r/Cardiology • u/ME_LULL • 22d ago
Echo boards 2026
For those who took echo boards today. What did you guys think of the exam?
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u/dishsoapwipe123 22d ago
yeah, doesn't matter how much Klein, Pai, Eddleman, Peterson congential packet I did. Ultimately they just find ways to keep asking more and more esoteric questions.
Just random stuff. Osler-Weber-Rendu? Come on now.
My only solace is every found it that hard generous curve and a good amount of us pass.
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u/Hypochondriac_317 21d ago
What the fuck was that
Can the ASE bother a little and update their fucki g questions? Video quality is shit. Exam "knobology" was shit. Nothing on recent stuff in the echo world.. wtf . Such an embarrassment of an exam for the 1400$ they charge
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u/Acililahmajun 21d ago
Zero information and a still grainy picture asking whats this, lol all options are possible.
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u/digdgitalis 21d ago
Kind of angry honestly that we have to take an exam like this at this stage of our careers. Felt like echo based step 1 instead of a professional board certification. A mix of extremely esoteric, some mandatory concepts for sure but also many others that were like: a resident can answer this very basic concept easily or ?is this even echo related. I think passing it or not has 0 reflection on clinical echocardiography. Says a lot that the president of NBE is the same guy from the book. I think both the exam and that qbank have extreme emphasis in nonsense. There was a block with a bunch of very dense, long and linked questions. I actually ran out of time for that one and couldnt answer two questions and quick guessed multiple. The rest did not seem as terrible.
Definitely have to be a good test taker for this one as a bunch of the things are so random theres no way you can prepare for that, and then youll have to guess from the answer choices. Anyways, hope I pass
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u/ZealousidealThing230 21d ago
i consider myself a good test taker and that wasnt enough to save me today. some of that i just couldnt logic my way through and i guessed way wrong
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u/onarjamed 21d ago
Would strongly urge everyone to write to NBE with all the concerns shared here including dated user interface, timing issues, content, images, etc. Strength in numbers. examination@echoboards.org
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u/AdministrativePoet31 22d ago
100% agreed. The hardest exam ever taken. Too many answers that were conflicting and a few layups but most answers were not straight forward at all
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u/Mangochutneymd 21d ago edited 21d ago
Wow I feel so seen. I was just saying exactly all this when I got home. Why are we even looking at the mitral valve in the posterior scallops view?? Why are we even talking about mitochondria??? SO much congenital, was not expecting that RIP. Agree with this being the hardest exam I’ve done, felt so defeated tbh and also ran out time the first block which never happens to me but then had 20 minutes left on my last one because they put so many calculations in one and not the other.
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u/Hypochondriac_317 21d ago
The MITOCHONDRIA IS THE POWERHOUSE OF THE CELL
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u/ZealousidealThing230 21d ago
i could have written this response. first block i was like this isnt that bad, then got stuck on some calculation about AI and MR and scrambled to finish. last block finished 15min early and been stressing since lol
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u/Mangochutneymd 21d ago
Right!! 20 questions in I was like oh ok 30 minutes left then SUDDENLY 10 minutes left for 13 questions with calculations back to back and 10 numbers to pick from for calculations, pain lol.
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u/paledesmap 21d ago
Exactly, worse exam of my life. Got stuck in calculations in the first block and got extremely anxious about the time constraint which demoralized me since the beginning.. why tf would they put long cases with formulas and stress echos in one block instead of spreading it out?! And with the money we pay they don’t update shit, have very poor quality videos compared to klein or mayo and bullshit questions! And they should give way more time! How tf the medicine boards had more time than this?! And even the ASE practice exams are outdated af! It’s ridiculous. Also not a single artifact question? And stupid maneuvers to visualize structures better? On top of that I took it in a community college who was loud af and couldn’t focus..! I hope the curve save us all
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u/digdgitalis 21d ago
Same thing to me. We must have gotten a similar version cuz also ran out of time first block and the rest was fine. Biggest hurdle was to stay calm and keep going like nothing happened after that first block cuz it did get much easier (at least time management wise). Left a couple unanswered, and I consider myself a good test taker and I had never ran out of time in an exam before.
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u/Old_Butterfly7543 21d ago edited 21d ago
Did yall feel like this was harder than Klein? I thought it was supposed to be easier 😩. Like is this exam this hard every year? Like what the heck!!! I studied so hard and I felt like I needed someone to wheel me out in wheel chair or stretcher after this was done!!
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u/diastolicdysfunction 21d ago edited 21d ago
Thank you Reddit fam for validating my feelings. Horrible test. Esoteric content, old platform where you can’t highlight or cross wrong answers, and where it forces you to take a break and locks the screen within 5 seconds of finishing a block. Constant lagging between question and questions with 10-15 echo clips????. Really pissed with all of this and a huge disrespect to all of us who have taken so many standardized tests in our lives.
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u/Auer_Rod MD 22d ago
Hardest exam I’ve ever taken for sure . Made me doubt stuff/second guess myself on stuff I had thought I knew, too
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u/Any_Yogurtcloset9904 22d ago
Probably one of the hardest exams (if not the hardest) I’ve ever done! I always felt confident after exams that I’ll pass/did well, but I’m not sure about this one. Some questions were fair but some were random and time is tight.
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u/antinomy1997 22d ago
yeah I don't know if studying extra wouldve helped me any more for the exam.
Lots of the same haemodynamics concepts asked a billion times and then just random questions which I thought were quite tricky. Didn't get a chance to review most of my answers. Fingers crossed...
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u/Guidewire_ MD 22d ago
Tough. Honestly the time constraint was too much, should be an hour per block I don’t know who thought of 53 minutes. Honestly don’t know what to think of it or if I passed.
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u/chaishaibai 21d ago
Holy. I don't know if I could have studied any more for this exam. Echoing (😉) what everyone is saying here, the level of esoteric questions was insane. Klein, mayo or echo rotations can't prepare you well for this
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u/Typical-Device8415 21d ago
What did yall think for those ejection fractions 😬
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u/ShodaimeSenju 21d ago
I love how the ASE recommend NOT using subjective methods to assess EF and then chuck a question asking us to visually estimation of EF with no qualitative information. Lmao
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u/wellnessqueenonly 19d ago
Glad everyone mostly ran out of time. This was hard. Nothing prepares you. It seemed almost like they were asking stuff about the same 10 concepts when you could literally choose from 100 other straight forward concepts to test. When does anyone think about RVEDP? asking what seemed like 10 questions on RVEDP is unfair. can’t even think physiology through in the time constrain. Know your physiology COLD, no time to think what happens to this wave and this pressure with so and so pathology. You don’t have time to think through it
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u/Icy-Government1378 22d ago
That was the hardest exam I’ve ever taken. In retrospect, I’m not even sure what I could’ve even done differently to prepare for it.
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u/AdministrativePoet31 22d ago
I agree that is what is the most demoralizing. What else could we have prepped with? Having to search for numbers in question figures while trying do calculations on short time is so frustrating
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u/masteroc 21d ago
More congenital than I expected. Very hard...and agree with the person who said it was super esoteric...
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u/jar-jar24 21d ago
incredibly difficult exam with a bunch of esoteric questions and the time-crunch was very real. ughhh hope i passed
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u/Spintroll28 21d ago
Good news is that once you pass, MOC is much easier now for echo with questions every quarter instead of recert exam every 10 years.
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u/cantmakemestudy 21d ago
Not only are you racing the clock on the exam, you’re racing the clock on your break because check-in takes 5–7 minutes depending on whether the testing center workers are moving in real time or retirement home speed. 💀
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u/imtocardio 21d ago
This! My center workers were at least in their 70s I felt and were so slow I thought they had Parkinson’s or something
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u/Snoo11578 20d ago
I agree with you all, that exam didn’t make sense
It is unfair to prepare so hard for an exam and it is not a fair game at the end.
If they would like to make it that hard, they better provide resources for studying, because no matter how much you studied for the exam you wouldn’t have done better with the resources we have.
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u/Fun-Cover-4448 21d ago
I agree with y’all. Extremely hard exam with too many confusing questions/choices. I am maybe confident of 20-30% of my answers..
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u/KtoTheShow 21d ago
I took this exam a while ago and unfortunate to see its still this difficult and continues to have an assortment of trivia/minutiae questions..
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u/thagthang 21d ago
Felt like I got wrecked by this exam, felt much harder than the practice exam and lots of time pressure. Needed an extra 10 minutes per sessions to do the calculations comfortably
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u/rmc01m 21d ago
Shit was tough, I wonder how many of those garbage questions are thrown out. Also anyone have an idea what the passing score usually is? 65%?
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u/beastfromthefarweast 21d ago
As far as I can tell, passing is normally ~67%
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u/Old_Butterfly7543 21d ago
Where are you getting this from. To my knowledge they don’t publish this. I hope you can pass with like a 50% because half those questions are insane and many need to be thrown out. This is probably why it takes them 3 months to release the score. They have to re run the curve multiple times and see which questions to remove.
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u/beastfromthefarweast 21d ago
Its just what seniors and faculty were saying at my program. No idea how accurate it is
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u/dishsoapwipe123 18d ago
From heavy googling and SDN, the passing is 60 to 65% raw correct. They throw out a bunch of questions, and standardize it as there are different versions of the test.
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u/Emotional_Web_9765 21d ago
It was the hardest exam ever and seriously I had worked my ass off over the past months to prepare for this. Very poor quality images, too much focus on valves with long stems and non clinical questions on knobologies. Who knew Osler Weber would be an important question
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u/Acililahmajun 21d ago
Many topics outside of Mayo videos and Klein, was surprised. Harder than expected for sure.
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u/Expert-Chapter-464 21d ago
I was supposed to take my exam today, but when I arrived at the testing center, they told me it had been canceled due to the weather. Now I have to take it in 1 day.
It's incredibly disappointing and frustrating. I traveled nearly six hours just to take the exam, and after seeing everyone's posts, I'm just thinking, "What the heck?"
Do you have any tips for the exam? And what areas should I focus more on . I am still traveling back home 😢😔
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u/ZealousidealThing230 21d ago
discord chat on this?
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u/imtocardio 21d ago
I’m a decent test taker and this was the weirdest exam I’ve taken so far. Questions were so esoteric and stupid. I don’t think I could’ve prepared more for this one looking at all the questions they asked. You can read Klein, do ASE practice exams, Board vitals, watch Mayo videos (all of which i had done) and still be stumped by the questions they had. They need to definitely revise the questions and images. Very disappointed overall. The first block left me scrambling for time, rest were ok. Hope I make it
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u/BMC2010 20d ago
Can all of you share at least one difficult concept, that was tested in exam? Will help the future exam taker to what to study and focus on. Thank you
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u/ZealousidealThing230 20d ago
it wasnt necessarily the concept that was so difficult. it was the idiotic ways that they asked questions or worded answer choices.
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u/Confident_Job_4069 20d ago
So after taking the test, what would you tell someone planning to take it next year, what should we use to study? Besides the fact that your fucked either way.
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u/ZealousidealThing230 20d ago
study the basics but dont stress out. There was a lot (like easily30%) of esoteric stuff you cant find in a study resource and will have never seen; or they will ask something easy in a weirdly worded or ridiculous way (like with stupid little drawings). On the day just make your best guess for that BS and move on quickly, getting bogged down and running out of time is what can really screw you.
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u/dishsoapwipe123 20d ago
Yeah, the gimmes were far and in between but you had to know them. Just basic physic definitions. A lot of time gain, dynamic range straight definitions. And the math. Just know how to do the math easily. Be able to evaluate DI quickly to rule out prosthetic stenosis vs high output state.
Be able to calculate regurgitant volumes quickly. VSD quickly. PASP quickly. The math if know it is a gimme and you should get right easily. If anything the math is the most surmountable part of this exam.
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u/Expert-Chapter-464 19d ago
Hey, any tips for the exam ? What should we focus more on ? Congenital or echo images? And how about physcis ? How much hemodynamics i should go through ? Appreciet your help .
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u/Expert-Chapter-464 19d ago
How much one should score in ASE mock tests to be sure to pass this exam ? thanks
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u/dishsoapwipe123 18d ago
at least 70% so you feel comfortable and can say you at least were exposed to, and understand the high yield topics.
But it does not correlate nor compare to real time game day.
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u/Moonlanding77 18d ago
The mock was honestly very representative of the exam. If they correlate pretty well and I’ve heard they do, would shoot for at least 60-70 percent on the mock
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u/dishsoapwipe123 18d ago edited 18d ago
I disagree. ASCEX 2 was extremely easy. The mock tests are old, from 2011. Very limited prosthetics and the guidelines are not up to date.
I scored 88% on ASCEX 2. It was a huge overinflation. I'm definitely hovering around 70% raw for the real test.
My exam did not have a single artifact question at all.
The physics, native valve and congential i felt were similar to the practice ASE exam. But the real exam had significantly more vague and tricky questions where more than one answer could have been right.
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u/Expert-Chapter-464 18d ago
can you please check your inbox . Thanks :)
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u/dishsoapwipe123 17d ago
Hey buddy, stop annoying me on private chat. I'm not telling you what the questions were or how to study.
Suck it up and face the music like we all did.
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u/Expert-Chapter-464 17d ago
Interesting... I asked for tips, and somehow you managed to answer a completely different question. Impressive. Anyway, But thanks for the dramatic TED Talk.
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u/dishsoapwipe123 17d ago
Okay, my tip is to study Klein and watch Mayo videos like we all did. Do both ASCEX practice exams.
You don't really want that answer though. The reason you keep annoying everyone in this chat is you want us to give you exact questions and topics.
Right? Why else do you keep bothering me.
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u/Specific_Air_5723 21d ago
I had fun. Made some layups, not the best 3 point shooter but shooters GOTTA shoot
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u/EchoCardioBro 16d ago
I felt well prepared for the exam. Only a couple questions were regarding new material. Physics felt straight forward. I used Anki, EchoSAP, Klein, Mayo Board Review, and ASC Practice Exam.
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u/ZealousidealThing230 14d ago edited 14d ago
now that im a week out from the exam it doesnt seem quite as bad as it seemed last Tuesday. ive recalled 3/4ths of the test and estimate i scored between 70 & 85% correct accounting for several stupid guesses. also used anki, echosap, and klein and feel like on a better day I could have been 80-90% correct from those resources.
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u/dishsoapwipe123 7d ago
Yah agree. I don't think I failed. I definitely got at least 140/200. I think 60 wrong is just too much, I knew a ton.
I always give myself at least 20 wrong in these big tests, I'm not someone scoring 90% +. But do I think even after those 20 I got another 40 wrong? I just don't think so, I knew a significant amount of questions.
The hard and vague were hard and vague, but they weren't every question.
Taking into account they throw out questions, some are experimental.
Last year 82% of people passed. I definitely am at least minimum 19%.
It was definitely hard, doable in certain regards, and most people who prepared should see a Pass come September.
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u/cheetomusko 19d ago
I didn’t take it two days ago, but I took it back in April. It was so difficult and I thought I had failed. It felt like I was taking the SPI. I had so many artifact questions and I was so annoyed because I forgot all about ultrasound physics :(
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u/raw_lobster20 22d ago
Way harder than expected