Failed Ophtho boards- what's happening???

[broken heart]

Hi everyone:
I just got my wqe results. I failed ( second time). Although I had some personal family issues that affected my studying, I had delayed taking the test after residency for a year and did not want to postpone further. Hence took it and failed again.
What shocked me was the fact that my percentile was 2! And in path 0!
Am I that bad????
I have aced all my usmle exams etc,

I did study although not as much as I would have liked-but this gives me no hope.
I am very down and looking for some positive comments or advice from people who have aced the WQE.
FYI: I thought I totally bombed optics and that section was my highest percentile! 11
I used ophtho questions,Friedman review .
Broken hearted.

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[90 diopter]

How much did you actually study?

As you've learned by now, this ridiculous exam is all about minutia that is for the most part irrelevant to clinical practice. I'd say if there's any way to distance yourself from your family for a few months, do so and hit the books hard 3 to 4 hours a day.

The bright side is that you can still see patients and operate despite the exam results.

 

[broken heart]

Hi 90 diopter: thanks for the reply. I Started studying late ( two months before the exam-cramming) and that's why I am wondering if I should work part-time this year to give me more time to study. This would probably mean a huge pay cut and my contract is ending so I not even sure if they will extend it as they keep asking for the board results.
I might be jobless next month and figuring out this exam!
However, this time when I took the wqe - I was focused and did my best to study and do questions - but obviously I am missing something.
I graduated from a program that had heavy clinical volume and little emphasis on didactic - my okaps were not that great.
Btw I am a good test taker before this -no anxiety issues etc.

 

[OQVerTwo]

Hi "broken heart",

We feel terrible that you did not pass your boards, especially since you used OQ. Contact us at: [email protected] and we'll give you a heavily-discounted subscription to OQ for this year.

Keep your chin up!

Take care,

-OQ 2.0

 

[MstaKing10]

Hit the books hard, read the BCSC again and perhaps take a review course or two before your next go. I studied about 2-3 months during a busy fellowship, 1-2 hours during the week and 4-5 hours during weekends. I didn't take any time off and did very well on okaps so we are in a different boat, but giving you a frame of reference. I think you will need way more than just a few months of cramming review books to pass. You need to start from the basics, which means re-reading the BCSC books along with review books, tons of questions, and like I said, a few review courses, and at least 6-12 months to do so. That means, start now to be ready for next year.

This test is not really a test of your clinical knowledge or abilities so don't take it too hard in that sense. But ultimately, you need to focus on this and get the pass. I know several really smart, proven excellent test takers who didn't pass their boards for one reason or another. You are not alone.

Best of luck.

 

[JMK2005]

Not too much to add, but I echo the other's comments about staying positive.
In the end, you'll pass and it'll be a distant memory and no one will know any different.

Taking a review course may be helpful since it gives you dedicated time off leading up to the test.

 

[Eyefixer]

In your situation, I'd definitely take wills course including mock tests. Not cheap and will certainly help out.

 

[MstaKing10]

also, perhaps others can comment, but it is my understanding that a minimum passing score tends to be 70% or above cumulative on the exam. Thus, need to aim for that range in all sections if possible.

 

[JMK2005]

It appears to be graded on a curve. Pass rates range from 70-80%.

For residents, okaps are a good indicator of wqe pass rates. Strive to get better than 40 percentile to be ahead of the curve.

http://abop.org/about/examination-statistics/

 

[DiveMD]

Study next time as hard as you did for the USMLE Step 1. Start 10 months in advance reading the BCSC series while making notes in your Friedman. After reading the series, read the Friedman along with all your notes. Then do all the questions you can get your hands on: Mass E and E, Chern, the back of the BCSC and the questions at the AAO website. The more you do the better. You'll be able to see a pattern in terms of how they test each topic. Good luck and keep your head up.

 

[drjoemama]

I feel for you. I just took the exam this year while in a busy fellowship and know it's hard to get in quality studying. I wasn't particularly good at my OKAP's usually getting between 30-50 percentile for any given year, but that was probably with not as much effort as I could give.

I treated this test much more seriously and studied each day at least 2-3 hours and even waking up at 5:30 each morning to get in a couple more as the test got closer. I did attend the Wills course and found that to be extremely helpful. You have to listen to the lectures carefully because there are small details that they give that I found on my test, but just happened to take a note on it during the lecture. I've been to a few review courses during residency and found the Wills one the best and most concise. You'll waste your time if you go to a bad one and find that you'll just want to skip the lectures.

Do all the questions on the AAO website including the diagnosis this picture section. Do all the questions in the back of the BCS and re-read all the books. I made the mistake of relying on Freidman and other review books as adequate for OKAP's but certainly not so for boards. It's all about what you put in. My poor scores on OKAP's turned to an 85 percentile on boards when I put in just a little more effort, but it takes going back to the source books. You may want to get a new copy of the BCS if your series is several years old.

 

[JMK2005]

I'll add my anecdotal OKAP and WQE correlation.

I did well on my OKAPs with percentiles ranging from 70-80s. I studied a lot in residency.
I studied much less for the WQE because I couldn't get the motivation to go back to the BCSC. I did the review books and such, but about half the effort compared to OKAP.

My written board percentile was about the same as OKAPs.

 

[OPPforlife]

Sorry for transiently hijacking the thread, but, I have recently matched ophthalmology. Reading this thread it sounds like ophtho boards are definitely serious business and require time and effort to clear. Even sounds like they can be pretty stressful. Is this true for all specialties or do you guys think ophtho boards are particularly difficult? I know asking this question on this forum comes with a bit of bias, but did you guys see your colleagues in other fields fretting as much?

 

[JMK2005]

The problem is that the test is graded on a curve with 20-30% of people failing each time.
Then you have orals to take before being certified.

Hard to directly compare with other specialties but the IM board pass rates are better and they have only writtens.

http://www.abim.org/pdf/pass-rates/cert.pdf

 

[Dusn]

OPP -- the boards are graded on a curve and so now you're being graded against better test takers than you have in the past (most people in ophtho did pretty well on their USLMEs), and supposedly the bottom 30% fail (which I think is a fairly high fail rate). I see my friends in Radiology and Derm stressing for their boards as well.

We also have both the written and oral boards, each one costing $1650 each time you take it. Most specialties don't have 2 board exams they have to go through.

 

[MullerCell]

Anyone who is capable of matching into ophto is capable of passing ophtho written boards. The questions are essentially the same as the OKAPSs (minus some of the very obscure and very basic ?s on OKAPs). My 2nd year OKAP, 3rd year OKAP, and written board scores were all within 2% of each other. If you make an effort to read and understand the BCSC every year and study for OKAPs all 3 years of residency, I can't imagine many people having a problem passing boards. Friedman Review of Ophthalmology is dense, but if you know every aspect of the book and have a background understanding of all the topics in it, you will do very well. Optics is really easy to do very well on if you take the time to learn it. If you convince yourself that you aren't good at math or geometry or whatever, and blow off optics, you will get them all wrong. It is super high yield to master last minute optics and you will be in 90%+ in optics. Pick a group of books to use for review and stick with them. The people I know that had trouble would jump from book to book and not master anything. Remember that the entire test is completely based on the BCSC books, so you have to master them.

 

[guttata]

You need to study as though your career depended on it. Most hospitals require board certification within a certain time frame (usually five years). Insurance panels will often require a hospital affiliation - though you may be able to circumvent this requirement due to our outpatient focus. Besides that, employers will desire board certified candidates, especially if it has been a few years since you finished residency.

I agree with others. You need to focus on the fundamentals and read all the BCSC books (start now for next year). A review book is helpful only when you have a solid foundation (but you must build up this foundation first). I have also heard good things about ophthoquestions - I never used it since it was not available during ancient times. People who ace the WQE have multiple years of knowledge building, starting with the BCSC books (from the first year of residency).

 

[JBurns]

Passing the boards is straight-forward:

1) Re-read the BCSC series. I know those books are dry, but the test is based on them.
2) Don't bother with "General Medicine", "Fundamentals" -- the WQE does not have questions on them.
3) Repeat #1
4) Do lots of practice questions -- e.g. ophthoquestions to solidify the knowledge and also gauge your performance vs. everyone else. Ophthoquestions is probably skewing the curve by providing this service. Remember: the ABO basically fails the bottom 30% which is relatively high imho. So try to be in the top 70%.

Studying for the boards is a marathon, not a sprint. I would avoid cramming just a few months before the test.

 

[azzarah]

You must feel so upset and so demoralized by the whole thing. Don't lose hope. I have a friend who failed, but then studied really really really hard and aced it the second time. The WQE requires a lot of time and effort dedicated to it.

You just have to dedicate more time to hopefully get through this....The exam does not really test actual practical knowledge. I studied extremely hard and did well. If you did well on the USMLE's, you must be a great test taker.

Here is what I would do. I am not sure if this would work for you or not, but if I were in your shoes, I would personally purchase the most recent AAO basic and clinical science course (BCSC course) and read all the sections cover to cover first [edit: minus the medicine one] to rebuild my knowledge base of minutia that I may have forgotten. I also would do every single question in the back. I believe one can get CME credit as well....

I would then go through and memorize friedman or Chern cover to cover. Both of these books has some typos and errors. As I read them, I supplemented with my own notes on the side.

For neuroop, I read Bajandas and Klein's neuroophthalmology review manual, which was hands down the best and most helpful medical book I have ever read.

For path, I went through a path atlas.

For optics (consistently my weakest area on the OKAPs), I went to the ophthalmology library at my residency program and did every single optics question in every review book that they had.

In terms of questions, I did all the questions on the AAO website and bought the most recent provision series and did all of those questions and studied all the answers in details.

Throughout this process, I made a chart for myself summarizing all the main clinical trials in ophthalmology, optics equations, management of strabismus (if they have x do y surgery), random associations that are often tested....

If you put in the extra time and effort, you will hopefully do very well and hopefully not have to take the exam ever again! 🙂

Hope this helps.

Best of luck!!!