SION NEXUS
2025/12/06
3 / 5
"The ABSITE Review: Practice Questions" is a popular and long-standing resource in the general surgery resident community. It is often used in conjunction with Fiser's outline-style content review book, "The ABSITE Review."
The practice question book is known for containing a large volume of questions, often over 1,000, covering a wide array of general surgery topics and subspecialties, including basic science.
Its primary value is providing sheer repetition and testing your retention of high-yield facts, which is crucial for the ABSITE.
👍 Key Strengths
High Volume of Questions: With over 1,000 questions, it offers extensive practice across the entire SCORE (Surgical Council on Resident Education) curriculum outline.
Broad Coverage: The book covers all major aspects of general surgery and surgical subspecialties, including current standards of care recommendations (e.g., morbid obesity surgery, breast cancer, trauma/resuscitation, surgery in pregnancy).
Complements the Fiser Review: For residents who use the main Fiser outline book, the questions follow the content structure, allowing for a structured review and self-assessment process.
Good for Fact Recall: The questions are effective for cementing high-yield facts, algorithms, and key management principles in your memory.
👎 Potential Weaknesses
Question Style: Some users report that the question style in the Fiser book may not perfectly mimic the complexity and case-based nature of the questions found on the actual ABSITE or modern question banks like TrueLearn or SCORE. They may sometimes be more direct fact-recall.
Explanations: While adequate, the explanations for the answers are sometimes considered less in-depth compared to modern, online question banks. They may tell you what the answer is without fully explaining the why and detailing all the wrong choices.
Updates: While new editions are released to stay current, the pace of updates in printed books can lag behind the constantly evolving surgical literature, especially compared to real-time online question banks.
