Psych board exam this weekend

[PikminOC]

Anyone taking oral boards this weekend?

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[PikminOC]

abpntest.com for fast review!

 

[Chimed]

(No, thank God.) But best of luck to you!!!!

 

[chakdephatte]

Any one else taking boards?

Study source-
PRITE exam(have been in 90s in PRITE since first year)- but my seniors PRITE toppers failed the boards 🙁

BTB( done it thrice bought it in PGY 3)

Kaufman live course( Course books twice)- I like this source, somehow.

Kenny book( 4 times- each year in PRITE), like those 20 new vignettes at back of book

Boardvitals- I prep notes from it- I dont like it as a study source, I also bought there clinical vignettes- will finish them but I dont find them very helpful yet- will update after exam

Focus(400 qX2 books) done twice

Focus vignette book- I hate it and have hidden it, vignettes are too long for my ADHD temprament... but hope it does not hurt

K & S synopsis Q book- have tried to do it several time but left it in middle, I think this is great book, I like it esp more after I used it a bit after above sources were done...but afraid it might hurt at this stage.. need to revise other sources

Psych In Review- did those questions 2-3 months ago, have notes made but no time to revise those

I have left Kaufman Neuro back in NY, I wasn't going to do it as it seems like K & S synopsis book, a good resource with lot of time commitment

Will update my experience with boards!!

 

[MacDonaldTriad]

Any one else taking boards?

Study source-
PRITE exam(have been in 90s in PRITE since first year)- but my seniors PRITE toppers failed the boards 🙁

BTB( done it thrice bought it in PGY 3)

Kaufman live course( Course books twice)- I like this source, somehow.

Kenny book( 4 times- each year in PRITE), like those 20 new vignettes at back of book

Boardvitals- I prep notes from it- I dont like it as a study source, I also bought there clinical vignettes- will finish them but I dont find them very helpful yet- will update after exam

Focus(400 qX2 books) done twice

Focus vignette book- I hate it and have hidden it, vignettes are too long for my ADHD temprament... but hope it does not hurt

K & S synopsis Q book- have tried to do it several time but left it in middle, I think this is great book, I like it esp more after I used it a bit after above sources were done...but afraid it might hurt at this stage.. need to revise other sources

Psych In Review- did those questions 2-3 months ago, have notes made but no time to revise those

I have left Kaufman Neuro back in NY, I wasn't going to do it as it seems like K & S synopsis book, a good resource with lot of time commitment

Will update my experience with boards!!

Very impressive preparation and absolutely the right way to do it. I’m sure your post will probably generate a bit of anxiety among those that were less disciplined in their study. The good news everyone is that once you pass, the recertification examination is very boards lite. I think it is only the bottom 2% that fail and many of the questions feel like they are asking “who is buried in Grant’s tomb?”

 

[Doctor Bagel]

Any one else taking boards?

Study source-
PRITE exam(have been in 90s in PRITE since first year)- but my seniors PRITE toppers failed the boards 🙁

BTB( done it thrice bought it in PGY 3)

Kaufman live course( Course books twice)- I like this source, somehow.

Kenny book( 4 times- each year in PRITE), like those 20 new vignettes at back of book

Boardvitals- I prep notes from it- I dont like it as a study source, I also bought there clinical vignettes- will finish them but I dont find them very helpful yet- will update after exam

Focus(400 qX2 books) done twice

Focus vignette book- I hate it and have hidden it, vignettes are too long for my ADHD temprament... but hope it does not hurt

K & S synopsis Q book- have tried to do it several time but left it in middle, I think this is great book, I like it esp more after I used it a bit after above sources were done...but afraid it might hurt at this stage.. need to revise other sources

Psych In Review- did those questions 2-3 months ago, have notes made but no time to revise those

I have left Kaufman Neuro back in NY, I wasn't going to do it as it seems like K & S synopsis book, a good resource with lot of time commitment

Will update my experience with boards!!

Come join our discussion in the Board Review thread at the very top of this page. 🙂

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/board-certification-in-psychiatry.651225/

 

[chakdephatte]

9 days to go!
Din't mean to perpetuate anxiety 🙁 Any tips from those who passed certification? Last min reviews?

Very impressive preparation and absolutely the right way to do it. I’m sure your post will probably generate a bit of anxiety among those that were less disciplined in their study. The good news everyone is that once you pass, the recertification examination is very boards lite. I think it is only the bottom 2% that fail and many of the questions feel like they are asking “who is buried in Grant’s tomb?”

 

[whopper]

Just my opinion, and speaking like the sergeant from All Quiet on the Western Front (though I do not assume I am as smart and correct as that guy).

Forget K&S. Too many words. Like reading a Victorian novel where someone spends 20 pages describing a leaf falling when in modern-speak it would be one sentence. The K&S study guide tells you to memorize things no one really uses these days (terms such as "forme fruste"), aren't on the board exam, and to have them memorized and actually use them will make you the one schmuck known as the guy makes comments that aren't useful or understood.

Kaufman: astounding source material for the board exam.
PRITE: Forget about it. Poorly written questions not resembling what you'll see on the board exam.

This is just me and I'm not saying it'll work for you. I memorize by seeing the material again and again, not seeing the same material presented in a new way. For that reason I study in a style (and I think most people are similar) where you get the choice stuff and you stick with it. Don't over-extend yourself. Reading depression from too many sources, where they'll mostly tell you the same exact stuff, but you aren't memorizing it because it's not repetitious could be your enemy.

 

[chakdephatte]

Hey Whooper!!
Totally agree with you regarding K & S. I also liked Kaufman(You referring to material from live source? Right?) Our board pass rate has been very low, so prep was to prevent that 🙂 What is the difficulty level of questions as compared to Kenny book? Focus? or Kaufman Q book?
Thanks!

 

[Doctor Bagel]

Hey guys -- just an invitation again to start posting about the board exam in the board certification sticky at the top of the forum. That will be most useful for future test takers, giving them a place to find all these opinions and information in one place rather than in a bunch of different threads.

 

[whopper]

I found the Spiegel and Kenny Psychiatry Test Preparation book the most accurate in terms of emulating questions on the written exam. Mind you that I took the exam two years (or was it 3?) ago so I don't know if there's any significant changes.

The questions were so close that I knew the answer after only reading the first two sentences in a question that may have been more than 6 sentences in length. Of course I read the entire darned thing just in case.

That book also had very in-depth explanations to answers, it was concise, and without any errors. All of the content was extremely high-yield. I'd say at least 1/3 of the questions in that book I saw on my own exam in a very similar format.

My only criticism is there's 4 x 150 questions. I wish it was 10 times the amount. Heck the book at times was even enjoyable at some points because it wasn't dragged out boring. It was quick, to the point, and interesting.

Kaufman, not as good but still very good vs the Spiegel and Kenny book. If I had to give them a grade Spiegel and Kenny get an A+, Kaufman gets an A to an A-.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

I found the Spiegel and Kenny Psychiatry Test Preparation book the most accurate in terms of emulating questions on the written exam. Mind you that I took the exam two years (or was it 3?) ago so I don't know if there's any significant changes.

The questions were so close that I knew the answer after only reading the first two sentences in a question that may have been more than 6 sentences in length. Of course I read the entire darned thing just in case.

That book also had very in-depth explanations to answers, it was concise, and without any errors. All of the content was extremely high-yield. I'd say at least 1/3 of the questions in that book I saw on my own exam in a very similar format.

My only criticism is there's 4 x 150 questions. I wish it was 10 times the amount. Heck the book at times was even enjoyable at some points because it wasn't dragged out boring. It was quick, to the point, and interesting.

Kaufman, not as good but still very good vs the Spiegel and Kenny book. If I had to give them a grade Spiegel and Kenny get an A+, Kaufman gets an A to an A-.

Maybe they increased their content because Spiegel and Kenny now has 6 150 question exams + one section of vignettes. The general word from people who took it last year is that it's still a solid study tool.

 

[whopper]

I think it's the best test book out there. It's a useful guide for learning. That's what I want in a board study material. Some of us want to do more than pass the exam, but also learn something along the way.

Kaplan and Sadock, I've always found frustrating because they cite so many facts (not a bad thing) without references (bad thing). So I see something in K&S and I don't see where they got the data making me suspect the validity of the information. Yes at the end of the chapters there's the source but not assigned to the specific piece, and I'm not going to sift through dozens of sources to double check one of literally tens of thousands of facts.

K&S also teaches a type of psychiatry that while not bad, it's not something that I see other psychiatrists as a community using. I've yet to see 1 psychiatrist use the term "forme fruste" or hundreds of the other terms in the study guide, not know what they are, not seeing it on a board-exam so just what makes K&S the authority in making this a term that has to memorized in their study guide? I remember asking some psychiatrists with national reputations, on editorial boards for the green journal or other publications, things like "have you ever heard of forme fruste" and none of them knew. You're learning their discourse-speak and not one others accept, yet time and time again, for whatever reason, people in our profession point to K&S as the standard for psychiatry and I don't get it. You memorize K&S, you're memorizing about 90% of material that will not be on the exam AT ALL.

So if you memorize K&S, you are memorizing their psychiatry, but it's not psychiatry that will be on the board exam or psychiatry that other psychiatrists use. Again that doesn't make it bad, but just don't expect anyone to understand what the heck you are talking about when you tell them, "yes we are in a forme fruste situation with a patient with emotional insight and intellectual insight, not just just intellectual insight. Maybe he thinks he's Dorian Grey, but if so he's not a typical one because he has tricophagia. Oh did I tell you that I've memorized all of the phobias and philias? You are a callypgian (while that doctor smirks with a dorky laugh). This poor fellow has astraphobia. What? You don't know what astraphobia is? And you call yourself a psychiatrist? What..for shame (while sipping tea with his pinkey pointed at the sky and wiping his monocle). Did you know decades ago psychiatry used to force it's residents to study Greek mythology? We ought to do that again.