PRITE Review Books

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I found out about 3 weeks ago that I passed my written board exam. Screw the PRITE. Study for the board exam, not the PRITE. I've noticed a different style and trend in questions. Its not the PRITE that matters, its the board exam that matters. If you study for the board exam, you will do better on the PRITE.

The 2 main courses--the Kaufman and the Beat the Boards course notes were very helpful. The MGH book is also very a good source.

I'd forget about Kaplan and Sadock except for references. Its too little info spread out and not given in a board style format.

This was the best book I used. The questions were very similar to what I saw on the actual board exam and it has very good explanations.
http://www.amazon.com/Psychiatry-Te...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252443595&sr=8-1

I also used this book, but noticed about 3% of the questions were wrong. It had very short explanations, and I didn't agree with some of those explanations.
http://www.amazon.com/Psychiatry-Qu...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252443640&sr=8-1
 
Thanks.

On all my board exams something screwy happened.

On USMLE Step 1, I scored on the bottom 1% for the behavioral sciences despite being a top scorer in my medschool class and being a Psi Chi National Honor Society of Psychology member.

On Step 2-the computer stopped working, and the Sylvan people wouldn't let me leave or I forfeited my exam. They made me wait--over 6 hrs until the computers went back up. It got to the point where all of us at the place were starving because they wouldn't let us leave to get food, while we thought our exam would've ended 6pm. I told them to either pick food up for us, or let me go to get food or I was going to call the newspapers and possibly a lawyer (the computer mess up was supposedly across the country)

Then on this exam I scored on the bottom 1% for psychiatry, and in the top 1% for pulmonology, an area I knew no more than my colleagues.

On Step 3-another computer problem happened, the idiot proctoring the exam fiddled with my computer and as a result, the computer locked me out of the exam. I had to take the exam over and the earliest they could've allowed me to take it was about 4 months later--forcing me to study for it again (only a few hundred hours of work while being a resident, but hey they were letting me take the exam again for free so that's fair A few hundred hours of extra work, yeah that's not important). Then when I got the results, I scored in the top 1% of the country on the computer simulation part, and again very very low on the psychiatry section.

Now on this exam I score only a few points above passing for psychiatry but my neurology kicked tail. I don't think I know neurology any better than the next doctor. I think I know my psychiatry.

WTF?

Oh well I passed.

Now the joy of taking an exam where for 4 years board certified examiners conducted a mock exams at my residency telling me to do x or I'd fail, but then having another board certified examiner 2 weeks later say to never do x or I'd fail.

(and please forgive the sarcasm...)
How about if examiner 1 and examiner 2 say contradicting comments that can get me to unfairly fail the exam, I get to drop kick them in the nuts and I get to take the exam again immediately for free?
(now of course I wouldn't want to drop kick them in the nuts--that's the sarcasm, but I think in a situation like that I should be able to take the exam again immediately and for free...)
 
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I'm an intern serving my six month sentence in IM. Haven't had any Psych rotations yet. I have my PRITE exam next month.

I'm currently working 80 plus hours a week. I don't even get time to review IM. My studying is just mainly what I can look up from my Red Book (MGH) while on the floors.

My PC sent us last year's exam. Don't know what or how to prepare. Any suggestions??
 
I'm an intern serving my six month sentence in IM. Haven't had any Psych rotations yet. I have my PRITE exam next month.

I'm currently working 80 plus hours a week. I don't even get time to review IM. My studying is just mainly what I can look up from my Red Book (MGH) while on the floors.

My PC sent us last year's exam. Don't know what or how to prepare. Any suggestions??

Just look over some of those questions and you'll do fine.
Especially as a first year, there are NO expectations for your performance on this test. It's always been my experience that pgy1s do much better than expected anyway--then have an unexplained dip in their scores in pgy2.
The PRITE is not to be used as anything more than a diagnostic for your academic needs.
 
The only studying I would do at your point would be to do a good job for the patients you are working on.

There's little bang for the buck for example to study Capgras syndrome unless you have a patient right now who has it.

An eventual point will come where you've learned enough of the usual cases, and then should study psychiatry as a whole, which is what the PRITE and board exam cover.

That time will come in a few months, maybe later, but a PGY-I with only a 2.5 months under your belt--no. At your point you're just trying to stay afloat and get enough sleep.

Your time will be much better spent right now studying about the specific disorders your current patients have.
 
Thanks for the advice..what a relief! I'd be worried about doing very well this year and then getting lower scores as I go further into my training.:scared:
 
Each year the new first year residents get scared with the PRITE.

Every year the older timers tell them not to worry.

IMHO you really need to worry about the PRITE after Step III. Get that exam out of the way first. I would though recommend that you try to get Step III out of your way sooner vs later. That exam is far more difficult than the psychiatry boards, and you really can't devote yourself to the PRITE or psychiatry boards fully without passing Step III.

My own residency program made a new policy that Step III has to be taken before PGY III starts. One could still become a PGY III if you failed it, but you had to at least have taken it to get to PGY III. Then if you fail it, you only have a limited amount of time to study for it before you need to take it again.

In hindsight, IMHO such a policy is good. Several residents I've seen didn't take Step III until PGY-IV,and as a result did not study psychiatry to the depth it should have been studied while in residency.

No one I know holds a bad PRITE score against a PGY 1. Even with a PGY IV there's nothing done if the score is bad though the PD may talk to the PGY IV and tell/her that there is some predictive value with the PRITE and the actual board exam.

It should be held as a person achievement thing. You have far too many fish to fry during PGY 1 year and everyone knows it.
 
Thanks everyone for your replies regarding PRITE prep. I feel better now.
 
just wondering how impt the prite is and how much time I should put into studying for it. I am a pgy3 and planning to take step 3 on sept. 20 which would leave me about 2 weeks to prepare for the prite. Should I focus more on the prite this month and then take step 3 after oct. 7th? As a pgy3 will anything happen if I dont do well on the prite. Thanks
 
I'm not a resident but I found this book very helpful for PRITE exam...
Psychiatry for the Boards by William Wang and Wen-Hui-Cai.(Lippincott)
Also, For Neurology part..Kauffman's Neurology for Psychiatrists is the best.


By the way..I'm preparing for the entrance exam for residency😀
 
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