Surg path fellowships and passing the Boards

[deschutes]

I'm curious. We were talking about this - it's never been said, but is a surg path fellowship required to bring an individual resident up to snuff to take the AP Boards?

I've met people who didn't do an SP fellowship, and passed - and vice versa. So since most I've spoken to are of the opinion that Path board exams aren't necessarily reflective of pathology practice (heck, I'm told AJCC criteria aren't on the boards), I'm wondering about the utility of a general surg path fellowship for the purposes of board preparation.

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[yaah]

Nah. Don't need it. You may have to study more, but a lot of the boards (apparently) is becoming straight ID on the AP side. You won't necessarily learn more about esoteric and rare tumors by doing a surg path fellowship.

 

[b&ierstiefel]

Nope.

 

[LADoc00]

I knew a guy who did 2 years of Path residency, <10 months or so of actual surg path, then did like 5 years of research after which took the boards and passed. So no. If one set out with remembrances, armed with study notes and took Osler enough times, you could easily pass it without doing ANY residency. Boards are not a reflection of real life pathology.