Confession: I feel so behind in boards study. This is not your friendly neighborhood NAVLE. This is a monster 3-day exam with a 40% national first time pass rate....and you only have to get 60% on each of the four sections to pass. I'm currently studying 4 hours a day, 6 on weekends (the exam is in September) and need to double that at least, working around my clinic duties.
First level of hell: Gross Path. You are shown a picture for 30-60 seconds. All you get is "tissue from a dog" or "tissue from a fish" or "tissue from a rhesus macaque" and you have to come up with a complete morphologic diagnosis (not to mention identifying the organ, which can be difficult with many cancers), cause and often pathogenesis as fast as you can. Eg I need to be able to differentiate, say, a Mycoplasma pneumonia from a Histophilus pneumonia on sight. Don't even get me started on the random effing things like elephant herpesvirus, carp pox, verminous encephalitis in dolphins, etc.
Second level of hell: Microscopy. You are given a flat of slides and have approximately 12-15 minutes per slide to completely describe each and diagnose it. You are given no history at all, not even the organ. Again, only "tissue from a horse" or whatever. That sounds like a lot, but our descriptions are often at least two paragraphs. We do mock board exams and after 6 slides my hand is cramping like a mofo.
Third and Fourth levels of Hell: Veterinary Pathology and General Pathology. Extensive knowledge of about half a dozen different multi-volume book sets (Robbins, Jubb and Kennedy, McGavin, etc) with insanely detailed multiple choice questions. Everything about immunology, biochemistry, basic clin path, genetics of neoplasia, mouse models, etc. Extensive knowledge of every abstract/main points in almost every article in about 6+ different journals going back 2-3 years each (or about three thousand articles, on which they will ask you detailed multiple choice questions).
Love your pathologists when you get into practice, guys. 🙁
