What is everyone using to study for the ICU boards? For that matter, how well does the MCCKAP assessment by the SCCM correlate to the actual difficulty of the boards?
Anes CC boards
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I don't have much to say really. There's not a lot of CCM-Anesthesia people in the wild to give feedback on what the test is like or what to use to prepare for it. Either case, this is what I'm using:
1. http://www.amazon.com/Evidence-Based-Practice-Critical-Care-Consult/dp/1416054766/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1403015314&sr=1-2&keywords=Evidence-Based Critical Care
2. http://www.sccm.org/Education-Center/Adult-Board-Review/Pages/AKAACC.aspx
3. http://www.sccm.org/Education-Center/Adult-Board-Review/Pages/Self-Assessment.aspx
4. http://www.sccm.org/Education-Center/Adult-Board-Review/Pages/Comprehensive.aspx
5. http://www.chestnet.org/Publications/Mobile-Offerings/CHEST-SEEK-App
The evidence-based practice of critical care is an amazing book. Up-to-date as of 2010, easy to read, quick, and down-to-the-point. Get it.
The comprehensive critical care book is also very good. A bit dense, ~1000 pages but the font type is very large w/ lots of pics/tables/graphs. You could read the whole book in <2 weeks.
As far as questions goes (I learn more from Qs then books) I'm mostly using Chest-SEEK app on my iphone/ipad along w/ AKAAC and self-assessment. All 3 I've found very, very helpful.
Disclosure: I get no money from these people (I wish). I'm just a lonely Anes-CCM fellow who is about to graduate and enter the real world
1. http://www.amazon.com/Evidence-Based-Practice-Critical-Care-Consult/dp/1416054766/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1403015314&sr=1-2&keywords=Evidence-Based Critical Care
2. http://www.sccm.org/Education-Center/Adult-Board-Review/Pages/AKAACC.aspx
3. http://www.sccm.org/Education-Center/Adult-Board-Review/Pages/Self-Assessment.aspx
4. http://www.sccm.org/Education-Center/Adult-Board-Review/Pages/Comprehensive.aspx
5. http://www.chestnet.org/Publications/Mobile-Offerings/CHEST-SEEK-App
The evidence-based practice of critical care is an amazing book. Up-to-date as of 2010, easy to read, quick, and down-to-the-point. Get it.
The comprehensive critical care book is also very good. A bit dense, ~1000 pages but the font type is very large w/ lots of pics/tables/graphs. You could read the whole book in <2 weeks.
As far as questions goes (I learn more from Qs then books) I'm mostly using Chest-SEEK app on my iphone/ipad along w/ AKAAC and self-assessment. All 3 I've found very, very helpful.
Disclosure: I get no money from these people (I wish). I'm just a lonely Anes-CCM fellow who is about to graduate and enter the real world
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Thanks Femto! A couple of resources to add:
1. http://www.amazon.com/Marinos-The-ICU-Book-Updates/dp/1451121180
2. http://education.asahq.org/samcc
I've heard great things about the Marino ICU Book. Maybe a bit basic, but definitely a good review of the fundamentals and a quick read.
I like the SCCM questions. I also got a subscription to the ASA SAM-CC questions (am hoping they're as good as the ACE questions for anesthesia boards last year!)
1. http://www.amazon.com/Marinos-The-ICU-Book-Updates/dp/1451121180
2. http://education.asahq.org/samcc
I've heard great things about the Marino ICU Book. Maybe a bit basic, but definitely a good review of the fundamentals and a quick read.
I like the SCCM questions. I also got a subscription to the ASA SAM-CC questions (am hoping they're as good as the ACE questions for anesthesia boards last year!)
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As someone who is gearing up to take the exam in August, I just wanted to see if these resources panned out. Any other suggestions or tips? Thanks!
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I studied with Femto, and he and I both passed with the above resources.
Honestly, I left the exam like "WTF?". Of all the tests I'd taken to get this far in life, the ABA CCM board exam has the least association with what I had prepared for via study, and what I had done in training. I honestly feel like a rockstar med student studying for Step I would have a reasonable chance at passing the ABA CCM exam I took.
Honestly, I left the exam like "WTF?". Of all the tests I'd taken to get this far in life, the ABA CCM board exam has the least association with what I had prepared for via study, and what I had done in training. I honestly feel like a rockstar med student studying for Step I would have a reasonable chance at passing the ABA CCM exam I took.
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What is the difference between the AKAACC and the self-assessment book? I just want a good question/answer book akin to anesthesia Hall.
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I used the following:
-SCCM orange critical care textbook
-SCCM self-assessment question book
-ACCP SEEK questions
I took the test post call, after having 80 hours that week. Passed easily. I felt the SCCM questions were most representative of the exam Q's. I have done the SAM-CC questions as well and they are good.
-SCCM orange critical care textbook
-SCCM self-assessment question book
-ACCP SEEK questions
I took the test post call, after having 80 hours that week. Passed easily. I felt the SCCM questions were most representative of the exam Q's. I have done the SAM-CC questions as well and they are good.
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Ok, that was an extremely difficult exam.
Just to offer some advice for future examees: The question stems are shorter than seek questions. There are two sections in the exam, each 2 hours. Any time left over from the first section does NOT roll over into the second one. So feel free to use all 2 hours for the first 100 questions to review any questions you had difficulty with. You get an optional 20 minute break in between that is separate from the 2 hours per section time you are allotted. The exam is hard and seemed way more like Step 2 but you definitely get asked about ICU related topics.
What I did to study:
Reviewed a few of the SCCM lectures (they won't all be worth your time) - I would not recommend this course if you can get your hands on enough questions.
I did the an ENLS course (my fellowship didn't have much neuro ICU time).
I did about 1000 seek questions and the 251 question book from SCCM.
I tried reading the evidence based critical care book but I got bored very quickly.
Whenever I ran into something I didn't know, google helped me plenty.
I definitely recommend doing lots of questions. I felt like even though the SEEK questions are definitely not the types of questions you get on the ABA CCM boards the act of figuring out what and why you got wrong REALLY helped me for this exam. There were a number questions on the real exam about odd minutia that appeared on the SEEK database.
The key though is the memorize the little details. You really can't just have a general idea of how to diagnose and treat a disease. You literally need to know the exact thing that would work best in the clinical situation they give you. For example, if there was a disease process that has a few good treatments, instead of just knowing the three treatments, you MUST know which is the BEST one to use and what are the clinical situations where you can't use choice A and have to move on to choice B or when you would have to use choice A and B together or A and C together (I hope that makes sense). I would use a real disease process as an example but don't want to breach any policies I am not aware of.
Be prepared to review diseases you may see in non surgical ICUs (i.e. MICU, Neuro ICU, CCU etc). I came from a fellowship that was very heavy on surgical ICUs and had to do a very deep review of MICU relevant processes. The only ICU you won't have to worry about is pediatrics.
We'll see if I passed....
--------------------
Edit: I passed and did...freakishly well...
Just to offer some advice for future examees: The question stems are shorter than seek questions. There are two sections in the exam, each 2 hours. Any time left over from the first section does NOT roll over into the second one. So feel free to use all 2 hours for the first 100 questions to review any questions you had difficulty with. You get an optional 20 minute break in between that is separate from the 2 hours per section time you are allotted. The exam is hard and seemed way more like Step 2 but you definitely get asked about ICU related topics.
What I did to study:
Reviewed a few of the SCCM lectures (they won't all be worth your time) - I would not recommend this course if you can get your hands on enough questions.
I did the an ENLS course (my fellowship didn't have much neuro ICU time).
I did about 1000 seek questions and the 251 question book from SCCM.
I tried reading the evidence based critical care book but I got bored very quickly.
Whenever I ran into something I didn't know, google helped me plenty.
I definitely recommend doing lots of questions. I felt like even though the SEEK questions are definitely not the types of questions you get on the ABA CCM boards the act of figuring out what and why you got wrong REALLY helped me for this exam. There were a number questions on the real exam about odd minutia that appeared on the SEEK database.
The key though is the memorize the little details. You really can't just have a general idea of how to diagnose and treat a disease. You literally need to know the exact thing that would work best in the clinical situation they give you. For example, if there was a disease process that has a few good treatments, instead of just knowing the three treatments, you MUST know which is the BEST one to use and what are the clinical situations where you can't use choice A and have to move on to choice B or when you would have to use choice A and B together or A and C together (I hope that makes sense). I would use a real disease process as an example but don't want to breach any policies I am not aware of.
Be prepared to review diseases you may see in non surgical ICUs (i.e. MICU, Neuro ICU, CCU etc). I came from a fellowship that was very heavy on surgical ICUs and had to do a very deep review of MICU relevant processes. The only ICU you won't have to worry about is pediatrics.
We'll see if I passed....
--------------------
Edit: I passed and did...freakishly well...
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I felt like they think I look at dermatology problems all day long. Lots of other minutiae too that I felt had no clinical relevance, and my practice involves a lot of medical patients, too.
I had deferred this test rather than take it last year as I was in the midst of a move. Ugh. Now I wish I just got it over with last year. Hopefully I passed. I definitely did not do 1200 practice questions, but did use the SCCM online review course and self-assessment book and did some of those SEEK questions.
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I had deferred this test rather than take it last year as I was in the midst of a move. Ugh. Now I wish I just got it over with last year. Hopefully I passed. I definitely did not do 1200 practice questions, but did use the SCCM online review course and self-assessment book and did some of those SEEK questions.
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What a weird test.
It seemed like 50% of the questions had to deal with dermatology (usually SJS/TEN), TTP, or sodium.
And I hope that the answer to all MICU problems is to plasmapherese, because that's what I did for everyone.
It seemed like 50% of the questions had to deal with dermatology (usually SJS/TEN), TTP, or sodium.
And I hope that the answer to all MICU problems is to plasmapherese, because that's what I did for everyone.
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Results are out! I don't know how I did it but I passed! I am finally officially done with all exams for the next 10 years.
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Same here. Except for MOCA 2.0. I think CCM re-certification falls into that now, too.
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also passed. I guess my studying mothod worked congrats to everyone.
congrats to everyone.- Joined
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I wonder what the pass rate was this year. Last year it dipped from 90% to 80%
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