Unlike the written boards, where you have been practicing the format through standardized exams in multiple-choice format your entire life, most residents are much less comfortable with the oral-board style questioning. This may play a large factor in why performance is always significantly lower on the Certifying Exam than the Qualifying Exam.

Practice any way you can. Use a friend or colleague to help review scenarios. Plan regularly scheduled group meetings with your coresidents or fellows to test each other. If you do not have access to anyone able to practice scenarios with, there are options through review courses to purchase additional mock oral simulations. If using a prerecorded video library, pause after the questions are asked and practice your own responses. Reading scenarios or watching/listening to others demonstrate how to respond can be beneficial but actually working through a scenario aloud yourself is the only true simulation of the exam. Active studying consistently demonstrates superior outcomes compared to passive studying.

Historically, when discussing review courses, pre-pandemic residents would physically fly to a city and attend a seminar in person. They would spend 2-3 days right before the exam watching other examinees attempt scenarios on stage in front of a large group to learn from each other. Post-pandemic, more review courses have been created and they have primarily moved to prerecorded scenarios that can be watched at home on your own time.

Review courses, however, are expensive and it should be noted that their use is debated. Although the majority of examinees will use at least one review course, there is no high-grade evidence to demonstrate any improved outcomes. Despite this statement, we still recommend their usage, particularly with the newer format of online prerecorded scenarios.