Oral boards 2019

[Justice4all]

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Results was out Monday. What are people’s experience?

 

[gasd.o.c]

If anyone bought the latest 6 UBP manuals and wants to sell them, let me know. I wasn't sure where else to reach out regarding this. Best of luck on orals!

 

[Ronin786]

Ridiculously overhyped exam. Lots of useless minutiae that have no bearing on your ability to safely practice as an anesthesiologist. The OSCE is a pure money grab with even less utility.

 

[d9sccr]

Ridiculously overhyped exam. Lots of useless minutiae that have no bearing on your ability to safely practice as an anesthesiologist. The OSCE is a pure money grab with even less utility.

Are you saying I don’t need to know how to measure a Cobb angle and know the cutoffs for surgery?

 

[DM27]

Cobb? Did they add a cooking component to the OSCE?

 

[MaximusD]

The wait is soul-crushing

 

[linkin06]

Jesus passed orals and failed OSCE. Those bas****.


I’ll still suggest that studying with UpToDate anesthesia sections is very helpful. Provides good data to justify what you do and why.

 

[adamkiewicz]

Just got my results. Never thought I would fail the orals. I'll be taking it next year again. Failed orals but passed OSCE. I used UBP and got through 5/6 books.

 

[adamkiewicz]

Is the OSCE portion $1200?

 

[2Fast2Des]

Passed! Finally done with this process! UBP all the way

 

[linkin06]

Is the OSCE portion $1200?

Yup... those actors don’t work for free

 

[San Marzano]

Just got my results. Never thought I would fail the orals. I'll be taking it next year again. Failed orals but passed OSCE. I used UBP and got through 5/6 books.

Sorry for the bad news :,( How did you feel coming out of the test? I took mine last week and felt ok walking out of the room but pretty much as soon as I got to the airport I started second guessing lots of things and have progressively felt more like I failed. Still have to wait two weeks for my results I think.

 

[Dr Grant]

Took mine last week...felt pretty awful right after which has persisted. Used UBP 2x through all books and lots of mocks (40+) with friends from UBP, made notecards from UBP and went through them several times. The first stem was so-so, stumbled several times and thought of some cues I missed but overall was likely a "pass". However, second stem had really aggressive examiners and got demolished, stumbled, got thrown off, gave poor answers. I got to several questions on the last grab bag on each, but not sure if that really means anything. It definitely wasn't a knowledge issue, as there was nothing I could think of after where I was like "I really wish I would have reviewed _______ better". It was just a matter of getting thrown off by the aggressive and rapid fire nature of the exam (especially second stem and grab bags) and constant train wrecks. I suppose a retake would require lots of practice with actual examiners or a course. The OSCE seemed ok but who knows, was completely fried after SOE portion and could have failed that too. What an awful exam this is.

 

[Dr Grant]

Jesus passed orals and failed OSCE. Those bas****.


I’ll still suggest that studying with UpToDate anesthesia sections is very helpful. Provides good data to justify what you do and why.

Sorry to hear it, but I'd gladly take that outcome at this point. At least you defeated the real monster, so congrats on that!

 

[Justice4all]

Passed the SOE. Failed Osce
UBP was money and lots of practice.
1st stem: killed it. Intraop and postop with good flow
2nd stem: preop/intraop: stumbled out the gate. Still recovering from that session with nightmares. Looking back missed some hints but just kept pushing till we got to the grabbags. Overall thought I failed by choking on 2nd stem. But passed

OSCE ???i don’t know

 

[Dr Grant]

Passed the SOE. Failed Osce
UBP was money and lots of practice.
1st stem: killed it. Intraop and postop with good flow
2nd stem: preop/intraop: stumbled out the gate. Still recovering from that session with nightmares. Looking back missed some hints but just kept pushing till we got to the grabbags. Overall thought I failed by choking on 2nd stem. But passed

OSCE ???i don’t know

How'd you prepare for the OSCE? Was there any particular area you felt weak in after walking out of it or it felt like a pass?

 

[San Marzano]

For those that fail OSCE but pass SOE, do you have to retake both or just the OSCE?

 

[Dr Grant]

For those that fail OSCE but pass SOE, do you have to retake both or just the OSCE?

You just repeat the portion you failed if you passed the other.

 

[Justice4all]

Honestly reviewed lightly . The knowledge portion were fine.Looking back, speak more slowly secondary to accent but looking forward to the feedback from the ABA in mail to see if there was big gaps I omitted.

 

[2Fast2Des]

How'd you prepare for the OSCE? Was there any particular area you felt weak in after walking out of it or it felt like a pass?

The PDFs online were more than adequate that let you know what to study and expect. Also our residency had a great OSCE session in our ca3 year that I felt was a good practice so I wasn't just making stuff up if I didn't have that in my belt.

 

[d9sccr]

Took mine last week...felt pretty awful right after which has persisted. Used UBP 2x through all books and lots of mocks (40+) with friends from UBP, made notecards from UBP and went through them several times. The first stem was so-so, stumbled several times and thought of some cues I missed but overall was likely a "pass". However, second stem had really aggressive examiners and got demolished, stumbled, got thrown off, gave poor answers. I got to several questions on the last grab bag on each, but not sure if that really means anything. It definitely wasn't a knowledge issue, as there was nothing I could think of after where I was like "I really wish I would have reviewed _______ better". It was just a matter of getting thrown off by the aggressive and rapid fire nature of the exam (especially second stem and grab bags) and constant train wrecks. I suppose a retake would require lots of practice with actual examiners or a course. The OSCE seemed ok but who knows, was completely fried after SOE portion and could have failed that too. What an awful exam this is.

I felt pretty much the same way. I took it last week as well. We shall see

 

[2Fast2Des]

Don't worry I thought I legit failed from all the blunders and blanking out I did and I didn't, so y'all are good!

 

[cheeseburgerandfry]

Took mine last week...felt pretty awful right after which has persisted. Used UBP 2x through all books and lots of mocks (40+) with friends from UBP, made notecards from UBP and went through them several times. The first stem was so-so, stumbled several times and thought of some cues I missed but overall was likely a "pass". However, second stem had really aggressive examiners and got demolished, stumbled, got thrown off, gave poor answers.

I had a very similar experience. Any updates?

I Studied UBP x2, made notecards, practiced cases with a classmate every other day for 3 months. First session was smooth. Felt confident I would pass going into the second. And that’s where things went bad. Right out of the gate I wasn’t familiar with some of the drugs my patient was taking at home and as soon as I was questioned about those, my confidence tanked. From there on I Stumbled, paused, and second guessed many of the decisions I made under the pressure of the examiner.

I was prompted once on a significant differential that I had missed which really rattled me. “How could you forget that?!” Over and over in my head!

As I sat there sweating and squirming under the weight of my mistakes. The second guessing became insurmountable. “Is the examiner asking me about alternatives to my decision because I chose wrong? What the hell is he even talking about?? I’ve never even heard of doing X for Y!”

I Left that room feeling like a certain failure. And the next 2 weeks will be torture.

 

[p30doc]

I had a very similar experience. Any updates?

I Studied UBP x2, made notecards, practiced cases with a classmate every other day for 3 months. First session was smooth. Felt confident I would pass going into the second. And that’s where things went bad. Right out of the gate I wasn’t familiar with some of the drugs my patient was taking at home and as soon as I was questioned about those, my confidence tanked. From there on I Stumbled, paused, and second guessed many of the decisions I made under the pressure of the examiner.

I was prompted once on a significant differential that I had missed which really rattled me. “How could you forget that?!” Over and over in my head!

As I sat there sweating and squirming under the weight of my mistakes. The second guessing became insurmountable. “Is the examiner asking me about alternatives to my decision because I chose wrong? What the hell is he even talking about?? I’ve never even heard of doing X for Y!”

I Left that room feeling like a certain failure. And the next 2 weeks will be torture.

My first room was a cake walk but the second room was a disaster from the start. The examiner immediately interrupted me during my first answer, about half a sentence in. This continued in an aggressive way until the timer went off. I do not feel I was allowed to showcase my knowledge. I don’t understand why this has to be such a game. It sounds like from a lot of people’s experiences that the examiners in their first room were pleasant and the second room were aggressive. Is this a new testing strategy they are testing out? I left feeling like I failed, and that feeling hasn’t changed.

I studied for 4 months using just oral boards, did 20+ practice exams. I felt my knowledge base was strong and that I was well prepared. None of the scenarios were unexpected and for the most part neither were any of the questions that were. I had to say I don’t know just once and can only think of one wrong answer I gave in a hypo vs hyper lyte scenario. However I don’t feel like I was allowed to give the proper answers throughout my second stem. I can think of a lot of questions I would have answered a bit differently if I wasn’t constantly being interrupted/berated. I wouldn’t have done anything different in my preparation for the exam except to wish for different examiners in the second room. I guess time will tell if I passed or not. What a demoralizing experience.

 

[San Marzano]

My first room was a cake walk but the second room was a disaster from the start. The examiner immediately interrupted me during my first answer, about half a sentence in. This continued in an aggressive way until the timer went off. I do not feel I was allowed to showcase my knowledge. I don’t understand why this has to be such a game. It sounds like from a lot of people’s experiences that the examiners in their first room were pleasant and the second room were aggressive. Is this a new testing strategy they are testing out? I left feeling like I failed, and that feeling hasn’t changed.

I studied for 4 months using just oral boards, did 20+ practice exams. I felt my knowledge base was strong and that I was well prepared. None of the scenarios were unexpected and for the most part neither were any of the questions that were. I had to say I don’t know just once and can only think of one wrong answer I gave in a hypo vs hyper lyte scenario. However I don’t feel like I was allowed to give the proper answers throughout my second stem. I can think of a lot of questions I would have answered a bit differently if I wasn’t constantly being interrupted/berated. I wouldn’t have done anything different in my preparation for the exam except to wish for different examiners in the second room. I guess time will tell if I passed or not. What a demoralizing experience.

I had a very very similar experience 2.5 weeks ago. I’ll report back on Monday once the results are released.

 

[MaximusD]

Site down...

 

[San Marzano]

I had a very very similar experience 2.5 weeks ago. I’ll report back on Monday once the results are released.

Phew I passed, thank god.

 

[POW16]

Passed. Phew what a relief. Now on to sign up for CCM boards !

 

[Rhegazy]

Passed.

 

[p30doc]

My first room was a cake walk but the second room was a disaster from the start. The examiner immediately interrupted me during my first answer, about half a sentence in. This continued in an aggressive way until the timer went off. I do not feel I was allowed to showcase my knowledge. I don’t understand why this has to be such a game. It sounds like from a lot of people’s experiences that the examiners in their first room were pleasant and the second room were aggressive. Is this a new testing strategy they are testing out? I left feeling like I failed, and that feeling hasn’t changed.

I studied for 4 months using just oral boards, did 20+ practice exams. I felt my knowledge base was strong and that I was well prepared. None of the scenarios were unexpected and for the most part neither were any of the questions that were. I had to say I don’t know just once and can only think of one wrong answer I gave in a hypo vs hyper lyte scenario. However I don’t feel like I was allowed to give the proper answers throughout my second stem. I can think of a lot of questions I would have answered a bit differently if I wasn’t constantly being interrupted/berated. I wouldn’t have done anything different in my preparation for the exam except to wish for different examiners in the second room. I guess time will tell if I passed or not. What a demoralizing experience.

Passed!!! This was my 2nd attempt. 1st was reading through all the UBP course books. 2nd attempt was using Just Oral Boards, I would highly recommend this course or one that allows you to do practice exams with non biased board certified anesthesiologists.

 

[Dr Grant]

Passed. In disbelief.

 

[cheeseburgerandfry]

Passed. In disbelief.

Congrats! Been waiting for your response!

 

[San Marzano]

Passed. In disbelief.

Haha I feel exactly the same! For the past three weeks I have been rehashing the test over and over in my head and thought for sure I had said enough wrong things to fail but I now realize that’s just part of the mind game that this test plays on you. What a freaking relief.

 

[MaximusD]

What a relief! Within my professional career, this is quite possibly my proudest achievement.




Passed, obviously

 

[buccsmf1]

Passed. did 3 months of UBP books, 2 complete passes through. Thought they contained more than enough information to pass the exam. Some of my lines of questioning were almost word for word out of UBP. I should have done more practice exams with a partner, however. Its a tricky exam, and I know i definitely left some points on the table just because i didnt have enough practice speaking out loud and organizing my thoughts.

I did feel that the exam was fair. I was also lucky to get 4 very nice examiners, avoided the bad cops. Good luck everyone. Its a very passable exam with enough studying and practice.

ps. osce was a joke, just follow the outline on the ABA website

 

[MaximusD]

Worked with other fellows at my program to get through the better part of 5 UBP books in real 2:1 sessions, timed. Did a mock oral at MGH my CA3 year. Did a mock oral with two faculty members, one of which is a board examiner. Read 1X through the pre-section of "Board Stiff Three" (Gallagher) and "Key Notes for Anesthesia Oral Board and OSCE" (Su, Guan) and went through the OSCE section about 10x as well as the ASE article for echo review. The real key is just getting comfortable being uncomfortable in front of others, IMO.

 

[Dr Grant]

Believe the hype: you WILL feel like you failed. You will have nightmares in the weeks leading up to the results. You will play scenarios over and over in your mind and convince yourself you did miserably. You’ll be on the verge of signing up for review courses for when you inevitably have to retake it. It’ll make you sick to your stomach. In the end, you will probably pass.

Now, excuse me while I forget everything I just learned and focus back on pain management.

 

[Ibansal]

I found out yesterday that I passed my oral board. It feels great to be board certified. I took Dr. Michael Ho course and found it very useful. The mock tests were great in scaling my performance and I could sense improvement with every test. I also felt they were quite similar to the real exam where the questions follow the previous one. It is a great course for last minute revisions of a wide variety of topics. I highly recommend it.

 

[coolkat]

Passed! I'm going to give my honest feedback of the study materials I used.
My study plan:
I had the UBP old pdfs for $free-99. These were golden. I went through these two strong times. During the first two months of studying, I did one case a day so that I was truly soaking up the information and getting the knowledge part down pack. During my final month of studying, I went through all the books a second time. I also used justoralboards. I did the 21 mock orals. It was crazy expensive - almost $5000 but it was also golden. I honestly liked that it gave me a template of testable items. It forced me to have neonatal resuscitation and ACLS down pack. (I feel that UBP did not do a great job with ACLS or PALS). The examiners forced me to stay on track with studying since I was doing the mocks 1-2 times per week and I didn't want to look like a fool in front of these docs. To be honest, as long as you practice with an anesthesiologist (not your wife or non-medical bff) who knows and is willing to call you on your errors and push you in to uncomfortable scenarios you'll probably do fine. But do find outside sources for ACLS and difficult airway. As for the OSCE, I bought the UBP OSCE prep for $300. It was excellent, absolutely spot on! OSCE seems very random but they are looking for you to answer in a specific way and check off specific things that you must say. UBP is the only study source for the OSCE that I'm aware of. A friend of mine did not take the OSCE prep very seriously and he failed (which is why I bought more prep). Don't sit around for 10-12 more months waiting to retake the stupid OSCE portion. Take it serious and study for it like it's a difficult exam.
PM me for questions. I have nothing to sell and I don't believe in free advertisement for any company but I truly believe others may benefit from what helped me. I have lurked and learned so much from SDN, so only trying to pay it forward.

 

[coolkat]

Believe the hype: you WILL feel like you failed. You will have nightmares in the weeks leading up to the results. You will play scenarios over and over in your mind and convince yourself you did miserably. You’ll be on the verge of signing up for review courses for when you inevitably have to retake it. It’ll make you sick to your stomach. In the end, you will probably pass.

Now, excuse me while I forget everything I just learned and focus back on pain management.

Yep. I absolutely felt this way. I kept rehashing the mistakes I made and preparing myself on how I was going to tell my colleagues that I failed. Worst of all, I had no idea how I was going to prepare for the exam the second time around because I studied hard-core for 3 straight months and there was nothing on the exam that I had not prepared for. One of the examiners made me feel extremely unsure of my answers and really threw me off my game mentally. The best plan is to be so prepared for this exam that even if you make a mistake (freeze up, retract, or start to have episodes of severe stutttering) you will still pass because of how solid your knowledge and preparation has made you in other areas of the exam. It's just hard to leave the exam without feeling bad.

 

[cheeseburgerandfry]

I’m entering an anger phase of grief just waiting for results.

It’s not fair!! I already passed a written exam! Just let me pass!


God

 

[deleted592694]

Passed! Received results yesterday (Monday) three weeks to the day. I did the OSCE first and felt good about it, happy to have reviewed a little about QI/RCA type projects and had a basic spiel prepared.

I felt my first stem went pretty well, and included fairly benign examiners, then the second one was just a struggle bus. The main stem actually involved a topic I was hoping to get, so it just goes to show how much they can throw you off your game.

I studied mostly with UBP and attendings at my institution willing to take the time to give mock orals; breezed through Rapid Review the week before.

 

[navi86]

Feeling way more nervous waiting for the results than actually taking my exam.

 

[Bruzzi914]

Site is down

 

[vector2]

There’s essentially 4 kinds of people who take the exam

1. Galaxy brain genius residents with the knowledge base of Miller and the speaking skills of a college debate team champion. They pass, and walk out of the test knowing they passed. 5%

2. Average to above average residents who put in solid study and practice exam time. They pass, but walk out of the test pretty unsure of themselves. 80%

3. Average to below average residents who overestimate themselves and half-ass their studying plan (going through UBP 1.5x, doing only a few mocks out loud). They fail, but walk out of the exam thinking they passed. 10%

4. Well below average residents who did poorly on the ITE, barely studied, hardly speak English, and/or made 2 kill errors. They fail, and walk out knowing they failed. 5%


The vast, vast majority of you guys are in #2, so don’t sweat it.

 

[navi86]

Oh my God I passed.

 

[cheeseburgerandfry]

Passed!

I have to admit, a lot of my anxiety about my results went down as soon as I stopped obsessively checking this forum. I probably read every single oral board thread back to 2010. And I was 100% convinced that I had failed.

That doesn’t mean I wasn’t scared to death of failure up until the moment I opened my results. Indeed I was. But the crippling obsession and compulsive thoughts were compounded by reading these stories. The only thing that helped me stop was that I ran out of threads to read. And thank god for that.

Here’s my experience for those of you obsessing and searching for comfort.

I had done UBP almost 2 times through. My wife and I were residents in the same class, and she was studying for her orals at the same time. We are both doing fellowships in different states. She doing Pain, me doing CT. We practiced UBP cases roughly every other night over Skype for 3 months. I did one exam with an actual examiner who is on staff at my program and one with just a regular attending.

I left the first stem feeling good. I made some mistakes but felt okay about it and was ready for the 2nd stem.

The stem for the 2nd case was fairly straightforward however the pt was taking 3 medications all of which had significant side effects. One of these drugs I had never heard of, one I sort of knew the complication but wasn’t certain, and the 3rd I couldn’t remember.

This was the first thing they asked about and the implication those drugs had in regards to anesthesia. I floundered and said I would need to look them up but that “maybe this one drug has this complication”. That started a line of questions that ended with “I don’t know”. I felt defeated right out of the gate and it only went down hill from there.

Stem 2 turned into complication after complication. I had to be prompted on a major differential for a common complication which made me feel ******ed. I misread an ABG and had to be prompted to re-read it. I felt like i mismanaged 2 different instances of ACLS. I think I said “I don’t know” three times during that stem.

While I was talking about a possible difficult airway I was cut off by the examiner who said “does this pt have a difficult airway?”

I was so thrown off I stopped and reread the stem to see if I had missed something. Was she asking in a way that said "this guy doesn't have a difficult airway so stop talking about that" or was she saying "duh you idiot this guy has a difficult airway!" I still have no clue. She moved on before I could answer and it turned into a difficult airway, surprise surprise. I felt stupid.

Ultimately I left feeling pretty certain I had failed. I have no idea how I passed, but if I had to speculate I would assume that I practiced enough for some things to come out fluidly. And even though I made some mistakes I must have recovered okay.

It’s important to realize also that the things i obsessed about the most probably accounted for less than 5 minutes of the entire exam. I must have said a few things right during the other 30 minutes.

I guess practice is key and getting to the point that you sound like you know what you’re talking about even though you may not be sure. I would encourage people to practice answering the question first then giving your reason.

I found myself occasionally starting to answer a question with my concerns rather than getting to the main answer to the question. This led to getting cut off or opening myself up to a different path that I didn’t want to be on.

So when they ask something you need to say “yes/no I would do this/that because of these concerns”

Rather than “well my concerns are these and because of that I would do this”. It’s a subtle difference but it takes practice to answer that way.

Good luck!

 

[dannyboy1]

There’s essentially 4 kinds of people who take the exam

1. Galaxy brain genius residents with the knowledge base of Miller and the speaking skills of a college debate team champion. They pass, and walk out of the test knowing they passed. 5%

2. Average to above average residents who put in solid study and practice exam time. They pass, but walk out of the test pretty unsure of themselves. 80%

3. Average to below average residents who overestimate themselves and half-ass their studying plan (going through UBP 1.5x, doing only a few mocks out loud). They fail, but walk out of the exam thinking they passed. 10%

4. Well below average residents who did poorly on the ITE, barely studied, hardly speak English, and/or made 2 kill errors. They fail, and walk out knowing they failed. 5%


The vast, vast majority of you guys are in #2, so don’t sweat it.

Lol. # 3 describes me to a T but somehow I passed...

 

[pain2b]

I used justoralboards and they did both OSCE and oral prep. I think the OSCE is very unfair and utterly useless.

 

[timgasman]

I think if you reply on your experience as an anesthesiologist then the OSCE should not be too bad. My opinion ofcourse is biased because I passed before the OSCE was introduced, but I think the purpose of the OSCE is to test the 'art' of medicine.

I would say you cant go wrong with justoralboards and as long as you practice, practice, practice you will do just fine. The UBP books were good but the responses just seemed a bit unnatural to me because they go on for pages, which on the real test no one will allow you to do.