Looking to form a study group .. please message if interested. Need to start ASAP!
TIA
TIA
BCPS Spring 2021
- Thread starter Dumditi
- Start date
TiredofWaiting1
Full Member
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2021
- Messages
- 36
- Reaction score
- 41
Wish I had the time to do all that but I have a toddler and that is very time consuming 😜. I've just heard that accp recert material is a lot harder and more expensive. Do you agree?
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2015
- Messages
- 1,769
- Reaction score
- 1,801
Didn't pass. Rescheduling exam for fall 2021.... $300.
JA_Pharmer
Full Member
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2021
- Messages
- 20
- Reaction score
- 34
Passed BCPS - received results yesterday evening - Last name B, took exam 5/29
I used HYMR Q bank, ACCP, and the VA lectures
I used HYMR Q bank, ACCP, and the VA lectures
Outstanding. What I love is if you feel a question might be "off" you can comment on it immediately and they are responsive to correct. Vastly superior to HYMR Qbank. I have found HYMR to be super defensive if you critique any of their stuff. They are kind of weird about that. But Busti has numerous mistakes in his slides and when I point them out they are like "Well, perhaps this course isn't for you.". I'm like WTF? Do you guys want to be accurate?
Are you doing the pharmacy versions? I find the ones for BCIDP and BCCP quite good. They give you an MD perspective which adds to your knowledge. Very goo foundational as well as random stuff that can appear on our exams. Trust me, after taking the BCIDP I can attest to the random questions.
Well to be honest, no Qbank I've experienced (ACCP, ASHP, HYMR, Stat Pearls) are super close to BPS style questions given the latter are so silly/random at times. However, I feel the more you know, the more you can reason through a question. At least, that's my hypothesis as to how I passed the BCIDP on my first try and I left feeling demoralized. : ) I've taken three of these exams now and thankfully passed each time but I gain insight with each examination as how to best study and my theory is that more is better (more being more in volume and from more sources). I know that seems like a "duh" thing, but most people just choose one review course and go with it, but I feel variety is a better approach. Just my 2 cents.
Passed BCPS with a 525. My advice for those retaking: make sure you know the stats front and backwards. I felt very defeated by the types of clinical questions on the test. None of them seemed like the 'meat and potatoes' type-questions you'd expect. But I did feel like I nailed all the stats questions and I'm sure that's the reason I passed. Good luck everyone.
Well they don't have dedicated Qbanks that are freestanding. I'm essentially referring to their practice exams which you can get as part of the review course or purchase separately. It would be nice if they actually made slick Qbanks like HYMR and StatPearls do.
I agree with that. I've pointed out some of the HYMR material is vastly out of date and he once actually argued with me in a live review that it wasn't, and "not everyone accepts the guidelines." I was like "These guidelines are 5 years old, not everyone accepts them, but that's what is going to be on the test." He said that wasn't true (I think it is. I failed the exam, but I still think they would go by maybe not the last two years guidelines, but older than that for sure). He basically told me to go somewhere else if I didn't agree.
I'm using the Stat Pearls for ID and I think the questions are more like the exam questions were. They are covering all the weird bugs that weren't covered by ACCP (I bought the Qbank a few months before my first exam and never really did much with it because a lot of the stuff covered isn't mentioned by ACCP).
*Busti did tell the group that we were focused too much on studying for practice and not studying for a board exam, which I think is probably good advice and maybe I do focus too much on the little things. I DID like the course, but I do agree that they are pretty defensive.
Last edited:
No they were from 2016 so they stopped selling it which is the correct thing to do. I still have them and use them for the stats part as that obviously never goes out of date. They had some fantastic stats questions. The clinical questions were great as well. Hopefully they sell an updated version again at some point. ACCP could be making way more money if they were smarter. They put out top notch stuff.
Here is the official BPS policy on how up to date you have to be. The answer is, very up to date!! In fact, even many of the review course put out in Spring could be considered out of date for the Fall exam if the BPS boards decided to put a fresh new question on at the last minute. Possible? Yes. Likely? Probably not.
Anyway, here is the verbiage from BPS:
Practice guidelines have recently been updated. Will this be reflected on the exam?
All BPS specialty certification examinations reflect current, best practices at the time they are constructed. Practice guidelines used for the Spring examination are those that are current as of January 1 of the testing year. Practice guidelines for the Fall examination are those that are current as of July 1 of the testing year.
Yeah HYMR is very weird at times. I think Busti is a great lecturer and seems like a nice guy. The course is good at basics like pharmacology, adverse effects, drug-drug interactions, pharmacokinetics, statistics. I would not trust them for up to date knowledge on therapeutics. Ironically, their Qbank questions DO SEEM UP TO DATE! Makes sense as those are probably much easier to update than an entire recorded video lecture via Dr. Busti. Hence the flaw with their video approach to lectures. In any event, HYMR can be a useful supplemenatry tool to a more solid course like ACCP which really keeps up to date with their annual review courses. I caution people using old courses to save money. You get what you pay for. I know the courses aren't cheap but do you want the latest and most relevant information or not? ACCP does a good job in my opinioin and they deserve the annual revenue.
I used their course for the BCPS in 2017/2018 and the majority of the ID lectures were the exact same (I recorded them, THE EXACT SAME) in 2021 as they were in 2017/2018 BCPS course. There are just some additional ones. The HYMR Qbank already has questions about COVID. Some of the answers for c.diff conflict with the information in their lectures, but are current with guidelines, so I agree that the Q banks are more up to date.
ACCP is using video lectures too now (they weren't back when I took the BCPS), but it's a wide breadth of providers so probably easier to update. Again, since I failed I'm probably not the best judge, but I'm a professional at study material even if I'm not good at using it to pass.
I think your analysis is spot on. Fascinating that you recorded the lectures from four years ago and they are the same. That is very uncool by Dr. Busti. He should be more transparent with the dates of the recordings. Just reinforces what my concern was with his lectures in terms of therapeutics. Again, good for foundational stuff that doesn't change with time but would definitely not rely on it for pharmacotherapy. ACCP does a good job with the printed stuff as well as videos albeit some of the professors lecturing are quite horrendous in terms of their ability to speak/present. Thankfully, I've always found the written material to be quite good and extremely comprehensive. The ASHP stuff is a bit more inconsistent. Some of the faculty are fantastic and others not so much!!! That's why it is best to just do everything. : )I used their course for the BCPS in 2017/2018 and the majority of the ID lectures were the exact same (I recorded them, THE EXACT SAME) in 2021 as they were in 2017/2018 BCPS course. There are just some additional ones. The HYMR Qbank already has questions about COVID. Some of the answers for c.diff conflict with the information in their lectures, but are current with guidelines, so I agree that the Q banks are more up to date.
ACCP is using video lectures too now (they weren't back when I took the BCPS), but it's a wide breadth of providers so probably easier to update. Again, since I failed I'm probably not the best judge, but I'm a professional at study material even if I'm not good at using it to pass.
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2011
- Messages
- 26
- Reaction score
- 14
I called them just now to see if they could possibly expedite my ATT to retake the BCPS, they said it could take up to 20 business days and applications are reviewed in the order they are received. So, August 9th is the end of the window to apply, I should hear from them whenever I suppose. She said the exam can still be scheduled outside of the application window.
Oh wow that’s so frustrating. I need to request a day off from work to take the exam and they’re just prolonging everything! If this 20 day window is true we won’t be able to schedule until about a month before the exam.
cpharmacist
New Member
- Joined
- Jul 30, 2021
- Messages
- 1
- Reaction score
- 0
Yes, can I have your email. To communicate in there
I passed on first try. Graduated 16 years ago. mom with 1 full time job and 1 prn job and 2 children. I studied 7 months any chance I got. Even in the car, waiting for doctor appointment, at work if not too busy. I nailed the stat. I used ACCP biostatistics book and took the questions 5 times. I think that stat was the secret of my passing on first try.
- Joined
- May 28, 2013
- Messages
- 53
- Reaction score
- 31
Did not pass the BCGP with a 495. Lol. I took my BCPS in 2018 and passed on the first attempt (thank God!) and thought the BCGP exam went okay. I guess I have to study something else. I used meded101 videos and question bank to study.
Last edited by a moderator: