oral board course worth it?

[cherryalmond]

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I am scheduled to take the oral boards in Sept and am looking into some board review courses. I don't know if they're worth it after reading some posts on this forum saying that because the test is so subjective, these courses can't really prepare you for this test. On the other hand, I don't want to go in feeling unprepared; i'd like to at least have some feeling of knowing what to expect. I've spoken to people at work who did take an oral board course---harvard, and someone else took beat the boards (2100dollars!) and both said they'd recommend them--I guess cause they both passed.
I was considering doing the home study beat the boards but not sure if that would be good enough; and not sure i'll have access to doing mocks since i'm finishing up residency in june and won't be working for a few months.
should i even bother with an oral boards course and just go back to my res program and do loads of mocks; or take a course and rely on the course to pass
thx!

 

[whopper]

I've never seen any prep course worth thousands of dollars and I did the old SAT, MCAT, USMLE courses and paid top dollar for them.

IMHO, they were no better than simply just getting the books and studying the books on your own. One could usually get the books for about $100.

I haven't done an oral board course. Heck, I failed the oral board exam first try over the summer, so knock me down a few pegs on my opinion.

I've already got Boarding Time. I may pick up another book and read it but that's it. We'll see what happens.

The test IMHO is too subjective in the interview section, but as much as I can rant about it, we're trapped. We got to accept it because there's no other way to get board certified.

 

[nitemagi]

The test IMHO is too subjective in the interview section, but as much as I can rant about it, we're trapped. We got to accept it because there's no other way to get board certified.

Not for the new graduates as of this year whopper. No more orals for us.

Instead the honus gets put on the programs. Which can obviously have its own drawbacks.

 

[whopper]

Yeah, I'm aware of the change. I certainly do think overall the change is better simply based on the fact that it'll save thousands of dollars in travel and hotel fees.

 

[capgrasmd]

I took the oral boards in June 2010 and passed. I did not do a review course (although I did do one for written that i thought was good). What I did do, is over the course of 3 months, was 5 mock orals with various senior attendings, 3 of whom were examiners in the past. That was probably the best thing I could have done and I felt really well prepared. That's only half the exam though. The other half is written and video vignettes, and one of the examiners I practiced with had some samples so I went over those and that helped a lot too.

I guess I would say that reading Boarding Time is helpful, but you definitely have to practice, practice, practice.

Hope that helps and good luck!