should there be podiatry board review courses?

[txlioness]

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I have always wondered why podiatry does not have board review courses like allopathic med schools for boards (particularly APMLE 1-3)? There are tons of study guides, books, etc around to read/study so it may be difficult for some to pick a book or know where to start.

Some ppl say class notes are sufficient. Some like PI manual, pocket pods, presby, hershey, pearls, AJM prism....yikes! the list can get pretty overwhelming.

There are the various courses...Kaplan, Princeton, etc that everyone has heard of for allopathic med. Would a review course be a waste of $? I know some may say yes and some may say no.

I wonder if anyone has every tried to put something together? Many students/residents ask for help/advice with tons of different recc on what to study. Everyone's study habits may be different and what they prefer to study is different. But for those that need a schedule or more structured study, would a structured course be helpful?

Just curious on thoughts....

 

[jotfinos]

There are so few of us it would be almost impossible for one of those companies to make a profit off such a course.

 

[ldsrmdude]

I think that it would help some people, but in the end is just pretty impractical. Especially at some of the smaller schools like AZPod, you might only have 30-50 students studying for each part of the boards. Maybe a school would put something like that together, but for the amount of time it would require to put together a good review course, a company would never be able to make their money back. There is a student here at AZPod putting a pretty brief (less than 2 hour) course just with tips and advice on taking the boards, but a full-fledged review course would require a lot of effort.

 

[hematosis]

I have always wondered why podiatry does not have board review courses like allopathic med schools for boards (particularly APMLE 1-3)? There are tons of study guides, books, etc around to read/study so it may be difficult for some to pick a book or know where to start.

Some ppl say class notes are sufficient. Some like PI manual, pocket pods, presby, hershey, pearls, AJM prism....yikes! the list can get pretty overwhelming.

There are the various courses...Kaplan, Princeton, etc that everyone has heard of for allopathic med. Would a review course be a waste of $? I know some may say yes and some may say no.

I wonder if anyone has every tried to put something together? Many students/residents ask for help/advice with tons of different recc on what to study. Everyone's study habits may be different and what they prefer to study is different. But for those that need a schedule or more structured study, would a structured course be helpful?

Just curious on thoughts....

I dont know of any courses, but Ive been using the USMLE step 1 book for the basic sciences and its pretty helpful. I also find it interesting the the USMLE step 1 book actually talks about the NBPME exam and has some strategies and guidelines for it.

 

[air bud]

Come on people, we are talking minimal competency. First Aid and Lower Limb notes is all anyone should need. If we were talking about a scored exam, then sure there might be a need for more specific stuff.

 

[G0dFather]

Come on people, we are talking minimal competency. First Aid and Lower Limb notes is all anyone should need. If we were talking about a scored exam, then sure there might be a need for more specific stuff.

Yes airbud is right, The way I see it and what i kept hearing from years before, is that if everyone is pretty much using those two sources than everyone goes into that exam with pretty much the same knowledge base. Thus , everyone should benefit from the curve appropriately.

 

[DPMer]

I have always wondered why podiatry does not have board review courses like allopathic med schools for boards (particularly APMLE 1-3)? There are tons of study guides, books, etc around to read/study so it may be difficult for some to pick a book or know where to start.

Some ppl say class notes are sufficient. Some like PI manual, pocket pods, presby, hershey, pearls, AJM prism....yikes! the list can get pretty overwhelming.

There are the various courses...Kaplan, Princeton, etc that everyone has heard of for allopathic med. Would a review course be a waste of $? I know some may say yes and some may say no.

I wonder if anyone has every tried to put something together? Many students/residents ask for help/advice with tons of different recc on what to study. Everyone's study habits may be different and what they prefer to study is different. But for those that need a schedule or more structured study, would a structured course be helpful?

Just curious on thoughts....

In terms of profit and business, Kaplan and Princeton Review would not bother publishing a review guide for the APMLE Parts 1,2 and 3. There are only 9 podiatry schools and only about 700 to 800 students so the profit margin would be detrimental to Kaplan's and Princeton Review's bottom line. But look at allopathic schools: about 120 schools in the US, with 10,000 to 20,000 students who could buy Kaplan's or Princeton Review's USMLE review books (the profit margin is much much higher). And add an additional several thousand from foreign allopathic schools from the Caribbean (Ross, St George's), from Europe, Mexico, and Asia (Philippines). Good money profit!

Unfortunately, if there are APMLE review books to be published under Lippincott for instance, it would have to be by an actual podiatrist or a team of podiatrists who are willing to put in the money to publish such review books. Let's see if this will happen in the next couple of years?

 

[Lysfrancfurter]

Come on people, we are talking minimal competency. First Aid and Lower Limb notes is all anyone should need. If we were talking about a scored exam, then sure there might be a need for more specific stuff.

"Minimal competency?" Why does this test weed out ~20% of some classes at certain schools? I can surely bet that most of those people are passing their classes. Minimal competency on other board exams, like USMLE for instance is ~5%.

Is there a minimum number of questions you need to answer to pass? I doubt it; it's you vs the other test takers what determines if you pass.

 

[DrMushroomFoot]

"Minimal competency?" Why does this test weed out ~20% of some classes at certain schools? I can surely bet that most of those people are passing their classes. Minimal competency on other board exams, like USMLE for instance is ~5%.

Is there a minimum number of questions you need to answer to pass? I doubt it; it's you vs the other test takers what determines if you pass.

Those certain schools NEED to step up and be like the rest of the podiatry schools who consistently have >90% first time board pass rates. Makes you wonder, is it the schools fault that they have such different results or the students?

 

[Feli]

There are so few of us it would be almost impossible for one of those companies to make a profit off such a course.

I agree. Barry puts on a NBPME pt1 review week (each basic sciences prof gives a 2hr lecture and Q&A... anat, micro, path, etc etc).

For pt2, to my knowledge, Barry's the only school with some 1 and 2cr lecture classes that last semester (adv pod surg, adv pod med, prac mgmt, sports med, public health, etc), and they are definitely helpful. With NBPME pt2 moving earlier, though, it will be though... maybe they'll mod their approach, but I don't know how they'd start 4th year didactics any earlier... until residency interviews, the rotating clerkships are paramount to residency choices/match.

...I actually though about putting together a NBPME pt1 study guide after I took the test; I talked to a classmate who had had the same thoughts. We came to the conclusion that, as was mentioned, it would not be profitable and with LEA notes, First Aid, and possible a few others (I really liked Crashing the Boards by Yee, BRS Path by Costanzo, Presby Manual, pharm notes, PI manual, etc), pt1 is very managabe for those who weren't skipping or sleeping through the first couple years of pod school. For pt2 and pt3, the Pearls book by Kushner is fairly sold (and I again supplemented that with PI manual, Presby, LEA notes, etc).