Oral Board Study Tips

[joyfulangel28]

Hi guys! I wanted to post some personal tips on the oral boards since I felt there just wasn’t a lot out there about the orals! I took it in September, and got the results today (pretty fast turn around!)

I was worried about the oral boards because it was a new test format and it was the very last step to becoming board-certified. It also has a higher fail rate than the written.

Lastly, I did not feel great AT ALL about how I did after taking the orals, and I still passed! So it goes to show that how you feel afterwards does not reflect on how you actually did.

**Also I’m selling my Pemberton book for $99, half off. PM me for details.

Here are the resources I used:

1. Pemberton book. Use this as the guideline to prepare a script. It’s imperative to be able to go in recognize a picture immediately and have a plan. I prefer this format of listing the ddx prior to coming up with the plan over the reverse order that Ophtho questions use. I also recommend doing practice cases with a friend! 1 hr a week starting 1-2 months beforehand. My colleague used this, wills, and another review text and our practice sessions and passed!
2. Wills Eye. Read through this at least 1x so you are familiar with common diagnoses and plans.
3. Osler course. This is expensive, and takes vacation time, but for someone like me that was very anxious about the orals - I thought it was worth it! We had about 200 attendees (so pretty much HALF the class taking the orals will be here.) What I found most valuable was seeing new photos/cases in topics I was not as strong in, and that were not in my review books. They also show some video cases so you can learn that format. However, you should go in already knowing the typical format for your “script.” I probably would have done ok without the Osler course - but with it, it gave me a boost of confidence and more knowledge that I thought was helpful!
4. Friedman review book. (Rented on Amazon! Great deal.) This was helpful in giving me more practice cases, but the format is very different from Pemberton. I would recommend using the same outline Pemberton gives and applying it to these cases.

Things I did not use, but may be helpful:

1. Ophtho question videos. I discovered this too late in my prep, having already paid for Osler. From the videos available for preview, these seem like a helpful and cheaper alternative to the Osler course. I don’t think you need both Osler and this! Pick one, or none if you are very strong in knowledge. I also disagree with their focus to be to memorizing every script! That is a lot of time wasted - just know the outline and then study the topics.
2. Luviano book and Osler case book. I didn’t use either of these.
3. Denver mock oral. This is held weeks in advance. Would consider if one lives really close, or really needs help with brushing up oral presentation techniques.

In summary, I think Pemberton + Wills + one more review book is probably all you need +/- review course if you have any anxiety about doing the oral boards! I started studying 2 months prior to the test.

Hope that helps.

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[mjohnsonets]

Great post, I hear every year how stressed docs are preparing for boards. I thought I would add another tip for those intending to do fellowships and preparing for boards. It may be a bit of a Captain Obvious point but...

You don't have to take your boards while you're in fellowship. I have yet to have a practice turn down a doc with less than 5 years experience for not being board certified although most will want you actively pursuing it if you're not yet. Typically your lifestyle will be better once you start practice especially if you join a practice with a surgery center that doesn't require hospital/trauma call. This gives you more time to study!

I know most tell me they want to get it knocked out but I thought I would just mention this.

 

[LightBox]

Great post, I hear every year how stressed docs are preparing for boards. I thought I would add another tip for those intending to do fellowships and preparing for boards. It may be a bit of a Captain Obvious point but...

You don't have to take your boards while you're in fellowship. I have yet to have a practice turn down a doc with less than 5 years experience for not being board certified although most will want you actively pursuing it if you're not yet. Typically your lifestyle will be better once you start practice especially if you join a practice with a surgery center that doesn't require hospital/trauma call. This gives you more time to study!

I know most tell me they want to get it knocked out but I thought I would just mention this.

I personally dont think this is good advice. When you are still training, everyone around you is prepping for their boards/orals, so there is some peer pressure to study hard for it.

However, when you are out on your own, no such external pressure exists and one has a tendency to half-a** it. I know several people who decided to put off the orals, and now are having a hard time passing despite multiple attempts. To each his or her own, but personally, I would not procrastinate.

 

[dantt]

Great post, I hear every year how stressed docs are preparing for boards. I thought I would add another tip for those intending to do fellowships and preparing for boards. It may be a bit of a Captain Obvious point but...

You don't have to take your boards while you're in fellowship. I have yet to have a practice turn down a doc with less than 5 years experience for not being board certified although most will want you actively pursuing it if you're not yet. Typically your lifestyle will be better once you start practice especially if you join a practice with a surgery center that doesn't require hospital/trauma call. This gives you more time to study!

I know most tell me they want to get it knocked out but I thought I would just mention this.

My contract requires board certification within 2 years and prior to partnership.

 

[mjohnsonets]

My contract requires board certification within 2 years and prior to partnership.

I have seen this commonly in contracts - great point to add.

 

[dribb11]

To add on to this thread ... I passed my oral boards Fall of 2018 when, based on my past experience with oral tests (mock exams, grand rounds and impromptu clinical pimping, etc) I really shouldn't have. I think it's always good to have lots of options and based on your study style and life circumstances, go with the one that seems to match best with you.

I tried the 'read through Wills' method and I'm sure it's great but I literally physically couldn't do it. It was so dry and would take forever to get through a significant portion without me just passing out or getting distracted by life. I also felt like reading it didn't help me at all with regurgitating it in a concise fast manner which is what is needed for the oral boards. Kudos to people who can do this - medical school was probably much easier for you than it was for me!

I did skim through Friedman, Pemberton, and the Osler booklet (not the course) which I found all to be helpful and digestible. Seriously considered taking the Osler course but it gave me anxiety just thinking about it, not to mention the cost of the course, airfare and time lost at work. You might reasonably argue that it is precisely my type of person who should go to this course because it's better to freak out there than during the actual exam...but anxiety, inertia and student debt load got the best of me and I ended up not taking it.

What really saved me though, was a brand new resource that can be found here:

www.ophthogenie.com

I am writing this unprompted by the creators - I 100% would've failed without it. I want to spread the word for the benefit of all future test takers (gotta pay it forward!) as I have found this forum so helpful throughout each of my career steps. Also, the people who started this were my senior residents and they are the most caring, anal retentive (in a good way), smart and resourceful people I have met, albeit the one thing I may know a bit more than them is marketing. I know they will continue to make sure this product is useful, up-to-date, and robust and I have no financial interest in it.

Starting about 2 months prior to boards, I carved out time with a couple of my co-residents to use the beta version to go over cases alternating who was testing/getting tested and used this almost as my sole resource. This was done over the phone while using the app at the same time. Two of us didn't do the Osler course, the third did - we all passed.

To parrot what everyone else says - you know the material already, you just need to practice how to present it in a completely unnatural and extremely stressful way where it just becomes a reflex and you don't even have to think about it. In hindsight, I would've paid $$$ for this resource given that it saved me from having to retake the boards and take the Osler course.

Good luck!!

 

[LightBox]

Purposely resurrecting a >2 year old thread with a commercial referral by someone who has only posted once before... yeah, we know who posted this.