For those of you who took boards, I'm curious what was your plan for studying boards, how much did you study (I realize that this is going to be variable). But assuming that you got decent scores on inservice, how much in advance did you start studying, how many hours per day/week? What did you use? Thanks!
What was your plan for boards studying?
- Thread starter EMFreakz
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You know, when I started my new job as an attending (I am guessing you are about to graduate), I told myself I would read tintinalli's from cover to cover. Got to about the urology section and haven't picked it up since.
I had a copy of Ohio ACEP's baord review on CD, which I used. I also reviewed PEER 6, which I had on my computer.
Honestly I felt the board review that I got from Ohio was kind of fluff, I skimmed over it and not sure how much I absorbed. I would definatley do atleast PEER 6.
I did very well on the inservice, and did ok on the written boards.
Q
I had a copy of Ohio ACEP's baord review on CD, which I used. I also reviewed PEER 6, which I had on my computer.
Honestly I felt the board review that I got from Ohio was kind of fluff, I skimmed over it and not sure how much I absorbed. I would definatley do atleast PEER 6.
I did very well on the inservice, and did ok on the written boards.
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If you did average or better on your inservices, you probably don't have to study a whole lot for the written boards. If you feel the need to study, either the Carol Rivers book or a course would be good places to start as they are more systematic about the high yield topics. Reading Tintinalli's or Rosen's covers all sorts of stuff that are unlikely to be on the test. Peer VI is also good.
As far as the oral boards go, if you had some practice with this during residency (hopefully), you should already have some sort of feeling for how you would do. If you feel that you will need extra help, a course can be a good idea. If you did fine, the most important thing to do is to find a buddy and do a lot of cases together. Unlike the written boards, which are a knowledge-based test, the oral boards are performance-based. You already "know" more than enough to pass the orals if you've passed the writtens (the prerequisite for the oral boards), but you need to have practice at getting your knowledge across in a systematic and organized fashion. Find a system and get good at it.
As far as the oral boards go, if you had some practice with this during residency (hopefully), you should already have some sort of feeling for how you would do. If you feel that you will need extra help, a course can be a good idea. If you did fine, the most important thing to do is to find a buddy and do a lot of cases together. Unlike the written boards, which are a knowledge-based test, the oral boards are performance-based. You already "know" more than enough to pass the orals if you've passed the writtens (the prerequisite for the oral boards), but you need to have practice at getting your knowledge across in a systematic and organized fashion. Find a system and get good at it.
I did the board review put on by the California guys (Bukata, Herbert, Mallon, etc) and it was great. Extremely high yield, lots of great clinical pearls as well. You can find them at this website: http://www.emboards.com
Peer 6 was helpful....helped me gear up for how they ask questions.
Rivers was helpful as well. One thing I learned from the California guys that really helped with Rivers was this: you might want to consider spending more time with Book 2 as you get closer to test time. Book 1 has the stuff about Cards/Pulmonary/GI. Though the test has more representation from this stuff, this is also the stuff you've probably seen the most clinically, spent the most time discussing during residency, and spent the most time with in preparation for the boards. The stuff in Book 2, though, might be your highest yield - more likely to actually learn a thing or two and in turn, turn what would've been missed questions into correct answers.
Oral Boards - make sure you practice cases. You know the stuff; it just helps to make sure you have a well-organized format to keep it all straight in that brief amount of time.
Hope some of this helps.
Peer 6 was helpful....helped me gear up for how they ask questions.
Rivers was helpful as well. One thing I learned from the California guys that really helped with Rivers was this: you might want to consider spending more time with Book 2 as you get closer to test time. Book 1 has the stuff about Cards/Pulmonary/GI. Though the test has more representation from this stuff, this is also the stuff you've probably seen the most clinically, spent the most time discussing during residency, and spent the most time with in preparation for the boards. The stuff in Book 2, though, might be your highest yield - more likely to actually learn a thing or two and in turn, turn what would've been missed questions into correct answers.
Oral Boards - make sure you practice cases. You know the stuff; it just helps to make sure you have a well-organized format to keep it all straight in that brief amount of time.
Hope some of this helps.
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My plan was go in cold and take it. I'll tell you in 90 days how it worked out.
Took it today, did the whole thing in about 4 hours. Can't say more, though (it's in the rules).
Took it today, did the whole thing in about 4 hours. Can't say more, though (it's in the rules).
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I'm taking it tomorrow. If I were to randomly drop my copy of Carol Rivers vol 2 tonight, what page should it fall open on...? 😉
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I'm SO not the guy to ask - my Rosen, Roberts and Hedges, and PEER VI from residency are all still in the plastic. I kid you not.
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Don't underestimate the oral boards. A very intelligent colleague of mine got a 5.79, and I only got a 5.81, (5.75 is passing) despite rocking all the inservice tests and the written with minimal studying.
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TOok it Today as well, not bad, I just looked at Rosens 1st part and the peds section
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Don't say any more, because I read the fine print on the ABEM website. When I was a resident, more than one attending strongly stated to not talk about the inservice, as that was a big no-no. However, ABEM specifically states that you CAN talk about the inservice, because it's an educational opportunity. Talking about the qualifying exam (written boards) is strictly verboten (forbidden).
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No, just the material on the test.
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Don't worry about it. A pass is a pass, there are no extra perks for doing anything more on this exam. Most of our lives are spent stressing over tests, and even if we pass, we worry that we're not at the top of the heap.
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Oh, I'm not worried in the least. But I spent a few weeks sweating it out after taking the test. I'm just saying that the oral can still be challenging even if you passed the inservice as an intern.
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Agreed. How you do on the inservice is a good indicator for the written boards, but has zero to do with the oral boards.
For the written I went through PEER, which I think is the best prep, and Carol Rivers. For the oral I also had the Carol Rivers, but the best thing is to practice with a colleague - I did that and an oral board course (AAEM's).
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I did a 1 day oral board course, listened to all the Rivers tapes, read the entire Rivers book (the oral board review book), practiced with colleagues, did plenty of simulations as a resident, and rocked (85-92) all the inservices I took and the written and STILL barely passed, thanks to my brain shutting down for 15 minutes during the test.
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Ay-yi-yi. I didn't do any oral prep board work (sans read the first chapter in the Oral Board Review book by Scott Plantz). My pD gave u sa little handout that was a little helpful, but, oh well. So far two of my fellow residents had taken it, one who took a board course, one who didn't. Both passed. This past fall I along with a fellow resident took it, I didn't take a board course, he did. So we will see with our n of 4 how it goes.
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I took both medicine and EM boards. I studied for medicine relatively hard and did about 200 questions from peer VI for the EM boards.
Passed medicine and I have to wait 90days or less to get the EM boards back.
I can't decide if taking the orals in the spring or next fall would be better. I'm tired of tests.
Passed medicine and I have to wait 90days or less to get the EM boards back.
I can't decide if taking the orals in the spring or next fall would be better. I'm tired of tests.
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I took the boards today. Ended up waiting a year before I got organized.
Honestly I think the year in practice kind of helped in my preparation.
I did the Vegas review course earlier in October. Same guys as mentioned above I think. Honestly, I don't think I needed the course. I did the Peer questions over the last couple of weeks and I think they had the same content. One caveat is that I felt like the boards had many more difficult questions compared to PEER. There were some questions where I really had no clue what they were trying to ask. But overall I felt like I did well. We will see!
By the way Apollyon, I picked C on number 45. 😉
Honestly I think the year in practice kind of helped in my preparation.
I did the Vegas review course earlier in October. Same guys as mentioned above I think. Honestly, I don't think I needed the course. I did the Peer questions over the last couple of weeks and I think they had the same content. One caveat is that I felt like the boards had many more difficult questions compared to PEER. There were some questions where I really had no clue what they were trying to ask. But overall I felt like I did well. We will see!
By the way Apollyon, I picked C on number 45. 😉
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Do they assign you your testing date for orals or do you have a choice? I'm not too clear on this.
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What bugged me was that I got the same question twice - once in the morning, and once in the afternoon. Either I got it right twice, or wrong twice! (But I think I got it right!)
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Once you get your PASS (which you will my brother) for the written, send in your application immediately if you want to take it in the spring. I think I mailed in my oral board application a few weeks later and was assigned the fall oral boards (which I took last month). Honeslty I would have rather just gotten it out of the way but that's just me. Some places, depending where you work, will give you a raise once you become BC, so if you are in a place like that, go go go!!
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Not to discuss any specific testing materials, but does anyone know if there is any hard data on what percentage (approximately) of the exam is field test questions?
I just got back from taking the exam (3hrs30min) and as I always say immediately after a standardized exam; I think I got 100%, I certainly didn't put any wrong answers on purpose.
I just got back from taking the exam (3hrs30min) and as I always say immediately after a standardized exam; I think I got 100%, I certainly didn't put any wrong answers on purpose.
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not sure. i found the written to definately be (as said here bfore) harder than the inservice but not impossilbe. I was always at the upper echelon of the inservice PGY1-3, and thought I would "rock" the writtens as I had the inservice, but, no. i did pass, with plenty of wiggle room, but not with the clear margin I had hoped. I would say no more than 10-15% of the questions are field questions. One of the oral board scenarios is a field scenario, so you have 2 multi-case scenearios and I think it was 5 single encounters, which would make the field/real to be around 20%.
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You don't have to decide 😉 they will decide for you.
They assign the season, date and time of your orals.
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No, no, have you already forgotten, Quinn 😀 : Once you get your PASS they randomly assign you to spring or fall, THEN you have to send a form back, whether you ACCEPT that assignment.
So my letter in December said : Congrats you have passed, you'll be assigned the spring or fall, you'll hear from us in Jan. Then in Jan I got the letter: Congrats you have been assigned spring, date:x, to accept please send us back this form and MORE MONEY. 😉
My buddy got a letter shortly after: Congrats, you have been assigned fall - we will tell you the date later.
People say that it matters WHEN you sent in your INITIAL app for the written exam in (early=spring, late=fall), but I can say from experience that it DOESN'T WORK either. It really is random! 🙄
