It's a couple of years away I know, but I know a lot of us are people who think several years in advance, so what sort of advice do you residents have who just took your inservice exams. What is best to study? What types of things do you wish you had done? (If you say memorize Andrews, I'm going to accuse you of being unhelpful.)
Inservice Tips
- Thread starter Dermguy
- Start date
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2005
- Messages
- 817
- Reaction score
- 6
Memorizing Andrew's was what we were suppose to have done during M4... 🙂
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2006
- Messages
- 2,268
- Reaction score
- 755
I knew I was forgetting something in addition to completing my MICU requirement and getting ready for graduation next month 😛
- Joined
- Aug 8, 2004
- Messages
- 1,894
- Reaction score
- 13
Know everything from their review book/study guide.
http://dermatologyinreview.com/Galderma/
Know Spitz's Genodermatotis book.
Know a good dermpath source, eg: Baron's 200 dermpath slide, Rapini's or Dermpath Requisites.
I've also heard good things about this book too: http://www.amazon.com/Handbookof-De...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273632743&sr=1-1
Study this stuff as an intern and you should be good to go for your Moh's or Dermpath fellowship ahead of the other gunners when you actually start derm. 😉
http://dermatologyinreview.com/Galderma/
Know Spitz's Genodermatotis book.
Know a good dermpath source, eg: Baron's 200 dermpath slide, Rapini's or Dermpath Requisites.
I've also heard good things about this book too: http://www.amazon.com/Handbookof-De...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273632743&sr=1-1
Study this stuff as an intern and you should be good to go for your Moh's or Dermpath fellowship ahead of the other gunners when you actually start derm. 😉
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2005
- Messages
- 817
- Reaction score
- 6
LD, you rock! Digg'n this stuff up from the past. Thanks for the pointers!
Orange book is Kindle-ized as well! If only the BIGGER texts were on Kindle...
Orange book is Kindle-ized as well! If only the BIGGER texts were on Kindle...
Last edited:
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2005
- Messages
- 12,024
- Reaction score
- 10,096
Ummm, don't worry about it? Seriously, that is the best answer that I can give you -- don't sweat the in-service, as it really does not mirror the actual board exam all that well. While I have never read LD's Amazon linked book, the other two are good suggestions.
I absolutely hated genoderm.
I absolutely hated genoderm.
I agree with MOHS_01 a lot, but not on this. It doesn't reflect the actual board perfectly, but there is nothing that reflects it better. I studied the exact same stuff for the inservice every year as I did for the board exam and it made things easier for me. So, I think if you study for it hard every year, things will be somewhat easier when it's time to study for the boards.
Another reason it's important is that it affects how your derm faculty perceive you. A lot of faculty say they don't really care, but they almost all do (some more than others). Generally speaking they will think a lot better of you if you score in the 90th percentile than if you score in the 20th. How significant this factor is depends a lot on your individual situation. For many people, it may not very important at all.
The final thing to remember is that you need to take your performance with a grain of salt.. If you try hard and you only score in the 50th percentile, then you're actually not doing as well as you think, because a lot of people blow off the inservice completely. But these people will study hard for the real one.
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2005
- Messages
- 12,024
- Reaction score
- 10,096
reno,
I did not intend to say that preparation for the in-service would be without merit, for it will definitely help with the repetitive learning requirement; my point is that the mock boards do not correlate perfectly with the real thing for the very reason that you point out (someone can be at the 50% on the mock boards and not perform nearly as well on the real thing; likewise, someone can walk in to each of the mock board exams without special prep and perform significantly better on the real thing with adequate prep). Also, there is a difference in the overall "quality" of the questions between the in-service and the ABD exam.
My chair was on the ABD for years and involved with the writing, screening, and selection of board questions for many years; my thoughts reflect his input over the years. The questions used on "mock boards" were often either first-time-through questions or those rejected from the real thing; while the general subject matter covered is similar (folks tend to write questions based upon their respective area of expertise, therefore any questions they submit tend to be similar... and there are relatively few people writing the questions), the quality, clarity, and relative importance of the question asked will differ, on the whole, from their "real deal" counterparts.
I did not intend to say that preparation for the in-service would be without merit, for it will definitely help with the repetitive learning requirement; my point is that the mock boards do not correlate perfectly with the real thing for the very reason that you point out (someone can be at the 50% on the mock boards and not perform nearly as well on the real thing; likewise, someone can walk in to each of the mock board exams without special prep and perform significantly better on the real thing with adequate prep). Also, there is a difference in the overall "quality" of the questions between the in-service and the ABD exam.
My chair was on the ABD for years and involved with the writing, screening, and selection of board questions for many years; my thoughts reflect his input over the years. The questions used on "mock boards" were often either first-time-through questions or those rejected from the real thing; while the general subject matter covered is similar (folks tend to write questions based upon their respective area of expertise, therefore any questions they submit tend to be similar... and there are relatively few people writing the questions), the quality, clarity, and relative importance of the question asked will differ, on the whole, from their "real deal" counterparts.
