We are starting to have monthly in-service exam now. Is it important for any purpose? Right now I really want to do some free-style learning, instead of keeping doing multiple choice questions. Thanks.
Is the in-service exam important?
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Depends on the specialty. Eg for surgery, the absite is hugely important and some programs require a certain score to advance or even stay in the program. In other fields, the inservice may be just something you use to gauge how you are doing and nobody besides you and your PD will ever know about it.
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Yes, it is. Don't believe your chiefs when they say it isn't and that you don't have to study for it. It is important. Its one of the criteria that the residency review committee looks at when determining if a resident can be promoted to the next year. Also, in my program, a few interns with consistently low monthly or inservice exam scores got called into the chairman/PD's office for a meeting.
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Each specialty & each residency within that specialty weighs it in their own way.
Best thing is to check with your upper levels or better yet, your PD. They have no reason to lie to you & it will give you a good idea as to what their expectations are
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Just about every specialty has a yearly "in service" exam where they are scored against their peers nationally.
I assume when you say monthly, you mean that your program is giving you exams. This is likely in preparation for the "big" in-service exam. So take them seriously as a way to find where your deficits are, and for identifying concepts you need to review for the bigger exam. I agree with other posters that you should ask your seniors about the importance of the monthly exams; certainly if you persistently do poorly, you may be identified as a struggling intern, but I doubt you're expected to always score highly if these are being used to keep you "up" on your studying.
I assume when you say monthly, you mean that your program is giving you exams. This is likely in preparation for the "big" in-service exam. So take them seriously as a way to find where your deficits are, and for identifying concepts you need to review for the bigger exam. I agree with other posters that you should ask your seniors about the importance of the monthly exams; certainly if you persistently do poorly, you may be identified as a struggling intern, but I doubt you're expected to always score highly if these are being used to keep you "up" on your studying.
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For my particular program, no. Our PD has said that he does not want us to study for it and it in no way impacts your advancement in the program.
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If the program didn't care about these tests, why would they even bother giving them in the first place. I recommend doing well on these tests. You don't want to be the resident from your year consistently scoring poorly on them. It will come back to screw you in some way.
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don't believe your PD when they say "they don't matter." They may be nice the first year, but then the second they start getting nasty about it. As much as they say "it doesn't matter"... it will.
The tests DO matter to PDs. Most will use them to gauge your readiness to take the boards. Should you not score highly enough they will not support you taking boards, or they will extend your residency. As stated above, some programs use the in service exam to gauge whether you promote or not. Some use it to determine whether you can moonlight, how much "reading" they assign you, they may assign you presentations, or extra rotations in subjects you do poorly in.
The test will matter. Don't believe your PD. I would sincerely start studying.
The tests DO matter to PDs. Most will use them to gauge your readiness to take the boards. Should you not score highly enough they will not support you taking boards, or they will extend your residency. As stated above, some programs use the in service exam to gauge whether you promote or not. Some use it to determine whether you can moonlight, how much "reading" they assign you, they may assign you presentations, or extra rotations in subjects you do poorly in.
The test will matter. Don't believe your PD. I would sincerely start studying.
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simple, it's a gauge for you and your program to see how you are doing as compared to your national peers, because at some point you will take boards which do matter. So yes, at some programs they really don't count for much. Or at all. At others they count a whole lot. Some places do dedicated review for thm, other places take them cold. Some places the folks with poor scores get talked to by the PD or get labeled as struggling, at others, life goes on unchanged. Folks who are trying to extrapolate their own programs experience across other programs and specialties are not being useful here. Each specialty, and many programs within each specialty, will use these differently.
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That's my point. There's no reason the OP should blow off these tests for the sake of free studying. It is annoying but scoring consistently low is not a good thing.
Even if his PD and program say life goes on with low scores and there is no overt action, you can be sure it will be documented somewhere in the OPs residency file.
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The OP is better off preparing for the monthly/inservice exams as much as possible, in my opinion. Most like s/he is an intern and does not really know how much weight the program puts on its monthly/inservice exams just yet. And s/he cannot necessarily trust the advice of any senior who tells him/her that they're not important. If the OP has studied and achieved a good score, and the exam turns out not to count for much after all, s/he will have lost nothing. S/he will just be that much better prepared for the boards.
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Definitely true. You cannot generalize across different programs or specialties. If you want to know the importance placed on in-service exams by your particular program, you need to find out from those within YOUR program, whether they're residents, attendings, or in the program administration. Some programs use them for their intended purpose and some abuse them.
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I just now saw this response.
There are certain aspects (unique to our program and specialty) that make this near impossible. In addition, it's widely accepted that the in-service in our specialty is full of garbage questions that don't reflect the boards which is why it's given so little credence.
Also, there's really no precedent for my PD to do this. Sure, there's a first time for everything, but others have done poorly in the past and they have gone on to pass their boards (on time) successfully. We've had a perfect pass rate for at least a decade despite fluctuations in in-service scores.
There are logistical issues that would make this a nightmare to implement, but let's say this could happen: why on earth is this a bad thing? Don't you WANT to improve in areas where you are weak? I certainly do. If your in-service score in a section is falsely inflated because you crammed the days before, you may find yourself weak in that subject by the time of graduation.
There are certain aspects (unique to our program and specialty) that make this near impossible. In addition, it's widely accepted that the in-service in our specialty is full of garbage questions that don't reflect the boards which is why it's given so little credence.
Also, there's really no precedent for my PD to do this. Sure, there's a first time for everything, but others have done poorly in the past and they have gone on to pass their boards (on time) successfully. We've had a perfect pass rate for at least a decade despite fluctuations in in-service scores.
There are logistical issues that would make this a nightmare to implement, but let's say this could happen: why on earth is this a bad thing? Don't you WANT to improve in areas where you are weak? I certainly do. If your in-service score in a section is falsely inflated because you crammed the days before, you may find yourself weak in that subject by the time of graduation.
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I think the extra reading and assignments would be great. The exam was designed to point out weaknesses, not to gauge your readiness for boards. But there are PDs that use the in service exam as I outlined above. And more than a few PDs use them as a demoralizing tool for residents that are not their favorites.
I agree there are peculiar specialty dependent quirks in how the exam is used. I know one program where the em exam is used for ability to moonlight, the surgery one for advancement, the IM one for gauge of readiness to take boards but no help given to residents who score poorly and residents who score the same are treated differently depending on whether the PD likes you or not.
The exam should be used to help guide education. It is all too rarely actually used for that purpose across all specialties from my experience and speaking to other programs.
I agree there are peculiar specialty dependent quirks in how the exam is used. I know one program where the em exam is used for ability to moonlight, the surgery one for advancement, the IM one for gauge of readiness to take boards but no help given to residents who score poorly and residents who score the same are treated differently depending on whether the PD likes you or not.
The exam should be used to help guide education. It is all too rarely actually used for that purpose across all specialties from my experience and speaking to other programs.
There is no cramming for the in service exam. It won't make any real difference in terms of your score. With that in mind what repeated poor performance on a monthly exam will show is lack of effort and lack of motivation. Those two things will make a difference in your score. I've heard the song and dance about how the test doesn't matter and it doesn't really reflect what you know but I think in reality that seemed to Be the case in one example I can think of (I organized my residency programs educational program). Every other time the resident in question did poorly it really was because they were either lazy or stupid.
So in part I agree with above... Institutional mileage may vary. And so the test may or may not be important in regards to how you're treated at your program.
Overall though, it matters. And poor performance indicates you don't know what you need to know. Now the opposite is NOT true. Doing well on a multiple choice exam doesn't really mean anything, if you have any idea at all what's going on and some test taking skills you can do well. But if you can't muster a decent score when the answer is put right in front of you then you really have a knowledge defect problem and that should worry you and it IS important.
Insert "I know my stuff I'm just not a good test taker" excuse below
So in part I agree with above... Institutional mileage may vary. And so the test may or may not be important in regards to how you're treated at your program.
Overall though, it matters. And poor performance indicates you don't know what you need to know. Now the opposite is NOT true. Doing well on a multiple choice exam doesn't really mean anything, if you have any idea at all what's going on and some test taking skills you can do well. But if you can't muster a decent score when the answer is put right in front of you then you really have a knowledge defect problem and that should worry you and it IS important.
Insert "I know my stuff I'm just not a good test taker" excuse below
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this assumes a well written test that covers material that one might be expected to come across in your given specialty, and assumes that there aren't multiple right answers for each question where you are expected to guess which the test taker deems the "best" right answer. Unfortunately in some specialties the inservice questions are really quite bad, and you are probably better prepared for your specialty board knowing everything BUT what is tested on those. It's why in some fields programs that don't specifically prepare for the inservice exams and do poorly often still have great board passage rates. It's also why in some specialties you see the small community programs that actually study for the inservice far outstripping the big academic centers, where emphasis simply isn't put on these tests. Has nothing to do with laziness or stupidity, unless the material is something you are reasonably expected to know per your program and the board. It is stupidity if you do well on this test at the expense if actually learning stuff your program or board cares about.
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