When should I take the Peds Boards?

[Soleil9]

Hello everyone,

I am a PGY1 currently out on maternity leave. I need some guidance from those who have gone before me.

So, due to missing 13 weeks of my intern year being home with my daughter, I will be graduating from my peds residency late. I was talking to my program director the other day re my schedule when I come back and it became clear to me that I need to graduate officially by Sept 30 in order to be eligible for the peds boards.... If I don't miss anymore time this academic year and don't take any more leaves of absences I can reach that goal and take the boards immediately upon graduating. The thing is, I need to take a week vacation to attend a family reunion (new baby is highly anticipated at this event!) and that will set me back (graduating after sept 30th) and therefore I wouldn't be eligible to take the boards until the following year....

So, has anyone taken the boards 1 year after graduation, how tough is that?

Thanks for your insight!

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[J-Rad]

I can't speak to how hard it is, but two of my colleagues in fellowship took their boards late; one one+ year after graduation and the other three years after residency graduation. Both passed, though the further out (esp. since focusing on one subspecialty while in fellowship) I'm sure the harder it was.

 

[Stitch]

Not impossible to do, but worth taking it soon after you graduate if you can. 13 weeks of maternity leave is a pretty good amount of time. Any chance you could take 12 weeks so that extra week for the family reunion doesn't add too much to your time? Then you could graduate and be eligible the same year. I don't know whether waiting a year will affect your job prospects after residency, but I'd look into that as well.