Board Certification in Psychiatry

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Members do not see this ad.
calvinhobbes said:
Anyone have any recommendations on what material to review besides K&S and Board Vitals? I hear this year the exam was very hard and had many weird questions.
Click to expand...
I’ll post up my study plan later today. Hopefully it will help out other people since I had low PRITE scores and low baseline knowledge but passed very comfortably.
 
smj05001 said:
Thats if you are doing the exam recertification. If you are doing article pathway, it's every 3 years. There is an option on Portal where you can switch.
Click to expand...
what is more preferred? Exam in 10 years or Article Based CC for every 3 years? And any idea how difficult the ABCC is?
 
Last edited:
samac said:
Where do you see 2024?
Click to expand...

It's in the score report

Mean: 80.9%
Standard deviation: 6.1%
Minimum passing score: 76.8%

Doing the math for you:
z score = (76.8-80.9)/6.1 = -0.6721 (which is exactly the 25th percentile in the normal distribution)
 
Any advice for child psych boards. I failed my 2.5 points. Feel really devastated. I felt pretty good after the exam.
 
smj05001 said:
Any advice for child psych boards. I failed my 2.5 points. Feel really devastated. I felt pretty good after the exam.
Click to expand...
I studied for 3.5 months. First did BTB (notes + lectures + q-bank. scored around 75% on first time. Did not do them again). Then only did questions from Board vitals-- did them twice; as on doing them for the first time, I was scoring 1 or 2 SDs below the mean, i.e., around 35% ish or so, if I remember accurately. On the second go of BV q-bank, I scored around 90-95% ish. Also reviewed CAP Prites for the last 5 years. BV q-bank is also very helpful (as they cover lot of important stuff that is not there in BTB and/or sometimes it's not emphasized on BTB q-bank), plus BV q-bank can be done quickly as explanations are shorter. On doing both BTB and BV question banks and listening to BTB lectures (I would listen to them during my commute to work), I felt quite confident about my knowledge base. I found BTB notes content was good. But questions on the actual board exam were very weird. I came out of the exam feeling that I am definitely going to fail. I feel that these board exam questions are not a true measure of one's actual knowledge; just bunch of random and weird questions. Passed by 2.8 points. Wishing you all the best!!!
 
Last edited:
smj05001 said:
Any advice for child psych boards. I failed my 2.5 points. Feel really devastated. I felt pretty good after the exam.
Click to expand...
So sorry to hear. I thought the exam was difficult. I reviewed past PRITES (just the ones from my fellowship) and did BTB. I made flashcards using ANKI and reviewed them leading up to the exam.
 
Mad Jack said:
Failure rate was high this year, and even those that passed averaged only 4% above failing. The difference between passing and failing looks more to be luck of the questions selected than anything with margins that razor thin
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what to make of this. Either our cohort was wildly unprepared (doubtful) or the test was plaugued with content issues.

This large of a deviation from the normal pass rate is not normal. In fact it really puts a lot of things into question. I also don't understand how they didn't normalize the data to keep the pass rate in line with past years. Like you can make a test much harder but still pass and fail the same number of people because math.
 
ridethecliche said:
I'm not sure what to make of this. Either our cohort was wildly unprepared (doubtful) or the test was plaugued with content issues.

This large of a deviation from the normal pass rate is not normal. In fact it really puts a lot of things into question. I also don't understand how they didn't normalize the data to keep the pass rate in line with past years. Like you can make a test much harder but still pass and fail the same number of people because math.
Click to expand...
Can you post the pass rate this year compared to the recent average?
 
According to the Psych cert exam report - Passing score this year was 239. Mean score of first time takers is 309. Mean standard score is 300, stdev of 50. Which means that just about 10-11% of all folks who took the exam failed, and less than that for first time test takers.
 
mistafab said:
According to the Psych cert exam report - Passing score this year was 239. Mean score of first time takers is 309. Mean standard score is 300, stdev of 50. Which means that just about 10-11% of all folks who took the exam failed, and less than that for first time test takers.
Click to expand...
That’s very typical no? It looks like it’s usually 89-91% pass?
 
you guys should just give up if you can't pass first try. an embarrassment to the field
 
Dhingra210 said:
you guys should just give up if you can't pass first try. an embarrassment to the field
Click to expand...
Season 4 Troll GIF by Living Single
 
Anyone planning on taking the AOBPN exam in April? Any experience how to prepare for it?
 
Question I thought I'd ask here instead of start a new thread.

I'm doing a one year fellowship in Forensics. I have a lot of moving pieces and not sure I want to take boards during fellowship. Would it be okay to delay until the following year and take general boards and forensic boards? I know I don't need to be boarded for fellowship, but does that effect my hiring chances after fellowship?
 
Majority of places unlikely. As long as you are BE you'll be fine. But know what the BE timeline is. I.e. better take the test in X years or they kick you out of the club and won't let you back in. It will also reduce your time clock of exam retakes - if they are needed, and how many you can squeeze in.
 
ladysmanfelpz said:
Question I thought I'd ask here instead of start a new thread.

I'm doing a one year fellowship in Forensics. I have a lot of moving pieces and not sure I want to take boards during fellowship. Would it be okay to delay until the following year and take general boards and forensic boards? I know I don't need to be boarded for fellowship, but does that effect my hiring chances after fellowship?
Click to expand...
One year delay is no problem. I know many who did this (including me) and did not cause any issues.
 
ladysmanfelpz said:
Question I thought I'd ask here instead of start a new thread.

I'm doing a one year fellowship in Forensics. I have a lot of moving pieces and not sure I want to take boards during fellowship. Would it be okay to delay until the following year and take general boards and forensic boards? I know I don't need to be boarded for fellowship, but does that effect my hiring chances after fellowship?
Click to expand...

Forensic psychiatrist here. It probably won’t cause a problem for hiring at most places.

I would, however, strongly recommend considering just taking general boards in the beginning of your fellowship year. It is what most people do and very achievable. Beyond that, there is basically no overlap between the general and forensic psychiatry boards. There is little utility in taking them together and studying for both at the same time sounds terrible to me. Pass rates notwithstanding, most people find the forensic exam more difficult than the general exam, and it definitely requires more specifically directed study of information you did not get from residency and, depending on how/how much your fellowship drills cases, may not have gotten from fellowship either. Forensics is also only offered every two years, so if you overextend yourself and fail forensics, you have to wait a while for another opportunity.
 
I am a rising PGY-4 planning on taking the Boards shortly after I graduate. So, a little over a year from now. I plan to do a fellowship in CL, so I would like to get the psychiatry boards out of the way early. For those who have written and passed the boards. How did you study, please? Like, did you have a strategy, what materials did you use, how long did it take you to study, and what were your scores like? I know scores don't matter at this stage of ones career, but I feel preparing well for the boards will help one to gain more knowledge in stuff like psychopharm and neuroscience.
 
I studied exactly zero. Went in cold and passed by a great margin.

If you've done well on PRITEs, then you do not need to study at all.

good luck.

Nameless MD said:
I am a rising PGY-4 planning on taking the Boards shortly after I graduate. So, a little over a year from now. I plan to do a fellowship in CL, so I would like to get the psychiatry boards out of the way early. For those who have written and passed the boards. How did you study, please? Like, did you have a strategy, what materials did you use, how long did it take you to study, and what were your scores like? I know scores don't matter at this stage of ones career, but I feel preparing well for the boards will help one to gain more knowledge in stuff like psychopharm and neuroscience.
Click to expand...
 
I did well on prite but still over studied for this. As I am oft to do. Passed by a standard deviation. I reaffirmed my belief I am a neurotic freak.
 
Nameless MD said:
I am a rising PGY-4 planning on taking the Boards shortly after I graduate. So, a little over a year from now. I plan to do a fellowship in CL, so I would like to get the psychiatry boards out of the way early. For those who have written and passed the boards. How did you study, please? Like, did you have a strategy, what materials did you use, how long did it take you to study, and what were your scores like? I know scores don't matter at this stage of ones career, but I feel preparing well for the boards will help one to gain more knowledge in stuff like psychopharm and neuroscience.
Click to expand...
Agree with above. I did Beat the Boards but only really "studied" the neurology and NCD sections since those were weaker on PRITEs. Listened to some of the other lectures podcast style on the way to and from work for about 4 weeks prior. Also took 3 Kenny and Spiegel practice tests (found them unhelpful) and did do some practice vignettes either through K&S or the APA/APBN board website. This vignettes are probably the only thing I'd actully say everyone should do beforehand just so you know what that format will be. Scored 70th or 75th percentile or something around there, also did quite well on PRITES though, so not sure how much studying actually helped.
 
Nameless MD said:
I am a rising PGY-4 planning on taking the Boards shortly after I graduate. So, a little over a year from now. I plan to do a fellowship in CL, so I would like to get the psychiatry boards out of the way early. For those who have written and passed the boards. How did you study, please? Like, did you have a strategy, what materials did you use, how long did it take you to study, and what were your scores like? I know scores don't matter at this stage of ones career, but I feel preparing well for the boards will help one to gain more knowledge in stuff like psychopharm and neuroscience.
Click to expand...

Almost no studying. It felt very weird to not study hard as we are programmed to prepare extensively for tests. The MCAT involved a prep course, and I was told that we get 1 chance. Steps involved significant preparation and a failure could be catastrophic.

A board failure has almost no impact though. I found the exam mixed between information I clearly knew from training and things I would never use as a psychiatrist. I completed the Spiegel (spelling?) question book over 4 years of Prite light studying. I took notes in a binder of things to remember. Before the test, I read those few pages again.

My entire class mostly didn’t prepare. Those that went into academia prepped the most as the chair cares. Other careers didn’t care. One classmate failed and just took it again with minimal prep.

I thought of it this way. Every hour studying is a loss of a minimum of $150 I could have earned working instead. I figured I would review my short binder and just take the test year 1. Year 2, if I failed, I would study about 20 hours worth as that would be the cost of having to take it a 3rd time. A 2nd failure and I would buckle down to figure it out because I’ll have a fellowship board as well.

I didn’t need to study at all and passed. I took this into my child boards and didn’t study at all - passed. My buddy that went into academia said that the odds are heavily in your favor to pass even without studying if you take it right after residency. Every year that you delay increases the odds of failure as general practice of psychiatry doesn’t help with passing this test.

All this to say: feel free to study as little or as much as you want. You’d be better off studying non-prep material to become a better psychiatrist.
 
sloop said:
Forensic psychiatrist here. It probably won’t cause a problem for hiring at most places.

I would, however, strongly recommend considering just taking general boards in the beginning of your fellowship year. It is what most people do and very achievable. Beyond that, there is basically no overlap between the general and forensic psychiatry boards. There is little utility in taking them together and studying for both at the same time sounds terrible to me. Pass rates notwithstanding, most people find the forensic exam more difficult than the general exam, and it definitely requires more specifically directed study of information you did not get from residency and, depending on how/how much your fellowship drills cases, may not have gotten from fellowship either. Forensics is also only offered every two years, so if you overextend yourself and fail forensics, you have to wait a while for another opportunity.
Click to expand...
Same, I did general boards beginning of forensic fellowship year as did all my co-fellows. No overlap whatsoever with subject matter (anyone that took forensic boards can tell you it felt more like a history or social studies test than a USMLE type medical exam).


jbomba said:
I did well on prite but still over studied for this. As I am oft to do. Passed by a standard deviation. I reaffirmed my belief I am a neurotic freak.
Click to expand...
Same. Better to overstudy than understudy IMO. Especially because the general studying for psych boards (mainly just a Q bank) isn't really that intensive.
 
My hunch is most people study quite a bit for boards, despite the vocal “I barely studied” or “I didn’t study at all” crowd. I get the stakes are low for the most part, but people do fail this thing and the negative psychological impact of a board failure going into early attending-hood is not ideal.
 
IsWhat said:
My hunch is most people study quite a bit for boards, despite the vocal “I barely studied” or “I didn’t study at all” crowd. I get the stakes are low for the most part, but people do fail this thing and the negative psychological impact of a board failure going into early attending-hood is not ideal.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your honesty. Another thing that seems to be a common theme is people doing well on PRITEs throughout residency and passing easily.
My PRITEs have been very blah I'm not the type to do exceptionally well on standardized tests so I will be "overstudying"
 
Last edited:
IsWhat said:
My hunch is most people study quite a bit for boards, despite the vocal “I barely studied” or “I didn’t study at all” crowd. I get the stakes are low for the most part, but people do fail this thing and the negative psychological impact of a board failure going into early attending-hood is not ideal.
Click to expand...
Some people say that. What most people, myself included, say is that by the time you are getting ready for boards you aught to be able to introspect and determine how well you know the material that is likely to be tested. If you have bombed STEPs, PRITEs, couldn't get into a US MD program etc, of course you should study like there is no tomorrow. If you are in the top quartile of everything along the way, you will almost assuredly pass with minimal to no studying.

This isn't a 3rd leg measuring contest for ePeen online, this is people saying understand where you actually fall on ability to recreate standard psychiatric knowledge on a test where you largely know what you will be tested on and plan accordingly. Anyone who finds it shameful for someone to work hard and pass a test is not someone worth worrying about.
 
IsWhat said:
My hunch is most people study quite a bit for boards, despite the vocal “I barely studied” or “I didn’t study at all” crowd. I get the stakes are low for the most part, but people do fail this thing and the negative psychological impact of a board failure going into early attending-hood is not ideal.
Click to expand...

I think that studying is probably better correlated to the first job out of training. If your job requires it or incentivizes it, studying goes way up. If the job doesn’t, studying drops substantially.

If I had had a job that incentivized it, I would have tried. Without the incentive, passing the exam meant I got to pat myself on the back and spend more money on a frame.

I have fellowship classmates that never took their specialty boards and are no longer board eligible to take the exam. To them, the exam is an expense with no payoff.
 
Great summary. You should know based on your PRITE performance how much you need to study. If you are 80th percentile or higher on PRITES as a senior (compared to seniors), then I'm confident you can walk in and take it cold. If you are struggling to get by as a resident and religiously bomb your PRITEs every year, then you need to study a lot.
Merovinge said:
Some people say that. What most people, myself included, say is that by the time you are getting ready for boards you aught to be able to introspect and determine how well you know the material that is likely to be tested. If you have bombed STEPs, PRITEs, couldn't get into a US MD program etc, of course you should study like there is no tomorrow. If you are in the top quartile of everything along the way, you will almost assuredly pass with minimal to no studying.

This isn't a 3rd leg measuring contest for ePeen online, this is people saying understand where you actually fall on ability to recreate standard psychiatric knowledge on a test where you largely know what you will be tested on and plan accordingly. Anyone who finds it shameful for someone to work hard and pass a test is not someone worth worrying about.
Click to expand...
 
TexasPhysician said:
I think that studying is probably better correlated to the first job out of training. If your job requires it or incentivizes it, studying goes way up. If the job doesn’t, studying drops substantially.

If I had had a job that incentivized it, I would have tried. Without the incentive, passing the exam meant I got to pat myself on the back and spend more money on a frame.

I have fellowship classmates that never took their specialty boards and are no longer board eligible to take the exam. To them, the exam is an expense with no payoff.
Click to expand...

I mean I'm in private practice but my incentive was there's a lot better things I can do with 2K than take a stupid test again lol.

Most insurance companies do require you to be board certified or "board eligible" to be on insurance panels though. Malpractice insurance also cares, although it's not like they'll drop you if you aren't board certified, your rates are just higher.
 
calvnandhobbs68 said:
I mean I'm in private practice but my incentive was there's a lot better things I can do with 2K than take a stupid test again lol.

Most insurance companies do require you to be board certified or "board eligible" to be on insurance panels though. Malpractice insurance also cares, although it's not like they'll drop you if you aren't board certified, your rates are just higher.
Click to expand...

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.
 
TexasPhysician said:
Malpractice gave me no discount for board certification. Insurance companies paneled me before I took the exam.
Click to expand...
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.
 
FlowRate said:
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.
Click to expand...
I think being BC matters for applications to certain institutions, especially academic centers. I work in a psychiatric hospital and they will look at that on an application.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

P
Psychiatry Initial Certification Boards: How much neurology/psychology/stats is in this thing?
Replies
6
Views
4K
SPsych6
S
T
"Medical clearance" in emergency psychiatry
Replies
8
Views
1K
comp1
C
C
Addiction psychiatry board exam studying help/suggestions
Replies
4
Views
1K
Central_SOULcus
C
P
EEG in psychiatry
Replies
16
Views
2K
Psychferlyfe3000
P
T
Wisdom and it's role in Psychiatry
Replies
11
Views
2K
thelastpsych
T
Top