RISE study

[Redfaction]

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Hey guys!!. Great site! Just discovered it the other day.
Question: I know that many people do not take the RISE very seroiusly but for those who do- what materials and resources did you use to study for it?
Thank. RF

 

[DrBloodmoney]

Our program takes the RISE pretty seriously. All together, in one room same day, proctored exam kind of serious.

We are encouraged to not study and to use the test to evaluate our knowledge deficiencies. I think that it helps.

 

[yaah]

Yeah, most people would say do not study for the RISE. Studying the same material that is useful for boards would be helpful if you wanted to. But it's probably better to not study any differently than normal, and then see where your deficiencies and weaknesses are. I, for example, have major trouble with fungus.

 

[GeoLeoX]

I, for example, have major trouble with fungus.

Sorry to hear that. Hope that clears up.

I second the "don't study for the RISE". I am involved with ASCP and I have spoken with many of the people involved with "producing" the RISE. The goal is to create a "metric" whereby both the individual and the residency director can evaluate progress. For the individual it does identify strengths and weaknesses, while more systematic strengths and weaknesses can be identified by the program director. For that reason it stands to reason that studying for the RISE defeats the purpose of the exam as an evaluation tool.

my $0.02.

 

[Redfaction]

Hey thanks for replies. what do you guys read on a day to day- which is kind of studying for boards and Rise in a way?

 

[GeoLeoX]

Hey thanks for replies. what do you guys read on a day to day- which is kind of studying for boards and Rise in a way?

Well, that depends. It depends on what rotation I am doing. It depends on what I feel like studying. It depends on what I feel like I need to be studying, etc. I would recommend reading as many different texts as possible. Being dogmatic will get you into trouble. Pathologists tend to be big readers and I always feel like I should be reading more.

My favorites:

AP:
Surg path - Haber, Silverberg, any blue book.
Cyto - Cibas, baby DeMay
Forensic - who cares? a few minutes with a review book will help you with most of your forensic issues.

CP:
Hemepath - Kjeldsberg, WHO blue
Clinical Chem - Mais Quick Compendium
Micro - Mais Quick Compendium
Blood bank - Petriedes

Those are my opinions and they belong to me.

 

[Gene_]

Sorry to hear that. Hope that clears up.

For that reason it stands to reason that studying for the RISE defeats the purpose of the exam as an evaluation tool.

No matter how you reason it, staff at your institution will see your results and compare you to your peers. We have to learn a lot of stuff before taking boards. If the RISE is that kick in the butt you need, then go for it - study away.

 

[GeoLeoX]

No matter how you reason it, staff at your institution will see your results and compare you to your peers. We have to learn a lot of stuff before taking boards. If the RISE is that kick in the butt you need, then go for it - study away.

The staff at your institution with the exception of the residency director shouldn't be seeing your results. And by no means did I mean to imply that one shouldn't study. We should all be studying something in residency, that's the point of the thing. I specifically meant that one should not prepare exclusively for the RISE by cramming in the month or two before.

G

 

[Gene_]

The staff at your institution with the exception of the residency director shouldn't be seeing your results. And by no means did I mean to imply that one shouldn't study. We should all be studying something in residency, that's the point of the thing. I specifically meant that one should not prepare exclusively for the RISE by cramming in the month or two before.

G

Our staff has openly made comments about our RISE performance like "You did well on the RISE, why are your gross dictations so bad?"

 

[GeoLeoX]

Our staff has openly made comments about our RISE performance like "You did well on the RISE, why are your gross dictations so bad?"

Well, that sucks. Sorry to hear that. Maybe someone needs to talk to the program manager. It really goes against the point of the thing and it doesn't do much to further a collegial spirit between staff and residents if the staff are discussing your performance. Of course staff should be discussing your performance amongst each other in regards to specimen processing, diagnostic acumen, etc. Just not the RISE.

 

[cjw0918]

Our program director originally told us that no one saw our RISE scores except for him. After comments were made to me about my RISE performance from other attendings, I asked him whether or not this is true. He said that he passes out copies of each person's scores at the training committe meetings, but he then carefully takes back all of the copies. To me this is not the same thing as saying "no one else sees your scores except me." I was not the only resident under this false impression- we all thought no other attendings saw the scores. That's fine if they all get to see them, but don't f****** lie to us about it. It makes more sense to me that all attendings see the scores anyway.

 

[Pingu]

We had a similar thing happen...they have never really made a big deal out of our scores before, but suddenly they have decided to "take them seriously" So we are getting critiqued on scores from a test we took a year ago in what we thought was a no pressure situation. I feel annoyed because if my score is going to matter to them, then tell me before I take the test, not ten months after the fact. I don't know who sees our scores, but I'm pretty sure most of the staff have seen last years since they started caring. It is ridiculous for the staff at any program to base their opinion of a resident on how they do on a half day test rather than what they have seen of that resident over the years.

 

[GeoLeoX]

Unfortunately, the ASCP has been very vague on the purpose of the RISE. There are several schools of thought regarding the purpose of the exam:

1. Review/assessment for residents with the purpose of improving readiness and facility with the ABP Board exam:

About 5 years ago they stopped providing test-takers with copies of the exam and in my opinion the exam lost relevance. It used to be an excellent review resource for residents to not only realize their weaknesses (and strengths) but also to guide further study. I don't know about anyone else here, but I find the followup materials (brief non-specific keywords and page #s in books) to be very unsatisfactory.

2. Assessment of resident progress/program progress in "pathology".

I think as an assessment tool the RISE is worthless. The subject matter is skewed toward cytopathology and forensics (much more so than the ABP) and does not truly reflect an evaluation of resident achievement or program curriculum quality. Especially, when there is known widespread "cheating" on the exam.

3. A means of evaluating residents so that staff may address weaknesses/play toward strengths.

Maybe. I don't know. The ACGME is pretty clear that it is not just the residency director who is responsible in setting guidelines for resident education. It is a staff responsibility. For that reason one could argue that the staff should be privy to resident results. I agree to a degree. Implicit in this argument is that staff would appropriately address resident needs. That's obviously not always going to be respected. In addition it would imply that the RISE is a statistically significant and relevant measurement tool of resident progress. How do you judge that? Board scores? Future success? Salary? Respect among peers and colleagues? Board scores would seem the most relevant. However, everyone I have spoken to after they have taken the boards does not seem to indicate that the RISE is particularly useful in preparing for the board exam.

I could obviously go on all day about how the RISE used to be useful and is now irrelevant, but I won't.

For what it's worth, I usually do pretty well on the exam. I just wish I didn't have to take it.

 

[cytoborg]

I've never studied for a RISE. As a group we don't take it very seriously. As far as I know, our program is using it to address deficiencies in our lecture series and make adjustments to the amount of time spent on each thing. And obviously it's for our personal use to see where our own deficiences are. This year the thought actually crossed my mind to study for it, since I am getting a bit closer to boards, but I probably won't have time. They bumped the date up this year.

 

[yaah]

Apparently someone at our program did a study and found that RISE scores over 500 correlated very well with passing the boards. Take that for what it's worth. I wonder if that includes scores over 500 that were obtained through cheating? 😉