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Didn’t see a discussion here. No one interested?
New ABR radiology exam rules..
- Thread starter ProtonElectronNeutron
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I know some current junior residents who are excited to have the option to take Radbio/Physics early. Otherwise, I'm kinda "meh" about it because it doesn't change much for those of us in the boards cycle who were hosed by COVID. I guess it's nice to be able to take clinical writtens in April if I want to?
Taking a broad-based, "glass half full" view, I'm impressed and surprised that an antiquated juggernaut like the ABR has been able to implement all these changes (virtual exams, timelines). Taking a "glass half empty" view, it took a global pandemic and the disruption of the fabric of our daily lives for them to do it. In the end, we're still forced to take some of the strangest exams in any medical specialty that lack any evidence for why we're supposed to take them.
Gonna go brush up on my knowledge of the MRN complex now - that will surely help a patient someday.
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Let's call it a lukewarm yay from me.
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Good: Completing multiple written exams prior to residency graduation.
Better: Consolidating physics/rad bio/clinical into a single exam.
Best: Abandoning the ABR and starting over with an organization that cares about radiation oncologists.
Better: Consolidating physics/rad bio/clinical into a single exam.
Best: Abandoning the ABR and starting over with an organization that cares about radiation oncologists.
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I don't understand how the new rules effectively change anything other than allowing some students to take rad bio and physics a year early. I don't see how the other changes effectively impact when one can take clinical writtens or orals. But maybe I'm missing something. It was poorly written.
If this were college, radbio and physics would each be a semester long course with a final exam at the end and would be over in 4 months. Instead we repeat the same thing 3-4 times in a row and ultimately end up forgetting it all anyway.
College itself and the binge-purge study/memorization dump is an antiquated educational model and probably will go away in the next 50 years. Taking all these classes and memorizing equations that impart no practical/useful knowledge. I spent a good 4 months of my life in hell studying complex analysis and vector calculus. I understood nothing that was going on and made the highest grade in the class. I remember none of it and never used any of it. The only thing I can recall from this class is that there was something called "Cauchy-Riemann" and that's a math thing. 4 months, thousands in tuition, and that's the end result. Oh, and recurrent nightmares 15 years later where I forget that I was signed up for this class and find out I have a final exam on something I never studied. Perhaps it's time we re-think our educational model when it comes to coursework. Unfortunately this anachronism persists in radiation oncology education (which is vocational training, not theory) and is perpetuated by dinosaurs like Wallner. Nobody remembers anything but basics from physics/bio, and if you pulled every practicing rad onc and made them take the physics/bio exam, they would all fail, Wallner included.
So, it's a huge MEH from me until they condense all 4 exams into a multiple choice written testing actual knowledge required for practice with a practical component that consists of actually working up mock patients and generating real treatment plans rather than spitting off recited lines about lab workups you never do in a matter of seconds.
Pathetic.
If this were college, radbio and physics would each be a semester long course with a final exam at the end and would be over in 4 months. Instead we repeat the same thing 3-4 times in a row and ultimately end up forgetting it all anyway.
College itself and the binge-purge study/memorization dump is an antiquated educational model and probably will go away in the next 50 years. Taking all these classes and memorizing equations that impart no practical/useful knowledge. I spent a good 4 months of my life in hell studying complex analysis and vector calculus. I understood nothing that was going on and made the highest grade in the class. I remember none of it and never used any of it. The only thing I can recall from this class is that there was something called "Cauchy-Riemann" and that's a math thing. 4 months, thousands in tuition, and that's the end result. Oh, and recurrent nightmares 15 years later where I forget that I was signed up for this class and find out I have a final exam on something I never studied. Perhaps it's time we re-think our educational model when it comes to coursework. Unfortunately this anachronism persists in radiation oncology education (which is vocational training, not theory) and is perpetuated by dinosaurs like Wallner. Nobody remembers anything but basics from physics/bio, and if you pulled every practicing rad onc and made them take the physics/bio exam, they would all fail, Wallner included.
So, it's a huge MEH from me until they condense all 4 exams into a multiple choice written testing actual knowledge required for practice with a practical component that consists of actually working up mock patients and generating real treatment plans rather than spitting off recited lines about lab workups you never do in a matter of seconds.
Pathetic.
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