Oral boards 2024

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I used the 2018 version and it was fine
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Results are out, passed!

Walked out convinced I bombed one of the stems. Good luck everyone!
 
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Just want to give my experience since I’ve read everyone else’s on here for years.

I used UBP and HO. All ITEs and advanced were >90% so felt I had a good knowledge base, but I knew I was poor at oral board skills. HO was better for me personally. I liked the lecture format and the mocks were closer to the actual examiners.

OSCE was as the outline stated. Monitors section was trickier and faster paced than expected. I think would be better if they added that during the SOE somehow.

First case was a horrible nightmare. Was hit hard on subspecialty topics and realized I missed a potential major differential right as I was walking out.

Second case was straight forward and as expected. Hardest part was shifting gears between cases after coming out of a tough one.

Anyway just wanted to give my thoughts since it was really helpful to read everyone else’s. The exam caused a lot of anxiety and I wish there was another way to certify us. Glad I passed and don’t have to go through that again!
 
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Results out 5/6-5/10. Passed Oral and OSCE first time. Just wanted to share my experiences because reading others helped me.

I prepped for about 2 months. I bought UBP, would have been completely fine to use the pdfs floating around though. I used those only for content. Would read them to myself and answer questions out loud. But as many have said before, it’s a content resource. For practice I just used old exams. I mainly did practice exams with co resident who was taking it the same week. The practice exams, didn’t have answers so we would look them up ahead of time if we were giving the stem. We also utilized chat gpt to get answers which was actually very helpful. I liked practicing mainly with one person. We got through stems faster and we learned each other strengths/weaknesses and helped tease those things out. I did a few practice exams with attendings and other co residents just for a different vibe.


For the osce, I bought UBP osce and it was 100 percent worth it. I did the mock osce with UBP. Thought it was helpful as well because i could see the problem with how others were answering. Helped me see mistakes you could easily make. I spent probably 2 weeks on the osce. Practiced ultrasound at the hospital. Was lucky that my hospital had the same ultrasound used for the real thing.

Day of ran really smoothly from a logistics standpoint. I did the osce first. It was very similar to UBP. I just used their checklists. Sat down and tried to be empathetic. Thought all the stations went really well. Except I really botched the monitors section. Didn’t end up failing me so don’t worry if you have trouble with them.

Oral board stem 1 went really well. Seemed straight forward. My stem was wild, but the questions were easy. I could anticipate the next question. It just went so well and I could tell by the end they were killing time. The grabbags were also very straight forward. I got through the main points quickly and believe they were just killing time then as well.

The second stem was completely different. The stem was straightforward but the questions were hard. The examiners demeanor was completely different. A lot more hostile and were cutting me off. They were jumping between topics and it was hard to keep stuff straight. I think this is intentional because I have heard this from multiple people. My advice would be to slow down. I was answering questions too quickly. I should have taken a deep breath and just reiterated info then give my answer. It’s hard to explain but they can be all over the place. Grabbags were straight forward again and felt I got to the time killing phase.

Overall, I felt good about the osce but terrible about that second stem. I kept questioning my answers for that first week. I am happy to have passed and be done though.
 
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Reviewing for the OSCE rn. Trying to hit all the checkboxes, but are we really expected to hit all these points? 1) The team related portion seems forced. 2) Can you even talk about all those for an ethics prompt? (Source UBP)
 

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I just finished my oral exam (second attempt) and I am TERRIFIED. I made a few mistakes on my first stem. Didn’t kill the patient, but things that I should have done differently. The second stem went a lot more smoothly. For both stems I got to the middle of the third grab bag and time was up. Ugh.

The OSCE felt ok. The communications with a professional station was the only station I felt was iffy. The rest was fairly straightforward.

My question is: how many/what kind of mistakes can you make on this thing and still pass? I know we don’t have to be perfect but I wanted to be and now I’m freaking out.
 
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CoconutDreams said:
I just finished my oral exam (second attempt) and I am TERRIFIED. I made a few mistakes on my first stem. Didn’t kill the patient, but things that I should have done differently. The second stem went a lot more smoothly. For both stems I got to the middle of the third grab bag and time was up. Ugh.

The OSCE felt ok. The communications with a professional station was the only station I felt was iffy. The rest was fairly straightforward.

My question is: how many/what kind of mistakes can you make on this thing and still pass? I know we don’t have to be perfect but I wanted to be and now I’m freaking out.
Click to expand...
You passed.

You can take it a 10x and it will
Feel like this each time.
 
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Done with round 2.

I guess the monitors were easy for most, but I definitely mucked it up. I think I got 1/3, but I answered some other questions for the other stems. QI was meh. Definitely did a detailed 3Q/PDSA approach but maybe not in the specific context they wanted. The rest wasn't awful. I was definitely more systematic about it this time around. Hoping second time is the charm.
 
addoncase said:
You passed.

You can take it a 10x and it will
Feel like this each time.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the encouragement. I keep replaying my (stupid) mistakes in my head and I’m losing sleep. Most of the mistakes were knowledge questions, not so much management. Questions that I could have easily answered to get more points because I knew it, I just overthought the stem.
 
CoconutDreams said:
Thanks for the encouragement. I keep replaying my (stupid) mistakes in my head and I’m losing sleep. Most of the mistakes were knowledge questions, not so much management. Questions that I could have easily answered to get more points because I knew it, I just overthought the stem.
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in general you’ll feel much worse than your performance the more you replay it
 
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Ya pretty tough experience. Waiting for the long awaited results. Hopefully they give the September exam week results before the 30th if ppl need to retake
-__-
 
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MadeItMa!TopOfTheWorld! said:
Ya pretty tough experience. Waiting for the long awaited results. Hopefully they give the September exam week results before the 30th if ppl need to retake
-__-
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Will they? I don’t think the results will be out by then. Historically looks like they would be out by Tues or Wed of next week
 
I don’t think it will be back before the 30th even though they boast the results should take 2 weeks on aba. But it would make too much sense for it to allow people to sign up for next year given the results. Like many, I didn’t want sept. But early month test taker people can easily signup for next year exam easily. However, test day raffle winners of October and September get no chance to sign up prior to late registration in January. Kind of messed up.
 
APA 32 said:
Registration for next year is over on September 30th so unless they open more spots wouldn’t be able to register again until next September.
Click to expand...
There’s a late registration that opens in January as well
 
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APA 32 said:
Didn’t know that. Do they charge more for it? My anxiety won’t let me go to the ABA website now
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It’s not extra. Still the major issues is those who take the test in sept and Oct are at a decided disadvantage to register for next year. You get a lottery for your test week so it’s pretty weak. Most of my fellowship former co residents get early months for boards.
 
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Guys! I failed the osce for a second time. I’m actually stumped. Used UBP and followed the objectives. Not sure what else to do? What did you guys use?
 
CoconutDreams said:
Guys! I failed the osce for a second time. I’m actually stumped. Used UBP and followed the objectives. Not sure what else to do? What did you guys use?
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Just got my pass. For OSCE, I believe there is a grading rubric just floating out on the interwebs. I thought that was more useful than UBP and the ABA outline. Also recognize that the US and Monitors station is only 2/7, so the majority of the points I believe come from your ability to do the tasks not the technical knowledge.
 
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apr27 said:
You watch the videos or just read? Practice u/s on friends? Practice saying things out loud?
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Watched and videos and read the content 3 times. Practiced u/s on friends and out loud. Read over the ABA content outline and made sure to hit those points. STILL failed.
 
Passed thank goodness
Used UBP along with their osce course, mock orals during fellowship, some with actual examiners and classmates.
 
CoconutDreams said:
Watched and videos and read the content 3 times. Practiced u/s on friends and out loud. Read over the ABA content outline and made sure to hit those points. STILL failed.
Click to expand...

Damn. Sorry to hear that.

Easier said than done, but seems like an issue with execution rate than knowledge? Memorize those bullet points, write them down before you walk in, and then don’t leave the room until you hit all of them. Show hella empathy too obviously.

I felt shakey on some of it, but I made sure I hit those bullet points before I left the room regardless of how disjointed it seemed.

Obviously, not the end of the world. You’ll get it done, but no doubt the trouble of going through it again sucks.
 
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