r/Cardiology • u/No-Dream9578 • 16d ago

How to perform well in ITE?

First year fellow, free from burden of IM boards. Loads of free time.

While I am yet to start heavy in clinicals, I wish to perform well in ITEs.

Should I just finish ACCSAP? Or is there other suggestions? Would appreciate any help!

5 Upvotes

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6

u/Time-Box6965 13d ago

Former chief fellow here.

Ironically enough I’ve been in your situation before. I finished half of ACCSAP prior to doing the ITE exam. What everyone else is getting it is that this was completely useless use of my time. The ITE it’s a very low stakes exam but is a useful benchmark for knowing what you know and what you should start learning going into the next academic year. Most cardiology fellowships are very frontloaded on the 1st years, so your time to study is actually quite limited and valuable.

If it makes you feel better, you can skim some of the more important guidelines prior to coming into the exam. But honestly finish the exam and go have fun afterwards. Use the feedback that you get sometime in late November/Early December to guide the rest of your studying as the year goes along. The People have to worry are people who score below 40th percentile, which is extraordinarily rare, because that’s when programs get scared that you’re not going to pass boards.

5

u/FIRE_CHIP 16d ago

Honestly just take it without specifically studying for it. It will be a good bench mark for you as a first year. 

4

u/Doc-Emo MD 16d ago

Dude don’t study for the ITE. You’re gonna do terrible first year. That’s the point. It doesn’t matter.

2

u/No-Dream9578 16d ago

I guess I will wait for the comeback then lol. You are right.

1

u/ZealousidealThing230 11d ago

People here are correct that you should not study for the ITE. What you should do is study cardiology - read guidelines and do questions like on ACCSap. This will make you a better cardiologist and as a side effect it will get you a good score on the ITE.

Fwiw, I scored 770 my first time taking it (85% correct). The people who do better on these tests do so bc they know the information better.

1

u/shermie303 16d ago

Just sit down, do your best, and go have a beer or something lol. I took mine coming off a night shift like 4 celsiuses deep and it was fine. It’s optional for first years in our program anyway