Thoracic Surgery Boards - Resources Used

[Junior22]

With ~3 months left until the Written boards this coming December, what did everyone who passed this exam use? Have heard that this exam is an absolute monster for the better part of a decade now. Trying to find a good outline [textbook] of topics and one or two main resources that people used.

- SESATS for questions and the TSRA review books have been invaluable for the in-service exams, will likely continue these.

- Doty course is over, couldn't get time off to go, but I heard that provides a decent outline.


Seven years later and it's finally almost over, hard to believe. Cheers for any suggestions.

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[ThoracicGuy]

With ~3 months left until the Written boards this coming December, what did everyone who passed this exam use? Have heard that this exam is an absolute monster for the better part of a decade now. Trying to find a good outline [textbook] of topics and one or two main resources that people used.

- SESATS for questions and the TSRA review books have been invaluable for the in-service exams, will likely continue these.

- Doty course is over, couldn't get time off to go, but I heard that provides a decent outline.


Seven years later and it's finally almost over, hard to believe. Cheers for any suggestions.

When I took mine, about 10 years ago now, I used SESATS and the Doty course. For the Orals, I used the Clinical Scenarios book by Kalimi/Faber. That's old now, but it looks like there are TSRA books that are very similar. I also had my attendings sit down and give me practice scenarios over a few weeks before I took the test.

 

[dienekes88]

Oddly enough, I got the recommendation not to do SESATS. In terms of the kinds of questions, the in-service exam is closer in format. The SESATS questions are pretty educational, but primarily if you already know a bit about what's going on.

TSRA review of Cardiothoracic Surgery is a good overview; I supplemented with chapters from a textbook or two about general thoracic surgery. I also read the journal articles that seemed to be recurring on the in-service exam.

 

[Junior22]

Oral Boards grading scheme; does anyone understand how it works, besides that one needs to pass 2 out of 3 examiners? There are two examiners per room, do they give a score on each scenario in the room? Only the scenarios that they give? Is it a pass vs fail? or a fail, marginal fail, marginal pass, pass etc.

How much does one need to get through in order to pass a scenario? i.e. if you provided appropriate workup, made correct diagnosis, discussed operation w/patient etc. brought patient to OR but they didn't let you finish the operation, is that a fail because you ran out of time?


There's very little transparency to how one passes a scenario, or room all together.

 

[boulder563]

I’ve been told you need to pass each room. It used to be you could fail one if you did well enough in the other. I.e. a great cardiac surgeon could be a ****ty thoracic surgeon and still pass, in the past. Now, you need to do modestly well in the cardiac, thoracic, and mixed cardiac/thoracic rooms