I felt it was harder than last year's. I am taking boards soon, however, I've lost all my confidence after taking RISE. What do you 4th years think?
What did you think about this year's RISE?
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Can't speak to this year's, but I seem to recall certain parts of the RISE sticking out as a final year probably because I was already paranoid about boards and more focused on what I didn't know than what I did.
I'm a fourth year and agree the RISE was really difficult when I attempted to actually take it. Never cared about the RISE until this year, and realized it's a terrible test with poorly worded questions, mediocre images, and ridiculous esoterica.
I'm not too worried. These are the same criticisms people mention about the actual boards. Co-residents of mine who are brilliant and study months to years beforehand come out of the boards feeling like they failed. Of course, they all pass, along with the less brilliant, less hardworking residents I would be worried about.
The test, for all its failings and mysterious scoring rubric, seems to have a generous curve that passes the vast majority who legitimately study and have a good grasp of the English language. We'll be fine. Just give it a good effort.
I'm not too worried. These are the same criticisms people mention about the actual boards. Co-residents of mine who are brilliant and study months to years beforehand come out of the boards feeling like they failed. Of course, they all pass, along with the less brilliant, less hardworking residents I would be worried about.
The test, for all its failings and mysterious scoring rubric, seems to have a generous curve that passes the vast majority who legitimately study and have a good grasp of the English language. We'll be fine. Just give it a good effort.
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They say if you score ver 500 on the rise that you are a cinch to pass boards. Wait until you see your score before panicking.
Furthermore:
Senior pathology resident in-service examination scores correlate with outcomes of the American Board of Pathology certifying examinations.
TL;DR: If you are in the bottom quartile on your PGY4 RISE, you have a much greater chance of failing at least one board exam on your first attempt.
Senior pathology resident in-service examination scores correlate with outcomes of the American Board of Pathology certifying examinations.
TL;DR: If you are in the bottom quartile on your PGY4 RISE, you have a much greater chance of failing at least one board exam on your first attempt.
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The RISE/boards correlation might be accurate for the masses, but don't take "500" as a point of relaxation. If you look at the paper, 600 is much more of a "cinch". I know folks with 500+ on several sections who didn't pass that part of the boards. Of course, I also know folks with low 400's on several sections who did pass that part of the boards. YMMV. Use the RISE as a guide more than a marker.
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Loved the AP part. The images were horrendous but I felt very comfortable with the level of questions. Hoping it's representative of the boards. CP was brutal. Then again, I am not very CP oriented. Special topics were ok.
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Seems like the RISE comes up every year, primarily because it is a horrible, horrible test. The correlations with the Boards is extremely weak. I bet a similar study would show that if you scored in the bottom quartile of the MCAT or STEPs you'd also be more inclined to do poorly on the boards.
Bottom line on the RISE is that your absolute score is meaningless, mostly because not everyone takes the same test the same way. At some places the residents take it together and cheat, at others they are forced to study to be punished, at others they already have all the answers from previous years, and at others they are instructed to do no particular preparation.
I would use the RISE to measure your learning and compare your score to a previous year's score. Make sure that number goes up year to year, and you are within a standard deviation of people in your class.
Every year people say this and I have yet to find any proof that resident's "take the RISE together and talk about the answers." And it's silly to say there's no correlation between the RISE and the BOARD exam. The two tests are not exactly the same, but, generally, those that do well on the RISE are going to be those that apply the same diligence to performing well on the BOARDs.
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. The correlation between the rise and abp exam has been proven and published in peer reviewed pathology journals.
But it is true that rise is not standardized to the same extent. Some take it under proctored conditions. I took it under relaxed conditins where I could take it when and where I pleased. So I would just take it in small chunks when I had the time. This probably inflated my score (like running a marathon spread out over one week).
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read more carefully- I did not say there was no correlation- only that it is weak and the magnitude of effect is relatively small. I haven't read the papers in a while but I remember being very critical of the methodology used.
I remember that the vast majority of people in the bottom quartile of the RISE still passed the boards on the first try. But there was just a significantly larger proportion of those that failed it compared to those in the non-bottom quartile. The correlation between scores was extremely weak.
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