Board Certification in Psychiatry

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Based on my score report I'm not cut out to be a child psychiatrist. And I don't have any ethics.
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What was the passing score? For clinical psych i got 73 for tests subtests I got 68. How far did i fail by? The reason to retake is for now medicare and bluecross dont carem. Other insurance companies wont let you on the panel if you aren't bc 4 yrs after graduation and i moonlight weekends. Finally i want to apply for a 2nd residency in fp and im sure they will ask. I so wish i hadn't taken it for the fp reason
 
Passing was 71 percent overall, that's psych and neuro combined, they don't divide it into subtests.
 
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Thanks, so if parts a and b were half and I got a 68 and the subset is part c I got 73 I am guessing and that is the other half isn/t that 71 overall? I don't see math wise how I failed. It averages out to 71 percent or no? Mine was typed into clinical psych and tests/subsets which I kinda thought was the horrible vignettes which was supposed to count as half and the stand alone questions were supposed to count as half??????????????????
masterofmonkeys said:
Passing was 71 percent overall, that's psych and neuro combined, they don't divide it into subtests.
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There's two pages of score reports. Find the one that says Page 1 of 2 on the bottom.

First line is Tests/Subtests and it reports 'Total Percent Correct' which should be your actual average. There are 3 subscores. The first two appear on the same page as your 'total percent correct'. They are Basic Concepts in Psychiatry and Neurology and Neurosciences. Clinical Psychiatry is on Page 2 of 2. I have no idea what the total breakdown was for how much each section counted.
 
Also average of 68 and 73 is 70.5. Given that there were more than one hundred questions on the exam, a 70.5 would have been below the cutoff.
 
masterofmonkeys said:
Also average of 68 and 73 is 70.5. Given that there were more than one hundred questions on the exam, a 70.5 would have been below the cutoff.
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Thanks I guess I thought they would have rounded up- wishful thinking. It KILLS me to have come so close in a field I really don't like too much ie why i want to do a 2nd residency in FP. Ireally like doing a tad of therapy but I have no clue what happened. I LOVED psych as a med student and some of residency. I like a little therapy with a few patients and work few hours just because I don't care for it enough that I could possibly stand to do it any more. But matching into a second residency even FP isn't easy- I tried. Anyway that's all off topic. I failed and need to retake it if for no reason than I failed and can't leave it like this if I had never tried I could have gone forever and not taken it, but personally I gotta retake it and hope to pass, I will probably taking it repeatedly and have to redo the orals too because I don't see me ever passing, I didn't study enough but I have severe test anxiety and ugh the questions I got wrong I would have gotten wrong no matter how much I studied. Thank you very much.
 
masterofmonkeys said:
Based on my score report I'm not cut out to be a child psychiatrist. And I don't have any ethics.
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Haha!

Shikima said:
Congrats! Now fight against MOC.
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With tooth and nail.

For anyone researching resources, I used Board Vitals, Kenny & Spiegel 3e, read through most recent version of Kaufman's Neuro for Psychiatrists and Mass Gen Text of Psychiatry once, and took the Kaufman Course in New York. I walked out of the exam with a vein in my head about to burst, but the score report breakdown was reassuring to the point where I'd recommend the titles above in italics.
 
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I was looking at the format for clinical vignettes and video questions. If the question requires us to pick the 3 correct answers and I pick either 2 or 1 correct. Will I get partial score for the question or I need to get all of them correct.
What are the best resources to read for clinical vignettes and video question ?

I know, its too early to start preparation for next year board but I want to get all my resources ready.
 
sujalneuro said:
I was looking at the format for clinical vignettes and video questions. If the question requires us to pick the 3 correct answers and I pick either 2 or 1 correct. Will I get partial score for the question or I need to get all of them correct.
What are the best resources to read for clinical vignettes and video question ?

I know, its too early to start preparation for next year board but I want to get all my resources ready.
Click to expand...

It's all or nothing. If it asks for 3 answers, you need to pick all 3. There's not much out there for clinical vignettes and videos... the videos and "vignettes" on Board Vitals weren't that great. I didn't do BTB but I heard mixed reviews.
 
Haven't posted on here in so long had I had no idea what my log in was, but since this thread helped me (via lurking) figured I'd share. Only found out my results today (passing) as I was out of the country when my scores were snail mailed and didn't want to ruin my holiday with a failure.

Felt absolutely horrible coming out of the exam, mostly from a physical standpoint (make no mistake, this IS a test of physical stamina as much as anything), which translated to a swift shift from entering with optimism to exiting with pessism about my chances of passing.

Got a 74. Didn't use a ton of materials. Took the Kauffman course (skipping the earliest sessions to read on my own in favor of sleep) but went through the review books several times. Also went through K&S twice, front to back-- the first time reading all explanations, the second time reviewing only the explanations of questions I got wrong. Didn't use anything else except for video vignettes included with K&S, which I felt were much simpler than the exam's.
 
Also, I did not prep any before the Kauffman course and would honestly suggest that is the way to go. I didn't feel the course was anything special, but without I would have been fumbling around guessing what I would be tested on instead of being told. Worth the money, IMO.
 
I just realized that I never came back to post about the boards! Late.....but I did pass and mainly used K&S. Did the questions and read through the explanations 3 times, did the vignettes once, and used Kaufmann to read up on neuro topics that popped up in the K&S questions that I felt that I didn't know well. The test was harder than I expected it to be and I was scared that I didn't pass, but everything worked out in the end.
 
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Has everyone received their actual certificate in mail yet ? I have not gotten it yet , actually forgot about it until today and just left a VM with APBN.
 
Mine arrived 3 days ago.
 
I just moved and I worry my certificate is going to get lost. Congratulations for everyone who passed. :) It was a tough test. I ended up getting pretty tired during the test. Its was a lot of questions. I am glad they kept it focused on general psych. I studied way too much pharmacology, but I was pretty happy when I would see those questions.
 
carlosc1dbz said:
I just moved and I worry my certificate is going to get lost. Congratulations for everyone who passed. :) It was a tough test. I ended up getting pretty tired during the test. Its was a lot of questions. I am glad they kept it focused on general psych. I studied way too much pharmacology, but I was pretty happy when I would see those questions.
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It is hard, I've heard from other residents who took it. Believe it or not I just pulled the trigger on a 5 month access to practice questions which I hope will help :zip:

For anyone interested, I got a super super discount that I spent a while asking for but they gave it to me.

my code was= C40XFST
I got it at Psychiatryboardsprep

They said its just for 5 month plans. Not sure if it still works or what but worth a try. hope it helps someone else out there.
 
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Hi All,
I'm a first year staff psychiatrist in Canada, planning to write the American psych boards this September.
I'm interested in getting in on a group discount for Beat the Boards. Please let me know if you are interested.
You can send me an email at: [email protected].
 
Hello All,
For those who have written the American board exam (adult general psych) - is it worthwhile to review the APA treatment guidelines for each of the major disorders?
I'm certified in Canada and a big focus of our test was on Canadian Treatment Guidelines and I'm thinking there may be subtle differences.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
 
dr_happy said:
Hello All,
For those who have written the American board exam (adult general psych) - is it worthwhile to review the APA treatment guidelines for each of the major disorders?
I'm certified in Canada and a big focus of our test was on Canadian Treatment Guidelines and I'm thinking there may be subtle differences.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
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When you say "written" you mean taken the exam? and are you planning to take the ABPN certification exam??

If so, I know they're giving out discounts at Psychiatry Boards Prep that don't require a group if that's your limiting factor. I still have the email of the person who gave it to me if you're interested. PM me.

Good luck!
-OWP
 
Failed the exam by a couple points last year. Going to give it one more try this year. Plan on going through BTB and K&S. Any other reccs?
 
Hey all, wanted to ask your opinion on practice Speigel scores. I took the first test and scored a 73%. Took the second one recently and my score went down to 62%. I'm feeling pretty demoralized and with boards being 2 months away, I'm wondering if I should just postpone to next year. Any thoughts? If I do continue with taking it this year, I'm planning to also add K&S question book to my study plan. Hoping to get all this done with starting a new job!
 
JRambeur said:
Hey all, wanted to ask your opinion on practice Speigel scores. I took the first test and scored a 73%. Took the second one recently and my score went down to 62%. I'm feeling pretty demoralized and with boards being 2 months away, I'm wondering if I should just postpone to next year. Any thoughts? If I do continue with taking it this year, I'm planning to also add K&S question book to my study plan. Hoping to get all this done with starting a new job!
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Don't postpone. Do all the Spiegel tests 3 or 4 times and you will pass.
 
When I took the board exam I didn't see any neuro questions that Speigel covered in their book. Test makers must be savvy and I'm sure they are careful not to have related questions that are found in a very popular book like Speigel. Just saying. Most fail due to neuro.
 
SoCalTime said:
When I took the board exam I didn't see any neuro questions that Speigel covered in their book. Test makers must be savvy and I'm sure they are careful not to have related questions that are found in a very popular book like Speigel. Just saying. Most fail due to neuro.
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Mine last year had a boatload from Spiegel.
 
On Walden Pond said:
When you say "written" you mean taken the exam? and are you planning to take the ABPN certification exam??

If so, I know they're giving out discounts at Psychiatry Boards Prep that don't require a group if that's your limiting factor. I still have the email of the person who gave it to me if you're interested. PM me.

Good luck!
-OWP
Click to expand...
quiet pines said:
It is hard, I've heard from other residents who took it. Believe it or not I just pulled the trigger on a 5 month access to practice questions which I hope will help :zip:

For anyone interested, I got a super super discount that I spent a while asking for but they gave it to me.

my code was= C40XFST
I got it at Psychiatryboardsprep

They said its just for 5 month plans. Not sure if it still works or what but worth a try. hope it helps someone else out there.
Click to expand...

Is Psychiatry Boards Prep good?
 
MedYEP said:
Is Psychiatry Boards Prep good?
Click to expand...

By far the best for quality of questions. I know for a fact faculty write for them because one from my former program did, or still does.

You guys can use my discount code if you want. 20OFF2BYL5
 
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Hello all! I will write my boards this year. K&S stand alone my average score so far is 75% but vignettes is sad average 55%. Any input on how to improve on Vignettes? Need to push those scores :(
 
sujalneuro said:
Hello all! I will write my boards this year. K&S stand alone my average score so far is 75% but vignettes is sad average 55%. Any input on how to improve on Vignettes? Need to push those scores :(
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Re-do the book 3 or 4 times and you'll pass. Eventually things will stick and you'll improve your average score, which is still pretty good, by the way.
 
I've a question - do you guys have thoughts on whether there will be many questions asked specifically about changes to DSM 5? Unless I'm mistaken, this exam ( i.e. 2017) is the first one with DSM 5 only. So it worthwhile spending time doing questions from the self assessment book or something? Some of the changes are so random I haven't seen them in clinical practice enough to be familiar with them. Thanks in advance!
 
For purposes of knowing what sort of meningitis is what, does it give you the normal levels of protein glucose, csf opening pressure? My head is FULL.
 
Is there a trick to find out if you passed, like USMLE
 
BKpsych said:
Is there a trick to find out if you passed, like USMLE
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I've been told that at some point before you get your result, some folks have found that the ABPN website deems them eligible to register for a subspeciality exam--which would require a passed general exam. That bug may have gotten fixed though.
Good luck.
 
OldPsychDoc said:
I've been told that at some point before you get your result, some folks have found that the ABPN website deems them eligible to register for a subspeciality exam--which would require a passed general exam. That bug may have gotten fixed though.
Good luck.
Click to expand...

Doesn't work. I failed the exam last year and before results came in it was allowing me to register for a specialty exam.
 
When you are talking about Kaplan and Sadock, are you talking about the review book or the entire book?
 
Last year the exam was a few days later and email results came 11/30 snail mail was in Dec. I would be surprised if they sent them out Thanksgiving week, but who knows? For the moment I am SO done stressing about it. I know a few psychiatrists with a cash only practice who aren't BC and my analyst had his own practice for years taking cash BC/BS and Medicare (they will panel you if you are BC or not) and he moved to a group practice and they bill under the owner of the clinic for him he gets 70% of what he brings in, makes his own hours and gets to do therapy. The only thing
I could have done differently this year was study more neuro and there wasn't all that much neuro on it. I did Clive and Spiegel a million times, BTB some of Focus and a DSM 5 question book. A ton of the psych questions were really random and asked about some disorders
I have never personally seen and one about a side effect of a non-psych drug. I studied like crazy 16 plus hours most days from June on. IF I failed this year I will start looking for a job like my analyst has and start studying in Dec 20 hours a week. Clive and Spiegel is out, I did it so many times I can read the first three of four words of the question and I know the answer. I will get the new edition of Neuro for psychiatrists and I bought a case study book for DSM 5 and two q books from Stahls. I didn't do K&S because it's DSM IV but I will do that and I get BTB til I pass and will go to the live course in the summer that Kauffman does. If I don't pass next year c'est la vie. Stick a fork in me I am done trying.
 
I'm looking for study partners for this exam. Perhaps we can go over questions together. Shoot me a message if interested! :)
 
Found out I passed!! Man, I was so nervous while checking, heart was beating out of my chest! Glad I don’t have to take any board exams for another 10 years
 
PistolPete said:
Found out I passed!! Man, I was so nervous while checking, heart was beating out of my chest! Glad I don’t have to take any board exams for another 10 years
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How did you find out? Congrats!
 
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