Oral Boards Recent Experiences

[Swizard210]

Hey All,

It seems every year the topic of board prep companies comes up. And given that each is growing and changing regularly, I was hoping to see what recent experiences others have had.

I took Just Oral Boards, and I had an awesome experience. I got to rotate through different instructors who specialized in the topics I needed help with, as well as, got a lot of flexibility from the company with my schedule and with a comfortable payment plan. For me, their student manual was a solid addition and was good for reading and refreshing in between practice sessions. If anyone is still debating on a company, definitely give them a look.

So how have others who took a course this year felt about their experiences with this or other companies?

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[gassyPants]

I am freaking out. My oral board exam is only two months out and because of life I haven't been able to study very much. I am thinking of doing an online course, so at least I have some structure this late in the game.

I have a few questions though: Which course did you take? Does the manual come free with the course? How long did the course take (they say four months!)? What is the actual structure of the course (the website makes it look like you just take four exams at that's it)?

Thanks!

 

[IlDestriero]

I never understood the panic about oral boards.
Your partners could give you some stem questions to practice.
You should know all your differential diagnoses already.
Know all the big high yield stuff. Basic common peds, OB, MI, CVA, various intraop disasters, common pre procedure decision making, testing, ACLS, etc. They’re not going to fail you for mixing up non useful esoteric stuff. They’re going to give you a relatively routine situation and throw in MH and a difficult airway, or recent MI/CVA and an urgent surgery. Then they’ll probably try to kill the patient a couple times. Not your fault, no sweat, just go with it. When they start asking weird stuff that you didn’t even learn for the written boards don’t panic, you passed already.
Get a book like Gaba’s crisis management and review it. That book was oral board gold. This happens, it could be these things, this is what you do. That’s the board’s. See, think, act.
Don’t panic. When you read the stem, write down the Critical bullet points you can reference when the weirdness starts. That’s how you don’t make killing (failing) errors. Visualize the patient on the table or in the pre op bay. Pause for 5 seconds and look at the bullet list, think a second, then answer. When the case changes, Shake it off and reboot. If you are a probable pass/fail on the first one you can still pass. Restart and kill it on each one. Bomb one part, who cares, kill the rest, you’ll still pass. You probably didn’t bomb it either, they just threw some curves at you and made you feel inadequate, like your old bat **** crazy but hot as the sun girlfriend, except fat, balding and in a cheap suit.
Unless you make a major killing error and freak out. Then you fail. Don’t be that guy.


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Il Destriero

 

[norwood]

Get a book like Gaba’s crisis management and review it. That book was oral board gold. This happens, it could be these things, this is what you do. That’s the board’s. See, think, act.

I still think Yao and Artusio is a good resource, for the same reason. It helps you think in terms of "I see _____, and my concerns include ______, because ______."

When they start asking weird stuff that you didn’t even learn for the written boards don’t panic, you passed already.

Yep. More specifically, it means they reached the end of the scenarios and questions they meant to ask you, so they're just asking random things they thought up.