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How much time to study for boards?
- Thread starter brendav
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got oral boards in 2 weeks, started studying today. Probably should be enough time
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Like the USMLE!
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To the OP, apologies for the sarcasm. However, by this point in your career it should be clear that people learn differently and people have different funds of knowledge. Therefore, uniform recommendations are not useful. I've known people who studied for Oral Boards for one year and failed and one person who actually did two weeks and passed (with flying colors!).
Use your experiences with the USMLE I/II/III, Shelf exams in med school, and Rad Onc in-service exams to judge appropriate time for you to study,
Use your experiences with the USMLE I/II/III, Shelf exams in med school, and Rad Onc in-service exams to judge appropriate time for you to study,
I don't know if I passed my orals yet, but here is my experience & advice:
Physics/Bio: the most variable since the quality & amount of teaching in this area varies most widely between programs. We had great physics & rad bio teaching (and teachers who were familiar with the boards) and repeated the class every year, so after three years of them I felt confident just studying my class notes for about a month before the exam and going through a number of RAPHEX exams (maybe 5 or 6) and focusing physics study time on the topics I got wrong. This test (mostly) isn't about stuff we use in the clinic during residency so you really have to spend independent time figuring out what is on the test and how much you knowledge you need to learn on your own. I can't really do textbook learning so skipped Hall & Khan except as reference. I liked the Berman notes & annotated these in my physics class.
Clinical writtens: I studied for this one the least. Probably several weeks of mostly going through a lot of questions. There are some good question banks available. It's like the in-service exam in terms of the type of material that is covered.
Orals: Uh if you can pass it with two weeks of studying that's pretty amazing. I would give at least four months of time to it. I started with a study group in February with bi-weekly meetings to talk through topics, and also gathered notes & summaries during this time. I had the advantage of being able to take two vacation weeks right before the exam to study. I had gone through each topic at least once by then, with more in-depth studying of topics I wasn't familiar with treating (like lymphoma and peds.) In the last couple weeks I did intense study (at least one who section each day, going through all of them at least twice) - but that's just how I tend to study best for things. You might want to pace yourself more. I did the UCLA mocks orals (highly recommend), ASTRO refresher (very useful.) Didn't do Osler but probably would have if I hadn't been able to do UCLA. Being comfortable with oral exam skills is key so if you didn't do a lot of case conferences (oral exam style) in residency I'd seek out as many mock orals as you can from attendings and colleagues.
Physics/Bio: the most variable since the quality & amount of teaching in this area varies most widely between programs. We had great physics & rad bio teaching (and teachers who were familiar with the boards) and repeated the class every year, so after three years of them I felt confident just studying my class notes for about a month before the exam and going through a number of RAPHEX exams (maybe 5 or 6) and focusing physics study time on the topics I got wrong. This test (mostly) isn't about stuff we use in the clinic during residency so you really have to spend independent time figuring out what is on the test and how much you knowledge you need to learn on your own. I can't really do textbook learning so skipped Hall & Khan except as reference. I liked the Berman notes & annotated these in my physics class.
Clinical writtens: I studied for this one the least. Probably several weeks of mostly going through a lot of questions. There are some good question banks available. It's like the in-service exam in terms of the type of material that is covered.
Orals: Uh if you can pass it with two weeks of studying that's pretty amazing. I would give at least four months of time to it. I started with a study group in February with bi-weekly meetings to talk through topics, and also gathered notes & summaries during this time. I had the advantage of being able to take two vacation weeks right before the exam to study. I had gone through each topic at least once by then, with more in-depth studying of topics I wasn't familiar with treating (like lymphoma and peds.) In the last couple weeks I did intense study (at least one who section each day, going through all of them at least twice) - but that's just how I tend to study best for things. You might want to pace yourself more. I did the UCLA mocks orals (highly recommend), ASTRO refresher (very useful.) Didn't do Osler but probably would have if I hadn't been able to do UCLA. Being comfortable with oral exam skills is key so if you didn't do a lot of case conferences (oral exam style) in residency I'd seek out as many mock orals as you can from attendings and colleagues.
