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Correlation Between Question Bank Usage and In-Training Exam Scores for Anesthesiology Residents
Daniel P Walsh1, Nanaama O'Hene1, Vanessa T Wong1
1is the Associate Residency Program Director in the Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, the Medical Director of the Intensive Care Unit at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Plymouth, MA, and an Assistant Professor of Anaesthesia at Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA; is a Staff Anesthesiologist at Jersey Shore Anesthesiology Associates, Neptune City, NJ; is a Project Manager in the Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA; is the Residency Program Director in the Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, and an Assistant Professor of Anaesthesia at Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
Background:
Trainees and educators spend significant effort in preparing for the anesthesiology In-Training Exam (ITE). We investigated how usage of a question bank (Qbank) among anesthesiology residents correlates to ITE performance.
Methods:
After gathering the number of Qbank questions completed by residents and their ITE percentile scores for 3 years, we categorized the number of questions completed by each resident each year as follows: 0-100, 101-500, 501-1000, 1001-2000, >2000. We categorized ITE score percentile for each resident each year as follows: 0-10, 11-25, 26-50, 51-75, 76-90, >90. We then performed a nonparametric regression analysis of (1) ITE score on the different categories of number of questions completed and (2) number of questions completed on the different categories of ITE score.
Results:
ITE scores for residents who completed >500 questions were significantly higher than for residents who completed ≤500 questions. Those who completed <100 questions averaged <30th percentile on the ITE. The number of questions completed by residents scoring >10th percentile was significantly higher than residents scoring ≤10th percentile. Residents scoring >90th percentile on the ITE completed significantly more practice questions than other residents, averaging >1000 questions.
Conclusions:
ITE scores were significantly different between residents who completed a low number of questions and residents who completed a high number of questions. Further work should investigate other factors that may contribute to exam performance.
