How to Boost Your CREOG Exam

CREOG stands for Council on Resident Education in Obstetrics and Gynecology. The exam is a national subspecialty test given to all or any ob-gyn residents annually, usually on January 25-26. It’s supposed to be used for self-assessment and residency program assessment. The reality is you almost certainly need to do well to get into a competitive fellowship.

The first strategy is to spot what you don‘t know. The secret is to go through a curriculum and identify what you don’t know—not what you’re weak at—but what you don’t know. As you start to review for an OB/GYN exam, you’ll find that there are areas you’re comfortable with. Because you’re confident in obstetrics, you spend less time reviewing it. This is often one of your known knowns—you know that you simply see the information. Those topics where your understanding is poor are unknown. Because you’ll be able to recognize this specific deficiency, you’ll be ready to target your learning. Unknown unknowns, however, are unexpected because you don’t know they exist. The way to supercharge your CREOG Exam or Qualifying Exam score is to spot your unknown unknowns.

The second strategy is to take advantage of human error. Humans write tests, and humans make errors. By listening to five sorts of flaws that question writers make, you’ll narrow down an answer option to either the correct answer or to a 50/50 probability, even if you don’t know anything about the subject.

A question is formed up of the stem and, therefore, the lead-in. The stalk contains the small print of the problem like the clinical presentation, past medical record, and laboratory results. But, the critical part of the question is the lead-in. The question writer uses the lead-in to seek out out what you recognize or don’t know about the subject within the stem. But, it’s also where question writers make errors. By applying fundamental grammatical analysis, you’ll be able to identify the right answer or at least narrow down the solution choices without knowing anything about the subject.

Pay attention to grammatical cues. One or more answer choices (distractors) don’t follow grammatically from the lead-in. Specialize in sound cues. One or more answer choices don’t logically fit in with the other options.

Once you understand the goal of the question writer to make answer choices that are supposed to discriminate knowledge, it’s easier to take advantage of technical flaws and improve the chances of getting a question correct. Search for answer choices containing absolute terms. Terms like “always” or “never.” When utilized in the solution options, these terms usually indicate an incorrect answer because they can’t hold up to scrutiny in all situations. Keep an eye fixed out for an extended correct answer. The correct answer is longer, more specific, or more complete than the different options. Notice when a word repeats. A word or phrase is included in the stem and within the correct answer.

When you combine these two strategies, you’ll be ready to increase your CREOG Exam or ABOG Qualifying Exam score and increase the likelihood of passing the exam.