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I think there's one oral exam left. I used that test prep over the phone and it helped a lot.
Try Boardvitals, We have thousands of questions including a Part C (video vignette section) that is new. Right now the question banks are buy one get one 50% off (automatically deducted at checkout).Thanks. Is there somewhere else to get more questions?
Do psychiatrists not worry about the written board exam? Apparently we have a 75% fail rate.
Wow, I did not know this. Where did you get this statistic from? This makes my program's 100% pass rate look stellar in comparison.
Admittedly from an interested source, but board vitals says this --
http://www.boardvitals.com/blog/psychiatry-board-review-practice-questions/
This matches with a powerpoint I found talking about Part II scores (old written) with a passage rate of ~78%.
With your program with 100% passage, do you do have a lot of PRITE/board specific didactics? How did your colleagues study?
Oh yeah, update, I'm back to hating Board Vitals. Again, it seems like lots of errors and also as if questions are generated just by randomly opening a textbook to a page and writing a question.
I'm taking the exam in sep.
what is the breakdown? number of questions, time, vignette?
anyone know customary approximate topic distribution?
Thanks
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Is the BoardVitals Q-Bank worth getting??
I'm taking my Boards in Sept., just completed the Kaufman course in NYC (awesome course, BTW), and want to practice questions in a similar format to the exam.
http://www.abpn.com/downloads/misc_publications/pc_2011_AADPRT_Presentation_final.pdf
Here's the powerpoint bagel was likely referring to. Part I first time pass rates were 89%, while Part II rates for first time test takers was 78%. Those taking the exam a second time have abysmal (41%/54%) pass rates that drag the whole average on both exams down to about 75%. Data is from 2006-2010, who knows how things have changed since then.
this data is out of date given the exam has substatially changed since. The pass rate for the board exam last year was 83%. for the ABIM exam it was roughly the same 86%. my guess is the vast majority of people at your program pass. the vast majority of people do pass. the numbers are almost certainly brought down by people who don't speak english, and people at the more suspect programs.
How did you find out we don't have to pass Neuro separately? Our program director said we need to pass psych and Neuro separately to pass overall. I hope you're right because that's great news.
It's new this year. Your PD needs to catch up.
http://psychnews.psychiatryonline.org/newsArticle.aspx?articleid=1864186&RelatedWidgetArticles=true
They doubt it will make a difference in passage rates, but it's still reassuring.
Sorry--a little distracted here what with a massive change in accreditation mandates from the ACGME.
What changes?Sorry--a little distracted here what with a massive change in accreditation mandates from the ACGME.
What changes?
Does spiegel have an online version without getting the book version
Good question. I don't know of one. You can get the kindle version of the book, which is cheaper, but it doesn't seem to come with access the online resources (unless I'm totally missing it).
Agree about Spiegel. I used Beat the Boards and Kaufman for content and Spiegel for questions. I felt well prepared.OK, admittedly I haven't taken the test, but I'm calling it in saying that Spiegel is way better than Board Vitals -- if you're only going for one question bank, go for that one. Better explanation, less errors and generally less sloppy.
So I bought the spiegel book and the questions are harder and better written than the focus books (I did both volumes). The kindle version doesn't give you online access. The Kaufman book also uses expert consult and you can actually do the questions and an answer pops up but for spiegel for some reason it just looks like the book version and isn't interactive unless I'm missing something. Still a good question book I just wish the font was bigger. . Thanks, bagel. I'm debating now if I should get the board vitals vignettes section only since vignettes are half the test.
Ok so I've completely abandoned any reading and now just doing questions. Is it bad that I'm averaging about 65-70% every time I take a practice test? How is everyone else faring? Is it like med school- 70% is passing?
Ok so I've completely abandoned any reading and now just doing questions. Is it bad that I'm averaging about 65-70% every time I take a practice test? How is everyone else faring? Is it like med school- 70% is passing?
This has been my experience too, and I was wondering the same thing. I'm hitting anywhere from 60s-70s % right in Spiegel (depending on how many nit picky questions and how many obscure neurological disorders the questions in that test cover).I'm generally hitting in the 70s on Board Vitals. I don't have online access for Spiegal, so I haven't been scoring. On the last test, I missed a ton, though, so I'm not feeling so confident. Details about various CYP450 receptors and nitpicky (at least to me) neurology stuff are what's getting me. Oh yeah, and percentages -- I know broad numbers but not details. I kinda don't want to learn any of this stuff either because it seems fairly unimportant -- I mean you look that stuff up when you need it. This being SDN means that someone will probably jump in and tell me I'm going to be a bad doctor because of this attitude.
I'm generally hitting in the 70s on Board Vitals. I don't have online access for Spiegal, so I haven't been scoring. On the last test, I missed a ton, though, so I'm not feeling so confident. Details about various CYP450 receptors and nitpicky (at least to me) neurology stuff are what's getting me. Oh yeah, and percentages -- I know broad numbers but not details. I kinda don't want to learn any of this stuff either because it seems fairly unimportant -- I mean you look that stuff up when you need it. This being SDN means that someone will probably jump in and tell me I'm going to be a bad doctor because of this attitude.
Would love some opinions:
As I have done successfully for every big exam so far, I am relying on doing a lot of questions to prepare for the board exam, with minimal extra reading outside of looking up confusing stuff in questions. With just a few weeks left, and a fairly busy work schedule, trying to decide what to do from here. In the next day or two I will have completed all the questions in Speigel. Overall average will be about 70%. Should I:
a) Move on to another question bank, maybe Board Vitals, or Focus
b) Repeat Speigal to try to solidify the material presented there
Thoughts?
Just finished test 4 in Spiegal, and got HAMMERED. Getting upper 60s/low 70s on the other tests so far. The tough parts for me are all the questions about obscure, eponymous neurologic symptoms/syndromes.
I was in the upper third/quarter of the class on the PRITES, and our program's board pass rate is in the upper 90s, so unless I am getting dementia I should be ok, right?
I'd love to hear the answer to this, too. My thought for going forward is go for option #2, really trying to solidify what's in Spiegel, but I haven't taken the test, so I don't really know.
Would love some opinions:
As I have done successfully for every big exam so far, I am relying on doing a lot of questions to prepare for the board exam, with minimal extra reading outside of looking up confusing stuff in questions. With just a few weeks left, and a fairly busy work schedule, trying to decide what to do from here. In the next day or two I will have completed all the questions in Speigel. Overall average will be about 70%. Should I:
a) Move on to another question bank, maybe Board Vitals, or Focus
b) Repeat Speigal to try to solidify the material presented there
Thoughts?
So, I decided to opt for #1 as I just wanted some variety after doing so many Spiegel questions. I went ahead and bought the subscription to psychtutorial. So far, I really like it. I think the questions are well written and touch on some things that Spiegel did not, and the answer explanations are good but not too long. If anyone else ends up wanting a subscription, there is a discount code for $15 off if you have someone refer you. Let me know if you want me to sent it to you.
So, I decided to opt for #1 as I just wanted some variety after doing so many Spiegel questions. I went ahead and bought the subscription to psychtutorial. So far, I really like it. I think the questions are well written and touch on some things that Spiegel did not, and the answer explanations are good but not too long. If anyone else ends up wanting a subscription, there is a discount code for $15 off if you have someone refer you. Let me know if you want me to sent it to you.