Board prep

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

Korzh

Full Member
7+ Year Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2014
Messages
30
Reaction score
5
Hey guys. Hope you're all doing good. How much time would be enough for AP/CP prep (AP: Lefkowitch + McGraw-Hill + Osler notes/audio; CP: Compendium with Q book + Osler notes/audio)? Do you think around 9 months would be good enough or more?
Thanks a lot for your input!

Members don't see this ad.
 
Eh, you'll probably never feel prepared enough. I probably put in around 9 months with around 3 months of "want to kill myself" effort.

We had Osler audio and notes through our program so I used that, the Lefkowitch, the new AP CP question books, though the CP one is ridiculously difficult. Also the compendium. We also used Study Blue to make flash cards and spread them among our class, so when I got desperate for sunlight, I could do flash cards on my iPad at our local outdoor bar. I used the Blood Bank guy lectures for that. I drove to Tampa, so listened to him all the way down. CAP was in the middle of all this, so I deliberately did a 8 hour cyto review course at the meeting since I figured it would be helpful and it was, so if you have a conference during that time period, sign up for lectures that are general reviews on high yield subjects.

I passed, as did my whole residency class. I'm not sure if that means I squeaked by or overkilled, but there's likely no amount of preparation that won't make you feel gut punched when you leave.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
I dedicated about 5-6 months total to AP/CP board studying, starting at the beginning of January of my 4th year. I went out of my way to try and get all calls, more time-intensive rotations and intradepartmental lectures/presentations/journal clubs I had to give out of the way prior to that and arranged my schedule so I just had blood bank, micro and other higher yield CP rotations during that time period so I could spent a good portion of every work day studying and didn't need to spend extra time during my evenings and weekends. I used some of the same resources you mentioned, but I used ASCP board review instead of Osler for most topics except for blood bank. The newer McGraw Hill book had just come out at the time and was totally untested, so I only used it for one or two organ systems. Our program had access to PRISE questions, which I used for maybe 1/2-2/3 of both AP and CP topics too. I also looked at a lot of glass slides through recuts, study sets, etc.

I'm not sure that anyone ever feels completely ready, but I felt reasonably confident that I would at least pass both sections by the time I took boards (and I did!). I never got to the point where I was really miserable and I wasn't freaking out trying to cram at the end either. I am one of those people who sort of enjoys studying and taking standardized tests (to a certain extent) though, so YMMV.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Top