the pass machine Archives - The Pass Machine

Finding The Sweet Spot On What To Study

May 24, 2019 by Robert Sheeler, MD Leave a Comment Categories: All Posts, How to Prepare For Your Board Exam Tags: board exam study material, board exam study prep, bob sheeler, dr robert sheeler, how to study for the boards, the pass machine, what to study for boards

It turns out, there are several different types of “sweet spots” you should know about when you are picking what to study for your board exams. Some of them have to do with the types of material that the board focuses on, and some that the board avoids. Others have to do with the timeliness of the material, both in terms out how recent it is and how relevant it is to current practice. Brand new material tends to be… READ MORE

Treatments in Specific Populations – Family Medicine

May 17, 2019 by Jack Krasuski Leave a Comment Categories: All Posts, Family Medicine Tags: family medicine, family medicine board prep, preparing for the family medicine boards, the pass machine, treatments in specific populations

A large percentage of questions on the board exams are based on treatment interventions, as an appropriate treatment is what a patient seeks from a physician. Three major facets of treatment are tested on board exams: Treatment algorithms Treatments for specific variants of disease and patients belonging to specific populations Details regarding particular treatment interventions This post focuses on selecting the appropriate treatment intervention based on a patient’s specific variant of the disease or the patient’s specific population. Board exams… READ MORE

Sleep and Memory Incorporation for Board Exams

May 9, 2019 by Robert Sheeler, MD Leave a Comment Categories: All Posts, How to Prepare For Your Board Exam Tags: board exam prep tips, board exam test prep, does sleep affect memory, dr robert sheeler, enough sleep to pass exam, how much sleep should i get for my board exam, memory and sleep, proper sleeping habits, sleep and board exm, sleep and memory, sleep before an exam, the pass machine

Sleep is important for a lot of reasons. One critical function of sleep is memory incorporation. This is when memories go from short-term storage into long-term incorporation. Obviously, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to study all day and then lose everything that you put in your brain because your sleep is inefficient or disrupted. Here are some things that can help your sleep to be more complete, deeper, and more effective. Number 1: Know your sleep number –… READ MORE

Recognizing Zebras In Gastroenterology Clinical Vignettes

May 2, 2019 by Jack Krasuski Leave a Comment Categories: All Posts, Gastroenterology Tags: clinical vignettes, gastroenterology board exam course, gastroenterology board exams, gastroenterology board prep, gastroenterology clinical vignettes, gastroenterology exam prep, the pass machine

The board exams pride themselves on not presenting questions that may trick you. In other words, the questions are fair and clinically relevant. This means that the majority of the questions will be related to a common form of a medical disorder. After all, these are the conditions that most of the physicians spend their days assessing and treating. However, it is also important for the clinician to identify the rare disorder. Hence, the question is, how to differentiate whether… READ MORE

VIDEO: What To Do If You Fail Your Board Exam

April 11, 2019 by Jack Krasuski 2 Comments Categories: All Posts, Coping Strategies for Failing a Board Exam Tags: board exam failure, coping with failing my boards, coping with failure, dr jack krasuski, how to cope with failing a board exam, i failed my board exam, jack krasuski, the pass machine, what to do when i fail

I’m here to talk about a difficult topic with you today. What do you do if you fail your board exam? Below is a transcript of the video: Well, the first thing you should do is to take some time to come to terms with what has happened. When you first open up that envelope and you see that you failed the exam, it will hit you like a ton of bricks. You don’t need to do anything. You… READ MORE

5 Hacks To Get Your Studying Back On Track

April 4, 2019 by Robert Sheeler, MD Leave a Comment Categories: All Posts, Board Exam, How to Prepare For Your Board Exam Tags: board exam study prep, board exam study tips, how to focus while studying, how to study better, robert sheeler, studying, studying focus tips, studying for board exam, the pass machine

It’s easy to get derailed and have your study session go into a tailspin. When you are not having fun, every diversion can turn into a time trap. One thing you can do is invest your passion into learning new material or being totally up-to-date on your areas of interest. Here are five more hacks you can use to keep your studying in the “power zone”. Paradoxically, the best study plans involve time away from study. That’s because things that… READ MORE

Oncology Treatments in Specific Patient Populations

March 20, 2019 by Jack Krasuski Leave a Comment Categories: All Posts, Oncology Tags: how to prepare for my oncology board exam, oncology, oncology board exam test prep, oncology board prep, oncology cme, oncology practice questions, patient populations oncology, the pass machine, tips for oncology board exam

There is a high percentage of questions based on treatment in medical board exams because the reason patients see physicians is to seek appropriate treatment. Three aspects of treatment are tested by specialty board exams: Details of specific treatment modalities Treatments by disease variant and in particular patient population Treatment algorithms The focus of this post is on choosing the appropriate treatment for a particular population that the patient belongs to, or the disease variant. The writers of the board… READ MORE

Recognizing Zebras in Cardiology Clinical Vignettes

February 26, 2019 by Jack Krasuski Leave a Comment Categories: All Posts, Cardiology, How to Prepare For Your Board Exam Tags: board exam prep for cardiologists, cardiology board test prep, cardiology boards, cardiology clinical vignettes, cardiovascular board exams, cardiovascular board test prep, clinical vignette cardiology, practice cardiology clinical vignettes, the pass machine

Every multiple-choice exam question is presented to you on the exam only after being vetted to be clinically relevant and fair. (Note that there are a certain percentage – maybe 10-15% – of MCQs included in exams that are under assessment and not counted in results until they pass muster. This does lead exam candidates to sometimes scratch their heads when reading poorly written questions. These questions will likely be revised or retired.) Simply put, the boards are not trying… READ MORE

Treatment Interventions In General Surgery Board Exams

February 22, 2019 by Jack Krasuski Leave a Comment Categories: All Posts, General Surgery, How to Prepare For Your Board Exam Tags: board exams, general surgery, general surgery board exams, general surgery board prep, how to prepare for the general surgery board exams, surgery exam prep, surgical treatment board exams, the pass machine, treatment interventions

The knowledge of the test-taker regarding the details of numerous treatment interventions gets tested on the board exams. It is important to know the situations in which to select a specific treatment intervention. In addition to this, you should also have knowledge of the details of particular treatment interventions. Therefore, the question is: “how much knowledge should one have regarding the details of various treatment interventions for the purposes of board exams?” There are certain treatment interventions that are delivered… READ MORE

Decrease Study Time…Increase Impact

February 13, 2019 by Joshua Lumbley, MD Leave a Comment Categories: All Posts, How to Prepare For Your Board Exam Tags: board exam prep, board exam study tips, board exam studying, how to prepare for a test, how to study better, how to study for my boards, josh lumbley, study methods, study tips, the pass machine

Whether preparing for an exam related to maintenance of certification, a primary exam of certification, or some other type of important exam, you undoubtedly have many reading materials at your disposal. In these scenarios, our effort is likely devoted to reading and re-reading material again and again. Unfortunately, though, scientific literature actually indicates that this sort of process of learning is not optimal, and may actually take a fair bit more time than a much simpler process—trying to recall the… READ MORE

Sleep and Board Exams

January 31, 2019 by Jack Krasuski Leave a Comment Categories: All Posts, How to Prepare For Your Board Exam Tags: enough sleep to pass exam, how much sleep should i get for my board exam, jack krasuski, preparing for board exam, sleep and board exams, the pass machine, tips for board exam

I’m about to tell you something so obvious you may want to throw something at me. Despite the apparent obviousness, many exam candidates still will make the mistake I’m about to describe and do so for entirely understandable reasons. Let me explain. On the day (or several days) prior to your exam, your anxiety level likely will increase. You may realize you are not as prepared as you would like to be and regret not devoting more time to preparing.… READ MORE

VIDEO: 5 Tips to Minimize Procrastinating on Your Board Exam Studies

January 22, 2019 by Jack Krasuski Leave a Comment Categories: All Posts, How to Prepare For Your Board Exam Tags: american physician institute, board exam study tips, board exam studying, how to stop procrastinating, jack krasuski, procrastination, the pass machine

Welcome. It’s Dr. Jack and I have 5 tips for you on how to minimize procrastination when it comes to studying for your board exam. Tip 1: De-Emotionalize the Job You Have to Do My first tip is based on a thought experiment. I’d like you to take a minute to imagine that you have a clone of yourself, and your clone is identical to you. They have the same bright smile and winning personality that you do. There… READ MORE

Using Rational Statistics to Improve “Educated Guessing”

January 11, 2019 by Joshua Lumbley, MD Leave a Comment Categories: All Posts, How to Prepare For Your Board Exam Tags: board exam prep, board test taking tips, josh lumbley, joshua lumbley, test prep tips, test taking strategies, the pass machine

So, you’ve spent the hours reviewing all of the important details for your exam. You’ve done your best to target the weak areas, spending extra time focusing on topics that you didn’t quite master the first time through. And, perhaps most importantly, you’ve spent a considerable amount of time and effort doing practice questions and exams—all written by different authors—completed with time constraints in a variety of environments. By all measures, you are ready for this exam. Once in the… READ MORE

Recognizing Zebras in General Surgery Clinical Vignettes

January 4, 2019 by Jack Krasuski Leave a Comment Categories: All Posts, General Surgery Tags: general surgery, general surgery board prep, how to prepare for the general surgery board exams, the pass machine

Medical exam boards take pride in clinically relevant and fair multiple choice questions. This simply means the board is not trying to trick you. Most of the case vignettes describe a patient that has a common form of the disease. After all, we as physicians spend the majority of our time assessing and treating such cases. On the other hand, as clinicians, we should be able to recognize a rare condition as well. Hence, the vital question is: How do… READ MORE

I Passed My Internal Medicine Boards On The First Try By Doing This

December 5, 2018 by Kashif J. Piracha Leave a Comment Categories: All Posts, How to Prepare For Your Board Exam, Internal Medicine Tags: internal medicine board exam, internal medicine board tips, kashif piracha, passing internal medicine exam, the pass machine

This blog post is written for physicians who are getting ready to take either their initial certification or recertification exam in internal medicine. I know it is a time of stress and apprehension for you as you prepare to take the test, which is why I will provide you with some practical strategies that will help you position yourself in the best possible way to pass. I have taken one certification and one recertification exam, and I used these strategies… READ MORE

Treatment Interventions on Anesthesiology Board Exams

December 5, 2018 by Jack Krasuski Leave a Comment Categories: All Posts, Anesthesiology, How to Prepare For Your Board Exam Tags: anesthesiology board exam, Anesthesiology board exam prep, how to pass the anesthesiology board, the pass machine, treatment interventions in anesthesia board exams

It is not a secret that the board exams test your knowledge regarding the details of numerous treatment interventions. Besides having the knowledge of the circumstances in which you have to choose a specific treatment intervention over another, it is also important to know the details regarding each particular intervention. Thus, the question arises “just how much detail regarding treatment interventions does the exam-taker need to know?” In every field of medicine, there are certain treatment interventions that are administered… READ MORE

Recognizing Zebras in Anesthesiology Clinical Vignettes

December 4, 2018 by Jack Krasuski Leave a Comment Categories: All Posts, Anesthesiology, How to Prepare For Your Board Exam Tags: anesthesiology, anesthesiology board exam, anesthesiology board prep, anesthesiology clinical vignettes, the pass machine

The boards do not attempt to trick you. In other words, they present multiple-choice questions that are fair and clinically relevant. This means that most of the clinical vignettes on the board exams will involve patients who have a commonly occurring form of a disorder. After all, the assessment and treatment of these common cases make up a major part of the clinical practice of a physician. However, the clinician must still be able to identify the rare condition. Hence… READ MORE

Treatment Algorithms on Internal Medicine Board Exams

November 30, 2018 by Jack Krasuski Leave a Comment Categories: All Posts, How to Prepare For Your Board Exam Tags: beat the internal medicine boards, internal medicine board exam tips, internal medicine board tips, the pass machine, tips for board exams, treatment algorithms, treatment algorithms in internal medicine board exams

The primary purpose of internal medicine board exams is to test clinical knowledge. Questions that evaluate the knowledge of treatment options are therefore commonly seen on these exams. The following aspects of treatment may be tested: Treatment options in specific populations Variation of treatments according to disease variants Details about particular treatment interventions Treatment algorithms This post focuses on treatment algorithms. Treatment algorithms can be defined as a rank order of treatment options that begin with first-line treatments and end… READ MORE