ABSITE Resources

General Review Material

The Operative Review of Surgery (The O.R.) – For high-yield rapid review of all subjects. We recognize our obvious bias but are dedicated to making our product the most up-to-date, clinically relevant and simply best surgical review material available. There is no cost.

Textbooks – Good for general review but typically poor for ABSITE-dedicated study

Fiser S. The ABSITE Review, 7e. 2022 – The classic. Nearly every surgery resident 5-years-ago owned a copy. Our reviewers found it helpful for a starting intern. There, however, were many errors and outdated material. It ultimately it fell out of favor with better resources now available. $75.

Behind the Knife: ABSITE Podcast Companion, 2e. 2020 – A brief review of high-yield ABSITE content created by the Behind the Knife team. Rapidly becoming one of the most recommended resources. $50.

ABSITE Slayer, 2e. 2020 – Generally, less popular than some other options but it is another good resource that has been well reviewed. $50.

ABSITE Smackdown, 3e. 2021 – An ABSITE review book that also includes a video lecture series. None of our reviewers have used this product. $250.

Question Banks

SCORE (Surgical Council on Resident Education) – 2,300+ practice questions. A very thorough large bank with varying quality although it has been improving in recent years. ABSITE is based on the SCORE curriculum and therefore is one of the more relevant products. Most residents will already have access to this through their program (same program used for TWIS). Of note: there are a large number of questions at the fellowship-level and early learners should avoid those categories concentrating time on more high-yield topics.

TrueLearn – Essentially the “gold standard”. 1,000+ practice questions. Questions are well written and correlate well to material seen on the actual exam. Cost varies from $190 for 30-days to $369 for 12-months.

DeVirgilio C. Review of Surgery for ABSITE and Boards, 3e. 2022 – 1,000 practice questions in book format. These are very well written and the answer explanations are thorough. One of the best for learning a topic but is often at a higher-level and may be better suited to residents in later years. Cost is about $99.

ABSITE Quest – A daily set of 5-10-questions are sent to the user. There, however, is no access to any traditional question bank where all questions can be seen at once. The program uses spaced-repetition to consistently reinforce topics. Cost is $149. They offer an additional mock exam and review course for additional cost.

Decker Medicine – Our reviewers found it to have some good material although we found it poorly formatted for practice questions and difficult to navigate. With limited time and resources, we found other banks to be more high-yield. They also have a weekly curriculum and board prep although we did not use this.

ABSITE Assassin – Our reviewers have not used.

Board Vitals – Our reviewers have not used. Cost varies from $115 for 1-month to $419 for 6-months.

Other Resources

Flashcard Applications

  • Anki – Generally seems to be the most popular with a solid pre-made flashcard deck.
  • Brainscape
  • Quizlet
  • Firecracker

Audio Review/Podcasts

  • Throughout the year there are multiple good audio podcasts to listen to such as the EAST Traumacast, Trauma ICU Rounds, Tiger Country or Audible Bleeding, but ultimately for ABSITE review Behind the Knife is the best. Nearly every surgery resident is familiar with BTK and their condensed ABSITE review series provides a great review in a solid format. We cannot recommend them highly enough.

ABSITE Review Courses: These generally cost $150-$1,000 for a 2-3 day review session. They are generally composed of various lectures regarding high-yield ABSITE topics and may also include additional practice questions. Many are moving to a virtual format, although there are still in-person courses available. We do not believe these to be overly helpful. They are often expensive and there is no good evidence to prove significantly improved performance. We will, however, note that many of the virtual courses are now allowing cheaper prices than in the past. In our opinion, 2-3 days of dedicated study would be better served by additional practice questions – active learning is associated with improved performance compared to passive learning.

  • The ABSITE Review Course
  • ChristianaCare ABSITE Comprehensive Review Course
  • ABSITE Quest, Virtual Review Course
  • National Surgery Review, ABSITE/In Training Review Course Online