Boards Revie

[Pomacentridae]

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For those who took the General Psychiatry boards in 2019 and for those who are planning on taking the 2020 boards this September, what board review sources do you think are the most helpful? Can anyone go over what resources they used and what their study strategy was? Please let me know. Thank you very much.

 

[Pomacentridae]

Sorry for the typo in the thread title. But can anyone please offer some advice or recommendations? Thanks!

 

[Pomacentridae]

Bump. Anyone?

 

[Shufflin]

I'll bite.

DSM-5 + Psychiatry Boards Prep or Psychiatry Genius

All you need to do is:

Read and learn DSM-5 and practice on a site that gives the look and feel of the real board exam. PBP is like UWorld. You can pick and mix all questions types, so if you're weak in, for example, anxiety and depression disorders you can create tests just on those, use a timer, read long explanations, etc. If you don't like that, try Psych Genius. The other companies seem too weak to me.

Read and do questions. That's it.

 

[shahseh22]

I recommend Beat the Boards and Spiegel, honestly. Don't spend too much time studying Neurology.

 

[Shufflin]

I read through Spiegel and found it to have many errors. I also read through K&S and found it to be way too much information for what you need to pass the boards. Know the DSM cold and you'll be gold.

 

[Copper_Tracker]

I tried Testingpsych. It's not very good, in my opinion. Littered with spelling errors, un-answerable questions (i.e question says "choose 3" but you can only pick one, and has other questions with weird symbols and numbers as answer choices). It looks very rushed and not ready for general use.

 

[Shufflin]

I tried Testingpsych. It's not very good, in my opinion. Littered with spelling errors, un-answerable questions (i.e question says "choose 3" but you can only pick one, and has other questions with weird symbols and numbers as answer choices). It looks very rushed and not ready for general use.

You work for a testing company, you just joined a few weeks ago. You never tried Testingpsych. It's not "littered" with errors as you say. I went through it myself. The questions are excellent. It has the best explanations. It's the only test prep program that's like UWorld which I happened to have used in med school. You must be confusing it with something else. There are no weird symbols as you say. You're completely mistaken. It's not rushed at all. It's actually rather excellent and I recommend it.

 

[Sir James Bond]

I used Psychiatry Boards Prep and Beat the boards and strongly favored Psychiatry Boards Prep. It felt most like real questions and I like being able to create my own tests picking and choosing questions from categories.

I needed extra practice on psychopharm, paraphilic disorders, child psych, schizophrenia and vignettes, so I just created custom tests mixing those question types together which Psychiatry Boards Prep lets you do. BtheB was too vague for me and I couldn't get into it. Also, the video vignettes were much better with TP like they felt professionally done.

 

[Copper_Tracker]

You work for a testing company, you just joined a few weeks ago. You never tried Testingpsych. It's not "littered" with errors as you say. I went through it myself. The questions are excellent. It has the best explanations. It's the only test prep program that's like UWorld which I happened to have used in med school. You must be confusing it with something else. There are no weird symbols as you say. You're completely mistaken. It's not rushed at all. It's actually rather excellent and I recommend it.

Actually I am a PGY3 studying for both PRITE and boards simultaneously. Don't get me wrong, there are some questions that are good. I just find that a lot of questions having spelling or grammatical errors and it's frustrating considering how much I spent for the subscription. Your mileage may vary.

 

[Shufflin]

Actually I am a PGY3 studying for both PRITE and boards simultaneously. Don't get me wrong, there are some questions that are good. I just find that a lot of questions having spelling or grammatical errors and it's frustrating considering how much I spent for the subscription. Your mileage may vary.

You're downright spewing falsehood. I've gone through the questions and didn't find spelling errors. Their explanations are excellent coming from Pubmed resources. You're not a PGY3. You're from a company.

I'm trying to guide residents to good resources, to help them. I'm paying it forward. A few key attendings helped me and now I'm helping residents. Psychiatry Genius and TestingPsych.com are solid and think they actually do the best job at board prep. For folks who prefer questions in groups, go Psych Genius. For those who want to create their own tests like UWorld, go Testing Psych. By the way, Testingpsych is not for PRITE prep. Their questions are only appropriate for boards. Had you actually signed up for it you would have known this. I simply don't believe a word you say.

 

[Nines]

I used board vitals and psychiatry genius. Board vitals had a nicer interface and you could sort through questions by category t do quizzes with random questions. Some of the questions were focused on minutiae that wasnt high yield but its was fine overall. I liked psychiatry genius better in that I felt the questions were more like what was on the actual boards. It also included practice vignettes which was nice. If I remember right the quizzes could only be done by topic and you couldnt mix and match, though that may have changed. On the real exam there was way less neuro than I expected and the vignettes were annoying so def take the time to go through some practice ones so you know what to expect.

 

[Copper_Tracker]

Do people have any feedback about the Spiegel text everybody talks about? I can't tell if thats still a legitimate thing to use or if its a more antiquated book that I shouldn't waste money on

 

[Nines]

Do people have any feedback about the Spiegel text everybody talks about? I can't tell if thats still a legitimate thing to use or if its a more antiquated book that I shouldn't waste money on

I never used it on my own but during my fourth year we had a board review class and that book was used as the basis for the class. The attending running the class made an outline of information for the boards based on it which I did use so I guess you could say I used the book indirectly. Never bought it myself though and I didn't use the questions. I'd say it is useful but it probably isnt the sole resource you should use. There was def stuff the book emphasized that I felt was low yield for the exam. Overall was ok though. In total I used the outline from my K&S based review class, psychiatry genius, and board vitals and did very well on the exam. I ended up studying quite a bit because I was paranoid of failing but it paid off!

 

[FlowRate]

Do people have any feedback about the Spiegel text everybody talks about? I can't tell if thats still a legitimate thing to use or if its a more antiquated book that I shouldn't waste money on

I haven't taken the boards yet but I believe it over-emphasizes neurology. The questions haven't been changed from the prior edition but the content of the boards has (only 6% hard neuro although up to like 25% neuroscience.)

 

[DuskPhilosophy]

I never used it on my own but during my fourth year we had a board review class and that book was used as the basis for the class. The attending running the class made an outline of information for the boards based on it which I did use so I guess you could say I used the book indirectly. Never bought it myself though and I didn't use the questions. I'd say it is useful but it probably isnt the sole resource you should use. There was def stuff the book emphasized that I felt was low yield for the exam. Overall was ok though. In total I used the outline from my K&S based review class, psychiatry genius, and board vitals and did very well on the exam. I ended up studying quite a bit because I was paranoid of failing but it paid off!

Would you be willing to share that outline?

 

[rjs2131]

Those that used psychiatry genius - did you find this more difficult/specific than actual boards? I'm working through it and definitely finding it more difficult than BTB or Kenny/Spiegel

 

[Nines]

Those that used psychiatry genius - did you find this more difficult/specific than actual boards? I'm working through it and definitely finding it more difficult than BTB or Kenny/Spiegel

Yes it was more difficult for sure.

 

[FatherPsychiatry]

I haven't taken the boards yet but I believe it over-emphasizes neurology. The questions haven't been changed from the prior edition but the content of the boards has (only 6% hard neuro although up to like 25% neuroscience.)

This has been my experience with Spiegel so far also... lots of neurology (feels like 1/4 to 1/2 of the questions) and some of them are fairly detailed neurology, not 'gestalt' type neuro I was expecting. Guess I'll dish out for an additional resource

 

[JKinSC]

With regard to Spiegel, I’m going through their tests now, and keep coming across questions on different muscular dystrophies, dermatomyositis, etc...

WTH? Is this crap actually covered on the exam?

 

[J ROD]

K&S was too easy IMO. I did Psych genius first. Now that was harder.

 

[JKinSC]

K&S was too easy IMO. I did Psych genius first. Now that was harder.

Yeah, I’m about 75% through Psych genius. Thought I’d try something different. I do like the interface with K&S much better, though.

 

[hebel]

I haven't taken the boards yet but I believe it over-emphasizes neurology. The questions haven't been changed from the prior edition but the content of the boards has (only 6% hard neuro although up to like 25% neuroscience.)

It sure seems like it. I'm using K&S too, and I'm starting to get impatient with reading the lengthy explanations for these rare genetic and neurologic conditions because it feels like a waste of time.

 

[shopaholic87]

Do people have any feedback about the Spiegel text everybody talks about? I can't tell if thats still a legitimate thing to use or if its a more antiquated book that I shouldn't waste money on

I took the boards last year and the Kenny & Spiegel book is probably one of the main reasons I passed. I don't think it's antiquated. On my exam, it seemed like there were multiple questions straight from the book. It does overemphasize neurology but I found that made me more confident going into the exam for whenever any neuro questions popped up.

 

[Hstatz]

Looking for 70 people to show "interest' in getting Beat the Boards for Psychiatry OR Neurology. Share with any psych or neuro residents! Once I get 70 names, I will email my contact person at Beat the Boards, and she will email anyone who filled this out with a 50% off discount. The discount will be good for 2-3 days, decreases cost from $1000 to $500 and the course is active for you for a full year. Please share!!!

Interest in Beat the Boards Discount

Beat the Boards - 50% off discount

docs.google.com

 

[psychacad]

I think a combination of K/S + Ninja PRITE should be enough. The stuff that you're expected to know is not that different from the PRITE and so make sure to know that for easy points. K/S go a little overboard but it's a decent coverage of the material. There will always be a few questions you could never realistically prepare for.