Oral Boards_ugh

[BIS40]

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just got home from oral boards in ft. lauderdale............good luck to everyone. did the 4 day Michael Ho crash coarse.......hope i pass after spending 5G's on this test! scary stuff man. Its a crap shoot what you get but think i got lucky. Hope the ABA gives me lube when they slide it in!

Good luck to all the peeps suffering in the suits this week!

P.S. after living in scrubs for three years and eating fried garbage on call...........make sure your dusty suit still fits, you will be suprised! special shoutout to Mens Wearhouse for saving my *** with a fitting suit last minute!
😴

 

[Gas]

I just got back too, but I have a feeling I'll be back there next year. I got nervous, and my answers did not exactly sound like those of a consultant. Was it enough for them to pass me? Who knows. When I got back to the room after the exam, it hit me, "Oh man, why didn't I address that issue?"

My advice to those prospective examiners: This is not an exam you study for, it's an exam you prepare for. Difference is that the material they test you on is not that bad, but the way you have to communicate to them is important.

 

[epidural man]

I just got back too, but I have a feeling I'll be back there next year. I got nervous, and my answers did not exactly sound like those of a consultant. Was it enough for them to pass me? Who knows. When I got back to the room after the exam, it hit me, "Oh man, why didn't I address that issue?"

My advice to those prospective examiners: This is not an exam you study for, it's an exam you prepare for. Difference is that the material they test you on is not that bad, but the way you have to communicate to them is important.

I agree with you. I sounded ******ed. There are few things in my life I have been sure about. For example, I was about 90% sure that when my high school girlfriend told me she was pregnant that she wasn't kidding. In this case, I am about 85% sure I failed the exam.

I did MANY practice exams out loud and sounded very confident and smart but when I was in that room, I was so freaking nervous, said some of the dumbest things, couldn't get words out that I wanted to, and never felt like they gave me a chance to explain my answers.

If you ask me "how will you tell what this patient's volume status is?" I will normaly give you a very straight forward answer..."I will check urine output and assure greater than 0.5cc/hr, follow base excess, lactates, vitals, and CVP and pay close attention to systolic pressure variation on the a-line tracing to watch for volume responsiveness of the ventricle." Simple, right? Instead I said something silly like "uuuhhhhh, CVP?"

ARGHHHHHH, it was a horrible experience. I can't believe it. Oh well, I don't need to be board certified, right?

 

[PiPhiDoc]

I took my oral boards last spring in DC. I too took the Michael Ho course (which was great). I did 4 days of it, and all week I was doing well on my practice exams, felt pretty confident going into the actual exam.

The first room - 2 women examiners, one of whom I remember from a program that I interviewed for residency in California (I won't mention which one), which I didn't rank because she was such a b#%*h during the interview. Needless to say, she was true to form - it was HORRIBLE - I felt like a total idiot by the end.
The second room - I didn't even read the case for a minute, because I was so stunned by the bloodbath that had just occurred. Then I got my act together, read the case, and had a great exam with the next 2 guys.

Needless to say, when I got on that loonnggg flight back to Seattle, all I could think about was how bad I had screwed up the first room, and by the time my flight landed and I met my fiance at the airport, I started crying right in the parking lot, SURE that I had failed. I was really sure.

I passed. You probably will too.
But waiting for the results - terrible. The overall experience - as bad as they say.