.... not so "x" amount of people fail and repay for the test. 5-10% of "edge" cases doesn't mean physics and congenital as cheap ways to fail people. This test in no way represented my knowledge of clinical echo reading.
 
shouldigomd said:
That is the point exactly. We aren't in medical school anymore and these tests should be designed to ensure people can read echo at the quality required for clinical practice.... not so "x" amount of people fail and repay for the test. 5-10% of "edge" cases doesn't mean physics and congenital as cheap ways to fail people. This test in no way represented my knowledge of clinical echo reading.
Click to expand...
Ya I agree, I think the test is nonsense. I think my post came off as oppositional but it's actually supposed to be in agreement. I've called it the 1000 dollar trivia test previously.
 
shouldigomd said:
Passed. 65%. Youtube, mayo, klein. My thoughts: This test is a money scam that does not test clinical echo acumen.... like at all. It is sad that we (as mostly cardiologists) actually tolerate stuff like this... That being said the studying process is worth it as I feel comfortable with my echo knowledge as a result. Props to you hufflepuff for hanging tough. I would not have paid for this thing again especially with how little it matters for the vast majority of jobs.

I don't know how so many people say this exam is "fair" when half of it was congenital and physics. Zero emphasis on bread and butter clinical echocardiography.

Don't mean to be negative and congrats on everyone who passed. Just saying the truth...
Click to expand...
Thanks. Ultimately decided to do it because I have a kid and I wanted to prove that when you fail you can work hard and do it.
But now I have a certification and no one cares .. I'm an attending at a large reputable hospital, rounding with cardiology fellows, giving lectures.... And no one cares about my board scores. But at least I can tell my kid I did it?
🤡🤡
 
shouldigomd said:
Passed. 65%. Youtube, mayo, klein. My thoughts: This test is a money scam that does not test clinical echo acumen.... like at all. It is sad that we (as mostly cardiologists) actually tolerate stuff like this... That being said the studying process is worth it as I feel comfortable with my echo knowledge as a result. Props to you hufflepuff for hanging tough. I would not have paid for this thing again especially with how little it matters for the vast majority of jobs.

I don't know how so many people say this exam is "fair" when half of it was congenital and physics. Zero emphasis on bread and butter clinical echocardiography.

Don't mean to be negative and congrats on everyone who passed. Just saying the truth...
Click to expand...

I'm not saying there isn't a decent amount of minutiae, but is it possible that most people who think it's unfair do so because of the recall bias that comes from perseverating on all the zebras one may have missed... instead of acknowledging all the horses that one breezed through without marking for review?
 
This was my first time ever taking the echo board exam. I passed. My percentile ranking was 92nd percentile. I did way better than I felt on exam day. I walked out of the exam and thought to myself that it was a very hard exam. Part of me wasn't sure if I really passed. I had watched the Mayo echo videos over the course of my 3rd year in fellowship and spent the last three months of fellowship pouring the questions in Klein and EchoSAP. I also bought the ASE practice exams and did those. I felt more or less prepared walking into the exam but was surprised at how esoteric the exam was.
 
vector2 said:
I'm not saying there isn't a decent amount of minutiae, but is it possible that most people who think it's unfair do so because of the recall bias that comes from perseverating on all the zebras one may have missed... instead of acknowledging all the horses that one breezed through without marking for review?
Click to expand...
Sure, I think that bias exists for every exam we take but I think by this stage in the game most of us understand that! My issue wasn't really the minutia / zebras but rather the emphasis / number of questions on physics and congenital with little relevance to what we do. Just a cheap tactic of a test created to make money rather than "accredit" out echo reading skill.
 
marcolino said:
Does passing ASCeXAM help getting into Cardiac imaging fellowship ?
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Do you have a thready pulse?

Even if not I'm sure they'll take people with a VAD implanted. Previous cardiology experience is a plus as well.
 
marcolino said:
I am an old grad however my last Holter didn't detect any arrhythmia 🙂 Actually I meant to get into non-Accredited fellowship so that I might get into cardiology fellowship. so embarrassing I know )
Click to expand...
Not sure can't hurt for sure but most imaging fellowships are not competitive.
 
shouldigomd said:
Sure, I think that bias exists for every exam we take but I think by this stage in the game most of us understand that! My issue wasn't really the minutia / zebras but rather the emphasis / number of questions on physics and congenital with little relevance to what we do. Just a cheap tactic of a test created to make money rather than "accredit" out echo reading skill.
Click to expand...
In general I'm of the opinion that physics and congenital should both be on any advanced echo exam, but I do agree that the questions geared towards those topics (especially congenital) should be more common and clinically relevant than what they were on the ascexam. My question is, though, what percentage of the exam was physics and congenital? I don't know the numbers but my gut feeling is that they were a small enough percentage that one could've missed a ton of questions in both those topics and still have passed (assuming one did reasonably well on the other topics).
 
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Seems NBE website updated testamur status already
-Have to know chamber size and functions + valvular heart diseases very well in order to pass
and Klein + Mayo videos cover most of the tested concepts for that
- wouldn’t study more than Edelman physics for physics and the same I would say for Petterson congenital notes
 
Hi everyone, been following this thread for a while. Those of you who have done both mayo and ASE videos, would you recommend doing both? Is it worth it? Or just stick to one resource and do it twice? Thanks!
 
LGE 2021 said:
Hi everyone, been following this thread for a while. Those of you who have done both mayo and ASE videos, would you recommend doing both? Is it worth it? Or just stick to one resource and do it twice? Thanks!
Click to expand...

Just Mayo x2
 
shouldigomd said:
Passed. 65%. Youtube, mayo, klein. My thoughts: This test is a money scam that does not test clinical echo acumen.... like at all. It is sad that we (as mostly cardiologists) actually tolerate stuff like this... That being said the studying process is worth it as I feel comfortable with my echo knowledge as a result. Props to you hufflepuff for hanging tough. I would not have paid for this thing again especially with how little it matters for the vast majority of jobs.

I don't know how so many people say this exam is "fair" when half of it was congenital and physics. Zero emphasis on bread and butter clinical echocardiography.

Don't mean to be negative and congrats on everyone who passed. Just saying the truth...
Click to expand...
I took my test for the first time yesterday and did not do well. Would you please share with me what percentage of correct answers you got the first time you took it. I am trying to understand what may be the minimum score (%correct) needed to pass.
 
Got our results back yesterday
Mayo x1.5
ASE videos x1
Klein x2
EchoSAP x1
That physics handbook x1
Practice tests 70-75%
Actual exam 80%
 
For those taking the echo boards this July 2024:
1) How is the studying going
2) Have you already registered for the exam

Freaking out the past few months because of how difficult this exam is according to everyone
 
Klein + Mayo videos + Physics PDF + ASE practice exam are a must. The M-mode and congenital PDF floating around are less important. The Mayo videos teach a lot of nonsense that has nothing to do with the exam that make the videos drag. I have no idea how some people watch both the Mayo and ASE videos, that is completely unnecessary and where do you find the time??

I didn't find the questions hard to be honest, but the exam is definitely a time crunch with the amount of calculations you have to do with the crappy computer calculator. Also, there is only a 15 min break in this 5-hr exam and it can only be taken b/w blocks 3 and 4 which is annoying.
 
is there a shared google drive of videos or something anyone can DM me?
 
Mighty_MD said:
This was my first time ever taking the echo board exam. I passed. My percentile ranking was 92nd percentile. I did way better than I felt on exam day. I walked out of the exam and thought to myself that it was a very hard exam. Part of me wasn't sure if I really passed. I had watched the Mayo echo videos over the course of my 3rd year in fellowship and spent the last three months of fellowship pouring the questions in Klein and EchoSAP. I also bought the ASE practice exams and did those. I felt more or less prepared walking into the exam but was surprised at how esoteric the exam was.
Click to expand...
How much you score on the ASE exams ?
 
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