FLS Prep on a Budget: Train All Five Tasks at Home
Key takeaways
- FLS certification is required for American Board of Surgery eligibility, and its 5 manual tasks are all trainable at home.
- Published proficiency times exist for every task. Train to the number, not to a feeling.
- A complete home station costs less than 7% of one institutional simulator.
- Eight weeks of 20-minute sessions covers the whole curriculum.
The Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery exam stands between every general surgery resident and board eligibility. The skills half of it tests five manual tasks, under time pressure, on a box trainer.
That last part is the good news. Because the exam runs on a box trainer, the exam is trainable anywhere a box trainer fits. Here is the whole playbook.
The five tasks, and where they live at home
Every FLS manual task maps to a drill you can run on a home station:
Module sets like the 10-piece curriculum cover the cutting, loop, and suturing stations; peg boards come with most trainer boxes.
Train to the published numbers
You do not have to guess what "good enough" means. The proficiency-based FLS curriculum published expert-derived target times for every task (Ritter & Scott, 2007):
Two rules make the numbers work:
- Time every attempt. Untimed practice does not converge on exam pace.
- Proficiency = repeatable. Hitting a target once is luck. Hitting it two sessions in a row is skill.
Training to proficiency on these exact tasks is what improved real operating room performance in the randomized trial we cite in every guide (Sroka et al., 2010).
The budget math
The expensive part of FLS prep was never the equipment. It was access: sim lab hours you compete for. A home station deletes the queue.
The 8-week plan
Twenty minutes a night, five nights a week:
- Weeks 1-2: peg transfer until 48 s feels boring.
- Weeks 3-4: pattern cutting + ligating loop, alternating nights.
- Weeks 5-6: extracorporeal knots. Add a weekly timed peg refresher.
- Weeks 7-8: intracorporeal knots + full mock circuits: all five tasks, timed, back to back.
The drill mechanics behind each task are covered step by step in our home suturing guide.
FAQ
Is home practice accepted preparation for FLS?
The exam tests performance, not where you trained. Box-trainer practice is the standard preparation, and proficiency-based curricula on these tasks are validated in the literature.
Do I need the official FLS box?
For the exam itself you will use the official setup at a test center. For building the skill, any trainer with standard ports, a camera feed, and the right modules trains the same movements.
When should I book the exam?
When you hit every Figure 2 target in two consecutive mock circuits. Walking in with repeatable numbers turns exam day into a formality.
One box. All five tasks.
The Endo Trainer: camera and instruments included, module sets for every FLS station. $649.99, ships insured worldwide.
Build your FLS stationReferences
- SAGES. Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS). flsprogram.org
- Ritter EM, Scott DJ. Design of a proficiency-based skills training curriculum for the fundamentals of laparoscopic surgery. Surg Innov. 2007. PubMed 17558016
- Sroka G, et al. FLS simulator training to proficiency improves laparoscopic performance in the operating room: a randomized controlled trial. Am J Surg. 2010. PubMed 20103076
Scop.Us sells professional training equipment, not medical devices. Exam policies and fees are set by SAGES; check flsprogram.org for current requirements.