Have to recert this year...

[Birdstrike]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Ugh

 

[EMFreakz]

Ugh

what are you doing to prepare?

 

[Birdstrike]

what are you doing to prepare?

Current Board Re-Certification Study Plan: "Hitting On The High-Yield Stuff Super Hard"

Step 1- Say, "Ugh." Repeat, prn.
Step 2- Repeat step 1 as needed, until ready to proceed to step 3.
Step 3- Do some random, free EM podcast by some goofy guy I've never heard of, that giggles a lot during his lectures. Hit pause || button, repeatedly. Yeah, giardia gives you bad gas. Duh.
Step 4- Go to website for unnecessarily super-expensive board-review course, yet don't click "purchase" due to repeated jolts of heartburn.
Step 5- Repeat step 1
Step 6- Turn on ESPN
Step 7- Hit play > on podcast.
Step 8- Take H1 blocker
Step 9- "Hey, did you seriously turn Bravo on again? You're seriously killing me, you know that?" Passive-aggressively turn ESPN back on.
Step 10- Hit || pause again on free EM podcast and walk away to make super awesome, Thai iced coffee, extra sugar, extra caffeine.
Step 11- Go to SDN "Board recertifications are a complete racket! Scam!" thread and convince self that I'll let boards lapse to save $2,000 but mostly out of sheer principle.
Step 12- Decide step 11 was a completely stupid idea, and get back into primo study mode.
Step 13- Conclude "now is way to early to start studying anyways, since 'I'll just forget it all' by the time the exam comes."
Step 14- Set iPhone to remind me in one week to, "Go to step 1" of "Concert Study Plan."
Step 15- Get completely irritated that the free-EM podcast was free, because I can't demand an immediate refund for something free.
Step 16- Read the medical section of The Onion, to get in the mood.
Step 17- Repeat step 1.

Hopefully, as the exam gets closer, I'll be able to get beyond just super efficiently learning the high yield stuff like this, and get to the real obscure pearls.

 

[RustedFox]

Step 16




Watch this video, again.

Step 17: Drive hotrod into the west Texas desert. See "leggy girls" for no good reason. Decide wether or not its a mirage. Drive back.
Step 18:WTF, maa'an, ?!

 

[Birdstrike]

Step 16




Watch this video, again.

Step 17: Drive hotrod into the west Texas desert. See "leggy girls" for no good reason. Decide wether or not its a mirage. Drive back.
Step 18:WTF, maa'an, ?!

Lol. Awesome. Remember "Lighterman"?

 

[RustedFox]

Hells yes, I remember Lighterman. - You know I gots to get paid.

Dude, I just got back from my New Mexico trip, wherein I drove my rental car through the American desert with "25 Lighters", "La Grange", and other varous ZZ-Top tunes at full volume.

Dude, if I had to recert:

1.) PEER (XIXVIILCMC)... whatever.
2.) Whatever BRS gig is popular on auto-lecture this year.
3.) "XXX" by ZZTOP.

 

[Chip N Sawbones]

It's good to see that my med school study schedule will continue to serve me when I'm an attending. I think "Cheap Sunglasses" is the highest yield study material for me.

 

[RustedFox]

+1 for Cheap Sunglasses. "My Head's In Mississippi" is also top-flight.

 

[WilcoWorld]

Totally other end of the spectrum for me. My med school study tunes were more instrumental/ambient like Sigur Ros, Jim O'Rourke, Tortoise.

Uh oh, I think I just dated myself.

 

[SoyMilk]

You guys are 10 years out by the time you recert right? I'm curious is it really that insurmountable of a task at this point in your career. The exam is very clinical and you guys have thousands of hours of experience. Let me know, if it's as bad as you say maybe I'll maintain an EM oriented Anki deck starting now.

Good luck with your exam

 

[GeneralVeers]

You guys are 10 years out by the time you recert right? I'm curious is it really that insurmountable of a task at this point in your career. The exam is very clinical and you guys have thousands of hours of experience. Let me know, if it's as bad as you say maybe I'll maintain an EM oriented Anki deck starting now.

Good luck with your exam

The exam would be easy if it was based on clinical experience. However, it is not and designed to be as abusive as possible.

- The exam is designed to fail a certain percentage of participants
- The questions are based upon "Gotcha" minutiae
- It is very expensive, and serves just to pad the coffers of ABEM.

A real re-certification test should be simple for ANY doctor practicing for 10 years to pass without any studying.

 

[gutonc]

The exam would be easy if it was based on clinical experience. However, it is not and designed to be as abusive as possible.

- The exam is designed to fail a certain percentage of participants
- The questions are based upon "Gotcha" minutiae
- It is very expensive, and serves just to pad the coffers of ABEM.

A real re-certification test should be simple for ANY doctor practicing for 10 years to pass without any studying.

It's nice to know that, even if I give you crap at 3am for a BS admit and you yell at me for not making my patient DNR before they showed up in your shop, at least we have hatred of our boards and their exams in common.

Has EM gone the MOC route yet? If not, you might want to invest in a company that makes shoes with handles on them because very soon you're going to be bending over not just every 10 years but every 1-2.

 

[Apollyon]

It's nice to know that, even if I give you crap at 3am for a BS admit and you yell at me for not making my patient DNR before they showed up in your shop, at least we have hatred of our boards and their exams in common.

Has EM gone the MOC route yet? If not, you might want to invest in a company that makes shoes with handles on them because very soon you're going to be bending over not just every 10 years but every 1-2.

Yes, it has, but you can bolus it each 5 years.

 

[gutonc]

Yes, it has, but you can bolus it each 5 years.

Well that sucks marginally less. In IM we're paying every year (or you can pay 10 years up front...no bulk discount) but "maintaining certification" every 2 years.

 

[RockDoc7]

Is re-certing q10 years standard for all of medicine or unique to EM?

 

[alpinism]

The exam would be easy if it was based on clinical experience. However, it is not and designed to be as abusive as possible.

- The exam is designed to fail a certain percentage of participants
- The questions are based upon "Gotcha" minutiae
- It is very expensive, and serves just to pad the coffers of ABEM.

A real re-certification test should be simple for ANY doctor practicing for 10 years to pass without any studying.

Heh love this (your description of these questions, not the questions themselves).

Sounds like our med school exams...