No one cares about your board scores in psych.
Really depends on your target. The more selective, well-known, academic programs certainly can & do give weight to board scores, esp. now that psych is becoming more popular with American grads--like any program that gets huge numbers of apps for a limited number of spots, board scores are a useful screening tool.
Add to this the history that many PDs have of residents not being able to pass their boards and continue on in training, and it's of concern. Marginal scores (and/or a series of failed attempts) will always raise a red flag for this reason alone.
Finally, the RRC (like most everything else in medicine) is becoming more and more concerned with objective measures of psychiatry resident performance. The PRITE (psychiatry in-service training exam), taken yearly by psych residents across the country, has gone in my 3 years of residency from being something that no one gave a **** about to something that we're all studying for now, and PDs are
quite attuned to how the residents are doing on this exam.
Just because something doesn't come up in interviews (ie, board scores) doesn't mean it doesn't come up in ranking committee meetings--believe me, I'm in on them, and I know!
Not trying to freak anyone out--this has nothing to do with MD vs DO--but to say board scores don't matter in psych really isn't the case anymore.
