General and Interventional boards

[DirtySouth79]

I've been a long time lurker but never posted until now - used this forum in residency and cardiology/interventional fellowships, had wished there was more info on boards.

Now that I'm finished and passed both I wanted to post my experience.

First, I'm an American grad from a middle of he road southern internal medicine program. Made 212, 225, and 217 on steps 1-3

For general cardiology boards, used O'Keefe for ECG section, and did ECG SAP - O'Keefe overcodes compared to boards, ECGSAP much closer to real boards. Got 92% of ECGs on actual boards.

For multiple choice Qs, watched Mayo DVDs and took notes. I knew this info pretty well. Also did Mayo questions, and ACC SAP questions - was about 50th percentile on this section.

Imaging section was new the year I took exam (2011) - the things you would expect to be on this showed up. I'm not an echo guy - probably got most of the Cath images ( I'm interventional)

For interventional boards - once again, watched the Mayo DVDs. Read some of Cath SAP. Did all of CathSAP questions, lots of questions from "1001 questions". Lots of stuff on recently approved new meds (anti platelets, antithrombotics).

I know I was very anxious preparing for these exams and for someone like me I have t o put in the work to pass. However, that being said, if you put in the time, both are very doable

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[joejabjab]

Thanks for sharing your experience!

 

[OptimusPrime]

Very concise and helpful. Thank you.

OP

 

[bullscards]

I just took cardiology boards in November 2012 (and passed). Here is what I used to study (and what I feel was helpful in hindsight).

EKG: I read O'keefe - great for teaching you the various criteria, but I agree O'keefe overcodes compared to the actual boards. The most helpful source to me was http://www.ecgsource.com --> For $129 you get access for 1 year to over 500 EKG's (which are representative of actual EKG's on the boards), 20-25 cath cases, and 20-25 echo cases, all with interactive scoresheets similar to the ABIM scoresheets. I found the site very useful for EKG's (and similar to the boards in terms of the number of diagnoses that should be coded for each EKG).

Echo: You can go on the ABIM website and download the actual coding sheet that the ABIM uses on boards, so you know ahead of time every diagnosis that is fair game for them to ask. I used the CD that came with "Feigenbaum" to study for the echo portion of the exam and it was an excellent source. I went to the "video atlas" on the CD and made sure I reviewed all of the diagnoses that were on the ABIM coding sheet. It only took 3-4 hours to do and it covered every diagnosis. The echo video on the Mayo board review was also a great source (given by Sunil Mankad).

Cath: Once again you can go on the ABIM website and download the actual coding sheet to see all of the diagnoses the ABIM expects you to know. Knowing the course of each coronary in the various views is key. I reviewed the cath cases on the ecgsource website (mentioned above) and watched the cath videos on the Mayo board review.

For the multiple choice questions I highly recommend reading ACCSAP and completing all of the questions that come with it. I purchased ACCSAP 8 (which just came out in September 2012) and it was the best source (in my opinion) for the MCQ's. I read the books, but it also comes with online access as well if you prefer to study on your computer/iPad (if you do not want to purchase it, you can also access it through cardiosourceplus if your program has a subscription). There are close to 400 questions that come with ACCSAP and they are definitely representative of the questions on the actual exam (best source of questions in my opinion). I watched the Mayo DVD's throughout fellowship (and reviewed a few of the videos right before the exam) and I feel that they were only marginally helpful for the actual exam (aside from the echo and cath videos which were very good).

Good luck!!!

 

[sacrament]

I read O'Keefe like everybody else. If you go through that book and feel comfortable with it, then the ECG portion will be a piece of cake. I read the latest edition of the Cleveland Clinic board review book, and I did all of the questions in the Braunwald question book. I didn't specifically study for the echo or cath portion (partially because I had studied intensely for the echo boards just a couple months before), and I felt like the images were pretty straightforward. This was probably sort of a "bare minimum" degree of studying, so we will see what my actual scores look like, but I passed.