I wanted to post on here to help anyone in the future who, like me, reviewed multiple threads before their board exam looking for help/reassurance/guidance/etc.
My Background: Above average test taker. Step 1: 240+, Step 2: 230+, Step 3: 240+. Did residency in a larger, inpatient heavy, academic program. RITE scores consistently in the 30-40th percentile for class average (without studying). In my PGY4 year, I studied for ~2 weeks, and felt like the test was quite easy, and got my highest class percentile score of... ~45%.
My Preparation: I was quite worried for the examination given my below average RITE scores. I did not study much at all during residency, nor was I one to look up everything regarding the disease states in the patients that I saw (mainly due to high patient volumes).
- Cheng-Ching Neurology - Book for the Wards and Boards - I went through this book twice. This provides a solid foundation for your studying. It appears to be the most common resource among fellow residents as well. For the price, this is definitely recommended.
- BoardVitals - I went through this twice, starting from Christmas of PGY-4 year. I mainly did 10 question "study mode" tests during my down time. When I would have more time to sit and study, I would do 25 question "untimed mode" tests. I finished the first run in July of PGY-5. I scored ~68% on my first run though and ~85% on my second run through. I learn the best through these QBanks, and thought this was a pretty good one. About 33% of the questions were without detailed explanations, which I didnt like. However, it was clear that they consistently update their QBank, as the second time around, I was starting to get more questions regarding "newer" therapeutics such as CGRP-inhibitors. BoardVitals was heavily subsidized by my program. I'm not sure if the value for BV is significantly better than other QBanks.
- Laughing your Way to Passing the Neurology Boards - I purchased this book 2 months before the exam. I used it to make flashcards and memorize hard to learn subjects (metabolic disorders primarily). I did not find this to be particularly helpful, and frankly some of the information was out of date. Would not recommend unless pneumonics is your primary way to remember things.
- AAN/Continuum Reviews and Self Assessments - I used this as further QBank questions. Especially the free ones when you are an AAN Member, I used this as additional QBank Questions. I recommend these, especially since you should get several of them free.
Night before/Test Day: Wow, this was the worst I'd ever felt before going into a test. I kept feeling like I was destined to be one of the 10-15% of first time takers who fails. I'm in a rather narrow subspecialty fellowship, so I felt if I failed this year, I would just continue hemorrhaging neuro knowledge. I had bad insomnia the night before. I got maybe 2-3 hours of sleep going into the test. I was the first to arrive to the testing center, which was good because if I had shown 15 minutes later, the wait would have probably been 45+ minutes getting into the testing room with all the social distancing protocols. Otherwise, the day flowed smoothly.
The Test itself: I felt the questions were on par with the RITE examination. The progressive vignette questions were quite reassuring and felt substantially easier. I walked out of there estimating that my raw score was probably ~75-85%.
Results: The results were said to be expected after 10-12 weeks. They came in the middle of the 12th week. I PASSED with a score somewhere in the 2nd quartile. I am in a very narrow subspecialty fellowship, but otherwise would consider myself pretty average among all the other categories. My weakest subjects on the test (below "passing") were "neuro-onc", "questions not associated with a neuro DO", and "systems based practices" (never heard of that one, never studied anything for that, even though many of those were somewhat common sense).
Takeaways: The fail rate is <15%, so if your RITE averages have been higher than that, you are off to a good start. Play to your strengths in terms of studying. Try to get a good night sleep the night before. If you have any resources to help with reviewing "systems based practices" that would be helpful.
Good LUCK!
