Truelearn QB for ITE

[deleted545787]

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Hey all,

CA-1 here, so I just started the truelearn Qbank for ITE (<200 Q done) and im finding huge gaps in knowledge, sometimes scoring 30% in a given block.
Has anyone else experienced this? any recommendations on how to improve? Should I just keep doing questions? I intend to do the QB twice.

I have M&M and baby miller but having a hard time reading and doing QB with my schedule.

 

[pocafx]

I am in about the same situation

 

[hununuh]

Same here.

Its the same qbank for CA-1,2,3 so I expected to get a lot of questions wrong. I am not worried about it and im sure it will improve as I learn more

 

[Status Sciaticus]

If your program provides for the Truelearn ABA Basic, do those questions first since you are effectively graded on the basic portion of the ITE for your scaled score. Then move onto the ITE QB. It may be worth getting the ABA Basic QB on your own if your program doesnt provide it.

 

[abolt18]

Hey all,

CA-1 here, so I just started the truelearn Qbank for ITE (Has anyone else experienced this? any recommendations on how to improve? Should I just keep doing questions? I intend to do the QB twice.

I have M&M and baby miller but having a hard time reading and doing QB with my schedule.

Add in listening to ACCRAC podcasts and UK YouTube videos and you'll fill in many of the blanks. Just keep on keeping on with the qbank.

 

[Iso4ane]

Do questions? Read explnations? Take notes (regardless of whether you got the question right or wrong).

I did one-liner take always from nearly every question and even with small font by the end of the qbank I had over 40 pages of notes.

 

[ToKingdomCome]

Same here. CA-1 been through about 200 questions. Been low key getting slaughtered. My goal is > 70% ITE. We'll see though

 

[agolden1]

CA-2 here. A big difference between anesthesia and med school, is that in med school you have all these different resources like sketchy, pathoma, kaplan, and whatever lectures you decide to attend to set the stage for what you need to know. In anesthesia residency, you have truelearn and whatever book you decide you prefer. I used morgan and mikhail, but you can't just go by the numbered points. You really have to absorb all the info in the tables from the pharmacology and physiology chapters, learn to filter out the sections that are too superficial.

Don't focus too much on the score percentile for Truelearn. As others have pointed out, focus on just trying to learn the info as best you can.

 

[ToKingdomCome]

Ugh, been getting rocked on my last few question sets. Feel like percentile is also going to be deflated since CA2/CA3 who have done the question bank right will make it harder as well

 

[deleted697127]

Ugh, been getting rocked on my last few question sets. Feel like percentile is also going to be deflated since CA2/CA3 who have done the question bank right will make it harder as well

Ha. For the advanced exam i crushed the first 60 percent of the qbank. Last 10% i swear i had like 35% right vs national average of like 45%. The kind of questions where more people choose the same wrong answer. I don’t know if i was losing my mind or if they just grouped their garbage questions that need work towards the end. Did fine on the actual exam but definitely wasn’t a great feeling.

 

[Iso4ane]

Ugh, been getting rocked on my last few question sets. Feel like percentile is also going to be deflated since CA2/CA3 who have done the question bank right will make it harder as well

You can change the settings so that you are only compared to ca1s

 

[GlowInTheDark]

TrueLearn at CA-1 for ITE should be geared towards learning. It’s not an assessment tool.

10 questions a day, no more. Do 20 on weekend days/off days if you want.

increase total number and repeat wrong/repeat all as you get within a month or so of ITE

 

[Morzh]

TrueLearn at CA-1 for ITE should be geared towards learning. It’s not an assessment tool.

10 questions a day, no more. Do 20 on weekend days/off days if you want.

increase total number and repeat wrong/repeat all as you get within a month or so of ITE

And if you're doing it right - carefully understanding the explanations and possibly taking some notes or making flash cards - 10 questions / day should take you about an hour. Think of it as more like an interactive textbook than an assessment tool.

 

[anesthesiologyperson21]

If your program provides for the Truelearn ABA Basic, do those questions first since you are effectively graded on the basic portion of the ITE for your scaled score. Then move onto the ITE QB. It may be worth getting the ABA Basic QB on your own if your program doesnt provide it.

Is this true? Haven’t heard this before...

 

[deleted875186]

Is this true? Haven’t heard this before...

Bull****. The ITE gives a score for “basic” questions and “advanced” questions, thy both count towards your overal scales score. Obviously the basic score is usually better than your advanced score.

 

[Status Sciaticus]

Is this true? Haven’t heard this before...

Bull****. The ITE gives a score for “basic” questions and “advanced” questions, thy both count towards your overal scales score. Obviously the basic score is usually better than your advanced score.

Atleast thats what I was told. Why would they evaluate you on stuff like TEEs and complex patients that you wont come across till your advanced years? I'm going to stick to my answer and study in that manner. Either way, youre still doing questions.

 

[abolt18]

Atleast thats what I was told. Why would they evaluate you on stuff like TEEs and complex patients that you wont come across till your advanced years? I'm going to stick to my answer and study in that manner. Either way, youre still doing questions.

WTF? The ITE is the exact same exam given to pgy1-pgy4. There is inherently an assessment of "basic" material as well as "advanced" material. They assess your general knowledge and your score gets scaled against others at your same level of training.

Save your basic exam questions for the basic exam.

 

[deleted875186]

Atleast thats what I was told. Why would they evaluate you on stuff like TEEs and complex patients that you wont come across till your advanced years? I'm going to stick to my answer and study in that manner. Either way, youre still doing questions.

Because the exam is meant to be formative, and as said above, your score is meant to be interpreted by class year.

 

[Iso4ane]

Atleast thats what I was told. Why would they evaluate you on stuff like TEEs and complex patients that you wont come across till your advanced years? I'm going to stick to my answer and study in that manner. Either way, youre still doing questions.

So, you're shooting yourself in the foot? Cause when all the other CA1 are doing the ITE question bank which has a mix of basic and advanced topics, you'll only have seen the basic stuff.

Well, if that floats your boat, go for it.

 

[Quixotic2501]

No matter what year, you are scored on both Basic and Advanced. Every one takes the same test regardless of the year of training.

You'll get a percent correct for both basic and advanced sections that can be compared to a percentile for your year. There is also an overall scaled score out 50 that can also be compared to specific years (intern, CA-1, CA-2, CA-3). For example, 80% correct on advanced is the 91st percentile for CA-1s and 58th for CA-3s. A scaled score of 45 would put you in the 87th percentile of CA-3s but 98th percentile for CA-1s. Interestingly, a 50/50 "only" put you in the 98th percentile of CA-3s last year. That was not the case for previous years. I think you have the rise of QBanks to thank for this.

For budding CA-1s who--for one reason or another--want to knock this test out of the park, I can only echo what has been said above. TrueLearn is great. Take notes for each question unless you feel you have mastered that topic. There is obviously good information throughout the explanations. Also, a general text book is key. Take notes and absorb the information.

 

[deleted171991]

Hey all,

CA-1 here, so I just started the truelearn Qbank for ITE (<200 Q done) and im finding huge gaps in knowledge, sometimes scoring 30% in a given block.
Has anyone else experienced this? any recommendations on how to improve? Should I just keep doing questions? I intend to do the QB twice.

I have M&M and baby miller but having a hard time reading and doing QB with my schedule.

You're only a CA-1, a baby.

"There is a reason anesthesia residency is 3 years" - unknown ancient Chinese philosopher

 

[ToKingdomCome]

How's ITE studying going? CA-1 here. Truelearn still kicking my ass have about 40% done. How similar are the Truelearn questions to the ITE? Hoping to score > 75%ile

 

[Morzh]

Truelearn style is similar to ITE. If anything TL questions are higher quality than the real thing - the ITE is not a particularly polished exam compared to the USMLE or even the BASIC. Look at some old ACE questions available for free (or more recent ones available for $).. those were actual ITE questions in the past and it's been pretty similar the past few years.

For me Truelearn has always underestimated my actual percentile by 10-15%.

My advice is to just keep pressing forward with your studying.. don't stress about your percentile, just focus on identifying and rectifying your knowledge gaps. Not just individual questions you randomly miss. For example you may notice that you keep missing questions (or even get them correct, but on accident) on a particular subject - say neuromuscular blockade or pharmacokinetics (how the heck does protein binding and volume of distribution work again??)... use the search function in truelearn / textbooks / the internet to really turn those weaknesses into strengths. That's the most reliable way to significantly increase your score.

The other thing to recognize at the CA-1 level is that there's still going to be a lot on the exam you've never seen in real clinical practice before.. use Truelearn to get a cursory exposure to those topics, but don't stress about mastering it. Master the CA-1 stuff first.

 

[Status Sciaticus]

How's ITE studying going? CA-1 here. Truelearn still kicking my ass have about 40% done. How similar are the Truelearn questions to the ITE? Hoping to score > 75%ile

I've finished the basic and about 700 of the ITE Q Bank. Hitting 50-60% for most of the tests. doing them in 50 question formats in tutor mode to focus on the learning than the test taking aspect. Hoping to finish out the ITE bank by mid Jan so I can review the topics. I heard theyre very similar to the ITE in terms of format. My upper classmates say they predict it within +/- 10%

 

[ToKingdomCome]

I've finished the basic and about 700 of the ITE Q Bank. Hitting 50-60% for most of the tests. doing them in 50 question formats in tutor mode to focus on the learning than the test taking aspect. Hoping to finish out the ITE bank by mid Jan so I can review the topics. I heard theyre very similar to the ITE in terms of format. My upper classmates say they predict it within +/- 10%

Nice, I’ve finished about 400-500 questions. Scoring about 55% average so far. Meh. Hoping to get 75th percentile but idk