beat the boards notes..dang boring

[cherryalmond]

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anyone else having trouble getting through these beat the boards lectures; i bought the home study and started neuro and find the lectures kind of drawn out. i mean maybe too comprehensive but i'm not sure. I don't know how I will get through 50 of these lectures

 

[kugel]

Maybe I'm lucky that I could never get the discs to operate.

Honestly, Jack may not be the most entertaining person, but my experience with the course was that everything he says/does resulted from mistakes multiple candidates made. So it might be helpful to listen (at least half-heartedly) to each one, then ask yourself, "Did I really already know all that?" If so, then put it away and chalk it up to, "Well now I'm sure." If it was new to you, put it in the list of "Ones I need to be sure to review at least once more before the exam."

In the part 2 course, there were many things I thought "no one who passed residency would do that in an interview." But I was wrong. Watching others do mock live interviews, I learned there were candidates who still made those same mistakes just 1-2 days before the exam. When I started helping others prepare for later exams, I found out that peers I thought would never make those mistakes - did exactly that. It's astounding what test anxiety will make you do, how it can warp your mind into doing some stupid things and missing obvious cues.

Then I thought back to why I failed Part 2 the first time.
Yup, I made those same mistakes!

It seems that every few months Jack realizes there is something enough of his students are doing/missing that he needs to include how to avoid that mistake in his next update. As a result, the course gets longer and longer.

At least start to listen to each one, read each section. If it seems completely rudimentary, just move on.

Anyway, just my thoughts.

 

[benjee]

Hi kugel,
You seems know the test pretty well. I don't know where I can find those stats and epidemiology on different psych. diagnosis eg percentage of mood d/o in family of a person with schizophrenia or bipolar ...etc. These are the part I got all wrong. Can you please help? Thanks

 

[whopper]

When I used the BTB notes, I never saw the video lectures. I just went through the powerpoints. I did fine on my exam.

The PPs were useful, though like you said, comprehensive. More so than needed for the exam, but it did, at least for me, expanded my knowledge-base in a useful manner.

In comparison, the Kaufman lectures, the notes are focused on getting you to pass, not so much teaching you to be a better psychiatrist. They are so effective that IMHO this may actually be a bad thing. I think anyone could pass the psychiatry boards from the Kaufman notes, but would you actually know what you need to know to be a board certified psychiatrist?

 

[cherryalmond]

Well i skipped around a bit to break up the monotony of the video lectures; i do like some of the mnemonics but so far they don't come too frequently. i might just study neuro from the kaufman book and just do psyc with beat the boards. I did the MS lecture last night and saw different information when i compared the Beat the boards lecture and the kaufman textbook and this worried me. I mean it was a small detail but that made me wonder what else would be different and which one was correct---anyone know the answer to this
MS occurs 1.5x more frequently in women than in men-------per kaufman tb BUT per bear the boards it occurs 3x more frequently in women than in men
Like i said a small detail which I don't know would even be tested, but it makes me wonder about other discrepancies

 

[whopper]

If I remember correctly, there's a section in the BTB notes mentioning that if a sex offender has a significant other, it decreases the odds that person will re-offend.

Hmm, I work with two individuals who are perhaps in the top 20 in the nation on the topic of sex offenders, and that's not what they're saying.

I guess it's like Kaplan, their books are riddled with a few typos here and there.

At least for me, the key to getting it into my memory was repitition. For that reason, several of the video review courses didn't work for me becuase I could go through a lecture's powerpoints in about 15 minutes, while seeing the entire lecture would take an hour. When there's something on the order of 30 lectures--if I actually saw all the videos, I could've cycled through the notes 4x by then. I usually need to cycle through about 6 times before I could take a board exam such as the USMLE or the psych board.

I tried the U-Pitt video review course and for the reason I mentioned thought it was useless---at least for me. Different people have different study preferences.

 

[Psychintern2006]

any experience with psychiatry in review marterial (notes plus online questions) ?? I find myself wanting to print out the questions as find it hard to concentrate on the internet - based questions.

How is that for the part 1 ? I am also taking kaufman review.

Any tips to "pass the board part 1" I did not do well on PRITE lately

 

[whopper]

I did not feel the PRITE was an accurate representation of the psychiatry boards. The questions were on the same material, but the questions had different styles if you know what I mean.

The only way I can describe it in a manner that you may feel that you "get" what I mean is this---

Ever study some USMLE questions from Kaplan and USMLE-WORLD, and feel the questions on your actual exam were very similar?

Compare that to questions from the Appleton and Lange books--yes questions based on the same material, but when you take the questions from Kaplan or USMLE-World, you see a lot of the same questions repeated while A&L's books you hardly see any questions repeated. You also feel as if it's a different mindset.

That's the only way I can describe it. The PRITE for several years, for example, almost asks the same mitochondrial-based questions, while the psychiatry board exam asks questions on mitochondrial disorders that aren't the same as the PRITE. There were several questions I saw on the PRITE based on data with little backing (e.g. Welbutrin does not affect the REM cycle--there's only 1 or 2 studies that back this, and with a small sample, IMHO not enough data to put on a standardized exam unless it's an experimental question). The psychiatry board exam puts questions based on better amounts of data.

Your score on the PRITE does correlate with the psychiatry boards because, no surprise, it's based on psychiatry material. That said, however, it's difficult to study for the PRITE. There are no real PRITE study materials other than old exams, and IMHO using that is like eating matzo for dinner (and nothing else--just matzo and water). It's pretty bland.

There are plenty of psychiatry board materials out there that are good. I'd focus on those materials instead of the PRITE. In fact, I'd just study for the psychiatry board exam, in a manner where it adds to your ability to be a good psychiatrist (BTB notes are arranged in this manner).

The Kaufmann notes work and are good, but those notes are more in a --"here's what you need to pass, but it won't make you a better psychiatrist" style. I'd focus on that type of studying if you have very limited time or it's the last stretch of the race.

Forget the PRITE except it may be a gauge on how much you need to study for the board exam.

I wouldn't worry about the board exam anywhere near as much as USMLE. The psychiatry written boards were a cakewalk IMHO compared to USMLE (well at least for me it was.) It's material you actually are using on an everyday basis vs. seeing surgery questions you hardly ever saw even when you did surgery.

 

[Psychintern2006]

thanks a lot whopper for your feed back. I am little relaxed since I read your post. Hope I pass this thing, I worry with the written test.

 

[whopper]

IMHO studying for all the USMLEs were like training for an Iron Man triathalon. It was extreme, and possibly even unhealthy from a mental health standpoint.

But studying for the psychiatry board exam was like studying for an exam in medical school.

The reason being is the USMLE could be anything in the field of medicine and unfortunately mostly not on topics in our own field. It was uncomfortable, cumbersome and by no means enjoyable.

Since the board exam is stuff in our own field, and likely stuff we enjoy doing more, it was more like just taking 1 exam in medschool. It was not as intense, it was based on material I enjoy studying, and if I learned something new I didn't know before it just motivated me to study more.

I didn't get that with Step I, II, or III, where I could nitpick several things I know I'd hardly ever use as a doctor, or was never covered in a textbook or class (E.g. question on the amount of aldosterone release if a person was weightless because they lived on a space station for a few months. Yes those bastar** actually put that on one of my USMLE exams! Or the classic, Your patient in the 3rd trimester or pregnancy wants to fly over to the west coast, what do you tell her about federal aviation guidelines? Geez thanks! This was never covered in any of my 3 Ob-gyn texts, nor was it ever brought up during my rotation. Only reason I got it right was because I saw it on as a sample question).

You still had to study for it, you still had to work hard at it, but it wasn't this type of consuming feeling that my life for the next 6 months was going to be screwed over.

That's at least how I felt about it. Everyone is different.

 

[pariee]

Where can I buy a copy of BTB at a good price? The website says it's $997! Im still a resident and can't afford that. Thanks for replying!

 

[whopper]

Find residents ahead of you and ask for an old copy.