Today’s inane image of the day:
I took my anesthesia critical care medicine board examination on October 9, 2021 – a significant delay from my graduation from my fellowship in June 2020 because of pandemic restrictions. It was a different experience studying for this exam because I was working as an attending at that point and this board exam doesn’t have as “straightforward” of resources to use [e.g. BASIC/ADVANCED/ITE = TrueLearn + review book]. Also, it feels weird to have to study for yet another exam when you’re finally DONE with training.
May 2026 Update
My prior study posts have included pass rates for the board exams and I think it’ll be good to share that for our Anesthesia Critical Care boards [from this ABA document]:
It’s interesting to see the pass rate slowly declining. It looks like my year was still closer to the 90% range but the 79% and 80% pass rates seems a bit alarming. I wonder if it has to do with the graduates, the exam, or the preparation?
Anyway, in the video above, I go over the format of the exam [200 questions, 4 hours… same formula as always], one big surprise I noticed about this exam, and the resources I *attempted* to use to study.
Some important documents directly from the ABA website:
▸ Content outline: https://theaba.org/pdfs/CCM_Content_Outline.pdf
▸ Blueprint: https://theaba.org/pdfs/CCM_Blueprint.pdf
▸ Sample questions: https://theaba.org/pdfs/CCM_Questions.pdf
The resources I used [all question banks, essentially]:
▸ Critical care medicine review 1000 questions and answers: https://amzn.to/3QCHdbB (~$100)
▸ SCCM review – Self-Assessment Adult Multiprofessional Critical Care (227 questions) ($225-280) https://www.sccm.org/Education-Center/Educational-Programming/Multiprofessional-Critical-Care-Review/Multiprofessional-Critical-Care-Review-Adult/Multiprofessional-Critical-Care-Review-Adult-Reso
▸ CHEST SEEK critical care medicine collection (470+ Questions) ($439-699)
https://www.chestnet.org/store/products/standard-products/apps/seek-library
In the video, I talk about a Google spreadsheet that I used to keep track of my study progress and to sort of motivate me. This is what it looked like [get ready to laugh out loud]:
As I alluded to earlier, this felt like a weird exam to study for, but I found some questions and somehow got through it. I’m glad to be done with the board certification process!
Graphics created with Canva: https://fave.co/3oUtdgg
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