The Written Boards Motivation Thread

[azzarah]

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So, I'm planning to take the written boards this year.
For those who have already taken and passed the boards, how did you study and what did you find helpful?
Has anyone made a study schedule yet that they are willing to share?
Also, if anyone else out there is studying and they'd like to keep each other motivated during the year, feel free to post here. I'm going to be very busy with fellowship this year and need all the push/motivation I can get to study and stick to a reading schedule. 🙂

Good luck everyone!

 

[bucknut101]

So, I'm planning to take the written boards this year.
For those who have already taken and passed the boards, how did you study and what did you find helpful?
Has anyone made a study schedule yet that they are willing to share?
Also, if anyone else out there is studying and they'd like to keep each other motivated during the year, feel free to post here. I'm going to be very busy with fellowship this year and need all the push/motivation I can get to study and stick to a reading schedule. 🙂

Good luck everyone!

I had a busy fellowship as well. (Most days 7 or 8AM to 6 or 7PM M-F). I began studying in January and tried to study 1-2 hours on weeknights and put a good 4-6 hours a day on the weekends. I basically re-read the BCS books and Last Minute Optics which is exactly what I did the previous 3 years for OKAPs. So I if you did OK on OKAPS I would study the exactly the same stuff for the written boards.

 

[MstaKing10]

Just study like you did for OKAPS. I started in Feb and hit it hard towards the end of March/April. Didn't even look at BCS books. Friedmans, Chern's, Last Minute Optics, Pearls books. Got the same score as I did on last years OKAPS.

Wish studying for the orals was as straightforward!

Good luck.

 

[Visionary]

[/LIST]7]Just study like you did for OKAPS. I started in Feb and hit it hard towards the end of March/April. Didn't even look at BCS books. Friedmans, Chern's, Last Minute Optics, Pearls books. Got the same score as I did on last years OKAPS.

Wish studying for the orals was as straightforward!

Good luck.

Agreed. I studied as for third year OKAPs (Chern review and question book, supplemented with various other materials a few months before the test) and scored about the same.

 

[eyehope]

I mainly used Friedman's review book, the Mass Eye&Ear question book, and last minute optics. Think of it as the OKAPS minus the easy questions. If you need motivation, look at the statistics for the past exams. For some reason, they look to fail 30% of test takers.

 

[azzarah]

Thanks guys.

First year, I read BCSC, parts of Kanski, guyton, chern review book--did well on the OKAPs.

Second year, read BCSC, guyton, chern question book, Pearls--did much WORSE on the OKAP. Score dropped by 30 points, no joke!!!

Third year, did almost NO studying, read chern review book only (last minute) and did better than both first and second year. What gives?

This is why I'm confused about whether I should read the BCSC or just read. One of my friends who had done well on the OKAPS nearly failed the boards after doing this fellowship last year, so I'm really worried. This past week, I've been in the hospital 730am to 11pm-MN every single day. Too exhausted to read when I get home....

 

[thiaeyemd]

Couple myths to dispel

1. 30% failure rate...The boards are not "trying" to fail 30% of people. There is a standard and they need people to be at that level. The pass rate of 1st time takers is more around 85%.

2. The OKAp scores are pretty predictive of board pass rate. Best advice is do well on OKAPs and the boards willbe ok. Hard to compensate for 3 years of no reading with 6 months of reading

 

[JMK2005]

Couple myths to dispel

1. 30% failure rate...The boards are not "trying" to fail 30% of people. There is a standard and they need people to be at that level. The pass rate of 1st time takers is more around 85%.

2. The OKAp scores are pretty predictive of board pass rate. Best advice is do well on OKAPs and the boards willbe ok. Hard to compensate for 3 years of no reading with 6 months of reading

http://www.abop.org/announcements/stats.asp

Well, they keep the WQE fail rate pretty consistent.

 

[eyehope]

Couple myths to dispel

1. 30% failure rate...The boards are not "trying" to fail 30% of people. There is a standard and they need people to be at that level. The pass rate of 1st time takers is more around 85%.

2. The OKAp scores are pretty predictive of board pass rate. Best advice is do well on OKAPs and the boards willbe ok. Hard to compensate for 3 years of no reading with 6 months of reading

The test is graded on a curve and the ABO can change the pass threshold at its discretion. First time failure rate for writtens and orals is about 30% for first time takers. So, either folks are (1) deficient or slipping through the cracks during residency or (2) the test is difficult or (3) some candidates are poor test takers.

I am not arguing the high standards (I agree there should be a high standard). I am mentioning the failure rate as motivation to the OP.

 

[TexasEyeDoc]

My friend is studying for the anesthesia boards and came across a great site - openanesthesia.org - a wiki type site that takes all of the Anesthesia board's released keywords and has articles on them and "everything you need to know". Does anyone know of a similar site for ophthalmology. To my knowledge the ABOP and OKAP only have categories of knowledge (pretty generic like "optics" or "refraction"). Does anyone know of any more specific keywords similar to other specialties/step exams.
Anyone have a detailed study schedule they're willing to share? Thanks

 

[eyehope]

My friend is studying for the anesthesia boards and came across a great site - openanesthesia.org - a wiki type site that takes all of the Anesthesia board's released keywords and has articles on them and "everything you need to know". Does anyone know of a similar site for ophthalmology. To my knowledge the ABOP and OKAP only have categories of knowledge (pretty generic like "optics" or "refraction"). Does anyone know of any more specific keywords similar to other specialties/step exams.
Anyone have a detailed study schedule they're willing to share? Thanks

Dissemination of prior ABO test materials/keywords is a federal offense so it is unlikely that you find a similar site for ophthalmology.

For the writtens, you really have to study for everything and know a lot of detail. There are no shortcuts besides the review books. I could have studied for a year and still would have missed some questions (IMO, nit picky).

I would plan on studying for a good 3 months (or earlier if you are in fellowship). Start with your weakest subspecialty first (so you can review it multiple times).

The orals is a completely different test.

 

[Mirror Form]

Couple myths to dispel

1. 30% failure rate...The boards are not "trying" to fail 30% of people. There is a standard and they need people to be at that level. The pass rate of 1st time takers is more around 85%.

You must be naive. The ABO uses a bell curve to automatically fail b/w 25 and 30% of test takers depending on the distribution of test scores. There is no "standard" other than basic statistics. The material on the written boards is only slightly more clinically relevant than the OKAP's.

At least the ABO doesn't pretend that the WQE is clinically relevant though. What annoyed me more was the orals. The ABO tries to pretend that they're similar seeing real patients. But the ABO also uses a bell curve for the oral boards too, and to make the bell curve a normal distribution they've added lots of minutia into the orals as well.

 

[bucknut101]

My friend is studying for the anesthesia boards and came across a great site - openanesthesia.org - a wiki type site that takes all of the Anesthesia board's released keywords and has articles on them and "everything you need to know". Does anyone know of a similar site for ophthalmology. To my knowledge the ABOP and OKAP only have categories of knowledge (pretty generic like "optics" or "refraction"). Does anyone know of any more specific keywords similar to other specialties/step exams.
Anyone have a detailed study schedule they're willing to share? Thanks

I'd be very careful about sharing any content related to the boards on a website or online forum. There's a thread on another area (General Residency Issues??) started by some girl who was banned from taking Step 3 for posting material related to the USMLE exams on SDN.

 

[bucknut101]

You must be naive. The ABO uses a bell curve to automatically fail b/w 25 and 30% of test takers depending on the distribution of test scores. There is no "standard" other than basic statistics. The material on the written boards is only slightly more clinically relevant than the OKAP's.

At least the ABO doesn't pretend that the WQE is clinically relevant though. What annoyed me more was the orals. The ABO tries to pretend that they're similar seeing real patients. But the ABO also uses a bell curve for the oral boards too, and to make the bell curve a normal distribution they've added lots of minutia into the orals as well.

I thought orals were definitely more clinically relevant than writtens but do agree that there was some minutia as well. There were a couple of diseases I was shown pictures of that were pretty darn rare but fortunately I recognized what they were.

Also why in the world can't they ever show good quality pictures on the boards? Honest to God on one of the oral board cases the examiner actually had to point a couple of things out to me on the picture to help me out. In her words "I realize this picture is quite poor so this is supposed to be showing .............. (rest of sentence left out on purpose so the ABO doesn't revoke my certification for sharing test material)"

 

[MullerCell]

I think the ~30% failure rate for written and ~20% for orals is definitely inflated by the # of repeat test takers and the small group of lazy people who barely study during residency. The repeat takers accumulate and often fail multiple times keeping the failure rate high. Every question on my orals was a commonly tested disease and did not require in depth understanding/knowledge. I used the newer Willis manual and Kanski. After passing writtens, everyone has the knowledge base to pass orals. It is very important to be able to communicate clearly and efficiently so that you answer all of the questions in the time allotted and don't get too anxious/frustrated if a question trips you up. I felt written boards was just like OKAPS without the rare extremely easy/difficulty questions. The optics questions on my test were very straight forward and there were lots of them. Know last minute optics inside out and go through it again the night before the test, it is very high yield. Use the same books to study for OKAPS and written boards. I found Friedmann and Mass eye and ear ?s in addition to some of the BCSC books to be the most helpful. I would study for OKAPS 3rd year to solidify things, try to start some review a few months before boards, and take the week off prior to cram for 15 hrs/day if possible. The last week of cramming was incredibly beneficial.

 

[Mirror Form]

I think the ~30% failure rate for written and ~20% for orals is definitely inflated by the # of repeat test takers and the small group of lazy people who barely study during residency.

The overall pass rate for the recent June Orals was 83%, and the pass rate for just the first time test takers was 85%. I imagine there is probably a bigger difference on the writtens. Regardless, anyone who gets into ophthalmology is a pretty good test taker.

I'm so glad that I was able to get through these tests w/o having any failures. But studying for them definitely left a bad taste in my mouth. The board exams for most specialties don't have failure rates anywhere near the ABO's.

 

[Mirror Form]

I thought orals were definitely more clinically relevant than writtens but do agree that there was some minutia as well. There were a couple of diseases I was shown pictures of that were pretty darn rare but fortunately I recognized what they were.

Also why in the world can't they ever show good quality pictures on the boards? Honest to God on one of the oral board cases the examiner actually had to point a couple of things out to me on the picture to help me out. In her words "I realize this picture is quite poor so this is supposed to be showing .............. (rest of sentence left out on purpose so the ABO doesn't revoke my certification for sharing test material)"

Yep, and it wasn't just the pictures that were from the 1970's. Even some of the questions were outdated. One of my examiners was like, "well, I realize this is only of historical significance now, but how would you treat this if . . .(rest left out so my certification isn't revoked) "