Oral boards thoughts
Started by MstaKing10
When I took it last year, I was certain I had failed similar to most everyone I talked to. Fortunately I passed like most everyone else. 🙂 good luck!
By far, the strangest test you'll ever take. Hard to get a read on your performance during or after. Just have to wait and see. The key is to follow an outline for each question, so you don't miss points, even when you clearly know what the case is.
Here's how I approached it:
Look at the case
Describe what you see
Give a broad, though reasonable, DDx
Describe additional examination/testing you would do to pare down the DDx
Take what they give you, if anything
Describe how you would treat your selected Dx
Where most get tripped up is in jumping to the end. You do that and you miss all the points in between. That equals failure, even if you are correct about the case.
It is a stressful test that most examinees pass.
The purpose is to make sure you have an ability to assess a clinical problem and to be able to come up with a realistic and rational plan of action on your own. So you need to take the item given--usually a photo or group of photos of something--and describe what you see. You might get a little help, for instance if you said this appears to be a photo of a patient doing X, but also it could be y, the examiner might say, "lets assume for now it is x" to guide you down the path they want you to take. Usually there is a sentence appended to the image telling you something about the image.
So it is reasonable to take the approach of "this could be "z" and if it is, I would be concerned about X and also possibly y, so this is how I would work that up"
They will test you on the "do not miss items" like white pupils in kids and the like. But there is more, and having the rational and reasonable approach is what they want. It is their last and best chance before you get out of the gate with the ophthalmologist brand on your hide.
Useful, but not critical. There are plenty who have taken Osler and still failed.
about half of all test takers took the osler course last month when I took the boards. Not sure if their pass rate is significantly higher than those that did not take the course. I'm sure it is useful but not critical by any stretch.
I agree with above posters that it is a strange test indeed, and difficult to assess weather or not you did well after finishing unlike written tests. Having a systematic way of approaching cases and practicing talking things through with colleagues is useful, but at the end of the day, still a difficult test to both prepare for and to take.
I agree with above posters that it is a strange test indeed, and difficult to assess weather or not you did well after finishing unlike written tests. Having a systematic way of approaching cases and practicing talking things through with colleagues is useful, but at the end of the day, still a difficult test to both prepare for and to take.
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