Board Certification in Psychiatry

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Oh my God! I can have PTSD!!
 
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Scores are online now. Passed. BOARD CERTIFIED!!
 
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Hallelujah am board certified.
 
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Took me a minute or two figure out how to read the results on my phone...passed!
 
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BOARD CERTIFIED! WOOT WOOT!! Thank you everyone for the supportive psychotherapy!
 
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Hallelujah .Praise Jesus. Board Certified.
Thanks for this forum.
 
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Victory is sweetest when you've known defeat.Passed.
 
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Board Certified !!!
I wanted to give some advice when I know I pass, so I pass.

Prite does correlate with your board , don't be foolish not studying for ur Prite and takes the board .
I was in the 95th percentile National Average on my Prites .
During the test , I used the MCQ part to buy time that I spent on the vignettes.
I found the board MCQ easier than the Prite itself. In fact they were repeating Prite questions literally. Some of those questions were not well formulated but if you know your Prite you just can guess the answer easily.
I will give advice later for the Vignettes.

Friends, what the forum needs is not I pass only, new people and one who fAiled need advice.
 
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Omg finally!!! I passed!!!! Congrats to everyone else who did too!!!
 
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Certified!!

Congrats to all!
 
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Sorry Perru40,
We will post our experiences with the board what we really did to pass both vignettes and MCQ.
You can make it. A friend who did not pass , just exchanged info with me , she passed this time. Just by knowing what to study.
Does not mean one's has knowledge deficiency. I am pretty sure is the technique one used to approach the board. Some us takes it with levity. Don't , cause you will have a bitter taste.
We can help with this forum.
Yes, Bomerate?
 
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Congrats to you all. Your support on this forum has been amazing guys. Thank you all. Best wishes
 
Peru40 said:
Fail !
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Sorry, Peru. :(

It looks like I passed -- my status update says certified. I wanting to see passed -- certified seems a little disappointing after all that stress. Oh well, it's over.

Editing to add that I did find the link with the actual board exam results, so I got to see that magical word "pass." It feels a little surreal after all the waiting. I'd curious to know what the passing rate was this year with all the delays in scores.
 
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I failed last year but this time I passed. Last year I studied beat the boards, Kauffman some prite exams and spiegel. This year I studied only Kaufman for neuro and board vitals question bank. Vignettes are always vague and the hardest. I don't even know what I studied differently in regards to the vignettes. Wish I could help in that regards.
 
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Certified. ..... SDN advice was great: I took the Kauffman course, did 8 weeks of Beat-the-boards practice Qs and 72 hours of Kauffman review before the exam. It was difficult to be confident in the vignettes and frankly, I had no idea if I passed. For those who didn't this time, let me know if I can be helpful.
 
gioia said:
Certified. ..... SDN advice was great: I took the Kauffman course, did 8 weeks of Beat-the-boards practice Qs and 72 hours of Kauffman review before the exam. It was difficult to be confident in the vignettes and frankly, I had no idea if I passed. For those who didn't this time, let me know if I can be helpful.
Click to expand...



PASSED

THIS WEBSITE FORUM WAS GREAT SUPPORT.

THANKS
HP
 
Sorry to hear about things Beachlove88. Were you having a bad testing day? I think the only other resource that you haven't exhausted was Beat the Boards. I have no stake in that company, but felt that their review course was comprehensive and provided adequate information in both disciplines. I opted not to do the Kaufman course or book and stuck to BTB and passed FWIW.
 
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Certified!!

Interestingly, I did not have the option to sign up for child.
 
I did not take review course. I judged it would be a waste that was my opinion. This is my sincere advice to the one that failed. Just advice.

1- Need a strong study partner, strong means one you know who knows psychiatry( academically sounds). You do not need to be close, just text exchange, snapshot or email. Some reported that they even created a shared email account.

2- Get the right book and the right book for questions.
a) All Prite exams beginning to now are enough for questions. Based on this year experience. However, one needs to understand ugly Prite questions. Google the concept, ask one who understands the question. Prite will give the bitter taste in how deep the board can go. Review all Prite Exams at the end. Please, not just memorizing, understanding each concepts and each questions.
b) Any other question book you have or had reviewed. Spiegel etc...

3) If you feel you do not know Psychiatry. Some of us did residency, but did not read enough or was not interested in reading psychiatry. Please, Massachusetts General Hospital Psychiatry Update & Board Preparation Paperback a big book for board review. It is hard and can give you headache, but read and reread it.

4) Vignettes. Not too many options now. This is where the failure can come. You cannot keep guessing choices during the whole exam.
a) Psychiatry Certification Examination Review for the Clinical Psychiatry Component Vol. 1-6 (Psychiatry Review Series for ABPN's Certification . Kindle edition. Amazon. Has more than 45 cases( vignettes entirely)
b) The so boring one of Focus( Clinical vignettes)/ There is one focus for questions and one focus for Vignettes.

Practive Vignettes the same way you practice questions: 50/50.
No VIDEO Vignettes available software available now.
 
I didn't do BTB this time around because of the expense but I would strongly consider it if I were retaking it (hopefully at least now you have the CME money to help). Something like 95% of examinees who use it pass, and they do have some kind of guarantee (I think you can keep using the course materials until you pass).

I read Kaufman and did all the questions in the early summer, read through a mediocre free pdf review book, did Spiegel completely (no idea what I averaged, this was all in the last week). I did well on the PRITEs and felt all right after this one, but simply because of the vignettes, it feels like more of a crapshoot. I don't think the correlation between PRITE scores and board scores can be exceptionally high. They should do a better job of preparing us for the vignettes on the PRITE (asking them to overhaul the testing format to electronic and add video vignettes is a tall order, but we could at least have some written scenarios). After the delay in scoring, I lost confidence in the grading to the point that I was on pins and needles up until this morning.

I was too curious not to see how the rest of my program did on verifyCert ( https://application.abpn.com/verifycert/verifyCert.asp?a=1 ). Looks like we had a good year.
 
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Beachlove88 said:
And to clarify I did the spiegel book twice, board vitals (both Qs and video vignettes), read half of Kaufman and did all the questions. Also did old prites and read a review book (forgetting the name right now). And all those questions I was averaging a 70% on the practice tests. I don't even know how I could possibly study again.
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I'm sorry, Beachlove. :( It seems like you did a lot of preparation. It'd probably be useful to get your score breakdown before knowing what you could do next time. To me, it seemed like those vignettes were really hard to prep for and fairly subjective, so I'm wondering if that's what did it. I agree that maybe BTB would be the way to go next time -- that was my plan if I failed.
 
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Doctor Bagel said:
Hmm, so I guess there's no privacy around whether we pass or not. Yikes.
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Yeah, it would have been bad enough for me to have to tell all of my well-meaning nurses, techs, and colleagues I have to retake the exam after they've been asking me about the results for the last two months. Failing would have been compounded by the fact that everyone else in my large program seems to have passed (which now augments the relief).

I have a colleague who decided to hold off on taking boards for a year until he had the CME money and was settled in. It's not the choice I would have made, but my advice to next year's test-takers is to just tell everyone you're waiting a year to take it. That's really the only way to keep the results private (except potentially from your program directors and coordinators who have to precert you). That way, no one will expect you to show up as a diplomat this time next year. More than likely, you'll pass anyway, and then you can share the good news along with everyone else (and you'll have a perfectly good explanation for fibbing, I think). If you don't get the result you want, this is a test you have to wait a year to repeat. That's onerous enough without having your friends and colleagues knowing what happened.
 
WhoisJohnGalt said:
Aw, I'm sorry to have outed you on Facebook :( I was just so excited that everyone I knew passed. Didn't think until later that maybe someone might not have wanted the world to know.
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Oh no worries on that. I'm happy with the whole world knowing that I passed and actually think it's nice that you looked it up and shared for so many people. :) I guess I hadn't realized how public our passing/failing would be -- I remember feeling worried that my department would know I failed because whether we pass or not is released to our PD. I should have realized everyone has the ability to know just by looking at who gets certified.
 
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Beachlove88 said:
And to clarify I did the spiegel book twice, board vitals (both Qs and video vignettes), read half of Kaufman and did all the questions. Also did old prites and read a review book (forgetting the name right now). And all those questions I was averaging a 70% on the practice tests. I don't even know how I could possibly study again.
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24 hours ago, the majority of this group was in angst, so trust me, we understand that feeling of how one could even study again--both differently or emotionally. Take the week off from studying and enjoy your holidays, recharge the batteries; and, like med school years 1,2,3, and 4, Step I, II, and III...you'll do it again! This time having peaked at the real test, your practice one (albeit an expensive one).

Beat the Boards has vignettes, and give tips on plucking out the vagueness of a 30 second snippet. I might recommend even doing a few interviews of patients in front of a trusted attending...this would give you some distraction/stress and force you to time limit the interview and create some distraction to get used to picking up the subtleties. Plus, you were averaging 70s on the Prites, now you will likely be averaging 80s and 90s on them. I like Dief's rec of finding a study partner, even if you are usually a solo studier; it may help prevent an potential for myopic focus. If some colleagues would let yo borrow their study notes, browse them for any key words you don't recognize. Good luck next year!!
 
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It's hard to tell people what is effective study material and what isn't as we just know pass or fail.

What I will say is that I thought BTB and Speigel prepped me well for the stand alone MCQs as I breezed through them when taking the test. As for PRITEs, I didn't study them for this test, I did poorly on them as a resident and I passed this test. Doing well on PRITEs probably means you will pass this test, but a poor score is meaningless as far as I'm concerned.

I imagine as the vignettes are out longer, resources like BTB will be able to better prepare you for them. If I did it all over again, I would just memorize BTB and the Speigel book. Congrats to everyone.
 
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I agree that there is no accurate way to say just do this and you will pass.
Challenge yourself with a buddy. Ask why is this answer and it is not that one. Trust me for vignettes and it is really how you manage cases in a standadized ways.
If you need to start fresh , I will recommend you the APA guidelines, they are heavy , you can have a PDF file to your computer. It is time consuming , but if you have time and grasp how deep ABPN can go on the test , it's good to go deep when you fail.
Do not just go over questions you already know the answers. Just start fresh very deep , like reading topics that you are weak. APA guideline covers Pharmaco, epidemiology, research, treatment. As I say it is really time consuming.
 
Did any of the other 'We The Neurotics of the SDN' log off of the ABPN site and log back in more than once to make sure your certification approved status was for real and not just an error? :wacky: Or was I the only one?
 
Sorry to all who did not pass. I passed. As far as study tips, well I generally did well on PRITE but that was without studying and without looking at old exams. I took the PRITE cold each year to get an actual assessment of deficiencies (or because I didn't feel like studying cuz I thought it was a stupid test) but it worked out that in looking at my 4 years of PRITE, patterns of strong areas and weak areas or gaps in knowledge emerged. I focused my studying in those areas and did not over study my strong areas to make myself feel better. It's easy to study stuff we know well because it boosts our ego. Try to avoid that impulse. Over study your weak areas and under study what you know cold. If the PRITES were an accurate assessment of your knowledge base, use them, if the scores were inflated due to looking at old tests, don't, and focus on the areas of deficiency highlighted in your ABPN Exam score report. I simplified my studying this way. I used BTB, but I think it's more important to know your weak points, then to focus on specific study/ review books, though I do recommend the BTB Content. The questions were too difficult to be useful in my opinion, just some thoughts
 
Agree Texas-Psych-Doc. I never took my Prite score as a way to be confident that I will pass the Board. Sure , it is a tool to assess your .
One needs to admit that you have weak spot.
Please, do not take the test with levity as some us did it for the Prite.
Do not reuse questions , you will feel confident for nothing. I only encourage people to review Prite questions at the end becAuse the Stand alone part is full of refurbished Prite questions. A lot of them!!!!!
 
I always felt that PRITE scores were somewhat inflated by people reviewing old exams. Some former residents at my program ran into that issue as they would do very well on the PRITE, but wouldn't pass the boards. I took a similar approach to studying like I did for the USMLE's. I went over all of the review material on BTB, then did all of the questions from Spiegel twice, while reviewing every answer and topic discussed in their explanations. I used the questions not only to test knowledge, but to learn from them as well.
 
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I didn't even look at the PRITES during my preparation. I did Beat the Boards (audio only) once, all the way through and then Speigel and about half of Board Vitals (which included all of their vignettes).

Historically, my PRITE scores were always pretty abysmal as I never prepared or gave them much thought.

Best of luck to those that weren't successful this time around.
 
Hello everyone - Figured I would just provide my recommendations for studying for those that were interested. First and foremost, congrats to all who passed. For those that did not, I hope that these ideas are helpful.

First off, I am 3 years out of residency. Originally, my goal was to take BTB audio course in 2012, but I found that I simply could not get through enough of the lectures on my own in a disciplined fashion while balancing my job and family life. That being the case, I did not take the board in 2012, as I did not feel prepared. Though I planned on taking it in 2013, I had surgery over the summer (unexpectedly) which completely screwed things up for my studying. Taking this all into consideration, I cannot emphatically state the importance of taking a review course LIVE. Yes, they are expensive and take time out of your schedule, but my CME funds covered the course and some travel expenses, so to me it was worth it. Plus I used the CME credits for license renewal. So, I took the BTB course in Illinois, and for 5 days studied like I was back in medical school, usually with most days going 8-10 hrs for lectures. Yes, it was intense, but it was helpful in many ways. First, it was extremely comprehensive so that at the end of each day I would know what my weaknesses were to focus on either later that day or on my return home after the course. The notes from the course are detailed, the lecturers know their stuff, and there is no wasted time there. In fact, I found that there were at least 45-50 questions from the materials provided that were exactly on the boards, which saved me time and gave me some extra points, so you know that the material you are reviewing is high yield. Further, there is a sort of comraderie that develops when you are out there with the other students, as everyone has the same goal and mission. This is where study partners can develop, or as Dr. Jack would say, dinner buddies, all of which I think helps to make the studying a bit more easier. And retrospectively, the neuro in the course is way overkill for the boards, but the psych is spot on. I do wish that they would provide in class vignettes to do live, and I plan on emailing Dr. Jack to tell him that personally.

The reason I emphasize a class like this is because I knew that I was getting 50 hours of guaranteed studying done in a short amount of time. If I did not do that, at best I would only do 2-3 hours a night after work - which is 17-25 days. My concern was how much of that was going to become harder to remember between the end of July and the boards. Try as I did, I could not actually get much of any studying done in August (wife 7 mths pregnant, buying a house, way intense inpatient job with no easy days, etc.), and all I could muster was doing some additional cramming the first 2 weeks of September (only because I was off from my job, as I had quit 9/2 and was starting a new one 10/1). My point being was that when I was reviewing the material again and the study questions, the organization of material was solid and it served as more of a review. Yes, I was nervous going into the exam, but I knew that I was prepared. Yes, it was a hard exam, but I felt that the course was sufficient for me.

And for what it is worth, I did not look at PRITES (never studied for them in residency; program director always told me that my scores were representative of "borderline pass/fail").

I hope that this is helpful.

Best of luck to all
 
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Got my score report in the mail today. It says the passing rate was 69%, which I think is lower than it's been for the past few years. I was not surprised to see that my lowest score was in clinical psychiatry (those stupid vignettes). Those still suck!
 
I figure I'll get mine tomorrow, but that's about what I would've expected - % last year was I think 72% psych and 65% neuro - so it's roughly an average.
 
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