Thoughts on Rad Bio and Physics?
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bummer... what resources did you use to study for physics? I read McDermot and did 7 RAPHEX exams and felt there were things on the exam I was not super familiar with...
I also thought physics was easier. Did Caggiano (2009) and 4 or 5 raphex exams. I was pretty sure about 70% and only had to blind guess 1 or 2. I felt very well prepared. I found everything to be on par with raphex. Tough, but reasonable.
Bio I feel like I did fine on with the caveat I have a Ph.D. In cell signaling. I thought that there were a number of mechanistic questions that were not fair to the average resident and were not well covered by the practice material. That being said, a number of questions were straight lifted from the Astro study guides so that should balance things out.
Not sure anyone can tell you for sure. For a long time the practice exams from ASTRO were all you needed. This year was hard. More random stuff. Our course director said there have been grumblings for a while about the very high pass rate on bio. Thinks they may have gotten new writers to get more material in there. My bias is stick with ASTRO until someone can give you better advise. It's not that the bio was unfair, it's just that until this year the Astro materials were supposed to be harder than the real thing. Not the case last week. See how it plays out (if pass rates change significantly).
Grumblings about a high pass rate? Really? Shouldn't they be glad that trainees are learning the material well enough to pass? The purpose of these exams should be making sure that radiation oncologists have the required knowledge to practice safely not fail a certain number.
- Aug 5, 2005
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I didn't receive an email yet, but it looks like the results are up on the ABR website if you log in and check the "cognitive expertise" tab. Good luck!
After thinking about it more (and getting scores back) need to clarify my prior thoughts on rad bio to not freak people out for next year. It was not an unfair test overall. Actually, it really was on par with the physics exam as far as level of difficulty. Most of it is pretty straight forward and it shouldn't be hard to get 70% or more right. It was just a little surprising that rad bio was on par with physics as far as difficulty. Conventional wisdom has always been that the Astro Rad Bio Study guides are a harder version of the real thing. I don't know what it will be like next year but it didn't feel that way this year. But most of the test was stuff residents should know off the top of their heads, so its nothing to worry about. Some of us just vented surprise when the real thing didn't fit our expectations going into it.
As for physics, cause someone will ask, this year at least it felt just like taking a raphex exam. They were very representative of the real thing. Go over raphex, listen to Caggiano, and you will be fine. Good luck to everyone next year!
As for physics, cause someone will ask, this year at least it felt just like taking a raphex exam. They were very representative of the real thing. Go over raphex, listen to Caggiano, and you will be fine. Good luck to everyone next year!
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