Board Certification in Psychiatry

[trixter888]

About 1 week left. What are you all doing to study during this last week. I have the choice of finishing BTB questions (but from the forum they seem low yield) or doing K/S for a third time. Any suggestions?

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[J ROD]

I would focus on finishing those questions and work on timing. Definite weak areas. How you want to take breaks?

 

[deleted1100659]

are there imaging questions on the exam, like MRI/identify the structure?

Im just light reviewing some biostats/therapy stuff, and going over some K and S questions I missed

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

are there imaging questions on the exam, like MRI/identify the structure?

Im just light reviewing some biostats/therapy stuff, and going over some K and S questions I missed

If you look at the old posts on here it looks like the neuro on the actual exam is even easier than the K and S neuro (which is good cause a bunch of that stuff is like neuro boards questions….).

Even if there are imaging questions my guess is either it’ll be super obvious (is this a hemorrhage or a tumor??) or so few questions it won’t matter enough to go study MRIs this past week.

But that’s just my thoughts I’m taking it next week like the rest of you lol

 

[deleted1100659]

If you look at the old posts on here it looks like the neuro on the actual exam is even easier than the K and S neuro (which is good cause a bunch of that stuff is like neuro boards questions….).

Even if there are imaging questions my guess is either it’ll be super obvious (is this a hemorrhage or a tumor??) or so few questions it won’t matter enough to go study MRIs this past week.

But that’s just my thoughts I’m taking it next week like the rest of you lol

I remembered they always asked where the insula was on prite lol

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

Also I’m just looking at the K + S vignettes now and they have so many errors it’s getting annoying. Like some of the explanations straight up contradicting the answers….almost like someone completely different wrote the vignettes. Just venting lol.

 

[deleted1100659]

Also I’m just looking at the K + S vignettes now and they have so many errors it’s getting annoying. Like some of the explanations straight up contradicting the answers….almost like someone completely different wrote the vignettes. Just venting lol.

Which question? Been a while since I did the vignette ones

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

Which question? Been a while since I did the vignette ones

Just as the most recent one...

Vignette 9, Question 4- The formula for BMI is completely reversed. I looked at all the formulas and was like wtf is going on here...until I looked at the answers and realized their BMI formula was backwards on the actual question.

There's a typo like that in almost every question. It's like someone didn't even bother to proofread the vignettes...I have the feeling they got tossed on as an afterthought or something.

Also another one I just remembered:

Vignette 8, Question 7- They say schizophrenia is associated with a 10% suicide rate as one of the correct answers when it's literally in DSM-V that "5-6% of individuals with schizophrenia die by suicide and about 20% attempt suicide on one or more occasions". That one also annoyed me because I had just recently read that section in DSM-V and clearly remembered the stat.

Omg here's another one:

Vignette 9, Question 1- Amenorrhea is NOT REQUIRED in DSM-V for an anorexia diagnosis (that was a DSM-IV thing) but they still have it as a correct answer for "essential" to make a diagnosis of anorexia nervosa.

I'm pretty tempted to not even keep going through the vignettes because I'm afraid I'm not picking up on some incorrect stuff at this point and internalizing some random incorrect answers....I have the feeling they pulled a bunch of questions forward from DSM-IV and never bothered to update them.

 

[deleted1100659]

omgggg test monday. not sure what to even review at this point. please no hard therapy questions.

 

[trixter888]

I'll be doing a final pass of K/S this weekend. Casually reviewing wrong answers and memorizing small facts that may come up. Good luck to everyone!

 

[deleted1100659]

ugh i just took the new demo exam thats 27 questions and realized cant even see my results, lol, dangit..

Psychiatry Certification Demonstration Exam - American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology

Psychiatry Certification Demonstration Exam (At this time, ABPN recommends using only desktop and laptop computers running Windows or macOS operating systems that meet or exceed the minimum specifications. Tablets and touchscreens are not supported.) The purpose of this Psychiatry Certification...

www.abpn.com

 

[trixter888]

ugh i just took the new demo exam thats 27 questions and realized cant even see my results, lol, dangit..

Psychiatry Certification Demonstration Exam - American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology

Psychiatry Certification Demonstration Exam (At this time, ABPN recommends using only desktop and laptop computers running Windows or macOS operating systems that meet or exceed the minimum specifications. Tablets and touchscreens are not supported.) The purpose of this Psychiatry Certification...

www.abpn.com

Did you think the 2nd video patient had somatic symptoms disorder, panic disorder or anxiety disorder 2/2 M.S? JW (we have to pick 2 from differential)

 

[Supramarginalgyrus]

Did you think the 2nd video patient had somatic symptoms disorder, panic disorder or anxiety disorder 2/2 M.S? JW (we have to pick 2 from differential)

I said panic disorder and anxiety disorder 2/2 MS.

 

[trixter888]

I said panic disorder and anxiety disorder 2/2 MS.

Yah we had a mini debate about it. The follow up questions suggesting you want him to follow up with another neurologist, make me think somatic.

 

[deleted1100659]

Did you think the 2nd video patient had somatic symptoms disorder, panic disorder or anxiety disorder 2/2 M.S? JW (we have to pick 2 from differential)

def panic disorder for sure, and i felt like also anxiety disorder due to ms given the onset of the anxiety disorder

 

[deleted1100659]

Yah we had a mini debate about it. The follow up questions suggesting you want him to follow up with another neurologist, make me think somatic.

if I remember though, the neurologist diagnosed him with MS and there were clinical findings on imaging so I don't think the worry was out of proportion. Plus at that point we wouldnt have known it possibly wasnt MS since supposedly the neurologist diagnosed him

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

Guys it was definitely not somatic symptom disorder. I mean just ignore everything else and remember that somatic sx disorder has a time cutoff of minimum of 6 months of sx. Not to mention he wouldn't meet other criteria anyway. But the guy says "started about 5 months ago" in the video probably for a reason lol.

That's the kind of stupid test taking stuff they do to get you.

 

[deleted1100659]

Guys it was definitely not somatic symptom disorder. I mean just ignore everything else and remember that somatic sx disorder has a time cutoff of minimum of 6 months of sx. Not to mention he wouldn't meet other criteria anyway. But the guy says "started about 5 months ago" in the video probably for a reason lol.

That's the kind of stupid test taking stuff they do to get you.

any other particular questions that stood out? lets keep this going, lol. Im blanking on what else was asked

 

[trixter888]

Guys it was definitely not somatic symptom disorder. I mean just ignore everything else and remember that somatic sx disorder has a time cutoff of minimum of 6 months of sx. Not to mention he wouldn't meet other criteria anyway. But the guy says "started about 5 months ago" in the video probably for a reason lol.

That's the kind of stupid test taking stuff they do to get you.

Good point. Yah I think I was reading way too much into it. I didn't hear a time. And was thinking the content of the interview primarily focused on his anxiety and response to the diagnosis. Somatic symptoms disorder can be affiliated with a medical diagnosis. First time taking the test I chose panic and anxiety 2/2 M.S. after 2 weeks of studying I then overanalyzed the question.

I think the main thing is to not read too much into it.

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

any other particular questions that stood out? lets keep this going, lol. Im blanking on what else was asked

I actually wasn't sure what they wanted with the manic dude and the last question since you had to check 2 answers. The answers were something like "inpatient hospitalization; medication free period; stop the olanzapine; check carbamazepine level; transition back to divalproex". Check carbamazepine level is obviously one of them but then I was guessing stop the olanzapine? Since he had been stabilized on monotherapy lithium before so might do okay on just the mood stabilizer 12 weeks later.

Also I didn't think xanax was actually the right answer for the question before it but I selected it. Goofy benzo to use but benzo could actually make sense in acute mania. Would have made more sense if they said start ativan, zyprexa and titrate up the depakote (since he was only on 1000mg). Didn't realize they were saying (they didn't actually say but they implied by the next question) we were going to discontinue the valproic acid and start zyprexa and carbamazepine. I was like wtf why would you have this guy on zyprexa, valproic acid and carbamazepine all at the same time?

They also didn't make it super clear that the old guy from one of the other vignettes wasn't depressed and was just delusional because of his vascular dementia. SSRI would be a way safer option than an antipsychotic in a 82yo guy if there's any indication he has an MDD with psychosis or something. They literally say in the question stem, 2 months of being more irritable, more isolative, losing weight and slightly unkempt. Weird question in my opinion especially since we're really trying to avoid using antipsychotics in the elderly at this point overall.

Edit: Also just FYI I'm not sure if anyone else noticed this but the online K+S questions are slightly different than the book. There's a handful in every test that are totally different questions. They must have added/replaced some book questions. Might be worth it to run through the online ones really quick if you haven't already just cross reference them against the book questions and do the ones that are different for some more question exposure.

 

[deleted1100659]

I actually wasn't sure what they wanted with the manic dude and the last question since you had to check 2 answers. The answers were something like "inpatient hospitalization; medication free period; stop the olanzapine; check carbamazepine level; transition back to divalproex". Check carbamazepine level is obviously one of them but then I was guessing stop the olanzapine? Since he had been stabilized on monotherapy lithium before so might do okay on just the mood stabilizer 12 weeks later.

Also I didn't think xanax was actually the right answer for the question before it but I selected it. Goofy benzo to use but benzo could actually make sense in acute mania. Would have made more sense if they said start ativan, zyprexa and titrate up the depakote (since he was only on 1000mg). Didn't realize they were saying (they didn't actually say but they implied by the next question) we were going to discontinue the valproic acid and start zyprexa and carbamazepine. I was like wtf why would you have this guy on zyprexa, valproic acid and carbamazepine all at the same time?

They also didn't make it super clear that the old guy from one of the other vignettes wasn't depressed and was just delusional because of his vascular dementia. SSRI would be a way safer option than an antipsychotic in a 82yo guy if there's any indication he has an MDD with psychosis or something. They literally say in the question stem, 2 months of being more irritable, more isolative, losing weight and slightly unkempt. Weird question in my opinion especially since we're really trying to avoid using antipsychotics in the elderly at this point overall.

Edit: Also just FYI I'm not sure if anyone else noticed this but the online K+S questions are slightly different than the book. There's a handful in every test that are totally different questions. They must have added/replaced some book questions. Might be worth it to run through the online ones really quick if you haven't already just cross reference them against the book questions and do the ones that are different for some more question exposure.

yep that was somewhat misleading. Agree that the obvious answer was to check levels. I was seriously thinking Xanax was the answer, same reason as you since benzos can be used in mania but then I was like why Xanax? I’ve never heard of anyone picking Xanax? So not sure what the direction was supposed to be there but I didn’t pick Xanax I picked zyprexa and carbmasxine or something, but I specifically remember pausing for same reason as you; realized after rereadijf it like 3 times he was on depakote and it wasn’t working and so the only thing that made sense was carbamazepine and zyprexa.

I put stop the zyprexa and tegretol levels for other one. You can use just solo mood stabilizer once the patient is stable which he was, so he didn’t need to the zyprexa. To me those were only two that made sense

oh and I’m such an idiot for the 82 year old that was the one that I knew I got wrong. I knew antipsychotic was the obvious choice they wanted but when they said he had vascular dementia I was thinking control risk factors and start anti hypertensive lmao. But that was my thoughts too. I was thinking surely they made effort to say he’s 82; maybe we control the disease progression. He’s not floridly psychotic or anything.

 

[J ROD]

I ran through it for fun. I would say check Tegretol level and stop Zyprexa. Panic Disorder and Anxiety due to MS.
Generally do not want to say another MD is wrong. So suggest second opinion.
Vascular dementia - paranoid delusions, wife had bruises on her probably from him. Antipsychotic for agitation.

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

I ran through it for fun. I would say check Tegretol level and stop Zyprexa. Panic Disorder and Anxiety due to MS.
Generally do not want to say another MD is wrong. So suggest second opinion.
I believe the answer to the vascular dementia is start the HTN med. He was not florid psychotic or agitated to excess.

Yeah but it's a vignette so you can tell what the right answer was based on the next question. They wanted you to say antipsychotic, since the next couple questions are about getting consent for the antipsychotic and mortality risk in the elderly.

Which I (like you) would also argue does not outweigh the benefits in this case but you can tell that's what they wanted.

There's not great evidence that blood pressure control changes progression in vascular dementia but I agree I'd have gone for that over an antipsychotic in a pretty old guy who isn't overtly dangerous besides possibly maybe the "bruising" on his wifes arms they put in there (pretty flimsy...).

 

[J ROD]

when back and read it again. Paranoid delusions were present.

 

[DisorderedDoc417]

Click on psychiatry linked question vignettes. It has the answers for the zyprexa/tegretol case. Everyone here is thinking along the right lines.

Psychiatry Linked-item Set (Vignette) - American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology

Psychiatry Linked-item Set (Vignette) Part 1 The 44-year-old, wealthy, married businessman shown in the video exhibit is referred for psychiatric evaluation by his couples therapist (James) because of a recent change in behavior. For the past several months, he has...

www.abpn.com

 

[deleted1100659]

never thought to ask: are all the vignette questions psychiatry ones, or also neuro too?

 

[Supramarginalgyrus]

I ran through it for fun. I would say check Tegretol level and stop Zyprexa. Panic Disorder and Anxiety due to MS.
Generally do not want to say another MD is wrong. So suggest second opinion.
Vascular dementia - paranoid delusions, wife had bruises on her probably from him. Antipsychotic for agitation.

Curious if you have any thoughts as to how representative of the difficulty of the exam that demonstration is? I know we'll all find out tomorrow, but wondering if you remember.

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

when back and read it again. Paranoid delusions were present.

Right right but my point was

- 2 months of sx
- More irritable
- Socially isolating
- Less self care
- Losing weight

You could go either way on this is dementia with psychosis now or MDD with psychotic features (although it's a test so they'd probably give you clear MDD criteria). Either way yes technically you would think about starting an antipsychotic but the risk/benefit ratio in a 82 year old should be weighed a bit more strongly than "antipsychotic is the only right answer here"...it's a bad question. Basically from the question progression they're then like "oh yeah but remember to get consent from the guy with dementia and tell him his risk of death is doubled!".

When you have headlines like this coming out, ethically I find it a bit discouraging that they're putting on a standardized test to jump straight to an antipsychotic for old people with dementia still.

Phony Diagnoses Hide High Rates of Drugging at Nursing Homes (Published 2021)

At least 21 percent of nursing home residents are on antipsychotic drugs, a Times investigation found.

www.nytimes.com

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

never thought to ask: are all the vignette questions psychiatry ones, or also neuro too?

I think they're all psychiatry? At least that's what it seems from the practice qbanks and their own practice vignettes.

 

[deleted1100659]

Right right but my point was

- 2 months of sx
- More irritable
- Socially isolating
- Less self care
- Losing weight

You could go either way on this is dementia with psychosis now or MDD with psychotic features (although it's a test so they'd probably give you clear MDD criteria). Either way yes technically you would think about starting an antipsychotic but the risk/benefit ratio in a 82 year old should be weighed a bit more strongly than "antipsychotic is the only right answer here"...it's a bad question. Basically from the question progression they're then like "oh yeah but remember to get consent from the guy with dementia and tell him his risk of death is doubled!".

When you have headlines like this coming out, ethically I find it a bit discouraging that they're putting on a standardized test to jump straight to an antipsychotic for old people with dementia still.

Phony Diagnoses Hide High Rates of Drugging at Nursing Homes (Published 2021)

At least 21 percent of nursing home residents are on antipsychotic drugs, a Times investigation found.

www.nytimes.com

well whats confusing is they diagnosed it as major neuro cogn disorder due to vascular dementia. Vascular dementia usually doesnt display psychotic sx classically, so that is also why I agree the whole question was a little misleading

Also didnt the wife have bruises on her arms because she would wonder outside by herself?

 

[J ROD]

Curious if you have any thoughts as to how representative of the difficulty of the exam that demonstration is? I know we'll all find out tomorrow, but wondering if you remember.

I think in most ways yeah. The subtle way you can see where both answers could be right. But one is a little more right.

 

[J ROD]

well whats confusing is they diagnosed it as major neuro cogn disorder due to vascular dementia. Vascular dementia usually doesnt display psychotic sx classically, so that is also why I agree the whole question was a little misleading

Also didnt the wife have bruises on her arms because she would wonder outside by herself?

To me they were making reference to that to indicate he has escalated and causing the bruising. Why the psychotic is more pressing. I treat these geri all day. lots of delusions and paranoia in vascular too.

 

[deleted1100659]

Alright just finished the exam today, heres my take.

1. I finished with one hour and 40 mins left, it seemed like there was plenty of time at least and I didnt have an issue with timing

2. The exam had a wide array of question difficulty. Some were just completely obvious. Some were on high yield concepts that they found ways to ask on that werent usually asked in that particular way on the question bank...those were tricky. Some concepts/terms from (quality improvement type of stuff?) that I had no idea what the definitions were, and I got hammered with those. Hopefully I got those right, just tried to put the most logical answer.

3. For me what actually was the most helpful was BTB. The lectures and question bank covered a decent (not all) portion of the test. Dr. Jack was actually right about the kind of stuff theyd ask. There were some gaps for sure though. I knew K&S completely, knew all the concepts well, and feel like it covered very little of my exam. Maybe a few questions here and there but not much beyond that. Boardvitals seemed moderately useful. Anything else seemed pointless.

4, The standalone sections were 60-67 questions each if I remember correctly; I marked on average 10-15 per each of those section. But I have a very very low threshold for marking, I mark if I have slightest doubt so I can go back to later and look at the concept from a different angle. Marking actually helped me a lot; a couple times the test indirectly gave me the answer in the form of another question later on in the same section, lol.

5. I got about two hours of sleep the night before so that was not fun. Also during my exam, the proctor got confused when i took a break, and accidentally started my exam back/instead of starting the break, and had to override it somehow and visibly flustered/frustrated, so that gave me some anxiety during that block, lol. I had to wait in the chair outside while he fixed it.

6. The vignettes werent as bad as I thought theyd be. Some were really easy. Some were painful. Most seemed ok. Some of the vignette questions were a bit on the vague side though. Overall for the vignettes I felt it was very polarized; usually very easy or weird/confusing.

7. The neurology didnt seem bad at all.

8. Genetic disorders are apparently harder than i thought when asked a certain way. They didnt ask it in the way KS would ask it, and that definitely hurt me.

No idea how to predict how it went- I can think of 10 questions I missed off the bat, but the exam was so huge, at 425 questions I know its a lot easier to focus on the ones you got wrong vs right. I hope everyone else that took it today had a good experience. The endurance aspect was definitely tough.

 

[reca]

I thought it was a fair test. A few oddball questions but the bulk was reasonable. Lots more child and sleep than I expected. And yeah, absolutely agree that K&S question book was not very helpful. I knew it cold cover to cover and in retrospect, wished I'd spent that time doing something else (even just watching TV). There were less than 10 questions I knew from studying K&S. I didn't do BTB, felt it was too much money to justify, and think I still made the right decision. Guess we'll know for sure in 3 months.

 

[Monocles]

Finished the test in under 4 hours total. Not sure if my cohort was full of speedreaders or what, but I was actually one of the last remaining.

I thought the psychiatry portion was EASY PEASY. Haven't thought about grown ups' (esp geriatric) clinical care in years! But for the most part I picked what made sense in terms of practice. There were maybe a dozen questions at most where I had completely no idea. The vignettes were pretty reassuring since a lot of them basically tell you the correct answer later.

but OMG so much neuro. Soooo many questions about brain parts and neuroscience. :'(

Thinking I got about maybe 80% of the psychiatry and maybe 20% of the neuro questions right, which should hopefully squeak out a narrow pass.

 

[deleted1100659]

Finished the test in under 4 hours total. Not sure if my cohort was full of speedreaders or what, but I was actually one of the last remaining.

I thought the psychiatry portion was EASY PEASY. Haven't thought about grown ups' (esp geriatric) clinical care in years! But for the most part I picked what made sense in terms of practice. There were maybe a dozen questions at most where I had completely no idea. The vignettes were pretty reassuring since a lot of them basically tell you the correct answer later.

but OMG so much neuro. Soooo many questions about brain parts and neuroscience. :'(

View attachment 343333

Thinking I got about maybe 80% of the psychiatry and maybe 20% of the neuro questions right, which should hopefully squeak out a narrow pass.

well everyone else in the test center for me was there for nclex, that could have been why they finished so fast lol

 

[lockian]

Alright just finished the exam today, heres my take.

1. I finished with one hour and 40 mins left, it seemed like there was plenty of time at least and I didnt have an issue with timing

2. The exam had a wide array of question difficulty. Some were just completely obvious. Some were on high yield concepts that they found ways to ask on that werent usually asked in that particular way on the question bank...those were tricky. Some concepts/terms from (quality improvement type of stuff?) that I had no idea what the definitions were, and I got hammered with those. Hopefully I got those right, just tried to put the most logical answer.

3. For me what actually was the most helpful was BTB. The lectures and question bank covered a decent (not all) portion of the test. Dr. Jack was actually right about the kind of stuff theyd ask. There were some gaps for sure though. I knew K&S completely, knew all the concepts well, and feel like it covered very little of my exam. Maybe a few questions here and there but not much beyond that. Boardvitals seemed moderately useful. Anything else seemed pointless.

4, The standalone sections were 60-67 questions each if I remember correctly; I marked on average 10-15 per each of those section. But I have a very very low threshold for marking, I mark if I have slightest doubt so I can go back to later and look at the concept from a different angle. Marking actually helped me a lot; a couple times the test indirectly gave me the answer in the form of another question later on in the same section, lol.

5. I got about two hours of sleep the night before so that was not fun. Also during my exam, the proctor got confused when i took a break, and accidentally started my exam back/instead of starting the break, and had to override it somehow and visibly flustered/frustrated, so that gave me some anxiety during that block, lol. I had to wait in the chair outside while he fixed it.

6. The vignettes werent as bad as I thought theyd be. Some were really easy. Some were painful. Most seemed ok. Some of the vignette questions were a bit on the vague side though. Overall for the vignettes I felt it was very polarized; usually very easy or weird/confusing.

7. The neurology didnt seem bad at all.

8. Genetic disorders are apparently harder than i thought when asked a certain way. They didnt ask it in the way KS would ask it, and that definitely hurt me.

No idea how to predict how it went- I can think of 10 questions I missed off the bat, but the exam was so huge, at 425 questions I know its a lot easier to focus on the ones you got wrong vs right. I hope everyone else that took it today had a good experience. The endurance aspect was definitely tough.

Hey, I agree with a lot of your observations. A decent number of questions were "are-you-effing-kidding-me" easy, some you could frustratingly narrow to two choices, some out of left field. I also marked 10-15 questions on each standalone section and I also have a low threshold for marking questions to go back to.

The weird thing is, I am usually a slow test taker, but through much of the exam I ran 2 hours ahead of schedule. I purposefully made myself slow down and took extra time toward the end, but was still done over an hour early. I am a bit concerned that the first couple of sessions I didn't do enough checking over of answers... I wanted to keep moving to avoid running out of time before I realized I was in no danger of that.

But a lot of the time checking doesn't actually help me. I just second-guess and get more things wrong. There were 2 questions I know I missed due to second-guessing too much, but also 1-2 due to misreading the question. There goes 1% of my score...

 

[lockian]

I'm curious, does anyone know how they set the pass rate, by the way? Is it an average thing and then they do a cutoff of x standard deviations below that?

 

[trixter888]

Experience: Spent the entire amount of time on the exam. This is typical for me with standardized board exams. I wished I had practiced more vignettes because this is where I struggled. I kept re-reading the stem or watching the videos to feel confident in my decisions. I had 2 minutes on my exam left.

I agree with others who had posted before me. I am very very very glad I did beat the boards. I did K/S about 2.5 times through, and there were some things on the exam where were not covered in K/S.

Lots of neuroanatomy questions, more than what BTB covers. If I were to take it again (hope not) I would know the parts of the brain that cause each disorder and correlating disorders with each diagnoses (which is a RF of having which).

No stats questions on my exam (no calculator). But there were biostatistic based questions. Cramming that the night before the test didn't help, but also I am glad I did not commit it to memory.

1-2 questions on useless psychological stages that I forced myself to memorize. One lateral medullary question (glad I looked that up again despite another posted on not having it last year).

Overall, there were things on this exam that you could not study for. But if I were to take it again. K/S 2-3 times, and BTB q-bank 2x. I would then know and be able to recite treatments for each disorder, and know their criteria down pat. I read through the DSM quickly, but wish I spent longer.

Good luck to everyone who took it today and to those who will be taking it in the future!

 

[lockian]

Do we all take the same exam or are there different versions?

 

[24blue8]

Thoughts from the Child exam: kind of a pointless exam.

Disturbingly little relevance or overlap with our
actual practice-- moreso than the general exam. Very, very few questions about actual medicine. Barely anything about neurology, physiology or neuroanatomy. Mostly a mashup of questions about irrelevant clinical screeners we don't do, will never do nor have we even seen in real life, multiple queries about HeadStart like programs, outcomes and "what comes next" for therapies we don't practice and will never refer a patient to.

I really can't understand how we've allowed our profession to be suckered by this ongoing educational ponzi scheme.

I spoke with several others who took the exam today or last year and they all had similar sentiments. What was the point?

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

Thoughts from the Child exam: kind of a pointless exam.

Disturbingly little relevance or overlap with our
actual practice-- moreso than the general exam. Very, very few questions about actual medicine. Barely anything about neurology, physiology or neuroanatomy. Mostly a mashup of questions about irrelevant clinical screeners we don't do, will never do nor have we even seen in real life, multiple queries about HeadStart like programs, outcomes and "what comes next" for therapies we don't practice and will never refer a patient to.

I really can't understand how we've allowed our profession to be suckered by this ongoing educational ponzi scheme.

I spoke with several others who took the exam today or last year and they all had similar sentiments. What was the point?

I took the general boards today but (if I pass this lol) will take the child boards next year. Interesting that's the sentiment about the child exam.

I wonder if one part of it is that there are just so few actual on-label psychotropic medications in kids in general. If they really don't test that much medicine, I wish they would actually test on useful things like the fine details of stimulants which are basically all approved for kids so should be fair game. I know even a decent amount of child psychiatrists who just stick with the few methylpendiate/amphetamine products they know without realizing the differences between the 50/50 release system in Ritalin LA vs the 30/70 release in Metadate CD for instance or that all the generic versions of Concerta do not have the OROS system. Or what about the release profile makes Jornay PM unique or that products like Adzenys even exist.

 

[Monocles]

Do we all take the same exam or are there different versions?

I think it's all the same? Otherwise it wouldn't be quite fair in terms of grading if some of us got tougher exams...

 

[lockian]

I think it's all the same? Otherwise it wouldn't be quite fair in terms of grading if some of us got tougher exams...

The more I think about it the more I keep thinking back to what a roller coaster of “I got this… wait, I don’t got this” the test was… and looking up what I remember of questions and realizing I got them wrong either for legitimate or stupid reasons.

*rolls around on the floor*

Ugh, I don’t want to have to study again and take it again. I also don’t want to not pass a big deal test for the first time ever.

I wonder how bad you need to be to be the 11%. It is a higher percentage than any of the steps.

 

[AtlasCarraway]

Y'all make this sound so fun.

Anyone aware if a BTB group discount train has started yet for next year's test?

 

[deleted1100659]

I think it's all the same? Otherwise it wouldn't be quite fair in terms of grading if some of us got tougher exams...

Well if its different its probably standardized based upon how people responded to the question in the past. Though it is odd it takes 12 weeks to grade, which makes you wonder if they adjust it and throw out questions.

Some questions I missed because I didnt get any sleep night before and was pretty tired, so i think that did hurt me a bit. I think the test is doable, and don't want anyone to see our responses and get worried. Im just being cautious with my prediction given that I dont know my objective score. Granted some questions were just logical reasoning or stuff you couldnt study for but that is how it seems to work out with standardized exams.

I did way too much studying on the neuro, I don't think there was a neuro question I was unsure on. The stuff that got me was the more obscure therapy stuff or concepts outside of psychiatry/neuro that I wasnt overly familiar with. But there were a lot of questions I knew too. So its just hard to say how you do on these exams till you see your score.

Edit: Overall I would recommend BTB and say that I found it helpful for a good chunk (not all, but a lot) of the exam.

 

[Destined2BDr]

I want to thank everyone for posting about their experience with the ABPN Psychiatry Certification Exam. I did K+S (Kenny and Spigel) 2017 edition 2.5x, and half of true learn for psychiatry (I have not seen anyone comment about this test bank, but some of the questions are reflective of the actual exam, however it asks specifics about dosing etc which the actual exam didn't have). I didn't do beat the boards because of the price tag. I started studying around June 2021, started off with 60% on K+S and got in the 80's in my final run throughs. I did a practice run of the actual exam about two weeks out from the date 425 questions with the vignettes etc from K+S and got around a 70%. For true learn I got 60-65% though the questions are tough. I never really did all that great on Prite etc, did ok on the USMLE step exams.

I took it on 9/13/21 and these are my thoughts:

1. Like someone else had posted a earlier in a post on 9/14/2020 the video vignettes are a lot of fun, I actually chucked at some of them.
2. Neuro was minimal though there are some tough neuro questions that I felt K+S covered, but maybe I should have reviewed Kaufman's the red book.
3. The exam is tough but it is fair, there are plenty of gimme questions.
4. It takes a while to check out and check in so be mindful of that.
5. I finished it a bit earlier 2 hours early.
6. Minimal bio stats, nothing to calculate.
7. Maybe 2-3 theorist questions.
8. Plenty of therapy questions.

Overall I felt alright coming out of the exam but it was a different feeling that I had with all the other USMLE exams for some reason, like the pressure was not at much.

~Good luck to all taking this exam!

 

[Monocles]

I did way too much studying on the neuro, I don't think there was a neuro question I was unsure on.

Omg you're gonna kill the curve. I don't think I did any better on the neuro section than the statistical average of randomly picking 1 out of 5 MC questions (20%)...

I felt the opposite from you in terms of the obscure therapy questions. Maybe my training just had TONS of psychoanalytic and CBT compared to the average program but I thought on those questions, at least 3 out of the 5 answers were chuckle-inducing and 1 was reasonable but not as "ideal" as the other remaining.

I hope I passedddd

 

[deleted1100659]

Omg you're gonna kill the curve. I don't think I did any better on the neuro section than the statistical average of randomly picking 1 out of 5 MC questions (20%)...

well just to be open, i always did significantly better on neuro sections in prite than psychiatry (i did well on psychiatry but neuro I usually did really well), so i was historically strong in that area.

but other sections of this test were hard for me, I made a lot of stupid errors that I knew I messed up when I finished because I misread the question or just overthought and made it more complicated than it was.

Also some of the therapy stuff got me for sure. If I just score average and pass ill be happy lol.

 

[DisorderedDoc417]

I want to thank everyone for posting about their experience with the ABPN Psychiatry Certification Exam. I did K+S (Kenny and Spigel) 2017 edition 2.5x, and half of true learn for psychiatry (I have not seen anyone comment about this test bank, but some of the questions are reflective of the actual exam, however it asks specifics about dosing etc which the actual exam didn't have). I didn't do beat the boards because of the price tag. I started studying around June 2021, started off with 60% on K+S and got in the 80's in my final run throughs. I did a practice run of the actual exam about two weeks out from the date 425 questions with the vignettes etc from K+S and got around a 70%. For true learn I got 60-65% though the questions are tough. I never really did all that great on Prite etc, did ok on the USMLE step exams.

I took it on 9/13/21 and these are my thoughts:

1. Like someone else had posted a earlier in a post on 9/14/2020 the video vignettes are a lot of fun, I actually chucked at some of them.
2. Neuro was minimal though there are some tough neuro questions that I felt K+S covered, but maybe I should have reviewed Kaufman's the red book.
3. The exam is tough but it is fair, there are plenty of gimme questions.
4. It takes a while to check out and check in so be mindful of that.
5. I finished it a bit earlier 2 hours early.
6. Minimal bio stats, nothing to calculate.
7. Maybe 2-3 theorist questions.
8. Plenty of therapy questions.

Overall I felt alright coming out of the exam but it was a different feeling that I had with all the other USMLE exams for some reason, like the pressure was not at much.

~Good luck to all taking this exam!

I took the exam today. I feel very similarly.