Hello everybody! I am so sorry for my absence since creating this thread but I was super busy preparing and taking the CPE. I am happy to see that the thread has lived on and that people are participating in it. Please remember that if you are in here its because you are focusing on the CPE so please no talking about TOWFL, NAVLE or BSCE, there are plenty of forums for those!
I took the CPE in October 2014 in LV and it was very stressful but I felt as prepared as I could be and acted "confident" in front of the examiners and answered everything to the best of my abilities.. I passed everything on my first try so obviously I am very happy with this outcome.
Ok so you are wondering what did I do? How did I prepared for this? Well, I started preparing for it about 3 months before the big day. Yup, not longer than that, perhaps in a shorter period of time actually. I get bored and I function better under pressure so I tend to leave things for the "last few months". Anyways, here are my suggestions:
1-Manual (the theory):
- a-print the MoA and develop every little request. I wrote in a notebook EVERYTHING they ask you to perform in the Manual. I wrote exactly what I was going to say, I searched for everything online and used maybe 1 or 2 books.... For example, the section of small animal techniques it says describe how to perform a thoracocentesis. I went to Washington State University website where they explain a few of the procedure and basically wrote it in my own words for every procedure. I also recommend buying the book "Small Animal Clinical Techniques" by Susan taylor on Amazon. Everything you need for the small animal techniques section is in there. Write it down and memorize it! I recorded it on my iphone under "voice memos" and listened to it while driving and all that stuff... stick it to your brain! If you are talking more than a minute and a half then you are probably talking too much and saying extra things that might be harming you so just say what is necessary, what the manual requires. Write it down for bovine and equine techniques with "every word" that you are going to say.
- b- PICTURES! also print pictures to put it on each procedure, especially equine lameness. You have to explain how to block each nerve so you want images to help you visualize where the nerve is and what is surrounding it.
- c- I also created my own playlist on youtube where I saved every video regarding physical exams, lameness exams, bovine procedures, etc. MEMORIZE THEM! It helps to write it down and to actually see it!
- d- Developing the manual its the hardest part, the most important and the most time-consuming! It took me 4-5 weeks (perhaps more!) at an easy, stress free pace and then the actual hands on training took me 6 weeks total. Try to do all of it before going to any of the courses I mentioned at the beginning of this thread. Believe me, you dont want to get there and start understanding what you need to do, you want to get there with all the theory in your mind so you can get the most out of it! 🙂
2- Training facilities:
- a- At the beginning of this thread I mention a few places depending on which section you need training on. There is NOT a place where you can train for all of it, sorry! The shelter in Massachusetts apparently is not taking any more students for unknown reasons but the Humane Alliance in North Carolina is still accepting, thy just book out quickly! Me personally, went to an animal county service (government shelter) in Largo, Florida where I spayed every morning for a week. They do not teach you, or supervise you. You have a table next to the other surgeon and they do not spay with a technique valid for CPE purposes (everyone knows shelter have their own ways), so if you go there make sure you know your ****, get practice in your country first and feel confident with your technique by looking for spay videos on youtube. SO because I did not have money to pay for a surgery course, what I did was that I did my first few spays in my country and practiced for 2-3 weeks and then contacted the vet at Pinellas County Animal Service and went there just before the test to practice high volume. I even asked them to just give me overweight dogs and big dogs like pits and german shepherds. Thats right, you want to take all the difficult spays so you can breeze thru it during the test 🙂 heres a youtube video for a spay:
- b-I know 2 people that trained with Dr Kim at latitude vet 36 in NC for the large animal portions and they loved it! It was an intense week but they learned everything so I think it would be cool to do this course along with the Humane Alliance course since they are both in NC. Make sure you do your courses it 3-4 weeks before the test so its still fresh but there is still time to study more!
- c- I also met a few people that went to San Diego to train at Bonita Pet all the small animal portions. It could be worth while if you are on this side of the country. I encourage to contact them ans see what they offer.
- d- For necropsy section I have a video from the University of Guelph that if you do it exactly how they show you then you will do just fine even if you have not done a necropsy ever in your life! Its too big to post but try finding it online or if you have dropbox you could send me a folder to share. If you live near a shelter then contact them since they always have kittens or animals that were euthanized... perhaps they wont mind if you perform the necropsies.
- e- I completed my Large animal training (both bovine and equine) at Tuskegee University. I contacted them explaining I wanted to perform an externship in Large Animal to prepare for the CPE. I went for a couple of weeks and did everything... They dont always offer such thing, i guess it depends how busy they are with their actual students... A few bad things from my experience: not all the teachers want to spend time with CPE students since they are busy with their own students so you waste a lot of time waiting for people to have time for you even when you are paying to be there! It can be very frustrating as there isnt a formal program, its just "whatever the day brings".. also they do not accomodate you at all! you would need to stay at a hotel and rent a car since the closest airport is Atlanta (about 2 hours away!) and there is not public transportation to get to the school and no hotels nearby so it can get quite expensive to go for more than a week! Also, if you train here you probably cannot take the CPE here or if you do then it has to be more than a year away. :S Now that I look back I would have gone to NC instead to do all my large animal training in 1 week (cause it can be done in that amount of time if its all day working instead of 2 hours per day for 2 weeks!)
- f- In my experience the anesthesia portion was the most nerve wrecking cause they are asking you a lot of questions (in surgery you are just doing your thing and the examiner comes by to check on you from time to time). But they ask you everything that is on the manual so again, memorize it! You have to explain the machine, explain all your formulas (fluid rate, gas rate, oxygen rate, etc). Just try to do a lot of catheter placements, e-tube placements and anesthesia monitoring in the US since its hard to find a place that will let you do surgery but will probably let you do technician assignments like these. If you feel confident placing a catheter and an e-tube then you just need to study the formulas which you can get from any anesthesia book online (even the ones for vet techs). There are also a lot of cool videos on youtube explaining the machine 🙂
3-the Test:
I took it in Las Vegas, they offer it every month and the hotel is next to the center, they pick you up at the airport and breakfast and lunch are included. Is very easy to take it here cause everything is figured out. Everyone is very nice, you just need to know your thing and act confident even if you dont know what the hell you are saying
🙂 I have heard that vegas is the toughest place, but I think the exam is pretty fair. I think because its the place that offers it the most with the highest amount of candidates taking it there then the chances of candidates failing and we hearing about it its also higher..... Just my thoughts though.
🙂
If you have any questions please ask thru here and if you already took and passed the CPE please share your experience and suggestions!
Good luck everyone!
