Are board review courses necessary?

[DoctorWannaBe]

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I am about to purchase my books for board prep for this year and wanted to get some opinions. It seems like most of the people on this forum use Laughing Your Way, Zitelli, and Prep questions. However, a lot of the people from my residency program are taking a professional board review course. My score on the In-training exam for each year has predicted that I will pass the boards, so can I get by just using the 3 resources I mentioned and skip the review course? Should I use additional books (MedStudy, First Aid, etc.), or is that overkill? Does anyone have experience with First Aid vs. Laughing? Thanks!

 

[Stitch]

There's really no such thing as overkill in terms of preparing for the boards, but you know you best. Generally a review course won't hurt, but it's certainly not necessary. If you decide to take the review course (they are quite expensive), remember that you still need to do a lot of preparation on your own outside of that course. Sometimes people think that just showing up for the course will be enough, but it's not. Personally I'm a big fan of MedStudy, but that's just me.

 

[michigangirl]

I have posted on this topic several times before-- if you have money to burn, take a course, but like stitch said, you still need to do a lot of individual prep. But I think the knowing LYW and/or First Aid cold, reading through zitelli multiple times and doing multiple years of prep is sufficient. the key is to know one or two sources COLD. good luck.

 

[floridares]

Thanks for your posts! Has anyone heard anything good or bad about the Cleveland Clinic Board Review Course for peds? I'm trying to decide whether to do medstudy or cleveland clinic.

 

[kickazzz2000]

Thanks for your posts! Has anyone heard anything good or bad about the Cleveland Clinic Board Review Course for peds? I'm trying to decide whether to do medstudy or cleveland clinic.

If you're going to do a live course, Cleveland Clinic is the one to do.

 

[blanche]

If you're going to do a live course, Cleveland Clinic is the one to do.

i kind of think they are a waste of money (though in full disclosure, i've never done one...well, i've heard pirated USMLE lectures, but that's about it...)

i think it's been stated well above--find a source and stick with it. i did all the PREP questions and most of Laughing Your Way..as i realized topics that were shaky, i spent more time on them. if you take the amount of dedicated time that you would spend at the live course (let's say 5 days x8 hours=40 hours) and spend that dedicated on your own studying, i think it may be more productive. but that's just me..

 

[SurfingDoctor]

All you really need is a review book (I honestly doubt one is better than the other, it's a matter of preference), the PREP questions from the past 3-4 years (the more the better in my opinion) and adequate time to study. I can't say anything about study courses other than they are not necessary to pass.

 

[eag]

Where can I find a listing of the live courses offered?