Ophthalmology Oral Boards 2015

[usamsIII]

To all of those that took the Oral Boards this past weekend...any advice for those taking it this Fall? Were there any questions on Refractive/LASIK etc?? Given all of the review Books out there, do you think it was necessary to take the Osler Course (if you did)? Any curveballs or areas to focus on? Was it straightforward or were there some esoteric cases?

I know there have been posts about this topic but most of them are from years ago...it would be nice to get feedback, especially from those that took the test days ago...

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[OphthoApp]

To all of those that took the Oral Boards this past weekend...any advice for those taking it this Fall? Were there any questions on Refractive/LASIK etc?? Given all of the review Books out there, do you think it was necessary to take the Osler Course (if you did)? Any curveballs or areas to focus on? Was it straightforward or were there some esoteric cases?

I know there have been posts about this topic but most of them are from years ago...it would be nice to get feedback, especially from those that took the test days ago...

The ABO doesn't allow anyone to talk about the content of the test. If you read on the website it says what is testable.

 

[docta9]

The ABO doesn't allow anyone to talk about the content of the test. If you read on the website it says what is testable.

Certain residency programs are better at preparing people for the oral exam. Some of them have board examiners on their faculty. I've heard that board examiners are prohibited from teaching a review course, such as Wills or Osler (based on a statement by a WQE question writer). I've also heard some lectures from professors who write questions for the written boards. Residents in those programs have an unfair advantage.

I conclude this because I happened to attend a lecture by someone who writes questions and learned something from that lecture that was a question on the WQE but was never taught in residency and not well covered in the BCSC books. So residents from that program get spoon fed the material that eventually appears on the WQE but aren't really covered well or at all in the BCSC.

Next topic on the orals: Anyone willing to be my study partner? It doesn't have to be practicing mock orals but can be another potentially valuable part of the overall strategy.

 

[docta9]

The ABO doesn't allow anyone to talk about the content of the test. If you read on the website it says what is testable.

This is false.

I've been to lectures where there lecturer says "this is important for the boards". Some residency programs are better than others in this regard. There are also some residencies that have multiple mock oral tests while others don't have any. At least one residency has a crappy mock oral exam being a series of written WQE like questions just read aloud but not a mock oral in a format that I think the real orals are like.

What I think is prohibited is an account of the questions that an examinee was asked in the orals, such as "the first question was a picture of ______ and I was asked _______......... the 12th question was a picture of ______...."

 

[OphthoApp]

This is false.

I've been to lectures where there lecturer says "this is important for the boards". Some residency programs are better than others in this regard. There are also some residencies that have multiple mock oral tests while others don't have any. At least one residency has a crappy mock oral exam being a series of written WQE like questions just read aloud but not a mock oral in a format that I think the real orals are like.

What I think is prohibited is an account of the questions that an examinee was asked in the orals, such as "the first question was a picture of ______ and I was asked _______......... the 12th question was a picture of ______...."

Anyone who writes a review book for the oral boards or is associated with Osler can have no association with ABO and cannot test for the ABO. The above post asked for what curve balls were on the test. That is asking for specific information which cannot be given by those who take the test.

 

[docta9]

Among the roughly 250 people taking the orals in October, any of them on this forum?

 

[Dusn]

The board is made up of a bunch of scam artists whose sole purpose is to take your money. Given the amount you pay them for the exam and the amount they swindle off of us with MOC payments, they can at least make the effort to not repeat the same questions.

Whether or not a contract you are coerced to make with a scam artist needs to be honored is a very philosophical question. But don't get caught talking about the exam as ABO certification is unfortunately still needed by hospitals and insurance companies.

I don't think you need to worry too much about refractive surgery questions.

 

[MullerCell]

The board is made up of a bunch of scam artists whose sole purpose is to take your money. Given the amount you pay them for the exam and the amount they swindle off of us with MOC payments, they can at least make the effort to not repeat the same questions.

Whether or not a contract you are coerced to make with a scam artist needs to be honored is a very philosophical question. But don't get caught talking about the exam as ABO certification is unfortunately still needed by hospitals and insurance companies.

I don't think you need to worry too much about refractive surgery questions.

I would have to disagree with this comment. I'm in no way, nor have I ever been part of the board, but have trained under and worked with multiple people who are on the ABO board and others that are contributors/testers for the written/oral boards. These are some of the most reputable people in the country. The physician members are not compensated in any significant manner other than travel cost reimbursement and spend tons of time as essentially volunteers. Don't you think if there was some large monetary gain to be had, the board would be made up of people in private practice instead of academic faculty and these would be highly sought after positions? The majority of the costs related to board testing are imposed on the board. Extensive validation of written and oral board exams are performed by 3rd parties and very costly. This is essential to validate the test ?s, scores, and pass/fail decisions that the ABO signs off on. Why do you think it takes so long for results of board exams? It isn't grading the exam, it's examining the results in a scientific manner so as to be certain they are valid. The MOC requirements, while expensive, are really needed to properly distinguish and protect our specialty and are something that is pretty much imposed by the government. It isn't cheap to develop and implement these either. Additionally, you are getting lots of CME for all the MOC activities (I think about 50 hrs). While I would certainly say the the educational value of all the MOC activities is little to none, they are a necessary evil in our current healthcare environment. While there has been lots of publicity about other specialty boards abusing their position and being highly unethical, I don't think the ABO is doing anything similar.

 

[docta9]

I disagree with the above two comments. I believe the ABO members are there for prestige. That's why the examiners do it without pay. The ABO, itself, has several objectives. One is to bestow a qualification. However, in these modern times, board certification is often a basic requirement to practice. No board certification, no way of earning a living. In that respect, being really tough, testing picky details on the written exam (some of which are not important), should no longer be the goal. In past years, board certification was an optional credential that one obtained to show they were different. No longer.

Another objective is that the ABO believes it is out there to promote quality. Quality should be an effort done at the residency level. Instead, the ACGME does that job and a very poor job at that. The ACGME grants long accreditation for really lousy programs and some reasonably good programs get on probation (like the University of Chicago and, not too many years ago, the University of Wisconsin).

Some other specialties make it far easier to become board certified. Some of them make it easier (and some harder) for MOC. This whole MOC was politically forced on specialty boards. How each specialty board comes up with MOC requirements and at what costs is something that each specialty board should try to tackle as far as reducing costs and red tape.

 

[chloe2]

Hi everyone, sorry maybe silly question… I want to do the oral exam this fall, and go to the Osler course right before.
Am I mistaken, or will I have to miss one of the Osler course days?
how come the orals are October 16-18 yet there are still practice orals going on at the Osler course on October 16th?
Please let me know if there's something I'm not getting here!
Thanks!!

 

[esodeviation]

The usual schedule for oral boards involves three testing groups. If you are in group 1, you register for the test Friday evening and test Saturday morning. Group 2 registers Saturday morning and tests Saturday afternoon. Group 3 registers Saturday evening and tests Sunday morning. As a result, even if you are in the first group, you should be free during the day Friday.

 

[chloe2]

The usual schedule for oral boards involves three testing groups. If you are in group 1, you register for the test Friday evening and test Saturday morning. Group 2 registers Saturday morning and tests Saturday afternoon. Group 3 registers Saturday evening and tests Sunday morning. As a result, even if you are in the first group, you should be free during the day Friday.

thanks!!

 

[asbedew]

Can someone explain the format of the exam? We get a photo of something and then say what we would ask the patient and how we would work them up, right? Do we actually get a story about the patient? If I say I'm going to check vision in both eyes, do they tell me what the vision is, or do I have to discuss the differential for all possibilities (good vision OU, bad vision OU, good OD, good OS)? If I say I'd get an FA, do I get to see the FA or do I have to list the 10 million things it could possibly be depending on the FA? Do I get anything to write notes on during the exam so that when I get to workup/follow up/etc, I don't forget anything that was on my differential?

 

[usamsIII]

Just took the orals on Sunday... What were your thoughts. Some questions were easy but overall I thought the test was quite esoteric with odd questions. Definitely didn't give the diatribe I was practicing and planning to give...

Any thoughts?

 

[hello lady!]

I didn't know whether to make a new thread or just tack my response to this one. I figured people will search out oral boards when they're prepping for theirs so I wanted to add my experience.

Fall 2017 results were released about 3.5 weeks after the test day. You receive an email to log in, or you can just look yourself online and F5 until you see the certification status update.

I thought the test was incredibly fair and didn't have any surprises. There weren't really things or topics that caught me off guard. I was able to finish all questions in all rooms except for one.

I used the following books to study:
1. Pemberton Oral Board Cases
2. Friedman Case Reviews in Ophthalmology
3. Wong - Ophthalmology Examinations Review

I read Wong's book from front to back and annotated sections that needed more detail. Along this I read Friedman's cases front to back. Finally about 2 weeks out I finished with Pemberton's book.

To supplement the reading (and often because I just got tired of reading so much) I would watch the Wills Eye Chief's Rounds Lecture Series (www.willseyeonline.org). It's free but you have to make a username/password. I thought this was great for getting you into the mindset of developing a differential diagnosis and seeing how the experts stratify common chief complaints. Pause the video and test your own DDx before they give theirs.

Finally, make sure you review the ABO's Content Outline which is something I didn't catch on to until a week before the test. I never realized they have the outline for the written exam as well. In the last week I went through each section and scanned the relevant section in Kanski and looked at the pictures.

I hope this helps someone out there in the future!

 

[ihopetopass]

Ugh. I failed. Oooouuuuccccchhhh. Thanks for the book tips. I need help, ugh.