Board Certification in Psychiatry

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So about the passing rate. Was it 69%? Looking at my score report, the "passing standard" was 69%. I took that as the minimum needed to pass rather than what percentage of test takers earned a passing score?
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DrIsh said:
So about the passing rate. Was it 69%? Looking at my score report, the "passing standard" was 69%. I took that as the minimum needed to pass rather than what percentage of test takers earned a passing score?
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Yep, sloppy word usage on my part. The passing score at 69% correct -- no clue what the passing rate was. I assume that will be released when they release their annual report.
 
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I don't see a "vignette" subset in the data. How are you all calculating your numbers such that you did "worse" in them? Or, are we assuming clinical psych incorporates that?
 
Pet said:
Ah, I see now. Thanks. Mine were the same for Parts A, B, and C and for the total, so it threw me off.
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ABPN CLAIMS THAT YOU CAN HAVE PART C( Vignettes are Part C aka Clinical Psychiatry)ANY % AND CANDIDATE CAN PASS EXAM.

ANY BODY GOT 50% AROUND IN PART C AND PASSED THIS EXAM?

I THINK ABPN STILL EXPECT PEOPLE TO CERTAIN CUT OFF POINT IN PART C TO PASS WHOLE EXAM.


THANKS
HP
 
Red Beard said:
Would love some opinions:

As I have done successfully for every big exam so far, I am relying on doing a lot of questions to prepare for the board exam, with minimal extra reading outside of looking up confusing stuff in questions. With just a few weeks left, and a fairly busy work schedule, trying to decide what to do from here. In the next day or two I will have completed all the questions in Speigel. Overall average will be about 70%. Should I:

a) Move on to another question bank, maybe Board Vitals, or Focus
b) Repeat Speigal to try to solidify the material presented there

Thoughts?
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Passed. For posterity, all I did was Spiegel once, and I got the discounted subscription to psych tutorial and did all the basic questions once. I don't understand why people waste time reading Kaufman for this exam, it is waaaaaaay overkill. Great book, but way more detail than what you need to pass this test, and that time would be better used doing more practice questions IMO. The stuff in Spiegel is plenty.

My average for Spiegel ended up being 72%, and I think psych tutorial was about the same (low 70s.) My overall ABPN score was 83% (90-80-81 for parts A-B-C.)
 
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Don't worry new fellows about pompous score. What matter is your certificate. I have not yet opened my letter, besides I don't have it in my hand yet.

Guys, I am begging u to study and review all Prite questions. Believe it, it will help you to answer vignettes too.
Don't worry Abt what u did in Prite exam. Do not worry either Abt one who passed the board telling Prite is nothing. Yes, it does. Review them , again, and again. Don't be sensitive of your Prite history. Just now, you need them, understand them.
 
My family told me they have not received any mail from ABPN yet for me.
Are they sending a certificate too?
Do I need to call them?
 
Dief said:
My family told me they have not received any mail from ABPN yet for me.
Are they sending a certificate too?
Do I need to call them?
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I received a letter with scores several days ago. No certificate. I believe the website said they were sending the Certificate later, like a month or more. The scores letter had two sheets for any name/address correction that one might want such that you could make any necessary corrections to your certificate prior to them sending it. I'd call them if you haven't received scores.
 
Thanks
I will double check with my family first worry they might think it was a junk mail.
 
Got it. Certificate in 3 months.
How much is the annual fee for diplomates?
 
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Dief said:
Got it. Certificate in 3 months.
How much is the annual fee for diplomates?
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What I read on ABPN site was that the cost of the recert exam was X dollars. And they would be dividing the exam fee into 10 installments such that when it is time for you to re-test, you will have payed the exam fee. Hopefully I've not misread that.
 
Pet said:
What I read on ABPN site was that the cost of the recert exam was X dollars. And they would be dividing the exam fee into 10 installments such that when it is time for you to re-test, you will have payed the exam fee. Hopefully I've not misread that.
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Correct interpretation.
 
Does anyone have any advice as to what to do for MOC? I did Beat the Boards for my initial certification and recently got something from them saying that it is the 100 % MOC solution. Do anyone know if its any good? Its supposed to cover CME, Self Assesments and PIP.
 
psymed said:
Does anyone have any advice as to what to do for MOC? I did Beat the Boards for my initial certification and recently got something from them saying that it is the 100 % MOC solution. Do anyone know if its any good? Its supposed to cover CME, Self Assesments and PIP.
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I like their product in general. I have not done the 100% MOC solution though.
 
can someone offer some guidance in terms of moc stuff and what we are required for cmE. I passed my boards in 2012 and have my 3 year 'moc review?' coming up..not really sure what this is. Can someone offer some input on their experiences...just want to make sure i dont leave anything out.

Ha..i just saw psymeds question above...is BB good to get for this?
 
Quick question , my diplomate membership fee is $175 this year. Do we have to pay that every year or wait?
Don't understand, I have mixed messages.
 
brainmedicine said:
Any body tried board vitals?
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It's okay. The questions they offer can shore up some weak areas, but you have to balance where you spend your time and money for review. I would put this in the "mild yield" category at its current point (March 2015). I know they have plans to expand though, so it will probably improve.
 
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Thanks does beat the boards have a question bank only? If I want to subscribe to the Qbank without the vidoes.
 
I am preparing my board exam for this Sept. I have done boardvital, Spiegel, focus, Prite and BTB. I just done the boardvital, I found that there are a lot of low yield questions,and sometimes, some question wordings are misleading and confused. I feel the other above sources are better and more focused on high yield topics. this is my opinion about boardvital.
 
Doctor Bagel said:
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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I took the Psych boards in 2014 and passed,
but it was a DIFFICULT exam. Part C is a combination of Vignettes and videos that seemed to be from 1980. Board Vitals was the only qbank I used that covered this section and I thought it was helpful. I don't know if anything could have really fully prepared me for that though.
 
Dief said:
Quick question , my diplomate membership fee is $175 this year. Do we have to pay that every year or wait?
Don't understand, I have mixed messages.
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you have to pay that every year, see recent posts about MOC for more info
 
I'm organizing a group to get BTB with about a 30% discount at this point (depends on the number of people we get). Please PM if you're interested.
 
I'm interested! lemme know if I can join your group.
 
I am taking the boards this Sept and have not yet started studying. I'd like to stick to few resources and study materials considering I don't have much time left. For those of you who have taken the boards, if you were to pick only 2-3 study guides (questions books, reading materials, etc) which ones would you pick? My understanding is that Spiegel question book is a must. How about other reading materials? For neuro, would you pick BTB study materials/folder (without the lectures and video) or study Kaufman?
 
immunologist said:
you should go to Kauffman course if you have problems in neuro.
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I didn't do the Kauffman course, but the neuro on the exam was much easier than I anticipated (and I think easier than neuro on PRITE). Based on that, I'm not sure about the benefit of taking an expensive class for the vast majority of people, although I guess if you failed because of neuro it might make sense.

I'm not aware that BTB has a neuro only focus, but I think it might be worth it if you failed just for some structure for studying. How about reading the neuro parts of the MGH book as well?
 
CAPsychiatry said:
I am taking the boards this Sept and have not yet started studying. I'd like to stick to few resources and study materials considering I don't have much time left. For those of you who have taken the boards, if you were to pick only 2-3 study guides (questions books, reading materials, etc) which ones would you pick? My understanding is that Spiegel question book is a must. How about other reading materials? For neuro, would you pick BTB study materials/folder (without the lectures and video) or study Kaufman?
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So, yeah, Spiegel is a must. I didn't do BTB, so I can't comment on the quality of their material. I actually read most of Kaufman, but in retrospect I think that was overkill. Doing the questions is also overkill, but some level of overkill is good. Unfortuantely I don't think there's a ton of great material for this test, which is unfortunate.
 
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BTB is great but also way overkill. I was fortunate that I didn't have to pay for it. The best thing about it is that it's the only way I know of that you can practice and study some vignettes, which are easily the most treacherous part of the exam. I would probably get it if I could share it with 3 or more people, or just had a ton of CME money to burn.

I took the time to read Kaufman, only because I had a lot of time at the end of 4th year to kill, and it was a worthwhile read for general neuro knowledge as well as for the exam. Not the highest yield resource though.
 
Hi Guys , PGY-4 resident here . I had a quick question ,

The 3 CSVs that we need to pass to be eligible for the boards , do they need to be done with 3 different faculty members ? Thanks guys.
 
ednorton said:
Hi Guys , PGY-4 resident here . I had a quick question ,

The 3 CSVs that we need to pass to be eligible for the boards , do they need to be done with 3 different faculty members ? Thanks guys.
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Your program ought to have this information for signing you off on.
 
Shikima said:
Your program ought to have this information for signing you off on.
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This, although I would also expect ABPN to have a quick answer on their website, but I can't find it. As I recall, maybe you could get 2 from the same person, but the the third had to be someone else?? It doesn't have to be a faculty member either -- just a board certified psychiatrist, so fellows might be an option as well.
 
It's the ACGME, not the ABPN:
The program must formally conduct a clinical skills examination. A required component of this assessment is an annual evaluation of the following skills:
V.A.1.f).(1) ability to interview patients and families;
V.A.1.f).(2) ability to establish an appropriate doctor/patient relationship;
V.A.1.f).(3) ability to elicit an appropriate present and past psychiatric, medical, social, and developmental history;
V.A.1.f).(4) ability to assess mental status;
V.A.1.f).(5) ability to provide a relevant formulation, differential diagnosis and provisional treatment plan; and,
V.A.1.f).(6) ability to make an organized presentation of the pertinent history, including the mental status examination.
V.A.1.g) Performance on all evaluations must be documented and quantified, whenever possible, and provided to the resident. When necessary, remediation opportunities must be provided. Residents must not advance to the next year of education, or graduate from the program, unless the competence for their level of education in each area is documented.
V.A.1.h) In at least three evaluations with any patient type, in any clinical setting, and at any time during the program, residents must demonstrate satisfactory competence in: establishing an appropriate doctor/patient relationship, psychiatric interviewing, performing the mental status examination and in case presentation. Each of the three required evaluations must be conducted by an ABPN-certified psychiatrist, and at least two of the evaluations must be conducted by different ABPN-certified psychiatrists. Satisfactory demonstration of the competencies during the three required evaluations is required prior to completing the program.
 
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OldPsychDoc ,

I appreciate the reply. This means that I have completed the requirement . Good to know. Thanks again.
 
Hi forum,

I have been trying to get Spiegel but I am finding random books; some have 4 exams to complete and other 6. Which Spiegel is the latest one or the one recommended? Any electronic version?

Thanks a lot.
 
Doctor Bagel said:
So, yeah, Spiegel is a must. I didn't do BTB, so I can't comment on the quality of their material. I actually read most of Kaufman, but in retrospect I think that was overkill. Doing the questions is also overkill, but some level of overkill is good. Unfortuantely I don't think there's a ton of great material for this test, which is unfortunate.
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Hey there,

Could you please advise regarding which Spiegel you used. I find different options and versions. Thank you
 
Hey guys - just trying to gauge - what average percentage have people gotten on Kenny & Spiegel and passed? Sorry of this is posted elsewhere!
 
Thanks for the encouragement! I am in my first year as an attending and the job description said I have to be board certified in a year...Even if I fail I'd be surprised if I would be let go (the clinic was desperate to hire me because they are having trouble holding psychiatrists due to low salary/rough population)...I just don't want to chance it...your kind words are appreciated tho!
 
bump - averages on Kenny & Spiegel anyone? just getting ready for the boards in a couple weeks and feeling nervous :(
 
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