So overall I thought the exam was decent. I hope I did well enough to pass.
I did two blocks in a row, 10 min break, two blocks in a row, 20 minute lunch, two blocks, 10 minute break, one block, 5 minute break then the last block. Finished with about 2 hours to spare. Time wasn't an issue. The testing center was nice. I definitely recommend for future test takers to take 10 minute breaks rather than 5 minute breaks because it will take about a minute to get out and in due to them taking your palm print and checking your pockets, etc.
The sections all had 60 questions and went vignette, stand-alone, vignette, stand-alone, etc. The stand-alone questions were mostly pretty clear and not too difficult. I definitely got several right because of Spiegel, some were practically lifted from it. Boards Vitals was OK but I didn't remember any questions from the board exam that made me think of Board Vitals. I did Spiegel 3 times and I thought that was plenty, and the vignette section at the back I found pretty helpful (I used the second edition). I did all of the vignettes from Board Vitals and didn't think they were particularly helpful (mostly "what's the diagnosis based on this video" type questions). The stand-alone Board Vitals questions were so so, a bit too detailed and like I mentioned, not particularly helpful for boards.
Spiegel was good enough for neuro I feel like. Kaufman neuro notes were too detailed.
Overall my Spiegel percentage was 77.2% across the 6 tests. I scored 77% on test 1, 75% on test 2, 79% on test 3, 74% on test 4, 81% on test 5 and 77% on test 6. I scored 75% on the vignettes (which I thought were easier than the stand alone questions). On Board Vitals was about 74% (only half the question bank finished).
I didn't use Beat the Boards and from what I gather from most of my friends, they thought it was a so so preparer for the actual board exam. It was clear to me that those who did not use Spiegel missed a few questions that they could have gotten right otherwise (although the same could be true for me with respect to Boards Vitals, so who knows).
Overall, the vignettes were hit or miss. The video quality was good, but several of the "pick 3" questions I would definitely know 2 of the answers, and then from the remaining 3 or so choices, I could pick one or two for the third answer choice, so that was tricky. They definitely tested a lot of conditions that aren't seen in practice as much. On many vignettes I got a sense that the writer was a psychodynamic psychiatrist.
My test had one exact question repeated 3 times and another different question repeated 3 times (I knew the first question, but not the second one, so I either got 6/6 or 3/6 since I picked the same answer each time).
I'm not gonna stress too much over it although I think I'll definitely be nervous on results day. I'll update once I know my score.
