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Did anyone by chance get the “report” the ABA was suppose to send out?
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A friend of mine did. I didn't see it, but he described it as containing nothing of real value or useful information (he said less than the written or ITE stem report).
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The link they provide on the ABA website is more than sufficient.
I still never got a performance letter, did anyone else?
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Same for the ultrasound portion - it’s explicit on what is testable.
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Has anyone gotten their results back within 2 weeks this year? I see that it took 3 weeks for the first few exam weeks.
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Did you ever get this so called “performance report”?
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Nope! Just the certificate, a letter that said nice work and MOCA info.
But I don’t think they collect info that would be amenable to a performance report more than “passed all” or “failed this one station.” At least for the OSCE section. Unsure about orals.
Passed Oral Exam. Have Red Ranger (Book and audio) and UBP book (annotated) for sale. .... Reselling my Ranger Red ($600) and ABP. I just want to pass it along to someone else. So cover shipping and maybe $20 and we'll be even. Send me a PM if interested.
Hi, I took my exam last week. I feel the same. Total in 2 stems, I told 4-5 times ( Please move on), and I answered 4-5 small thing wrong( Not in airway or ACLS). I DONT KNOW if I am gonna pass or not? I had time to answer all 3 grab bag questions. would you plz share me your experiences? do I have chance to pass?
Hi, I took my exam last week. I feel the same. Total in 2 stems, I told 4-5 times ( Please move on), and I answered 4-5 small thing wrong( Not in airway or ACLS). I DONT KNOW if I am gonna pass or not? I had time to answer all 3 grab bag questions. would you plz share me your experiences? do I have chance to pass?
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Passed! Huge relief and wanted to contribute to the forum since everyone here helped me through this process.
1. Ultimate board prep books 1-6 have all the information you need. Get through all the cases at least once so there are no surprises on the actual test date. No other sources are necessary— the answers in UBP are long and detailed but this leads to overpreparation.
2. Nothing can make up for practicing with a colleague or an examiner. I would recommend taking somewhere between 3-5 formal practice exams with feedback given to you after each one.
3. For the OSCE portion, the 16 page ABA PDF covers everything you need to know. The most challenging aspect of this is echo for those who are not regularly doing cardiac cases.
4. On the actual exam, you will get cut off, pushed on answers you give, and will have to transition to different topics rapidly. Take time to gather your thoughts before answering the question as your answers will be more fluid and concise. The exam pace is FAST!
5. Practice outlining so you can anticipate questions based on reading the stem.
6. I’m not sure that a course is necessary since a lot of your time during a course is spent learning passively. Practice verbalizing stem answers with a friend on a regular basis— this is probably the most useful way to prepare.
Good luck, one of the last exam hurdles to jump over before being board certified.
1. Ultimate board prep books 1-6 have all the information you need. Get through all the cases at least once so there are no surprises on the actual test date. No other sources are necessary— the answers in UBP are long and detailed but this leads to overpreparation.
2. Nothing can make up for practicing with a colleague or an examiner. I would recommend taking somewhere between 3-5 formal practice exams with feedback given to you after each one.
3. For the OSCE portion, the 16 page ABA PDF covers everything you need to know. The most challenging aspect of this is echo for those who are not regularly doing cardiac cases.
4. On the actual exam, you will get cut off, pushed on answers you give, and will have to transition to different topics rapidly. Take time to gather your thoughts before answering the question as your answers will be more fluid and concise. The exam pace is FAST!
5. Practice outlining so you can anticipate questions based on reading the stem.
6. I’m not sure that a course is necessary since a lot of your time during a course is spent learning passively. Practice verbalizing stem answers with a friend on a regular basis— this is probably the most useful way to prepare.
Good luck, one of the last exam hurdles to jump over before being board certified.
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Very important. Unlike UBP you won’t have time to give an exhaustive 10-point differential. You’ll say 2 to 3 and they will cut you off, maybe ask if something else could be possible (could be yes, could be no but defend either way).
What else does one need to do - one gets a board cert with a pass? Unless you don’t yet have a state license?
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Thanks for the great tips as always, Dawkter!! Congrats on passing!!
Had my orals today- hard. I made a mistake on the difficult airway algorithm. I was about to do a surgical airway in a patient and forgot it was an elective case. The examiner said “the surgeon asks if you could just wake the patient up.” I said- “oh yeah it’s elective we should do that.” Is that an automatic failure. I am freaking out here. Thanks.
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No. Recognizing you made and error and then adjusting for it is normal.
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The more you think back about the exam, the more likely you feel that you should have answered certain things better. I felt the same as you for the following 4 weeks after my oral board. The faculties at my fellowship kept telling me that I will pass because I got to the point where I am answering my third grab bag for both stems. They told me that you wouldn't have gotten that far into third grab bag if you don't know your stuff. You probably recognize that the examiner always try to lead you to the right direction even if you don't know how to answer or answer incorrectly during your oral board. Their goal is not to fail you. One former examiner told me that they have a script to follow and they want to get through it so you grab the maximum amount of points on their script. So you probably noticed that they kept stopping you along the way when you are still answering their questions. If that happens to you, those are good signs.
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I really hope that is true. I got no sleep the night before, just couldn't shut off my brain and was exhausted for the exam. Overall I left feeling like it wasn't perfect but probably passed, but now that I got some sleep some things are coming back and I feel like I messed up quite a bit. If I had a failing exam would I have gotten to all three grab bags in each room? God I just want this over!
You probably did fine, everybody messes up a bit, not everybody realizes it. With that much anxiety before the exam your anxiety now is probably just overreaction. And, you're better off having gotten to all the grab bags, but the examiners follow a script. Getting to the end means you didn't perseverate and ignore their subtle/not subtle cues to move on. So, good thing.
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Yeah I don't know....I don't think I made a killing mistake but I blew one of the grab bags, one other didn't go great...plus I was so exhausted I could have made a much bigger mistake and can't remember. I just really feel that it didn't go well and the more I remember the worse it gets.....
Just took the exam
Got through all the stuff. On one stem the examiner kept asking me “is there ANYTHING else it could be” for a differential and I just couldn’t for the life of me figure out what he wanted.
For one or two “would this be useful” questions I also simply answered “yes...” and didn’t elaborate lol
Got through all the stuff. On one stem the examiner kept asking me “is there ANYTHING else it could be” for a differential and I just couldn’t for the life of me figure out what he wanted.
For one or two “would this be useful” questions I also simply answered “yes...” and didn’t elaborate lol
Haha, same. I had this one a few times after a run of questions where they kept cutting me off-- Q: "You would do X!!?!?" A: "Yes. <No explanation given>" Q: "We're going to move on."
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They’re “not required” to really do anything, but most will probably explore more what your thought process is and make you defend it. Nicer ones may offer an other idea “a colleague suggest...” But some will also do the same even if you are perfectly on point.
I keep switching from feeling like maybe it wasn’t that bad and most people pass, to paralyzing fear that I didn’t because I honestly don’t even know what I said, if it made sense, or what they were looking for half the time.
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Apparently....several I knew it took 3 weeks from the Monday after their test week to get results....they said at the test it was two weeks but I'm not banking on that...just want the wait to be over.
I know. I am freaking out. I’m going to definitely find out in the OR tomorrow and have to continue as if I am fine if I failed. Any idea what time the results are usually posted?
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I think they update everything in the morning some time. As for what time precisely, we’ll have to hear from the others on here.
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I think it usually goes up around 11AM EST +/- 1 hour. I got the email around 1130AM and it seemed to coincide almost precisely with when the website was live.
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What does the email/ portal say when you get in/ log on?
Does it say you passed? That you’re board certified?
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Email says check your status, nothing more.
If you’ve passed the portal page will look different and have MOCA information on it - that’s your heads up that you’ve passed. Usually they delay opening the physician licensure lookup so people can find out for themselves if they’ve passed.
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Congrats. Care to share with a failure case how you studied?
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I failed. Can’t believe this. Never failed anything. Those bastards.
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How did you study this time? How do you plan to change your plan of attack?
