Oral Boards 2023

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jon stewart said:
ie you are on grab bag# 3 and you get done with their "prompt" questions with 2 mins left, they will just burn time with other questions related to grab bag #3?

guess its better to make to #3 with time to spare than not make it all?
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That was my experience (and fellow examinees). You will always use the full time. Thy won’t stop and make idle small talk.
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0kazak1 said:
The setting isn't and being in the hot seat is tough. But, the format is in the end is an annoying somebody (like a med student/resident/attending) asking you what you would do an why.

Also, the examiners are not actively trying to fail you or make you kill a patient, you have to do that on your own.

Framing it in this way made it much easier in my mind.
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This is what I was told by an ex-examiner too. Most of them are more happy to see you pass than not. At end of the day, they want someone who is safe and can “represent” aba and the profession well. Even knowing that still didn’t really bring me any more comfort.

I was also told, even if you almost kill someone, (most of the time) it really isn’t what you did, it’s how the exam was written/structured. That’s why it can be very abrupt transition….

“Let’s say you secured the airway, after attempted 15 time…. ?”

“You shocked the patient, now back in sinus….”

Part of the game, part of the fun.
 
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IMGASMD said:
This is what I was told by an ex-examiner too. Most of them are more happy to see you pass than not. At end of the day, they want someone who is safe and can “represent” aba and the profession well. Even knowing that still didn’t really bring me any more comfort.

I was also told, even if you almost kill someone, (most of the time) it really isn’t what you did, it’s how the exam was written/structured. That’s why it can be very abrupt transition….

“Let’s say you secured the airway, after attempted 15 time…. ?”

“You shocked the patient, now back in sinus….”

Part of the game, part of the fun.
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It's like the joke:

A Navy Captain is talking to one of his deckhands.....
“Let’s say you see a storm heading your way off the starboard side. What would you do?”
“I would throw out an anchor, sir,” said the deckhand confidently.

“All right,” said the captain. “Then let’s say a second storm was coming in from your port side. Then what would you do?”
The deckhand answered, “I’d throw out another anchor, Captain.”

“But what if another storm was coming in on your bow?”
“Throw out another anchor, Captain!”

“Look behind you!” yelled the captain, “Now there’s a fourth storm coming up from the aft! What would you do?”
“Throw out another anchor, sir!”

“Wait a minute,” said the captain. “Exactly where are you getting all these anchors from?”
“The same place you’re getting all those storms from, sir.”
 
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Best you can do, be prepared to go into big topics that are fair game for general anesthesiology.
 
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Mehd School said:
Did you finish your 3rd grab bag on both stems? I made it through most of the 3rd grab bag on my first stem but didn't make it far on the last grab bag of the 3rd stem. Made me pretty nervous as those are lost points but I was told most people don't make it all the way through.
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I made it about 2-3 questions into the last grab bags. I think they would just keep going until you run out of time.

I wish I knew the point system in how they grade you and what the minimum points was out of total points was to pass. I don’t know why they keep this info secret or maybe it’s out there and have not found it.
 
Results still coming out the third Tuesday after the last testing day of the week?
 
2010CalBear said:
Results still coming out the third Tuesday after the last testing day of the week?
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They said 2-4 weeks. In some cases I heard as soon as a week after on a Monday. I’m not entirely sure.
 
I was told 2-3 weeks by ABA personnel when I took my exam. However, looking at old threads (can’t remember if it was last year or the year before) at one point it took 6-8 weeks even though people were told 2-3.
 
Mehd School said:
I was told 2-3 weeks by ABA personnel when I took my exam. However, looking at old threads (can’t remember if it was last year or the year before) at one point it took 6-8 weeks even though people were told 2-3.
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Torture
 
Screen Shot 2023-03-19 at 8.06.25 PM.png

itzamemario said:
What's the pass rate if anyone knows?
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Mehd School said:
Not for me but one of my partners had this stem last year. The only point I posted it is to say that not all stems are "simple". Her questions on that stem were relatively easy. One of my stems this year was simple with a healthy patient and the questioning was 10/10 difficulty.
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Yeah, they aren't looking for you to display your zebra knowledge, sometimes they present complicated cases like that as a way to confuse you, hoping you go down a rabbit hole and all they wanted you to do was explain something simple intraoperatively.
 
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Yep, damn. Was hoping to get that after seeing the site was down. I wonder if they do maintenance every Tuesday morning. My friend that took it last year got his score on a Tuesday morning, so maybe that’s the day it gets updated every week.
 
Most of the 2022 threads had the results coming on Wednesday, so one more sleepless night ahead and then back to normal while I wait a week.
 
Isn’t it the third Monday after your test? So if you took it the week of Mar 6th, that would be this coming Monday.
 
Last year it was third Tuesday after last exam day of the week. So 28th by my best estimate.
 
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All year last year it was 3rd week after the test on Tuesday morning. Website goes down for a couple hours then BAM!
 
Can anyone comment on what time the boards ended? Is this the same for every examinee?
 
Mehd School said:
Did you finish your 3rd grab bag on both stems? I made it through most of the 3rd grab bag on my first stem but didn't make it far on the last grab bag of the 3rd stem. Made me pretty nervous as those are lost points but I was told most people don't make it all the way through.
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No… who told you “most people don’t make it all the way through”?

Ive never heard that when I took it last year, and I’ve done a lot of mock exams with the real board examiners.
 
jon stewart said:
ie you are on grab bag# 3 and you get done with their "prompt" questions with 2 mins left, they will just burn time with other questions related to grab bag #3?

guess its better to make to #3 with time to spare than not make it all?
Click to expand...
Yes.
 
Is the SOE always first? Or do some people start with the OSCE?
 
Started with OSCE and was royally pissed. Was already exhausted and had the misfortune of being further worn out by osce prior to SOE. OSCE wasn't too bad but it was tougher than I thought and my entire cohort that day agreed.
 
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Mehd School said:
Started with OSCE and was royally pissed. Was already exhausted and had the misfortune of being further worn out by osce prior to SOE. OSCE wasn't too bad but it was tougher than I thought and my entire cohort that day agreed.
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Had the same feeling
 
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11am session finished by like 345PM, everyone in each cohort finishes at the same time (6am vs 11am). Shuttle then goes back to the hotel, and from there straight to airport (for those flying out right away). Maybe a 20 min drive in the afternoon, wasn't bad.
They're serious about no snacks, but they did have tons of water bottles so maybe don't worry about bringing a drink.

The exhaustion is real, though; the SOE's take it out of you (had that first). The OSCE's are very much like Step 2 CS was, waiting outside the door for the next room (and worrying when you're the only one out there, like....why did I finish faster than everyone else???)
 
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Tularemia-bunny said:
11am session finished by like 345PM, everyone in each cohort finishes at the same time (6am vs 11am). Shuttle then goes back to the hotel, and from there straight to airport (for those flying out right away). Maybe a 20 min drive in the afternoon, wasn't bad.
They're serious about no snacks, but they did have tons of water bottles so maybe don't worry about bringing a drink.

The exhaustion is real, though; the SOE's take it out of you (had that first). The OSCE's are very much like Step 2 CS was, waiting outside the door for the next room (and worrying when you're the only one out there, like....why did I finish faster than everyone else???)
Click to expand...

You can bring snacks/drinks. I did. Did I have any? No. You get a short break between SOE and OSCE.

OSCE was like Step 2CS (RIP) complete with the door knocking and hand sanitizer.
 
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ucladoc2b said:
You can bring snacks/drinks. I did. Did I have any? No. You get a short break between SOE and OSCE.

OSCE was like Step 2CS (RIP) complete with the door knocking and hand sanitizer.
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Sorry meant that *they* didn’t provide anything to eat, but they do provide water. You get a locker to store your snacks in if you bring them, and maybe a 10 ? Min break for bathroom and snacks between SOE and OSCE.
 
Thank you everyone. Trying to plan what the earliest flight out would be reasonable.
 
Tularemia-bunny said:
11am session finished by like 345PM, everyone in each cohort finishes at the same time (6am vs 11am). Shuttle then goes back to the hotel, and from there straight to airport (for those flying out right away). Maybe a 20 min drive in the afternoon, wasn't bad.
They're serious about no snacks, but they did have tons of water bottles so maybe don't worry about bringing a drink.

The exhaustion is real, though; the SOE's take it out of you (had that first). The OSCE's are very much like Step 2 CS was, waiting outside the door for the next room (and worrying when you're the only one out there, like....why did I finish faster than everyone else???)
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Is there ever resolution with the scenario that implies you’re finished? For instance, if I’m talking to an angry surgeon, are they just angry all the way until the bell chimes? Or is there some sort of “ok, I’ll agree to delay the case” vibe like UBP seems to suggest?

Also, for the QI station, my plan is just to verbally assault them with gibberish and walk out. Or is it a back-and-forth situation?
 
ButterButter said:
Is there ever resolution with the scenario that implies you’re finished? For instance, if I’m talking to an angry surgeon, are they just angry all the way until the bell chimes? Or is there some sort of “ok, I’ll agree to delay the case” vibe like UBP seems to suggest?

Also, for the QI station, my plan is just to verbally assault them with gibberish and walk out. Or is it a back-and-forth situation?
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I had a few where they were like “ok thank you” signifying we were done. I did typical “do you have any other questions I can answer?” To (hopefully) make sure I was done.

And yeah I think my QI person was begging me to stop by the end haha.
 
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Man I hope this Tuesday is the day..by past trends it should be…the waiting sucks and it’s hard to keep your mind off of.
 
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ucladoc2b said:
You can bring snacks/drinks. I did. Did I have any? No. You get a short break between SOE and OSCE.

OSCE was like Step 2CS (RIP) complete with the door knocking and hand sanitizer.
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Oh wow I realized I didn't Hand Sanitize or notice a pump when I went in for a patient interaction, whoops hope this doesn't sink my ship
 
woopedazz said:
Jesus, that's high!
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Not so sure. SOE holds around an 86-88 percent pass rate. OSCE 91-95. Advanced has around a 15 percent failure rate. Basic has a 10-12 percent fail rate (although they haven’t published it for a while).

I wonder how many candidates end up not passing some aspect of the certification process. I suspect it’s higher than other boards.
 
teacher2md said:
LOL, can you imagine being the actor who has to listen to clumsy nervous bull**** about PDSA cycle on repeat for 10 hours per day?
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Back in the day we had to do gyn and prostate exams on SP….. I think they get paid very well. Some of them were telling us they were enjoying the experiences. So, it may be a little more fun than you think it is….
 
by604 said:
Thank you everyone. Trying to plan what the earliest flight out would be reasonable.
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They didn't tell me what time I'd be done so I picked the latest flight available and ended up sitting in the airport for 6 hours. Also I picked southwest which doesn't have a lounge unlike literally every other airline. I should have taken delta and used their lounge.
 
ucladoc2b said:
Not so sure. SOE holds around an 86-88 percent pass rate. OSCE 91-95. Advanced has around a 15 percent failure rate. Basic has a 10-12 percent fail rate (although they haven’t published it for a while).

I wonder how many candidates end up not passing some aspect of the certification process. I suspect it’s higher than other boards.
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All I will say is that I previously thought passing SOE but failing OSCE was relatively unheard of. Like I mentioned earlier I was in the first OSCE group of the day and I noticed there were ... a significant amount of people that showed up only for the OSCE (IE they passed SOE but failed OSCE previously). Half of my group was gone after OSCE.
 
What kinds of physical exams do the OSCE stations require? UBP implies we should be doing cranial nerve exams for certain things but I’m curious if there’s equipment to be able to perform an exam (stethoscope, light for eye exam, etc.)
 
ButterButter said:
What kinds of physical exams do the OSCE stations require? UBP implies we should be doing cranial nerve exams for certain things but I’m curious if there’s equipment to be able to perform an exam (stethoscope, light for eye exam, etc.)
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Read the ABA exam outline. You’ll be doing an ultrasound exam.
 
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On a previous video the ABA posted, the patient had a complaint of a prolonged sensory deficit after a surgery. It demonstrated the examinee performing a focused physical exam (mainly testing strength and sensation of the extremity). Not sure if that is on the actual exam or not.
 
kboykb said:
On a previous video the ABA posted, the patient had a complaint of a prolonged sensory deficit after a surgery. It demonstrated the examinee performing a focused physical exam (mainly testing strength and sensation of the extremity). Not sure if that is on the actual exam or not.
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You’re right, under second number in the content outline it lists (Conduct a focused evaluation of a peri-procedural complication). This is the only station that has a possible physical exam per the outline.
 
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Malyck said:
Oh lord, now it’s got me wondering if I missed doing it for my complication scenario. I wonder if it specifically stated no exam would be needed or if I just overlooked it. Oh well..
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I dont think I did a physical exam on anyone either. We'll see if that sinks me :(
 
Malyck said:
Oh lord, now it’s got me wondering if I missed doing it for my complication scenario. I wonder if it specifically stated no exam would be needed or if I just overlooked it. Oh well..
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Mine said there was no exam needed. The gold standard of imaging/testing was already completed so there wasn't really much for me to add. The patient was so damn whiny anyway that I would have ran out of time if I needed to perform any kind of testing.
 
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