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Study resources for PAEA surgery EOR exam


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Yes it is the end of rotation exam. PAEA puts them out. I am confused because PAEA puts out "objective lists" with topics covered for each exam but also puts out "exam blue prints" which basically are breakdowns of the test. For instance in general surgery, on their blueprint says 50 questions will cover GI topics, 12 are pre op/ post op and so on. The problem I am having is their objective lists and their exam break downs do not match. They have a women's health section on their topic lists but no mention of it on their exam blueprint list. Yes, i know I will have to know them all eventually but when my women's health rotation is next, should i study breast ca and so on for this rotation? I am not exactly sure. The PAEA objective list is also very vague, as they have topics like "pain" or "rash" and "fatigue" on there which do not provide much direction. Thanks!

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Also EMEDPA, I have a specific question for you. I am in my 2nd year of PA school. Prior to PA school I worked for 3 years as a ER tech after getting my EMT license and loved every second of it. I plan on going in to it when I graduate. During my 2nd year, my first rotation was in the ED which I loved but was hoping it would be later on in the 2nd year so I could fine tune my skills. My last few rotations, I get asked by preceptors which specialty I want to go into and I have been responding with "ED, but I am open to anything at this point" and I feel like after my response they typically don't try to "teach" as much if you will. Is there a solution to this? Do I try and lie and say "I am undecided"? And one more question if you have time. Since I love the ED so much, I realize that my rotation of roughly 6 weeks isn't as much as I would like before practicing. I am leaning towards doing an ED 1 year residency. My only problem is that I am due to graduate in August of 2015 and noticed many residencies start in June/July of the year. My last 3 months is an "elective" rotation. Do you know if it is possible to start residencies before graduation, or would I have to practice for a little less then a year then go into a residency program? Sorry for so many questions, if you wouldn't mind, can I PM you a few other questions I have? Thanks

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Yes they do use the PAEA exams. The program had program written exam until this year, so we are basically the guinea pigs for these exams. So far my first 2 exams were not very rotation specific and I don't believe they were pertinent to the rotations we had.  

might mention that to your clinical coordinator and/or program director.

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Try Surgical Recall for the surgery exam. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I did study. 

 

The EOR Exam Topic List is accurate and the test matches the blueprint. All are available online and I found that google was the best way to find them (search Surgery EOR Exam). I would hope that your program gives you these, though. Only an exceptional preceptor and rotation will be able to get them all covered and even then, some study will be required. 

 

For those not in the know, the EOR basically feels a lot like the PACKRAT and, I assume, the PANCE, but is focused on a specialty area. Around these parts, the raw exam score is curved a few points to take into account how new the exams are. The curve has been reduced year over year and I expect it to disappear eventually as the average normalizes. I honestly think they will be helpful to prepare for the PANCE in just a few short months because it comes with all the advantages and disadvantages that are inherent in standardized testing.

 

As for your August graduation, there are a few EM rotations with September and October start dates, so don't fret. 

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Also EMEDPA, I have a specific question for you. I am in my 2nd year of PA school. Prior to PA school I worked for 3 years as a ER tech after getting my EMT license and loved every second of it. I plan on going in to it when I graduate. During my 2nd year, my first rotation was in the ED which I loved but was hoping it would be later on in the 2nd year so I could fine tune my skills. My last few rotations, I get asked by preceptors which specialty I want to go into and I have been responding with "ED, but I am open to anything at this point" and I feel like after my response they typically don't try to "teach" as much if you will. Is there a solution to this? Do I try and lie and say "I am undecided"? And one more question if you have time. Since I love the ED so much, I realize that my rotation of roughly 6 weeks isn't as much as I would like before practicing. I am leaning towards doing an ED 1 year residency. My only problem is that I am due to graduate in August of 2015 and noticed many residencies start in June/July of the year. My last 3 months is an "elective" rotation. Do you know if it is possible to start residencies before graduation, or would I have to practice for a little less then a year then go into a residency program? Sorry for so many questions, if you wouldn't mind, can I PM you a few other questions I have? Thanks

look at all 22 em residencies start dates as some may work for you. you have to graduate before starting a residency.  It's ok to tell preceptors you don't know what you will be doing yet because you don't. maybe a trauma surgery rotation will knock your socks off or something.

send me a pm if you have other em questions. good luck.

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Good discussion previously about EOR exams:

http://www.physicianassistantforum.com/index.php?/topic/4298-end-of-rotation-exams/

 

End of rotation exam site:

http://endofrotation.org/

 

Essentially these are summative exams in 7 different areas. Likely developed due to a need for programs to provide several summative exams during the clinical year to maintain accreditation. PAEA also likely developed these to provide standardization similar to the PACKRAT exams. Seems like a worthwhile process because there is feedback to the program and feedback to the student. Program can see where the students knowledge base is lacking and focus during senior seminars and also during didactic year for subsequent class. Students get feedback concerning areas they perform poorly, ie History and physical exam, Pneumonia.

 

As for grading the exam, this is program specific. Here is an excerpt from the PAEA site:

For these reasons and others, we are reluctant to tell programs where to set performance bars for pass rates. These need to be established by the programs at the local level through statistical standard setting or other processes.

It is important to note that comparative data is reported based on specific test forms and not across test forms, and the exam forms may not necessarily have the same difficulty level. PA programs should only compare the performance of students who have taken the same form. This will provide the students and the program with a more accurate indication of how the students performed on the different exam forms as well as how the exam forms performed. It will also provide the program with appropriate guidance for making grading and academic progress decisions.

Endquote

Prior to this statement, there was a list of factors that could affect the outcome of the exam. So it seems that it is up to the program to set a passing point and obviously to decide what weight this exam will have towards a clinical rotation.

But to answer the original poster, Surgical Secrets is a great book as recommended. But do you want to buy another book?If you can correlate the contents of the surgical blueprint provided by the PAEA with Secrets, you probably can do well.

The other process is to look at the the 7 content blueprints of the PAEA EOR exams and make a portfolio. That means 1-2 page summaries of each topic correlated with task areas. While it is not easy to make a portfolio of all these topics correlated with the task areas, it likely will help a student pass the EOR exams AND serve as a resource and study tool for PANCE preparation. In fact one PA program used a similar approach and improved their program PANCE passing rate from mid 80% to high 90%.

Last, students should not rely on their preceptor nor the rotation site to provide them with discussion and exposure to everything on the EOR blueprint. Likely they have no idea it exists. Realistically if you handed this to me as a preceptor and told me I had to cover it all with a student, you would be down a preceptor. Also there are conditions on the blueprint that there has to be knowledge of but do not present all the time. For example on the EM blueprint topic list are several rare but got to know about conditions. Count yourself lucky (not for the patient) if you get to see Guillain Barre , bacterial endocarditis or mastoiditis.

Good luck with this. Honestly, if you are having to take these exams and they count significantly towards your grades, you are meeting a rather high standard, much higher than I had to meet 15 years ago and likely higher than some of your peers. PAEA website states over 60 programs and they list some well respected programs as users.

G Brothers PA-C

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Anyone have any tips or resources on this exam? Thanks a head of time

I just took EOR Surgery at the end of August. An it was a @3%%4. Also, keep in mind that 20% of that exam is primary care! So, get ready for a fun 2 hours.

I read blueprints, step up, surgical recall. And wish I read some primary care...

Good luck!

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Same here with regards to the hours. I was wondering if either of you 2 remember if there were many questions on the women's health topics that were on the exam? On the topic list there is a decent amount of topics on the PAEA objective list with regards to breast masses and breast cancer but on PAEA's exam blueprint it doesn't say that them topics are covered on the exam. I have my women's health rotation next and I was wondering if I could put off studying for them until next rotation. Thanks ahead of time. I have been using surgical recall, did you guys find that it was helpful?

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