Pediatric Boards 2019 Thread

[applicant2016]

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To all of those who are taking the pediatric boards this year, please ask your questions, share your study plan and and other ideas here.

For all of those who passed the exam in the previous few years, please vote and share any other ideas that might be helpful for the next generation of certified pediatricians.

 

[hmockingbird]

Following. I have done well on my ITEs and was told to “keep doing what I’m doing” but I mostly just read up on my patients which isn’t a board study strategy so feel a little lost about where to go with this. lol

 

[SurfingDoctor]

There isn’t a most effective study strategy so much as most effective for you. For most people that is 3 years worth of PREP and a supplemental review book of some sort.

 

[snow88]

Following. I have done well on my ITEs and was told to “keep doing what I’m doing” but I mostly just read up on my patients which isn’t a board study strategy so feel a little lost about where to go with this. lol

By "well" do you mean passing? I am not even sure what is considered a good score on ITEs and am feeling lost too!

 

[SurfingDoctor]

I can’t imagine why anyone cares what you get on your ITEs. I don’t remember the residency ones, but I remember the fellowship ones mostly because the percent correct mean went down nationally every year. If you are around the nationally mean, or even if you are not but see your score go up annually you are fine. Literally nothing about the ITEs should change the fact that when it comes time to take the actual boards, if you don’t study the material and learn how to take the test... you’re hosed.

 

[hmockingbird]

By "well" do you mean passing? I am not even sure what is considered a good score on ITEs and am feeling lost too!

Yeah, passing comfortably — it’s not about my specific score but that my program saw that was basically like oh good for you, you should pass, we have no advice...

I studied for all my steps with almost exclusively Uworld questions (+pathoma and sketchy for step 1). I’m mostly interested in if questions are enough or do most people add a review text?

 

[applicant2016]

Anyone tried NEJM board reviews questions? I heard that they are pretty good... but expensive!

 

[captianplanet]

3 years of prep and medstudy videos. Books were way too dense for me.

 

[turtle38]

Hi guys

I just passed my recertification, so glad I never have to take any more dumb exams. You guys will also only have to pass the board once then do MOCA questions. But anyways....I don't know how much harder the board is compared to the recertification (I did pass my board comfortably MANY years ago, and have taken like 2 recertification exams I think). I would say:

(1) I did not see lots of minutia. No one wanted to know what enzyme in what pathway was defective, but some topics keep coming up, (child abuse, for example). It's very clinically oriented.
(2) I looked thru "last minute pediatric board" videos on YouTube and I liked them a lot. Do check it out.
(3) I spent like $120 something to purchase the BoardVitals (whatever) questions and they were pretty good too. However longer period was more expensive.
(4) My friend let me borrow the UCLA peds review course on CD's and I quickly skimmed thru them. In my opinion I don't learn this way very well, but if you have more time (I only had 2 weeks after I decided to take the exam), you can probably do a course. There are plenty of them on ebay for about $100.
(5) I bought 2 books, the OSKI book Amazon product ASIN B0051VPTPY and the Rudolphe review questions (not the textbook). I liked the first one a lot (yeah, there are typos, big deal), and found the second one worthless (too esoteric). If anyone wants these books, I just ask for a mailing label and I'll send them to you.

Good luck to you guys.

 

[coffeekeepsmesane]

For anyone planning on purchasing Pass Machine for peds boards, use this promo code for $100 off: AMB118670.
Just thought I'd share.

 

[rolen05]

Hi,

Bump on this thread. I am utilizing MedStudy questions currently. I like these better than Prep, and have been told they are more representative of the exam.

Anyone else using MedStudy? Another recent test takers who have used it?

 

[snow88]

Hi,

Bump on this thread. I am utilizing MedStudy questions currently. I like these better than Prep, and have been told they are more representative of the exam.

Anyone else using MedStudy? Another recent test takers who have used it?

I am using MedStudy and I also like these better than Prep. Anyone know what percentage on MedStudy (in general) correlates with passing boards?

 

[Tribeca]

Anyone planning on going to AAP’s PREP the CRAM this weekend?

https://shop.aap.org/2019-PREP-The-Cram-Itasca-IL/

 

[Pattycake25]

I am using MedStudy and I also like these better than Prep. Anyone know what percentage on MedStudy (in general) correlates with passing boards?

As a critical disclaimer, I don't know where I first heard this. I wrote it down without a source on a document given by chief residents in my intern year, so 3 years ago. But, at that time I wrote down that MedStudy percent of 70-72% is suggestive of passing. If anyone can contradict that please do, because I need to up the intensity of my current study if that's lowballing it (most areas are ~80%, but Derm is like 55%, ****ing hate that ****, and some others are in 60% range)

 

[Hydrogen5040]

Does anyone know what the pass rate was for the 2019 exam? It seemed not great from the graph on the score report. :/

 

[SurfingDoctor]

Does anyone know what the pass rate was for the 2019 exam? It seemed not great from the graph on the score report. :/

They report it annually but no yet for the 2019. Probably wait till next calendar year.

Exam Pass Rates | The American Board of Pediatrics

Initial Certification Examination Pass Rates by Certification Area Initial Certification Exam Pass Rates (PDF) This report shows the number of candidates who have taken each type of initial certification examination for the first time and the percentage of those who passed. The data include...

www.abp.org

The average for the past 5 years has been in the mid-80s or so.

 

[NastySpice]

ecstatic that I passed - but looks like the pass rate will be about 85% based on the graph they sent out on the score reports (the graph contains x axis units with scores, but no units on the Y axis with percent of test takers). no way it will be as high as last years 91%.