 Welcome back to the channel. For those of you who are new around here, my name is Michael aka Dr. Chalini and I'm an interventional radiologist in the great state of New York. No, I'm not in New York anymore. I'm in New Jersey. I'm just so used to saying that intro is way blackface. Disregard my assistant over there. Today, I am a little happy because yesterday I finished my last but could you please stop interrupting me while I'm filming this video? I'm a lot happy. I was downplaying it. I'm a lot happy because yesterday I finished my very first, why do I, I'm like saying the wrong thing. Yesterday, I finished my very last exam that I ever have to take as a physician, hopefully. So let's hit that intro. All right, so I think I posted a video recently, probably like six weeks ago when I took my written board exam for my radiology and interventional radiology boards. And yesterday I actually took the oral component of those boards. All right, so let me rewind a little bit so you know exactly what the heck I'm talking about. So to be an interventional radiologist or to be a board certified interventional radiologist, you must first complete your core examination in your third year of radiology residency, which is, I think I actually vlogged that. If I didn't vlog it, I talked about it. I think it's up here. I'll put the link up here. And in that video, I gave you my thoughts of that examination. And that was basically an exam to test your knowledge on your radiology residency. Pretty much every field of medicine has that board examination. And this was our board exam. So the weird thing about that exam is we take it during our third year of radiology residency, which is also our fourth year of residency as a whole. Because remember, we do a year internship before starting radiology residency. Why you take it during your third year is very on. I think it's because if you take it your third year, then your whole fourth year, you're like the top of your residency, you're ready to go. You can read any study and the program probably likes that because you can read a lot of studies and they don't have to pay and attending to do so. But nonetheless, I took that exam and that is the exam that allows you to be board eligible. So you can take your board examination after you finish all of your training. So I know this is a bit confusing, but basically the diagnostic radiologists who do a diagnostic fellowship, whether it be neuro radiology, MSK, breast imaging, etc. They will take a written examination, which is about eight hours. They took that exam the same time I took my written exam six weeks ago or whatever, and they already got their scores back. I haven't gotten anything back. They told us they're not going to give us our scores on the written or the oral until after the oral is done. But nonetheless, let me tell you about those boards. So after you become board eligible, after your residency board exam, you can then sit for a board examination after you have finished your subspecialty fellowship training. The reason for that is this exam allows you to be a board certified physician. If you pass these examinations, you will be a board certified interventional radiologist. And the best thing about our board exam particularly is if I pass both sections, whether it be the written in the oral component, I will be dual board certified in diagnostic radiology and interventional radiology. So I'll have two board certifications, which is kind of cool if I do say so myself. So yeah, that's pretty much it. We took the written component about six weeks ago, which I literally keep saying over and over again. And that examination is a written component. And it's basically, I think it was around four hours or so, which wasn't too bad when you think of the eight hours plus of all the written exams we take during our life. But it was about four hours or so it involved diagnostic radiology through multiple sections of diagnostic imaging, including nuclear medicine and physics. And that is the diagnostic portion. It also had a separate section for interventional radiology as well, which was kind of strewn about the examination. That way they test your knowledge on diagnostic and interventional radiology on the written exam. Now what sets interventional radiology apart is that we have to take an oral board examination on top of the written exam versus the diagnostic folks only have to take the written component of the exam. They do not have to take the oral component. Their exam was twice as long as ours on the written component, but the benefit is they don't have to take the oral board. So, you know, it is one of those. So yesterday was our oral component. And the way this works, I just want to give you kind of a brief overview because I think people have seen oral board examinations and they picture Gray's Anatomy where they wear a suit. And first I would explore the right side. The attending physician who has been a surgeon for like 45, 50 years is just like grilling them. If you don't agree with my approach, I wish you would voice your issues. I tell them they're wrong. They're like sweating profusely. It's just so incredibly hot in here. And it's just not that way. Well, maybe surgery boards are like that, but the interventional radiology boards are not like that. That wasn't an exam. That was an interrogation. So it's a little different this year because usually you do your oral boards about a year to 15 months after you finish your fellowship. They just started to do this oral board and written exam as soon as you finish fellowship. And it used to be you wait another year or year and a half to take both of these examinations. And the thought behind that was that you get extra practice. You become more versed in interventional radiology. But I guess since we do more training in our residency now with the new ESIR and integrated pathways, they thought that, you know, we don't need all that time and we can just go ahead and crank it out right now. Which at first I was a little like, you know, I don't know if I know everything, but the reality is you're the freshest when you finish fellowship. And I feel the most comfortable taking the exam now. And I felt the most comfortable yesterday. So let's get into the oral component. So it was basically on a WebEx platform or very similar to Zoom or anything that we do now in this post pandemic world. So the beauty is people in last year and every year prior would have to fly to Louisville, Kentucky, stay in a hotel room and then wake up and take their oral board examinations, which I don't know if it was two days, it may have been two days long, which is so terrible. All I had to do was wake up, put on some nice clothes, shower, shave, look decent. And I'll show you what I wore up here. Don't tell anybody I have little slippers on. So I came in here in my office. I had a little webcam up. I took a little picture of the room, stand around and they okayed that it was a good setup. We did four sections, which were about 30 minutes each, in which there's an examiner, usually a seasoned veteran in intervention radiology. And they literally just put up images or question stem and just start firing away, asking you questions, quickly asking you questions. How would you manage this? How would you do this? How would you access that? How would you do this procedure? How would you do it safely on anything in promising interventional radiology? And to be honest, I thought I was going to be more stressed than I was, but I actually kind of secretly enjoyed it in a weird way because it was kind of like they were testing you and you pretty much know most things in your field once you get to this level. So it wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be, but it also wasn't like fun. I wouldn't rather do that than like, you know, go out with my friends, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. And I think that's just from preparing for all these years and you hear this stuff and you do this stuff and you see this stuff over and over and over again. And eventually it just becomes ingrained in your mind and you become good at taking these exams. There were only a few times where I was like, I don't know what the heck you're talking about on some very obscure challenging stuff that I've never even seen in my life, but you know, I think I did okay on the rest of the part. So I find out in about a week and a half or two weeks, whether or not I passed, I also find out at the same time, if I passed the written board examination component, because if I passed the oral and not the written, then I don't have to take the oral again, but I do have to take the written. And if I passed the written, but not the oral, I'll have to take the oral again and you know, whatever happens happens. You have to take it again. You have to take it again, but that's pretty much it. I just wanted to tell you all kind of what I've been up to. I posted a good video today on student loans and student debt and how to manage them and how I'm managing them. Hope you all enjoy that video. Hope you like this video. This is just kind of a quick little life update before I start getting into more content. I've just had this kind of like looming over my head. It's been really tough working out in the morning, working all day, super hard, no time for anything during the day, come home, study, and then also film content. It's like super hard. So thank you for bearing with me. That is it for this episode or this video on my board examination. Hope you learn something. If you have any questions about the IR boards, let me know in the comments below and follow me on TikTok and Instagram. And I guess I'll see you on the next video. Bye.