October 2021 Tip of the Month

ABOG 2021 ORAL Exam Candidates

JANUARY Exam Candidates Think you’re coasting, eh? A common regret is to get caught up in the holiday festivities and procrastinate studying until afterward. Big mistake because. Avoid tricks by sending your case list around Halloween to your following local/regional consultants or colleagues for recommendations in DEFENDING your case list:

 
Make sure you give them a strict deadline, say two weeks; and set a date now to discuss their recommendations. The ABC faculty can also review your case list one-on-one at the fall course or can provide a Comprehensive Case List Review. ABC's November 16-21 Virtual Interactive BOARD Review Course is the perfect time for you. Our research has consistently shown that your pass rate is higher if you incorporate strategy with content. Therefore, our Oral Exam Workshop, which is devoted to strategy, is now included with the course. If you can’t come to us, let ABC make a house call and you can order one of our Home Study packages. Our Oral Exam FAQs itemizes those questions most frequently asked for specific topics. Half of your exam is the case of the day. You are so lucky that your exam is in January, as you can pace yourself and get even more practice with our Structured Cases. This is an invaluable study tool that can be used for self-study or more importantly, have others quiz you so you can practice out loud.

Study Tip:
You MUST know your case list COLD! For every patient, make a copy of the case from your case list, draft a clinical summary, identify the patient management issues, compile the compendium references on the issues, and your clinically oriented review. Viola! Now you know her stone cold. 

Subspecialty Fellows Sitting for their 2021 ABOG Certifying Exam

By now, you’ve experienced that rude awakening of just how much you forgot in your off-specialty subjects. That’s where they get the expression, “If you don’t use it, you lose it”. Our review course is IDEAL for fellows, as we tell you just what you need to know; then you can joyfully repress it again after your test. There is A LOT to relearn, OK, for some of you, to learn. We strongly recommend you come to our Virtual November 16-21 Review Course to gather all the material you will need for 90% of your test. Don’t want to reinvent the wheel? Our Oral Exam FAQs itemizes those questions frequently asked for specific topics and covers ALL of the case list categories. Half of your exam is the case of the day. You can simulate the exam with our Structured Cases.  They are invaluable study guides, especially for subspecialists, so you can challenge yourself with your off-specialty subjects. You can always reach out for a comprehensive case list review on all, or just your off-specialty sections, of your case list for anticipated questions on your cases. Finally, we encourage you to tap into our virtual Do or Die In Dallas via Zoom. Our faculty will ready you for last minute polishing or cramming.

Study Strategy:
Time is short. Remember you are sitting for your general boards, NOT your subspecialty boards. Starting now, don’t study anything in your subspecialty - focus entirely on your off subjects. You do not need to study to the exhaustive, minutiae detail that you are used to for your subspecialty. It will not score you any more points and is a waste of precious study time. Our Test Topics Manual will provide you with a template for an exam-focused review.

For ABOG 2022 ORAL Exam Candidates

You cannot apply for the 2022 oral exam typically until February 2022. However, if you wait this long to enter cases, you’re already EIGHT months behind, since the collections started JULY 1^st. BIG MISTAKE! Call or e-mail ABOG now to get your case list software. Don’t fret about details of how to enter the data. You’ll change your mind at least a half dozen times before it’s all said and done. For all GYN patients, begin a habit of collecting 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. Don’t worry about the office patients yet. Take a stab at entering the data on the case list forms and just use your common sense. Rest assured, we will offer our Case List Online course for you go-getters. However, regardless, seeing is believing and come live for the workshop during our April 19-24, 2022 review course. Start today to create a good habit of collecting and entering cases. For those looking to be even more prepared, order your copy of Pass Your Oral Ob/Gyn Board Exam by Dr. Das for a complete step-by-step guide. Start today to create a good habit of collecting and entering cases.

You can do it … we can help

Chief Residents Planning a Subspecialty Fellowship & ABOG General Oral Board Exam

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. Thus, 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 about the office patients at all, as you may compile this only during your fellowship.

Test Taking Tip:
You’re almost halfway through your academic year and you will never rotate again on certain subspecialties. It’s critical that you track those for which you will need to collect cases and strategically choose those during the rotation. Better yet, keep a list of all the cases so you have the luxury to choose which ones you want to keep. You want your case list to reflect a depth and breadth of general OB/GYN. Remember, once you leave your residency, it becomes a logistical nightmare to go back and collect cases.

Subspecialty Fellows Planning for their 2022 ABOG General Certifying Board Exam

You can now sit for your general oral boards anytime during your fellowship. Furthermore, you can only take the general oral boards once during your fellowship. If you somehow neglected to collect cases in your off specialty from your chief year, begin to piece together 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 take call for these off services, you can use those cases.

Test Taking Tip:
You’re almost halfway through your case list collections. I’m not worried at all about your subspecialty cases, rather your off-specialty cases. Do you even have them? If you do, then well done! If not, begin figuring out how you’re going to get them. Ideally, see if you can get some cases that you actually manage, as in the present, not past, tense. See if you can take call or staff the residents on your off-specialty. If that’s not possible, start coordinating with your past residency to recapture those cases.

For ABOG & AOBOG 2022 WRITTEN Exam Candidates

For ABOG folk, the $1600 application and examination fee are due THIS month - by October 18^th. A late fee of $360 kicks in until November 19^th, followed by a swift kick of a $840 late fee until December 17^th. No applications are accepted after December 17^th. For those of you taking your AOBOG exam, the $1175 examination fee is due by March 16^th. The final application deadline is April 15^th with a late fee of $352. Since ABOG no longer reports your objective score on the exam, you have no idea if you sailed through or missed passing by one point. So, unfortunately, now the only correlate is the CREOG in-service-training exam. If you’re a chief resident, you must use this as a gauge to predict board performance, so you must/should prepare for this. For those wanting to score big on their CREOGs, or to explode out of the gate for their written board exam, come to our November 17-21, 2021 Virtual Review Course. This is an excellent opportunity to gather your exam-focused study material and let us put you on a customized study plan for the next six months. Knowing the content is only half the strategy; the other is applying it. Our Test Taking Skills Online Course is perfect if you have not scored > 200 on your CREOG in-service training exam, failed your written board exam, or have just wished your score reflected your knowledge, this course is a must. In just 2 months you can perfect the CQRPE method and test drive it on the January CREOG exam. Faithful users typically score one standard deviation or 20 points higher! Just imagine the possibilities for your board exam!

Test Taking Technique:
Since ABOG no longer reports your score for the written board exam, the only resource to gauge your performance is the CREOG in-service-training exam. Anyone, not just residents, can take the exam, and it is STRONGLY advised for those who are repeating their board exam. Don’t worry - the results come only to you. However, the one-page application and $125 examination fee is due by November 8th. Either e-mail Darya Valantsevich at DValantsevich @acog.org or call her at 202-863-2554 to register, but hurry because the deadline is November 8th. After much ado, finally the CREOG exam is on the computer. This is good news since the ABOG written exam has been administered on the computer since 2007. This will be great practice, as taking an exam on a computer is very different than with paper and pencil. If too much is at stake and you don’t want to experiment for the first time, take a test drive with our Written Questions

AOBOG 2022 Oral Exam Candidates   

For those preparing for their Spring 2022 exam, you really want to get a head start by coming to our November 17-21, 2021 Virtual Review Course. Did you know that our syllabus even highlights the core topics? We also have an evening session that puts each core topic under the microscope and painstakingly goes potential exam topics. Attend our November review course, then start the New Year with our newly revised Visual Clinical Scenarios. It walks you through 20 visual aids with subsequent answers and an OMT presentation. It’s a great refresher before you sit for your oral exam. There are even structured cases sprinkled throughout with past registrants answering cases.

ABOG Maintenance of Certification

Test Taking Tip: 
You must pass the exam by December 16^th, and you get a total of five attempts. SIGN UP FOR THE EXAM NOW for the day after our November review course. The written exam is on the computer. Many of you have never taken an exam on the computer and it’s not the same as a beloved written. Your old friend, the pencil, is obsolete. Do not wait until the day of the exam to discover this.  Go to www.pearsonvue.com/abog ahead of time for a tutorial to familiarize yourself with how to take an exam on the computer. If you’re still not one to be ill-prepared, try out our computerized Q Banks questions. These are 50 multiple choice single best answer questions covering multiple OB/GYN topics.

AOBOG Recertification Written Exam, Osteopathic Continuous Certification in Obstetrics & Gynecology (OCC)

The Advanced Real-time Certification aka (ARC) is an online assessment system that gives 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. 

For Royal Canadian 2021 exam candidates

"Excellent cours! La documentation est trēs facīle ā suire et ēnarmēment de sujets. Merci!" ELL