Primary board certification resources and preparation

[clinicallabguy]

I didn't find any threads about preparation for the primary board certification.

I'm currently PGY5 and one year from written boards. What do people like in terms of resources to prepare for the written exam?

Is boardvitals good quality? Do you think it prepared you?
How about the Osler videos (most recent from April 2018)?
Is ENT Board Prep by Patel good?

My reading materials consist largely of Bailey's, Pasha, KJ Lee, Iowa website, and pubmed articles. As well as various other texts. I just wanted to hear what other people who have sat for the boards think helped them prepare.

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[Pir8DeacDoc]

Do your regular reading during the year. For boards, I used pasha and Lee. With bailey's for more depth as needed. Fill in gaps as they come up. You know the things that you have to cram before in service.

 

[lildave2586]

I only did board vitals and listened to a few Osler lectures. I would look at Pasha or KJ Lee if I had a question about something or read a section in those books if I felt like I had a knowledge gap.

I think board vitals is quality and certainly worth the money. For what it's worth I did not prepare at all for the orals and managed to pass.

 

[OtoHNS]

Caveat: I took my boards the better part of a decade ago... but I doubt much has changed.

The written exam is basically the same test as your inservice exam during residency. Unless you did really bad on your inservice (i.e. 25% percentile or lower), I wouldn't go crazy studying for weeks for your boards. I'm pretty sure the pass rate is like 95% or higher, and there is no percentile score reported to you or anyone else. A review of Pasha and/or Lee should be sufficient.

You spent 5 years of ENT residency preparing for your oral exam. Although the setting of the exam is kind of weird and stressful, I found that most of the cases discussed were very straightforward. And again, almost everyone passes.

 

[Pir8DeacDoc]

Caveat: I took my boards the better part of a decade ago... but I doubt much has changed.

The written exam is basically the same test as your inservice exam during residency. Unless you did really bad on your inservice (i.e. 25% percentile or lower), I wouldn't go crazy studying for weeks for your boards. I'm pretty sure the pass rate is like 95% or higher, and there is no percentile score reported to you or anyone else. A review of Pasha and/or Lee should be sufficient.

You spent 5 years of ENT residency preparing for your oral exam. Although the setting of the exam is kind of weird and stressful, I found that most of the cases discussed were very straightforward. And again, almost everyone passes.

Totally agree.. The hardest part of oral boards was the awkward nature of it. And the stress of the situation. But generally it was fair and straight forward. I am weak in facial plastics and my examiner was a "tough guy" type, but the rest were fine.

 

[HighPriest]

echoing that written boards are essentially the same as your inservice. Unless you regularly bomb the inservice, just prep for boards in the same way.

Oral boards: mostly straight forward. I definitely had one or two cases that were, in my opinion, fairly inappropriate with regards to what they asked me. However, the lead up questions were very appropriate even during the unusual cases. And I really got the impression that my ability to answer questions about unusual cases were really bonus points. I had a question about stapedotomy in a patient with Paget's disease, and he had asked me about the cellular pathology of paget's disease. I'm not sure that's really an ENT question, but he also didn't really seem to expect me to know it.

All of the lead up stapedotomy questions were very reasonable.

 

[OtoHNS]

echoing that written boards are essentially the same as your inservice. Unless you regularly bomb the inservice, just prep for boards in the same way.

Oral boards: mostly straight forward. I definitely had one or two cases that were, in my opinion, fairly inappropriate with regards to what they asked me. However, the lead up questions were very appropriate even during the unusual cases. And I really got the impression that my ability to answer questions about unusual cases were really bonus points. I had a question about stapedotomy in a patient with Paget's disease, and he had asked me about the cellular pathology of paget's disease. I'm not sure that's really an ENT question, but he also didn't really seem to expect me to know it.

All of the lead up stapedotomy questions were very reasonable.

Yes, I remember hearing that if you get any weird questions during your oral boards, you've already passed.

 

[HighPriest]

I actually went to the Osler course before taking my boards (I was in the Army, and they paid for it, so why not?)

I'll preface by saying that my residency had a very strong didactic program. we met for a whole day, weekly and did board prep-style grillings. Every week for five years. All of our residents generally scored in the top 25-30% on inservice exams.

So, that being said, I don't think Osler really prepared me for much. It was definitely thorough, and it helped my confidence, and perhaps that was worth the money in-and-of itself. But the information wasn't new. I certainly didn't have any epiphanies. But if you can listen to the audio, that's nice, if for no other reason than to make you feel like you're doing something.