How did people study for the Advanced exam?

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ToKingdomCome

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How did people study for it? For those who recently took it, how was it?
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DrOwnage said:
Do all the UBP (Ultimate Board Prep), then do ABA Mock Oral exams with a friend. Make sure its over facetime or in person to make it realistic. If you have a commute or go to the gym I recommend just streaming through all the University of Kentucky Anesthesia videos on youtube. They have a bunch of keywords and topic lectures that are really well laid out and good review for background learning. I studied personally for about a month and a half.
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Sir this is a Wendy’s.
 
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ToKingdomCome said:
How did people study for it? For those who recently took it, how was it?
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It’s a very random exam. And honestly, I didn’t think TrueLearn was enough to cover enough of the materIal so that I felt confident about it.

I ended up doing PassMachine qBank (my program bought us a subscription) and Hall in addition to TrueLearn. I had questions left over from my ITE bank and did those as well.

Didn’t feel horrible walking out for once so that was a plus. Maybe it was overkill, but it worked.
 
Took it last summer (July 2021). I did all of TrueLearn (ITE + Advanced) and supplemented with ACCRAC podcasts and a few selective chapters in baby Miller. Passed on first try.
 
I just listened to accrac and random readings on my patients, no question bank or dedicated study time. I did use truelearn for the basic.
 
TrueLearn is definitely not comprehensive enough. It's probably enough to squeak out a pass, but some very esoteric questions now that they know trulearn doesn't cover.
 
If you did well on your ITE you will do well on your boards. Not much different. Actually might be easier since everyone stresses out for ITE2 for their subspecialty applications. Hall and other questions banks to test your knowledge. You should have learned your textbook knowledge from your anesthesia residency.
 
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Reach out to seniors for their keyword lists from the advanced exam and look up the key words on open anesthesia/up to date. If you know someone who failed advanced, even better as their incorrect keyword list will be fairly comprehensive. Combine with TrueLearn.

Topics seem to repeat keyword wise, and there were multiple topics I was able to cover this way I wouldn’t have gotten from TrueLearn alone.
 
ans2021 said:
TrueLearn is definitely not comprehensive enough. It's probably enough to squeak out a pass, but some very esoteric questions now that they know trulearn doesn't cover.
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this is the problem with truelearn and question banks in general for both the advanced and the ITEs- because everybody does them now, there is an arms race in finding the dumbest, least clinically relevant obscure minutiae to test on so that they can still stratify even though the percentiles are getting tighter and tighter- I remember there was something dumb like two or three questions that separated me and a few coresidents by like ~15%ile
 
Depends where you’re at. If doing well on ITEs and no issues with basic then 1-2 passes through true learn should be fine.

If not then:
supplement with m5, ace, or hall.

Add UK videos and accrac.

Pick a primary text as a reference for topics you are stuck on.
 
Silo004 said:
I did truelearn twice and reviewed weak points from ITEs. Felt good leaving exam but barely passed.
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How do you know you barely passed? Do they give scores now. All I got was a notification that I passed.
 
shepardsun said:
this is the problem with truelearn and question banks in general for both the advanced and the ITEs- because everybody does them now, there is an arms race in finding the dumbest, least clinically relevant obscure minutiae to test on so that they can still stratify even though the percentiles are getting tighter and tighter- I remember there was something dumb like two or three questions that separated me and a few coresidents by like ~15%ile
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Exam grade inflation is a real problem, in my opinion. Same issue for the USMLE. The question banks are extensive and everyone uses them.
 
As long as you are doing average at least on your ITE then Truelearn plus Hall is enough. I felt good walking out and well with just those two, but I would leave enough time to go through the questions you missed on truelearn.
 
dannyboy1 said:
How do you know you barely passed? Do they give scores now. All I got was a notification that I passed.
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You have to go to account settings and then posted documents. It has the normal sheet like basic and ITE that tells you question categories you missed and percentile. I actually don't even know what passing percentile is, but my advanced was well below my ITE scores.
 
I didn't pass it the first time, got really burnt out from an abusive residency program and couldn't focus at all, I tried with Truelearn that time. Second time I got Passmachine and watched a couple of UK videos and got an average score. I don't think it matters what you use, just how well you go over the material and make sure you really understand the concepts. They'll still throw in some completely random stuff that's impossible to study for
 
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