Board Certification in Psychiatry

[calvnandhobbs68]

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As a fun counter-argument: If I study for 2 days, it would be the equivalent cost of just retaking the test. 1 day of studying = retake day. Day 2 of studying = 1 day of working pays for the exam again. Financially, 1 day of studying is probably worth it if it ensures passing. 2 days you break even. More than 2 days of studying and you are better off retaking the exam than studying. If you test fairly well, the odds of failing twice is really low. Therefore it isn’t worth studying much.

Malpractice gave me no discount for board certification. Insurance companies paneled me before I took the exam.

Were you studying instead of working? I worked and did question banks on my days off lol. That argument only works if you were actually going to work during those hours instead of studying.

Yes insurance companies paneled me too but they wanted to know if I was board eligible before paneling. Maybe it’s different between malpractice companies but generally they view you as lower risk if you’re board certified, same if you’re a member of a national organization.

 

[TexasPhysician]

Were you studying instead of working? I worked and did question banks on my days off lol. That argument only works if you were actually going to work during those hours instead of studying.

Yes insurance companies paneled me too but they wanted to know if I was board eligible before paneling. Maybe it’s different between malpractice companies but generally they view you as lower risk if you’re board certified, same if you’re a member of a national organization.

I don’t find board studying to be fun. It is unpaid work no matter when I do it that takes away from hobbies and family. There is no shortage of work I can do. Every hour has an opportunity cost, so yes every hour studying equals an hourly wage lost or hour with my kids lost.

You are board eligible for 7 years last I looked before you need to have passed the exam. That is more evidence that there is little need to study. Fail the first 4 years and you are still board eligible for insurances.

Every malpractice company is different. I get no discount for national organizations either.

I’m not saying that no one should study. Everyone should do their own assessment on likelihood of passing and employer benefits/rules. If you did well on PRITE, take the exam right after residency, and test well, this isn’t a hard test. There is no difference with your certificate if you pass at the cutoff or get every answer right. No one that matters will know if I aced it or failed the first 6 times.

Your training makes you the psychiatrist you are. The test does not reflect your skill.

All of this is why many do not study or study very little. One of the largest psychiatry board prep companies sold in the last 5 years. Let’s just say that the numbers weren’t big.

 

[hallowmann]

You were board eligible though. When things care, they mostly care about either BC or BE vs not. The only two things I can think of caring about BC specifically are is military specialty stipend for BC and PMG's caring about BC before becoming a shareholder.

I get a 5% salary differential for BC in a county mental health system.

I agree though, from an insurance/credentialing standpoint being BC or BE is more important than actually being BC. That said, if you leave the window of being BE, that might affect your credentialing and as a result employment.

 

[justalittlestar]

While we're on this topic: Anyone have any recs for a qbank during residency? I'm a PGY-3 and struggle with stadardized examinations. Have seen some improvements in my PRITE scores however so that's been nice. I'm looking into purchasing Psych Genius. Heard BTB is overrated.

 

[moto_za]

While we're on this topic: Anyone have any recs for a qbank during residency? I'm a PGY-3 and struggle with stadardized examinations. Have seen some improvements in my PRITE scores however so that's been nice. I'm looking into purchasing Psych Genius. Heard BTB is overrated.

This is the most important resource:

Psychiatry Test Preparation and Review Manual​

Don't purchase BTB, waste of time and money. Had to learn that the hard way.

 

[justalittlestar]

This is the most important resource:

Psychiatry Test Preparation and Review Manual​

Don't purchase BTB, waste of time and money. Had to learn that the hard way.

Thanks. I have this! I will continue reviewing with it.

 

[Stagg737]

While we're on this topic: Anyone have any recs for a qbank during residency? I'm a PGY-3 and struggle with stadardized examinations. Have seen some improvements in my PRITE scores however so that's been nice. I'm looking into purchasing Psych Genius. Heard BTB is overrated.

My residency gave us free access to BoardVitals. A couple of questions had incorrect details, but they're details that every other board review source also had wrong (half-lives of certain meds being the most notable subject of debate). BV will get you up to 40 CME hours but you get credit per questions you're finishing and it costs extra, so have to finish the whole Qbank for the full 40 hours.

I don't think BTB was overrated, but I don't think just trying to go through the entire thing is the way to use it. Look at your PRITE scores and see where your areas of weakness are. For me it was imaging, neuro, and NCDs so I just did those in depth with BTB and scored pretty well there. The nice thing about BTB is that if you sign up with a group it's half price and will get you 53 CME hours if you do the test at the end (which is not hard). So you can hit your weaknesses and finish your CME for the year with just that, the CME is what makes it worth the (discounted) price imo.

 

[justalittlestar]

My residency gave us free access to BoardVitals. A couple of questions had incorrect details, but they're details that every other board review source also had wrong (half-lives of certain meds being the most notable subject of debate). BV will get you up to 40 CME hours but you get credit per questions you're finishing and it costs extra, so have to finish the whole Qbank for the full 40 hours.

I don't think BTB was overrated, but I don't think just trying to go through the entire thing is the way to use it. Look at your PRITE scores and see where your areas of weakness are. For me it was imaging, neuro, and NCDs so I just did those in depth with BTB and scored pretty well there. The nice thing about BTB is that if you sign up with a group it's half price and will get you 53 CME hours if you do the test at the end (which is not hard). So you can hit your weaknesses and finish your CME for the year with just that, the CME is what makes it worth the (discounted) price imo.

I wonder if it's worth it to just try to get both BV and BTB at some point. I've heard good things about both.