January 2022 Tip of the Month

JANUARY ABOG 2021 Certifying Oral Exam Candidates

The holidays are finally over. The exam has been hanging over you and dampening all your holidays. Strengthen your strengths and review your review. Pull out your Test Topics Manual from the course. Fill in the answers and voila! -you have condensed the 1400-page binder into 148 pages!

Test Taking Technique  
Just remember 70%. That’s all you need to pass the exam. You do not need, nor will you likely get, 100% of the questions correct. The questions will come at you in rapid-fire succession. Often the examiner will push you until you finally don’t know the answer. Don’t misinterpret this as failing the question. On the contrary, you probably passed it long before, but the examiner may simply want to explore the depth of your knowledge or at least reassure himself that you will acknowledge your limitations. Let the previous question go and focus on the question at hand. Do not let the worry about whether you got the last question correct distract you, and thereby compromise you are getting a sure pass question correct. Envision your last answer just rolling off your shoulder and dropping onto the floor. When you gleefully skip out of the room, you will leave a heap of answers on the floor.
Remember, just 70%

ABOG 2022 Certifying Oral Exam Candidates

Happy New Year! Make a resolution to not procrastinate preparing for your exam. Starting February 24^th, you can apply for your exam at www.abog.org. Your application and the application fee of $840 are due by May 3^rd. If you delay, you will incur stiff late fees. By now, you should have a system for organizing your data for the case list. For all GYN patients, collect the H&Ps, operative notes, pathology reports and discharge summaries. For all OB patients, keep a file of the prenatal forms, delivery notes, discharge summaries, and postpartum notes. Since you’re now halfway into collecting your cases, it’s time to start adding to your Office case list. Keep a list of all 40 categories on your desk. Collect no more than 6 names for each category. The bread & butter categories will fill up quickly. Start keeping an eye out for those categories that you want to talk about. It is unlikely, and unnecessary, to fill all 37 categories. Remember, you can only apply two patients per category. Just keep a tickler file for OB, GYN, and Office. Take a stab at entering the data on the case list forms - just use your common sense. Rest assured; we are offering our signature Case List Construction Workshop on April 19^th. For those who are OCD, order your copy of Pass Your Oral OB/GYN Board Exam by Dr. Das, for a complete step-by-step guide. You have been collecting cases since the summer. It’s cold outside and you’ve nothing better to do, so start the good habit today of collecting and entering cases on a weekly basis at a minimum. If you’re really a "early go-getter", come to our April 19-24 Board Review Course. The advantage of starting in the spring is that you have a good idea of the topics on your case list. You don’t have to do any heavy-duty studying until August, as your only priority from May to August 1^st is to get that case list done and to design your strategy. However, once August 1^st hits there is precious little time to study if your exam is the first month in October (week of 17-20th). Thus, coming to a review course in the spring greatly facilitates exploding out of the starting block.

Case List Construction Tip
One of the most common mistakes is “column confusion” on the Office and Obstetrics case list. On the Obstetrics case list, the columns most confused are “Complications of Antepartum, Complications of Delivery or Postpartum, and Operative Procedures and/or Treatment”. Complications up to and including labor should go in the Antepartum column. Anything that happens in labor and postpartum should then go in the Complications of Delivery or Postpartum, including disorders of protracted labor, instrumented deliveries, shoulder dystocia, retained placenta, etc. On the Office Practice case list, the columns most confused are the “Diagnostic Procedures, Treatment, and Results” columns. The Results column is intended to be the result of your treatment, NOT the results of your procedures. Put the results of your procedures in parenthesis after the procedure IN the Diagnostic Procedure column.

For example:

Chief Residents Planning a Subspecialty Fellowship

Subspecialty fellows are permitted to select 20 patients from their Chief resident year for their off-specialty case list. In other words, GYN Oncologists, REI and Urogynecologists will need an OB list and MFMs need a GYN list. Therefore, make sure to hold onto that residency log! Refer to the ABOG Bulletin as to how those 20 patients are selected. To be on the safe side, we recommend you collect at least 30, so you can strategically select the final 20 later. For those patients, keep a file of the following: for the GYN patients, collect the H&Ps, operative notes, pathology reports and discharge summaries. For the OB patients, keep a file of the prenatal forms, delivery notes, discharge summaries, and postpartum notes. Don’t worry at all about the office patients, as you may compile these only during your fellowship. A word of caution – right now you are at your peak for general OB/GYN knowledge. Believe it or not, two years from now your knowledge base will regress to that of an intern. Yes, it’s true -if you don’t use it, you lose it. So those cool, esoteric, bizarre, once-in-a-career cases now will be a nightmare to defend later. Your greatest allies are your junior residents. If they can’t easily defend the case, cease, and desist and “go fish” for another.

Subspecialty Fellows Planning for their 2022 ABOG General Certifying Oral Board Exam

You can now sit for your general certifying oral boards anytime during your fellowship. Unfortunately, it’s true -if you don’t use it, you lose it, so try to persuade your fellowship director into letting you take your exam in your first year. If you neglected to collect cases in your off specialty from your chief year, begin to piecemeal how to gather those cases from your residency institution. GYN Oncologists, REI and Urogynecologists will need an OB list and MFMs need a GYN list. If you currently must take call for these off services, you can use those cases. If you are retrospectively collecting cases, go with your comfort zone. Dang, how could you have forgotten so much in such a short time? Go with the bread-and-butter cases. Remember this is your general boards. We recommend you chose those cases that reflect high-yield topics. Our Test Topics Manual and Pass Your Oral OB/GYN Board Exam by Dr. Das are excellent step-by-step guides.  Our review course is ideal for sub-specialists. Now that ABOG has moved the exam dates up to the fall of 2022 (Oct-December) it’s too risky to wait until a few months before your exam, so come to our April 19-24 Board Review Course. For the past five years, we’ve covered 99% of exam topics! We’ll spoon feed you on your off-specialty topics and you will not need to go beyond your course binder.

AOBOG & ABOG 2022 WRITTEN Exam Candidates

The ABOG July 25^th, 2022 exam is now closed. Have you reserved your Pearson-Vue testing center yet? The last day to reserve a seat is April 26^th. The AOBOG April 30 – May 7, 2022 exam application is due March 16^th (April 15^th if you want to pay a penalty late fee). You must be candid as to what you can/cannot accomplish on your study plan. If you haven’t already finished, prioritize those must know topics. Our Test Topics Manual is a great resource to show you the way, as it covers 90% of the exam topics.  Limit yourself to a clinical review and don’t forget to budget time for written questions on each topic. We strongly advise taking a review course; our next course is April 20-24, 2022. There is precious little time to wade through the volumes of material to figure out what to prioritize. Obviously, we’re a bit biased, as we feel we have the ideal course; however, you should look for the following features: You want a faculty with extensive speaking experience. The fact that they research and publish is irrelevant, as their lectures should be based on ACOG clinical guidelines. The faculty especially needs to be knowledgeable in written exams. Every ABC lecture concludes with written questions. For those who have traditionally struggled with written exams, or if you have failed the written board exam, you cannot continue with modus operandi. It didn’t work before, so why set yourself up for the same outcome? We have found that knowledge is rarely the problem. You couldn’t have made it this far is that was the case. It’s typically a processing problem. Our Test Taking Skills Online Course teaches you the CQRPE methodology of test taking.

Test Taking Technique
The result for the 2022 ABOG Qualifying Exam will be reported by end of September 2022. The result will be reported as Pass or Fail but candidate will also have the opportunity to get a list of percent scored in each of the major topic areas on their ABOG personal Page. Thus, one parameter to gauge or predict Board exam performance is the CREOG in-service-training exam. Until now, there has been no incentive to track their correlation, especially since the questions aren’t the most representative in the format like those on your board exam.
However, now you MUST take them seriously, especially if you are a Chief Resident. They are at the end of this month. The best way to test your stamina for the six-hour CREOGs is with our Practice Test. We suggest NLT 2 weeks before the exam.
Unfortunately, you don’t get your CREOG results until March, but they may be the perfect reality check to motivate you to get crack in’. Check your past scores. The magic # is > 200.

AOBOG 2022 ORAL Exam Candidates

The first application deadline is December 27^th with a $3275 exam fee. The final application deadline is January 3^rd with an additional late fee of $250. Since your exam is before our spring review course we recommend you launch your studying with one of our Home Study Packages which provides 95% of current core topics. You will receive unlimited access to our course recordings along with strategy videos created just for the AOBOG candidate. As you get closer to your exam, we will schedule your one-on-one mock sessions with our DO faculty.

Test Taking Technique
Remember this is an oral exam, so you must practice articulating out loud. Our Structured Cases eerily simulates the exam topics and setting. They not only give you the format but more importantly, the answers, so you can learn the expected depth and breadth of your answers. They are so easy to conduct, and your mock oral examiner doesn’t even need medical knowledge. We advise against using your mother as an examiner because once she learns the format, she’ll be torturing you all the time with her offers to “help.”

ABOG Maintenance of Certification (MOC)

All 45 articles were due December 15^th, even for those of you who also took your written exam this year. I know a rare few of you haven’t even done any. If you’re desperate, you need to pass 80% of 120 questions, so that’s only 30 of the 45 articles; however, you only get 25 Category I CME credits. The holidays are rushed enough without having to also complete the articles while waiting in the shopping line. You don’t want Santa to stuff your stocking with a big fat late fee! Remember also that you must have enrolled in at least one practice module each year. If you have not, that can also be grounds to yank your certification.

Part III: Secure Written Exam
If you have not maintained at least an 86% average on your MOC articles and your about to enter MOC Year 6 in 2021, you must pass a written exam by December 15, 2022. Incredibly, you get FIVE attempts to pass the exam and can take it practically any day of the year!  Finally, the Board has acknowledged that an emphasis will be placed on both the Compendium and the articles. Come to our April 20-24, 2022 Board Review Course for fun!  This is not the same type of review course from the past. Just as you’ve evolved and practice evidence-based medicine, our course is designed for the adult learner, is exam-focused, and all lectures follow the national ACOG guidelines. Heck, you’ll walk away with loads of everyday practice tips, too.
You can do it … we can help!

Test Taking Tip
If you do have to take the MOC exam - RELAX, the test is only 100 questions and you answer two books of fifty questions.
Generalists get to choose their books or “selectives” for each exam. Subspecialists must take the first book based upon their designated subspecialty. They then have to choose a second book from the generalist’s selectives

   Generalists: Selective Exam A & B (50 questions)

1. Obstetrics and Gynecology and Office Practice & Women’s Health
2. Obstetrics only
3. Gynecology only
4. Office Practice and Women’s Health only

  Subspecialists: Selective Exam A (50 questions)

1. Gynecologic Oncology
2. Maternal Fetal Medicine
3. Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility
4. Female Pelvic Medicine & Reconstructive Surgery

The strategy is in choosing your selectives. The Board gives an itemization of the exam topics. Believe it or not, but it is the same list for the primary written exam and the oral exam case list categories, although the focus, fortunately, is much more clinical. It is well worth going to the Basic Bulletin at abog.org to look through the specific list. The focus for each of the General Selectives is as follows:

Obstetrics – Antepartum, Intrapartum, Postpartum. Gynecology only- Inpatient & Outpatient GYN focus, including REI, Urogyn, and Oncology Office Practice and Women’s Health only - primary care, office GYN, office surgery & family planning focus

Each Selective can include “Cross Content Areas” such as:

1. Safety
2. Anatomy & Physiology, Basic Sciences
3. Genetics
4. Ethics & Professionalism

AOBOG Osteopathic Continuous Certification in Obstetrics & Gynecology (OCC)

The recertification exam has been replaced with the (ARC) aka Advanced Real-time Certification. The good news is that it is an online assessment system giving you the opportunity to fulfill your OCC Component 3 requirements. Each year you are to complete 24 assessments.  Go to the AOBOG website for additional details. 

ABC Tip:
Consider attending our 5-day review course April 20-24, 2022.  This is not the same type of review course as in the past.  Just as you evolve and practice evidence-based medicine, our course is designed for the adult learner and all lectures follow the national ACOG guidelines. Even better, you’ll walk away you’ll walk away with Category I CME hours and with loads of clinical pearls, too.

Royal College 2022 Exam Candidates

Holiday season has arrived, and you will probably want to spoil your loved ones. With the written exam being right around the corner in March and the applied oral exam in April, we recommend that you check out our Royal College products page to help you better prepare. We offer a variety of practice exams and mock orals tailored to help you pass both exams.

Test Taking Tip
For the MCQ portion of your exam, ABC’s Written Question Manuals are a great source as they cover topics such as OB, REI, Oncology, FPM, GYN and Office Practice.  They are not only subject-specific but also topic-specific questions so you can focus on known gaps of knowledge.  Choose from printed or online options.