Failed surgery miniboard

[Tunnimoose]

I just found out that I failed my surgery miniboard. It was my first one, and I was so short on time that I didn't get to 20 questions. I"m not sure if time was the problem or if I really had a weak knowlege base of surgery. Does anyone have any advice on how to study for it the second time around?

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[ilovepath]

in my school--A LOT OF PEOPLE were not able to finish the surgery shelf in time. I am wondering if other ppl had similar experiences. I personally missed 8-10 q due to time.

 

[carrigallen]

It is definitely more difficult than you expect. It may sound trite, but when in doubt, it seemed like the answer was often "iv fluids" (I took the exam last year though). It seemed like they liked acute abdomen cases.

 

[boston]

keep an eye on the clock. same goes for uslme steps 1,2,3.
check at a quarter, half, and three-quarter points at the least and make sure you are on pace. if you are behind, don't spend as much time on each question. it's better to go through all the questions quickly and being unsure, than being sure of your answers and not getting to the last 20. this is because there may be easy gimme questions or at least questions where you can eliminate 2 or 3 choices. making an educated high probability guess on all of the easy ones makes a significant difference versus randomly guessing or not answering the last questions.

finally, with clinical vignette questions, which may be a long paragraph filled with irrelevant distractor information, it is key to 1) read the last line of the question first (i.e. what are they asking) and then 2) look over the choices. then 3) go back and read the vignette, so you know what informational clues to look for. this was key for me. this may or may not work for you but give this strategy a try if time is an issue.

 

[njbmd]

I just found out that I failed my surgery miniboard. It was my first one, and I was so short on time that I didn't get to 20 questions. I"m not sure if time was the problem or if I really had a weak knowlege base of surgery. Does anyone have any advice on how to study for it the second time around?

Think about both the medicine and the Surgery behind each case. They are interconnected. Make sure that you knowledge base is strong. I recommend that you read and know Lawrence throughly. (You really do not need the Lawrence Specialties book).

If you want practice with cases, use NMS Surgery Casebook or Surgical Recall. Both are pretty good for getting everything covered. Be sure to think about what you are reading and don't just read to underline.

Every question is worth the same amount of points so it is counterproductive to spend too much time on any one question. For example, if you have 50 minutes to answer 50 questions and you spend 10 minutes on one question, you now have 40 minutes to answer 49 question. Pace yourself.

If you come across something that you can't answer mark it and come back to it later when you have answered all of the questions that you already know. Read every question and read every answer. Make sure that you are answering the question that is asked. It might be one of those "all are correct except" questions. If you mark the first correct answer, you will get that question wrong.

If you are running out of time. Pick your favorite letter and fill in the blanks. At least you have a one out of four chance of hitting the right answer but do not leave anything blank on the answer sheet.

Good luck