I recently passed on my second try. On my first attempt, I spent about 2 weeks reading through rapid review anesthesiology oral boards x 1 and doing the Just Oral Boards crash course (14 mock orals). I spent all day/night before my actual oral exam cramming. I think I only got 2 hours of sleep the night before. Although this 2 week timeframe worked well for ITEs and the Basic/Advanced exams, this was not a recipe for success on the oral boards, needless to say.
On my second attempt, I spent about 3.5 months studying. I signed up for the comprehensive JOB course for the mock orals and the live course. I didn’t bother reading the JOB manual since it didn’t seem comprehensive enough. I also watched all the UBP videos and read through maybe 25% of their books (mainly the areas I was weak in - almost everything was already covered in their videos). Additionally, I went through all the Michael Ho oral board videos over the last week. I practiced maybe 15 times with a study buddy, going through old ABA exams. Lastly, I practiced once with an actual oral examiner.
These are my opinions of each resource:
JOB - excellent for mock orals. Granted, I didn't try any mock orals from UBP, Ho, or Jensen, so I can't really comment on those. Some of the instructors are better than others, so I asked to do mock orals only with my favorite instructors. The scheduling was super flexible, and I scheduled mock orals anywhere from 8am to 9pm. The live course was great in organizing my thought process and reponses. Although their templates were a good starting point, some of it was a bit too formulaic. They recommended saying "I would do a slow controlled induction," which I learned is pointless to say on the actual mock orals. While JOB was great for practice, I'm not sure it would have been enough for me to pass.
UBP - I can agree with everyone else on SDN that this is the best resource for content review. The answers in the books are overkill, and you won't have time to recite these answers verbatim on the real exam. Dr. George acknowledges this in his videos (which are recordings of his live courses). He tells you how to condense your answer, but he recommends to giving the full answer when you're practicing alone or with a friend. I went through all the videos at least once at home, and did another half a pass in the car. It was helpful listening to various ways of answering questions (both good and awful) from the attendees and the corrections Dr. George made to their responses. After going through UBP, you won't run into many surprises.
Ho - His videos were probably the best for lecture-style review. His slides are excellent for reviewing (although I didn't have any time to review). Dr. Ho comes across as the smartest individual out of all the people I worked with. Ultimately, going through his videos were probably overkill during my last week. He frequently goes into a level of detail that isn't tested on the real exam. However, it gave my knowledge base a little boost at the very end, so I can't say it didn't help.
The old ABA exams were CRUCIAL to go through. There are so many recurrent topics that are tested: oliguria, hypoxia, emergence delirium, hypotension, ABG interpretation, vent weaning, valvular lesions, ICP management, threshold for transfusion, neonatal resuscitation, ACLS, etc. You MUST be able to answer these comfortably. You'll get a good feel for what these topics are after you go through these old exams.
My one practice session with an oral examiner was invaluable in learning the way they think. They truly want to see you pass, and they will do everything they can to assess your knowledge. If you make a serious error, they will likely give you a chance to correct that error by questioning your answer. If you have the opportunity, do as many as these sessions as you can!
Anyway, good luck to everyone taking this exam in September. Take this exam seriously and practice a bunch. Feel free to message me with any questions.
