My ICU colleagues and I walked into yesterday’s first-ever administered critical care ultrasound certification examination without much insight about the exam itself except for a very generic content outline. Here are my reflection/impressions of the test.
The exam was all multiple choice and divided into five sections with 40 questions each for a total of 200 questions. We were allotted 54 minutes for each section. Much of the exam was obviously focused on interpreting ultrasound video clips – the test allowed us to adjust the clips’ magnification and contrast.
In hindsight, I think my preparation was adequate, but I really didn’t appreciate how valuable being in the midst of an adult cardiothoracic anesthesiology fellowship filled with learning transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) would help. The exam had more TEE than I was expecting, but these were low-hanging fruit courtesy of the TEE training I’ve received thus far. :-)
I have no idea when to expect the results, but hopefully I won’t have to remediate this $1,000 exam!
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