The following is a list of things which I did to prepare for the online exam
- As the exam is open only to AIOS members, all those who give the exam will have free access to the AAO ONE network (details on the AIOS scientific committee website). This gives us access to some journals and also a lot of MCQs which are divided sub speciality wise. Make sure you attempt these MCQs as they are very similar to the type asked in the exam. (a couple of questions in the exam were directly rom here)
- Search for and watch all videos of the latest glaucoma surgeries like the iStent, iStent inject, iStent supra, Hydrus implant, Cypass, Aquesys implant, and other MIGS, NPGS on You tube. (I especially recommend the videos and lectures posted by Dr Ike Ahmed and Dr David Richardson)
- Try using Slideshare to read up on any topic quickly. This will save u a lot of time as u will be presented with just the important points u need... and u can sneak in some reading during OP hours.
- Be prepared for questions on landmark trials in glaucoma (AGIS, CIGTS, GLT, OHTS, CNTGS, TVT, AVB, ABC,GLT, FFSS etc)
- Be prepared with epidemiology of glaucoma...stuff like total population affected by glaucoma, total blindness due to glaucoma, etc
- Dont ignore Optic nerve blood flow and its measurement. Its a field where theres a lot of research going on
- The AIOS website also has a downloadable PDF document called "Guidelines and curriculum for sub speciality programs in Ophthalmology (collegium of AIOS)". I used this as sort of guideline for preparing. This curriculum says that Studies about glaucoma conducted in India should not be ignored (VES, APEDS, WBGS, CGS, ACES, CEDIS, HRGS, CIEMS, INGOT) and they should be given due importance. But they did not ask any question from these Indian studies both during the online exam and viva.
- Anyways, keep browsing through IJO issues regularly to keep in touch with the Indian scenario and new Indian studies on glaucoma.
- For a good summary of these studies, I found Dr Ramakrishnan's Text book on Glaucoma to be immensely useful. But I also downloaded a lot of articles about these studies and made notes to revise later on. This is another area where the AAO ONE network is useful, as it gives us free access to full articles from prominent journals.
- Solve all glaucoma questions at www.mrcophth.com.. its not much but its still practice for the exam. They have some picture based questions too.
- If u have access to the AAO Basic and clinical science course textbook series, try solving the MCQs at the back of each volume depending on your speciality.
- Download Telegram on your phone and get some one to add u to the shared Ophthalmology books group. U can download pretty much any Ophthalmology textbook from this group.
I need more doctors who have passed the exam in other specialities to post anything that could be useful to others who intend to give the exam in future.
Wish U all the best!
