OKAPS are OVER

[PDT4CNV]

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Raise your glass. Can finally relax for a little while.

 

[JR]

I need to study A LOT more next year...

 

[jamblix]

andrew,
why does aao like latex so much? first greenbeans and now...

what disease is latex allergy associated with?
a. spina bifida
b. downs syndrome
c. parkinsons
d. fill in the blank random disease

 

[PDT4CNV]

andrew,
why does aao like latex so much? first greenbeans and now...

what disease is latex allergy associated with?
a. spina bifida
b. downs syndrome
c. parkinsons
d. fill in the blank random disease

Not allowed to remember questions..you should be prosecuted! 😀

Speaking of which, how many mm are in an inch?

 

[ophtheus]

spina bifida

 

[Redhawk]

Try taking OKAPS and THEN being on call as well. That felt like on of the longest days of my life. Back to work in a few hours. Now I gotta find time to do my taxes 🙂

 

[JR]

July 1st is getting very close 😍

Try taking OKAPS and THEN being on call as well. That felt like on of the longest days of my life. Back to work in a few hours. Now I gotta find time to do my taxes 🙂

 

[rubensan]

July 1st is getting very close 😍

 

[JR]

It'll be fine. ..."you will be exposed to diverse ocular pathology"... and ..."have lots of autonomy"... as they say in description of some programs. These statements will have a slightly different meaning by the end of your first year 🙂

 

[idoc]

I am quite relieved that the OKAP is over as well. I think that being a first year ophth. resident, the test can be quite overwhelming. I am just curious what emphasis (aka STRESS) other programs place on the OKAP, and what other programs do for preparartion. Another question is this: How many BCSC book did you actually read before OKAPs your first year, and what other books/questions did you do. Be honest.

 

[PDT4CNV]

I am quite relieved that the OKAP is over as well. I think that being a first year ophth. resident, the test can be quite overwhelming. I am just curious what emphasis (aka STRESS) other programs place on the OKAP, and what other programs do for preparartion. Another question is this: How many BCSC book did you actually read before OKAPs your first year, and what other books/questions did you do. Be honest.

There is no direct pressure to do well, but at our program, if you don't, you get to have a little "talk" with the chairman/program director. We don't have quizzes or reading assignments etc. You are just expected to read on your own time.

By the okaps last year I had read the fundamentals book, retina book, glaucoma book, and neuro book and I reviewed the pictures in the path book of the bcsc. I read the entire chern book, did all of the chern questions in the chern question book, read about 2/3 of the kanski atlas, read last minute optics and david guyton's optics material and worked most of the guyton questions. And of course, the wills manual. I also studied some good review articles I had on white dot syndromes, nystagmus, and color vision disorders which I always have to review.

For this year, I have read a few more of the bcsc books, re-read the chern book (twice), worked questions in the Mass Eye book and the whole chern question book again, gone through the Pearls of Wisdom book, re-did all of the guyton optics questions, read Kline's Neuro-Ophthalmology review book, reviewed the Pathology book, looked at retina pictures in my Freeman retina atlas, flipped through ant. segment photos in kanski, and reviewed my course materials from the Wills course (which are not half-bad).

pheeww, sounds like a lot, but I guess it didn't seem as bad second time around since it is more of a "review."

 

[JR]

Wow, that's impressive! I am sure your hard work will be rewarded with a great score!

There is no direct pressure to do well, but at our program, if you don't, you get to have a little "talk" with the chairman/program director. We don't have quizzes or reading assignments etc. You are just expected to read on your own time.

By the okaps last year I had read the fundamentals book, retina book, glaucoma book, and neuro book and I reviewed the pictures in the path book of the bcsc. I read the entire chern book, did all of the chern questions in the chern question book, read about 2/3 of the kanski atlas, read last minute optics and david guyton's optics material and worked most of the guyton questions. And of course, the wills manual. I also studied some good review articles I had on white dot syndromes, nystagmus, and color vision disorders which I always have to review.

For this year, I have read a few more of the bcsc books, re-read the chern book (twice), worked questions in the Mass Eye book and the whole chern question book again, gone through the Pearls of Wisdom book, re-did all of the guyton optics questions, read Kline's Neuro-Ophthalmology review book, reviewed the Pathology book, looked at retina pictures in my Freeman retina atlas, flipped through ant. segment photos in kanski, and reviewed my course materials from the Wills course (which are not half-bad).

pheeww, sounds like a lot, but I guess it didn't seem as bad second time around since it is more of a "review."

 

[PDT4CNV]

Wow, that's impressive! I am sure your hard work will be rewarded with a great score!

I dunno about great score...what do the folks up at the almighty Wilmer Eye do to study for okraps?

 

[JR]

You pretty much described what we try to use. However, there is not that much time to study during our first year; scores tend to progress upward as you move along in the training.

I dunno about great score...what do the folks up at the almighty Wilmer Eye do to study for okraps?

 

[Redhawk]

How many BCSC book did you actually read before OKAPs your first year, and what other books/questions did you do. Be honest.

I read the ALL of: Medicine, Path, Neuro, Peds, Orbit, Glaucoma, Lens, Retina, Chern and Wright, and the Guyton optics book
I read almost all of Cornea (not the surgical/refractive stuff), Uveitis (not the beginning) and Optics (not refraction)
I read the first 180 pages or so of Fundamentals
I only did the questions from Refractive

We do have reading assignments and monthly quizzes as well as a practice test before hand (which is a joke - many questions on RK this year).

Before the test I reviewed everything I underlined, and took notes to review the few days before the test. I feel like I did really well.

 

[LASIKguy]

I read all the books except general medicine (read half, thats why I got spina bifida question) wrong.
Didn't review path photos in detail and therefore probably lost most points on the test on it (why is path so difficult andrew?)
There were some crazy optic questions that were NOT from the book but i guess anything is fair game for OKAPS.
As a first year, I think I got stuck into too much low yield stuff and missed out on some important details. Oh well, atleast now we know how to study for the test next year!
Oh yeah, and less studying to do next year since
re-reading the same book takes much less time!

 

[JR]

This is very interesting; my program is VERY VERY bottom heavy and most first years just end up reading Chern and doing some Chern review questions at the best. OKAPs have not been traditionally emphasized at Wilmer; although there is a greater pressure in the last 5 years for residents to do well. Part of it is tradition and part is that OKAP scores do not seem to matter for fellowship placement.

We have a running joke that we learn "street ophthalmology" our first year and refine our skills as we progress along. This arrangement makes you quite confident clinically early, but obviously we are not as well read as first years at other programs.

In any case, we quickly catch up on reading during second year as there is much more free time. By the end of residency, people almost uniformly are strong both academically and clinically.

I guess there is no one best way of teaching residents.

 

[LASIKguy]

JR,

We all know that even if a Wilmer resident gets < 10 percentile, he/she will get #1 pick in the fellowship match.
For avg ophtho programs, I think a 99th percentile can help to get a big name fellowship. But I have heard there are no guarantees since most fellowships are filled by Big-Wig calls and network. Thats why some of us have to read a "little bit" more 🙂

 

[JR]

It would be nice to have a little more time to read, not for the fellowship sake, but for the ability to know what I am doing in clinic 🙂

JR,

We all know that even if a Wilmer resident gets < 10 percentile, he/she will get #1 pick in the fellowship match.
For avg ophtho programs, I think a 99th percentile can help to get a big name fellowship. But I have heard there are no guarantees since most fellowships are filled by Big-Wig calls and network. Thats why some of us have to read a "little bit" more 🙂

 

[PDT4CNV]

It would be nice to have a little more time to read, not for the fellowship sake, but for the ability to know what I am doing in clinic 🙂

I felt the same way last year...sometimes still wonder what I am doing when the first year on call pages me with some question about a patient (which at this point in the year are usually not simple questions). 😕

BTW, Happy Easter

 

[JR]

Happy Easter PDT!

The scary part is someone will be paging me 2.5 months from now with questions! Time sure goes by fast...

I felt the same way last year...sometimes still wonder what I am doing when the first year on call pages me with some question about a patient (which at this point in the year are usually not simple questions). 😕

BTW, Happy Easter