Long time lurker, first time poster

[sigrhoillusion]

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Just found out that I passed my oral boards. Yes, it was as miserable as everyone described, despite the new testing center being pretty nice overall. Not going to lie, a lot of the stuff I've learned and practiced over the years has come from reading some of the cases and reports posted in this forum. Real world opinions are an invaluable teaching tool and I just want to thank a lot of you guys for sharing with the medical students, residents and fellows.

I'm a few months away from finishing up my pediatric anesthesia fellowship, and can't wait to put on my big boy pants in the real world (despite the gloom and doom that many talk about on here.)

Good day fellas!

 

[BLADEMDA]

Just found out that I passed my oral boards. Yes, it was as miserable as everyone described, despite the new testing center being pretty nice overall. Not going to lie, a lot of the stuff I've learned and practiced over the years has come from reading some of the cases and reports posted in this forum. Real world opinions are an invaluable teaching tool and I just want to thank a lot of you guys for sharing with the medical students, residents and fellows.

I'm a few months away from finishing up my pediatric anesthesia fellowship, and can't wait to put on my big boy pants in the real world (despite the gloom and doom that many talk about on here.)

Good day fellas!

Congrads. I hope you post some cases on SDN and by all means keep reading throughout your career.

 

[Chloroform4Life]

Congrats! I can't wait to take my oral and get it out of the way. How did you study?

 

[sigrhoillusion]

I used old Ho book and Knocking Out the Boards for just core info.
Then me and about 4-5 residents went through a version of Ho Top 20 and grab bags and divided it up and put down what we thought were "good" answers and then shared. We divided it up so each fellow had their specialty, we had pain, regional, peds and cardiac fellows in the group. Then I also went through and dissected old board stems, as well as did as many mock orals as possible. I was slammed at work though the last two months, often not getting home until 7-8pm and a lot of the other fellows seemed to have more relaxing fellowships that let them get together more often. WOuld have like to just do more mocks, but a pass is a pass...

I think the hardest part of the test is when you get back to work and all your colleagues are supportive and "Guarantee" that you passed, mean while all you can think of is every dumb thing you said in that 70 minutes of awfulness. It's frustrating knowing that throughout residency/fellowship/practice you work with dozens and dozens of doctors who know you can practice, but then 4 random strangers will judge you based on two horrendous scenarios where pretty much everything goes wrong no matter what you choose. These last two weeks have been so anxiety-filled, I swear I thought I was going to have a panic attack knowing the scores were coming out today, and then refreshing that stupid portal while it is "under maintenance" while they are uploading the results.

All I can recommend is to look at as many stems as possible whether it is via mocks or just dissecting them on your own. I swear my two stems were pretty bread and butter scenarios that I had seen in other stems. You know what's going to come for the most part (with a few things out of left field), just remember there's no "wrong" answer unless it's malpractice... and always have a backup plan. Just pray you get an OB stem. You know it's going to most likely involve a difficult airway, regional vs. GA, regional will lead to wet tap... and then high spinal... then either mom or baby is gonna code... it's all the rare stuff in real life that always pops up on the boards... Best of luck.

 

[Nivens]

Love seeing some good vibes on this board. Can't overstate how uplifting it is for those of is who have taken the plunge and are currently in training.

Congrats!

 

[ranvier]

Congrats. Agree, these forums are great help. I have a mental image of wise grey hairs sitting their cases and posting on their tablets (after a portfolio check) ✌

 

[deleted171991]

Love seeing some good vibes on this board. Can't overstate how uplifting it is for those of is who have taken the plunge and are currently in training.

Congrats!

You want good vibes? Here you go: you have an ~80-85% chance to pass both your written and oral boards on the first try. I would bet money on you right now. And you have no idea how much those 10-15% who fail the written suck, so the chances are really good. 😛

(Hint: Those who fail the written can be usually found among the people who are in the bottom 25% percentile on almost every exam. It usually starts with low USMLE scores - weak foundations.)

 

[Chloroform4Life]

Do written exam score correlate well with oral exam pass rate? If I scored 99th percentile on my written, am a decent speaker, and have continued studying to build on my foundation, do I have a 99% chance of passing oral?

 

[deleted171991]

Do written exam score correlate well with oral exam pass rate? If I scored 99th percentile on my written, am a decent speaker, and have continued studying to build on my foundation, do I have a 99% chance of passing oral?

Nope.

It's not a knowledge test. It's a consultant test, which means much more (and much less at the same time). It's also oral, not written, which means a completely different game. But you still have an 85% chance to pass it on your first try. Very smart people have overthought it and failed it. It requires dedicated preparation, just like the first multiple-choice test you have ever taken.

 

[pgg]

Do written exam score correlate well with oral exam pass rate? If I scored 99th percentile on my written, am a decent speaker, and have continued studying to build on my foundation, do I have a 99% chance of passing oral?

Probably not 99% pass chance, but surely higher than the average of ~85%. Provided your "continued studying" involves oral practice, not just more studying.

 

[sigrhoillusion]

Not saying to be a echoing zombie, but they really do try on focus on specific topics which will be teased out the more mock orals you do.

Pregnancy, regional/GA, high spinal, wet tap
Difficult airway algorithm, airway burns
ACLS/PALS (know these cold) they tended to cut me off after the first two steps. They actually seem to cut you off if you seem to know anything...
Oliguria... sweet Jebus they loved this... Both stems and it also came up in a grab bag. No matter how much you state that labs aren't that helpful in acute oliguria they will eventually just say "well pretend you do get a FENa!" at which point you demonstrate your immense FeNa knowledge...
Liver dysfunction
Massive Transfusion
Etc. etc. etc.

Not going to lie, I barely had any cardiac related questions, no Swann decisions made over here! Nor did I have much neuro, which I was kind of hoping for. Sometimes it's jsut the luck of the draw in terms of the material that pops up.

Practice. Have a plan. A back up plan. And then a backup for that. If you know itn they will cut you off or they will get into ridiculous minutiae at which point you just say "I'm not sure" and move on. It's easy to say after the fact,but you will no doubt be kicking yourself for things you said or didn't say.

Just remember with the preop stem, you can either be a minimalist and take the defense that NO labs/tests are going to really alter your management, at which your patient will code and you'll second guess yourself and say "Why didn't I order all those tests?!?!?" Or you can get the full battery of tests, in which all will come back negative or inconclusive at which point you go to the OR and despite all the reassurance your patient will code and you'll second guess yourself and say "Why did I order all those tests?!??"

It's literally ABA's form of hazing.

 

[Gern Blansten]

Nope.

It's not a knowledge test. It's a consultant test, which means much more (and much less at the same time). It's also oral, not written, which means a completely different game. But you still have an 85% chance to pass it on your first try. Very smart people have overthought it and failed it. It requires dedicated preparation, just like the first multiple-choice test you have ever taken.

I disagree. It is very much a knowledge test. Not only a knowledge test, like the written, but a knowledge test nonetheless. One of the most common reasons a person fails is a knowledge gap. It disguises itself as a communication or adaptability issue, but if they knew the information as well as they should, it would have been simple for them to know when they could adapt to a changing situation and do it in a safe manner. They stutter and stammer and appear to communicate poorly often because they do not know the information and are shooting from the hip and second guessing.
There are some who have adequate knowledge that still fail, but those are uncommon and your mock oral exams will demonstrate it if you have those issues. These are the ones who are bright but reluctant to commit to a decision because they second guess themselves. As Lubarsky's book says, everyone knows a super smart person who failed and everyone knows an idiot who passed. The system is not without flaws, but the ones who do not pass almost always have a knowledge deficit at the root of why they failed. If your written exam score is in the high 80's percentile or greater and you do 15-20 practice exams, you are very likely to pass, I would say mid to high nineties percent chance, well above the stated 85% chance.
Conversely, if you barely passed the writtens and don't do at least 15 mock oral exams, I would say that you chances are in the low 60 percent range. If English is not your first language and is something you struggle with, the numbers go down even further. This is the American Board of Anesthesiology given in English. Someone who cannot make someone understand their knowledge because of a language barrier will struggle no matter how smart they are.