Question about when to take oral boards

[darkmansaad]

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Hello all - I am currently pursuing fellowship and got the email today about scheduling my oral board exam. I really want to take it in June at the end of my fellowship so I can start the rest of my life but I have heard that I should be doing more cases (am a regional/acute pain fellow so outside of moonlighting am not in the OR much this year) and be in actual practice for a while before taking the test. I have also heard of others who just studied hard and took a course and did quite well.

I just took my written boards and residency is fresh in my mind, so in my opinion I should be able to do fine just starting to study now and take it in June. Does everyone here agree with that assessment or should I finish out fellowship, start working and study from there? And if so...what resources should I use? Have heard great things about Ho.

Thanks in advance, this forum has been great to me over the years since MS3 of med school and am now about to finish fellowship and start practicing. The power of the interwebs!

 

[Ezekiel2517]

Take it as soon as you can. You've already done all the cases in residency. Take a course only if you feel you need to give your money away to someone who knows how to profit off people's insecurities and fears. The Ho text is decent, course not needed

 

[deleted171991]

The Ho book is still very good, despite its age. Couple it with something more up to date, such as The Anesthesia Guide, and aim for at least 20 (ideally 40) mock orals with knowledgeable people (current or former oral board examiners, subspecialty experts, good junior attendings who have taken the exam recently, and generally people who give a lot of of mock orals and can grill you in an uncomfortable manner). And don't postpone doing mock orals, even if you have read only 10-20% of the material; by the time you pick up all the required knowledge, you might be too close to the real exam. I would aim for 1-2/week, every week.

 

[ether123]

The Anesthesia Guide is a great book to use. If u think you are good at speaking and discussing anesthesia, just do some mocks with friends. Otherwise, try some courses: ho, justoralboards.com, jensen. might be worth checking out

 

[Femtochemistry]

I liked Ultimate Board Prep books. Pretty good. Used Jensen a bit too. That was OK. But the best thing you can do is practice, practice, practice. Me and a couple of buddies did about 2-3 cases a week/each. Even more during the last few weeks leading to the exam. Everyone here has a different way to study for this beast, but we ALL agree that practice is by far the best 😉

Cheers and good luck!