2014 ABP Results are in!

[yankees85]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Phew! The board results are back early this year and I am thrilled to say that I passed. I wanted to start a thread so people could give advice on what worked (or didn't work) for them.

I started studying for real in July (but I did PREP questions on Pedialink throughout residency and had completed all available questions prior to July). I ended up using primarily the MedStudy books. A little dense, but great to "fill in the blanks" on my weaker areas. I absolutely loved MedStudy. After I read a topic in MedStudy I did corresponding practice questions in PREP and ExamMaster. Let me just say, ExamMaster is wonderful! Our medical school library subscribes so I had access to over 900 peds questions for free. The format of ExamMaster is so similar to the real boards (PREP exam stems are much longer). I think it was the key to my success. I was unimpressed with Laughing Your Way. Too general and the mnemonics were not easy to remember. I skimmed it but that was it. I own Zitelli's but did not review the pictures before the exam. I am glad I didn't waste my time. Yes, I had some pictures but they were fairly easy to identify just from regular studying and experience.

Hope everyone did well! What a wonderful weight off of our shoulders before the holiday season!

 

[It_is_hard]

I saw the disappointing result today. Thanks yankee for letting me know what you did before you took this test.
Anyone here who did not pass; wanna share their experiences or give any advice ?
Anyone did any board review course ?

 

[marcus8]

I saw the disappointing result today. Thanks yankee for letting me know what you did before you took this test.
Anyone here who did not pass; wanna share their experiences or give any advice ?
Anyone did any board review course ?

I didn't pass the first time. When I began studying again I started much earlier- January vs. July. I read Med Study, did PREP, PBR and Med Study questions. I liked the Med Study questions much better. PREP are too long and not much like the board style of questions. I think that doing tons of questions was the best thing to do.

 

[ssttrrbbk]

Since I noticed that a lot of people never followed up with what they liked for boards I decided to post after I passed. I got freaked out this year when I found all the posts of people who studied and had passed but studied for months. I'm in fellowship so also doing a lot of specialty training during studying. I started doing some prep questions maybe in July, hardcore studying about a month before. My score was a 221.

I used Laughing Your Way - x 1, reviewed some in the few days before. I really don't think I learned much from this and didn't like how he said its essential you understand the difference between tons of things that didn't show up. I felt that it caused undo anxiety.

Prep - 2.5- 3 years of questions.

Cleveland Clinic review book - this was ok. There are a lot of critical typos in the renal section. the questions were good. I did feel like it made sure I synthesized the material. There are some huge sections missing though.Despite my criticism I liked this- I just wish someone edited a few sections that were clearly not. I liked this better than LYW which I felt wasn't in enough detail. Maybe I would have read this first and LYW second or right before test if I was to study again.

Did a few random questions from Exam Master but mid exam it seemed like my institution for fellowship stopped subscribing to it.Mostly this was done during fellows conference lectures that had nothing to do with my specialty as it was discrete.

Zittellis - went through half maybe.


I drive a lot for fellowship so I'd pick youtube videos like on Renal tubular acidosis an listen to them. This was variable in yield. Listening to a video on inborn errors of metabolism while driving is low yield.

I have Medstudy but didn't like it so didn't use it.

Hope this helps someone.

 

[dr.Sailor]

Hi All..
I got the results today and thank god I PASSED! First time taker. Above average score. My experience:
1) Duration: I started studying in August..hard studying a month before the exam. Studied totally alone. Attended no courses.
2) Material:
-PREP Questions: Did 3 years, good for knowledge but not really similar to the real exam questions. PREP Qs are too lengthy compared to the real exam.
-LYW: Read it twice. Average yield I would say, although it is very popular resource for many I know.
-MedStudy: Did the questions only. High yield.
-BoardVitals: Did almost 80% of the question bank. Average yield although I would say but higher in ethics questions compared to other resources.
- Zitelli Atlas: Went over most of the pictures, moderate to low yield. Got few pictures on the real exam and were not that difficult.
***My advice; Do A LOT of questions, and go over MedStudy Qs explanation at least twice. Make sure you score above 75% of the practice questions. You will pass guarantee.

Happy to answer any question guys..

 

[NJCTpeds]

Failed the test 🙁 And very sad to say this is my second fail. Last year I was not prepared at all and I know I shouldn't have taken it. I was in my first year of fellowship and had an infant. This year I started studying mid July, did Med Study-read through books once and made notes and I did 3 years of prep questions. Someone had told me to go through ABP specs however I found the bullet points very vague and so stopped doing that. Should I do a course?? Any suggestions as I am so anxious that I will fail a 3rd time next year.
Thanks...

 

[dr.Sailor]

Hi NJCTpeds

So sorry to hear that..I think you should do more questions as apposed to "reading".. It is different how a piece of information is formatted into an exam question. Do MedStudy Qbank twice with explanations, BoardsVital maybe once.. make sure you score above 75% and will pass guarantee. I did not take any courses.. I think they are a waste of money and time as apposed to real studying..

 

[oldbearprofessor]

Board studying advice sent to me by PM for anonymous posting:

Hi everyone,

Long time member, not very active on the forums, wanting to post anonymously. I definitely looked at this forum to help guide my studying for boards this year. I was a first-time test taker and a graduate of a combined program (so 2 years of pediatric rotation blocks). I think there are so many different options for board review, you just have to do what you think is best. It really hit me a couple of days after getting my results that people do not pass and it can occur to people in top-tier as well as lower-ranked programs. Even if the pass rate is high for a program, what ultimately matters is each individual's score. After going through this grueling study experience, I was relieved to pass, and I hope that everyone who wants to become board certified will be able to. I did pass, but not by a lot. My scaled score was between 180 and 190.

During residency, I paid attention to lectures when I was able to attend them, and I tried to remember the patient-care experiences that I felt like I learned something useful about pediatrics. I probably did about 1.5 years' worth of PREP questions during training. My program bought us the MedStudy Q&A books, and I was required to do questions here and there during continuity clinic, which I always disliked because the answers were so long and I felt like I was busy with clinic and I wasn't going to remember what I read about anyway. I don't think any of the questions I did during residency were high yield. I also do not think the lectures were high yield. I did remember some of my patients, though, which was helpful.

I started studying seriously for the exam in August. At first, I guess I had been under the impression that maybe I should study just the PREP questions so I did that--sequentially going from one question to the next--but the jumping around from one topic to another didn't work well for me. I couldn't organize my knowledge well. So, I used the following:
1. MedStudy Core Curriculum, 5th edition (yes I know it's an older edition but I used it) - I would go through the chapters sequentially and write notes (typed) as I finished reading each chapter. I did use the Smith's book + searches with Google to supplement the many different genetic conditions that weren't explained very well
2. PREP questions - probably competed about 3 years' worth of questions. I would try to complete the questions relevant to a particular topic when I finished the reading (CD-ROMs allowed me to do this, I didn't have a 2014 CD-ROM but I did for the years prior). I did sit with the 2014 book and complete a block of 83 (or so) questions in a single sitting, so that I could time myself and make sure that I could finish a block of questions to condition myself to avoid fatigue. I also did several blocks of 50 questions and tried to complete them in 60 minutes (I found it mentally easier to convince myself to sit down for an hour at a time).
3. Zitelli - I would look through different chapters related to some of the ABP Content Specifications topics that seemed to be weighted higher than others for the exam or where I could link knowledge of a condition to a visual image in my mind for easier recall on the test (for example, ID, dermatology).

I did spent extra time with the concepts of growth and development/endocrine because I thought that memorizing the details of those would be beneficial--not sure if it helped. I didn't touch the MedStudy Q&A books. A couple of weeks before the exam, I was reviewing my notes, but I also would go back to the MedStudy books or search online for information about a topic if I wanted to read about something in more depth.

I guess my advice would be, do whatever works for you, make sure you put emphasis on the content areas that are weighted higher than the others if you feel like you have less time to study than you would like to have, and try to find some balance! I think during that time I exercised almost daily--not for very long, maybe 30 minutes. Although I think in the last two weeks before the test, I was working and trying to review information as best I could, and I really felt like I was running short on time, so the exercise fell to maybe 1-2 times total.

If I were to do it over again, I think I would try to start studying in earnest a lot earlier, but I don't know that my personality would lend itself to early studying. Good luck!

* I do not have a financial relationship with any of the companies that publish these study resources, other than, I paid my own money to buy most of the resources listed above.

 

[lockjaw]

First time test taker here. I started seriously studying around July. The first thing I did was read First Aid to refresh myself on some of the important topics that I may not have seen much of in residency. Then I started working on PREP questions, and did 3 full years' worth of questions. At the same time, I was reading Laughing Your Way to help me memorize as many board pearls as I could. For the last couple weeks that I studied, I did nothing but MedStudy questions, and I ended up going through the entire 1250 question database. I passed comfortably without issues (score was 231).

 

[ped_doc]

Hi, all,

I unfortunately I failed this year's test, but I am new to the forum and am relieved to see that I'm not alone (all of my colleagues passed). Thanks so much to those who shared their methods, and congrats on passing. Having pieced together methods from people who have passed in years prior, I had done the following:

• gone through ALL of the content specs using a word document, answering each one of them and going through them a few times
• PREP questions (3 years' worth) 3 times over
• Medstudy books x 3
• Medstudy videos
• took a board review course
• Zitelli's the last couple of days before.

Needless to say, I am at a complete loss as to what else to do for the second time around. People seemed to have liked Laughing Your Way, so I invested in a brand new copy, 5th edition (not taking any chances).

Any other suggestions? Should I do more PREP questions (5 years worth this time) or Medstudy questions? Thanks, guys! I'm not a good test taker, and am getting really nervous about taking it again.

 

[ped_doc]

Failed the test 🙁 And very sad to say this is my second fail. Last year I was not prepared at all and I know I shouldn't have taken it. I was in my first year of fellowship and had an infant. This year I started studying mid July, did Med Study-read through books once and made notes and I did 3 years of prep questions. Someone had told me to go through ABP specs however I found the bullet points very vague and so stopped doing that. Should I do a course?? Any suggestions as I am so anxious that I will fail a 3rd time next year.
Thanks...

Hi, NJCTpeds, since it's been a while since anyone's posted to this thread, I wanted to touch base with you and see if you've come up with a study system yet for this year? I have some ideas, since I also failed this past year . . . Thanks, and we will get through this!

 

[mochamuffins]

Anyone want to study together? I'm on MST working full time including call but will do whatever it takes.

 

[ped_doc]

Hi, mochamuffins, I'm also working full time but very willing to do what it takes to pass as well (I shamefully didn't pass last year). I was curious what you heard about the consensus regarding PREP questions vs MedStudy questions? I've been studying since January, using LYW, since I felt the MedStudy books were too condensed. Your thoughts/plans? Thanks!

 

[mochamuffins]

Hello...I sent you a private message Peds_doc. But I'm hoping to use pediatric board review, MEDSTUDY questions, PREP questions as well. I was looking at Pass machine as video/DVD product but only for topics I feel very weak in.