How much studying is needed to pass initial cert boards?

[hdeng]

Hi everyone! I'm a recently graduated adult psych resident who is scheduled to take the initial certification boards this September. I am taking July to end of September off to recuperate after spending the last 2 years as a burned out pandemic resident before starting at a group practice. I want to enjoy this time off and decompress but also feel the urge to study for a few hours most days of the week. I want to strike a good balance between studying enough to pass comfortably but not spending excessive time when I could be using it to read a good book, travel, or work on my hobbies. I am flying home to see my mom and sisters soon and attending a close friend's destination wedding and don't know if I should carve out study time on these trips.

How many hours/day of studying for how many weeks is necessary to pass?

I know this depends on the person so just to give some stats to help answer the question, I'm generally a good test taker. I've scored in the 90%+ile on the PRITE the last 3 years. I started going through Kenny & Spiegel, have done 2 practice tests (300 questions) and am averaging 80.3%. I plan to finish K&S and then do board vitals questions. I know people swear by Boards & Beyond but I don't want to drop $1K on this and don't want to go overboard with resources anyways.

Thanks for your input!

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[SubzDoc]

One of the "favorite" threads is on psychiatric board certification. I am four years out of training. I can't remember my percentile scores on prite but I was always the high score of my batch and I got the high overall score by 4th year. I did ~two thirds of the BTB qbank, I did it only untimed and questions I had not seen, scored ~65% most of the time. I did the K&S book twice. I would try to read up on subjects I was weak in. I want to say I spent about 2 months preparing, maybe ~3 hours a day about ~4 days/week. I got a std deviation above the average and 3 std deviations above passing. The exam is not that hard but you should study for it. I know good psychiatrists who did not study or did not study enough and failed.

 

[wolfvgang22]

Hi everyone! I'm a recently graduated adult psych resident who is scheduled to take the initial certification boards this September. I am taking July to end of September off to recuperate after spending the last 2 years as a burned out pandemic resident before starting at a group practice. I want to enjoy this time off and decompress but also feel the urge to study for a few hours most days of the week. I want to strike a good balance between studying enough to pass comfortably but not spending excessive time when I could be using it to read a good book, travel, or work on my hobbies. I am flying home to see my mom and sisters soon and attending a close friend's destination wedding and don't know if I should carve out study time on these trips.

How many hours/day of studying for how many weeks is necessary to pass?

I know this depends on the person so just to give some stats to help answer the question, I'm generally a good test taker. I've scored in the 90%+ile on the PRITE the last 3 years. I started going through Kenny & Spiegel, have done 2 practice tests (300 questions) and am averaging 80.3%. I plan to finish K&S and then do board vitals questions. I know people swear by Boards & Beyond but I don't want to drop $1K on this and don't want to go overboard with resources anyways.

Thanks for your input!

You are doing great, you will pass for sure.

 

[comp1]

I personally found it a heck of a lot easier than Step 3. Concur that you're going to pass. Make sure to rest a bit.

 

[splik]

This is overkill. If you scored this well on the PRITE you do not need to study for the exam. Just keep doing the Spiegel and Kenny questions here and there. No other questions needed. You will be fine.

 

[deleted1100659]

I way overstudied and scored 1 SD over the mean. In hindsight I dont think it was a bad thing that I over studied. it was a good review of many diff topics and helped me prepare to be an attending and ensure I didnt have major knowledge gaps.

The questions I didnt know, I doubt studying would have helped. I remember one question was about an experiment done >20 years ago that I had never heard of. Cant really prepare for those kinda questions. Most people will be fine. Hardest part for me was endurance, it felt so long and tedious.

But it made me choose to do the 10 year recert exam route over 3 year article pathway. Id rather just take the recert exam in 10 years, and take it maybe 2-3 more times before retiring.

 

[hdeng]

This is overkill. If you scored this well on the PRITE you do not need to study for the exam. Just keep doing the Spiegel and Kenny questions here and there. No other questions needed. You will be fine.

That is really reassuring! Phew, I'm gonna take those days off when I'm traveling for sure then. Thanks everyone for your replies

 

[TexasPhysician]

If you score well on PRITE, no studying is probably fine. If you did poorly on PRITE, do some studying.

 

[Merovinge]

1 more vote for travel, decompress, and don't worry about the boards. Worst case scenario is you take it again, study a bit more and crush it. I put you well below 1% for that worst case scenario to occur based on the information you provided.

 

[Animal Mother]

About a negative 3 years of studying. Most interns could probably pass the boards a few months in.

 

[Stagg737]

I haven't taken it and am deferring a year. Had a ton of CME money left over this year so bought the new K&S, MGH board review book, APA review book, and something else I can't recall. Where I'm at also provides the Board Vitals Qbank and I have the physical lectures for BTB. I plan on doing 10-15 questions here and there over the next year and reviewing the BTB lectures for the areas I'm weaker in, mostly child psych and some non-anatomical/physiological neurology. I'll try and remember to report back at some point on how I felt the different books were.

 

[OldPsychDoc]

If you score well on PRITE, no studying is probably fine. If you did poorly on PRITE, do some studying.

If you did poorly on PRITE, do A LOT OF studying.

I know that the literature doesn't support much correlation between PRITE scores and board pass rates, but anecdotally, when I see who didn't and who hasn't passed Boards from our grads the past 12 years, and knowing their PRITE histories...I'm rarely surprised by the outcomes.

 

[Zyprexa100]

I took 6 weeks to study because I graduated 3 years before taking the test. I felt I needed some more time to refresh my knowledge.

 

[TexasPhysician]

I took 6 weeks to study because I graduated 3 years before taking the test. I felt I needed some more time to refresh my knowledge.

Took 6 weeks off from work?

 

[Zyprexa100]

Took 6 weeks off from work?

Yea. Switched my schedule around in order to pass.

 

[Dharma]

Good to great residency program (although I'm biased here). Average PRITE. Average test taker. One real pass on S&K spread out over many months during which I reviewed the answers throughly and took notes in my trusty marble notebook. Followed this with a quick power review of notes the day before the test. Yeah, I took off the day before for this.

First try, did well. S&K was the test. I thought the test was a joke tbh.

 

[clausewitz2]

Did well on PRITE, was on our program's MindGames team X2 (never got past first round). My studying consisted of borrowing Kaufman from a friend and looking at the table of contents. Agree that you do not really sound like you need to do much, OP.

 

[J ROD]

Sounds like you just need a good night's sleep before you take it.

 

[Dr. E psych]

All you need is doing spiegel and my psych board and you will do great.

 

[Merovinge]

If you did poorly on PRITE, do A LOT OF studying.

I know that the literature doesn't support much correlation between PRITE scores and board pass rates, but anecdotally, when I see who didn't and who hasn't passed Boards from our grads the past 12 years, and knowing their PRITE histories...I'm rarely surprised by the outcomes.

We had the exact same pattern at our program. Anyone who failed in the decade period was bottom quartile PRITE scorer. I'm actually shocked the data do not show a correlation.

 

[clausewitz2]

We had the exact same pattern at our program. Anyone who failed in the decade period was bottom quartile PRITE scorer. I'm actually shocked the date do not show a correlation.

Haven't examined the methodology in detail but this 2009 paper suggests a correlation of 0.59 between PRITE global score and ABPN board score. This suggests a reasonably strong link.

Relationship Between Resident-In-Training Examination in Psychiatry and Subsequent Certification Examination Performances - Academic Psychiatry

Objective This study analyzed the relationship between performance on The American College of Psychiatrists’ Psychiatry Resident-In-Training Examination (PRITE) and the ABPN Part 1 examination. Methods Pearson correlation coefficients were used to examine the relationship between performance on...

link.springer.com

 

[JKinSC]

You'll be fine with those scores. Just make sure you look at something with samples of the linked item questions. I don't think they do the multiple correct answers questions anymore, do they?

 

[Nudexta]

I find the PRITE different from the board. Your ability to do well on standardized exams is key, not necessarily PRITE. Doing one or two good q banks should help most people pass the ABPN with flying colors.

 

[Mad Jack]

If you did poorly on PRITE, do A LOT OF studying.

I know that the literature doesn't support much correlation between PRITE scores and board pass rates, but anecdotally, when I see who didn't and who hasn't passed Boards from our grads the past 12 years, and knowing their PRITE histories...I'm rarely surprised by the outcomes.

PRITE scores have a strong NPV but a weak PPV