Day Before My Last In-Training Exam!

Tomorrow morning at 8 AM, I’ll begin the last in-training exam (ITE) of my anesthesiology residency. My initial lack of motivation to study has been largely replaced by desperation fueled by watching many of the junior residents cramming review books and doing practice questions. I still feel like I peaked last year, but with a year of additional training, much of the tested material has become more ingrained in my fund-of-knowledge. Hopefully it’ll be enough! 🙂

Anesthesiology training encompasses a broad spectrum of perioperative medicine, critical care, diagnostics, pathophysiology, pharmacology, and patient safety considerations. Regardless of a patient’s comorbidities or presenting issue, I’m forced to look at the “big picture”, identify any life-threatening emergencies, know how/why the patient could be optimized, and act accordingly. In the last two weeks alone, I’ve been asked by surgical colleagues for my opinion regarding EKGs, pain management regimens, electrolyte derangements, and altered mentation. It’s nice to be the “internist in the operating room”, and honestly, I’m digging the “consultant” role. As a consequence, our exams cover such a breadth of topics! 😯

We’re allotted 4 hours to complete 200 multiple choice questions which cover roughly 50% basic and 50% advanced topics as the following breakdown illustrates:

ITE Basic Topics (from the ABA website)
ITE Advanced Topics (from the ABA website)

… 4.5 months of residency left! 😀

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