Rise

[mcfaddens]

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Anyone know when the RISE exams are administered?

 

[cytoborg]

Ours will be in May. Not sure if this is universal.

 

[AngryTesticle]

Yeah, I got this strange email about this stupid lameass exam and there were dates in April mentioned. Of course the end of the email said that *if* you decide to signup for the exam....

Umm...yeah, that's a big IF! IF as in "signs point to no if I have any say in it."

Do all first year residents have to take this exam? If so, I am royally screwed cuz this numnuts don't know diddlysquat!

 

[mrp]

May 1-12. Your program can pick whatever date in this range they want.

http://www.ascp.org/member/resident/RISE.asp

-mrp

Yeah, I got this strange email about this stupid lameass exam and there were dates in April mentioned. Of course the end of the email said that *if* you decide to signup for the exam....

Umm...yeah, that's a big IF! IF as in "signs point to no if I have any say in it."

Do all first year residents have to take this exam? If so, I am royally screwed cuz this numnuts don't know diddlysquat!

 

[yaah]

Every resident takes it - you take it first year, but it is more a gauge of the program than of you. They use your score as kind of a gauge of your progress as you go through residency. So doing crappy 1st year is not necessarily a bad thing. When you take it, you also are asked a question if you have even had any training in the area before. Thus, before the CP section it asked if I had done any heme, blood bank, chem, etc.

So this way if you do really badly the first time, you can improve. The program will be happy because it means they are responsible for your improved score. 😉

Thread on RISE http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=207694

 

[mcfaddens]

Thanks for the input , I remember here earlier in the year they handed out some of the refrences for last years rise exam with the topics covered, i knew the exam was gonna be sometime in the spring but not sure when. I had a feeling that it was more a guage of the programs educational ability.

 

[yaah]

I think there is also an option for programs to do the RISE in October or something instead, but I don't know if many do it.

 

[Mrbojangles]

Are there practice test questions for the RISE available? Are the RISE questions similar to questions on the boards?

The only thing I'm looking forward to is that the attendings have to do the dirty work for one day .

 

[yaah]

Apparently they are similar questions to the boards - RISE scores correlate well with board scores (i.e. do well on RISE, do well on boards).

The way it works now, however, is that it is done online and you can generally do it at any time over a week period. There may be programs out there that have everyone do it at a designated time, but I think many aremoving towards just doing it when you have time.

I don't think there are really practice questions available. And besides, as said, how well you do is not that critical, it is more a gauge of your knowledge and abilities and improvement. If you cheat or study specifically for it, your score may be falsely high and be not representative of you.

 

[LADoc00]

Apparently they are similar questions to the boards - RISE scores correlate well with board scores (i.e. do well on RISE, do well on boards).

The way it works now, however, is that it is done online and you can generally do it at any time over a week period. There may be programs out there that have everyone do it at a designated time, but I think many aremoving towards just doing it when you have time.

I don't think there are really practice questions available. And besides, as said, how well you do is not that critical, it is more a gauge of your knowledge and abilities and improvement. If you cheat or study specifically for it, your score may be falsely high and be not representative of you.

RISE is written by completely different people than those who submit ?s to the ABP. RISE is adminstered by the ASCP and is heavy on midwest med schools for contributors. It is very very different than the ABP IMO, so I wouldnt bother doing RISE exams for board prep. First off, there is no glass slide component on the RISE nor a virtual slide session. Secondly, RISE seems to have a crazy amount of forensics. So the emphasis of the 2 arent the same. Lastly, RISE is definitely not mandatory as a resident. Your program may demand you take it but that has nothing to do with becoming BEBC. I maybe took it once as a resident. And I would say it would not at all be representative of your boards (which arent scored, they are pass/not pass but you can receive a letter that says "you are in the top third of test takers", they once gave you a %le rank, no longer) as alot of folks dont read much in years 1-3, then cram like crazy their last 3-4 months before the test. Heck, alot of people dont even take em until after residency is well over.

IMO, they are waste of a work day. Time better spent actually signing out cases and reading.

 

[yaah]

I have heard people mention your points before - although the fact remains that RISE score generally correlates with board score.

And in my score report last year I did get a summary of where my score related to others around the country (i.e., you are scoring at the level of a 2nd year resident, etc etc).

And as to whether it is mandatory, I am not sure how different programs look at it, but they get pissed at us if we don't take it here. That may have to do with the fact that one of our attendings puts a lot of the questions together however...

You're right about the forensics though and the cytology

 

[LADoc00]

I have heard people mention your points before - although the fact remains that RISE score generally correlates with board score.

Hmmm you are missing my main point, there is no way RISE scores can correlate with board scores because the ABP boards are NOT scored. It's pass/not pass. Since there isnt a score equivalent on RISE that says this is pass on the boards, what exactly is being "correlated"?? The fact doesnt remain, as the supposed "fact" simply doesnt exist.

Hope that makes sense.

 

[yaah]

No, it does make sense. I understand your point. But there are scores on the Boards - they don't matter and probably are not released, but the responsible parties no doubt track them. I dunno, but attendings here (some who write questions for the RISE, some who are on the committee who writes the board exam) maintain there is a correlation between performance.

 

[AngryTesticle]

Lastly, RISE is definitely not mandatory as a resident.

I got this impression as well. In the email that we received recently, it said that IF we wanted to take the exam, the department would cover the costs. I certainly don't feel comfortable taking this exam this year and I certainly don't intend to...unless somebody forces me to take it. Then I'll sign up. But as of now, I have disregarded and deleted the email and will think of the RISE exam no further for the time being.

 

[Mrbojangles]

I haven't gotten the official notice but I believe we have to take it. In fact I didn't know that it could be an option in other programs. My Amazon search on question review books for the Boards didn't bring up many choices. Anyone recommend the Sternberg's (assume it's surg path only) or the Roberts?

 

[mrp]

My understanding is that scoring well on the RISE (i.e. in the 5th year level) is highly correlated with passing boards. I believe this is information from the people that administer the RISE exam, who compared the scores of a collection of residents that took the RISE then subsequently took the boards.

Obviously, it's just my opinion, so take it with a grain of salt, but I would reccomend everyone to take the RISE. What do you have to lose other than a few hours? If you do well, then you know you are doing things right with regards to studying. If you do poorly, then you can show a dramatic improvement the next year. Even if you feel uncomfortable now, you will most likely be surprised by how much information you have picked up. To my knowledge, no one gets kicked out of residency over a bad RISE score. It also helps your department determine what they need to fix in their didactics.

-mrp

I got this impression as well. In the email that we received recently, it said that IF we wanted to take the exam, the department would cover the costs. I certainly don't feel comfortable taking this exam this year and I certainly don't intend to...unless somebody forces me to take it. Then I'll sign up. But as of now, I have disregarded and deleted the email and will think of the RISE exam no further for the time being.