Hi everyone.
First off...don't beat yourself up.
I know I did.
I took the Fall 2021 BCPS exam and made a 496. I was absolutely stunned. I've never failed a test in my life. 1570 SAT (old version!), 99%tile PCAT, 43 MCAT. I'm no dummy...but that test really deee-stroyed my confidence. I really questioned why I even attempted it. I started to second guess myself at work. I felt like I was going through all the stages of grief...like I had a death in my family. It was though...the death of my confidence. At the time I decided I wouldn't retake the exam and face more humiliation.
A couple of days later, I received a personal letter from Dr. Busti from HYMR. I can't say enough about that man and his company. He really put my failure into perspective and reminded me that take that 'even the best clinicians fail board exams in their careers'. He may not have been genuine with that comment but I took it to heart. I also listened to some of HYMRs webcasts about taking the exam and the pitfalls with it.
So I looked back at what I think I did wrong with my Fall 2021 attempt.
1--I went way too fast. I've always been a fast test taker, even in pharmacy school.
2--I read the questions just once before answering. Big mistake. This time I read the questions 2-3 times BEFORE answering. Noticed lots of answers that I would have answered had I only read the question once.
3--I only took a 5 minute break. This time, I went outside, walked around, potty break, swig of caffeine...took the entire 30 minutes. Go. Clear. Your Head.
4--This was a Spring 2022 mistake..I ALMOST ran out of time in rereading the questions before answering. Whew!
After those changes, I turned my 496 into a 503 and passed that dang test. Of course, I would love to know my raw score... did I 'really' improve or did everyone else do worse than me and it artificially boosted me? Who knows. I'm not a fan of their scoring model but it's the game we have to play.
Look at your domains...if you got 'slightly below' or 'considerably below' average for biostats/regulatory--YOU STILL HAVE TIME TO STUDY. You have 8 weeks to become an expert in biostats. It IS doable. Go over your notes again. Consider getting another company's resource (HYMR is pretty good. I also used ACCP). Reach out to your biostats professor from pharmacy school. After studying and studying the biostats part, my professor really helped me fill in some of the holes I had even after exhaustively going through it.
You've done all this work to prepare for the BCPS exam...don't give up now!
Good luck everyone!
First off...don't beat yourself up.
I know I did.
I took the Fall 2021 BCPS exam and made a 496. I was absolutely stunned. I've never failed a test in my life. 1570 SAT (old version!), 99%tile PCAT, 43 MCAT. I'm no dummy...but that test really deee-stroyed my confidence. I really questioned why I even attempted it. I started to second guess myself at work. I felt like I was going through all the stages of grief...like I had a death in my family. It was though...the death of my confidence. At the time I decided I wouldn't retake the exam and face more humiliation.
A couple of days later, I received a personal letter from Dr. Busti from HYMR. I can't say enough about that man and his company. He really put my failure into perspective and reminded me that take that 'even the best clinicians fail board exams in their careers'. He may not have been genuine with that comment but I took it to heart. I also listened to some of HYMRs webcasts about taking the exam and the pitfalls with it.
So I looked back at what I think I did wrong with my Fall 2021 attempt.
1--I went way too fast. I've always been a fast test taker, even in pharmacy school.
2--I read the questions just once before answering. Big mistake. This time I read the questions 2-3 times BEFORE answering. Noticed lots of answers that I would have answered had I only read the question once.
3--I only took a 5 minute break. This time, I went outside, walked around, potty break, swig of caffeine...took the entire 30 minutes. Go. Clear. Your Head.
4--This was a Spring 2022 mistake..I ALMOST ran out of time in rereading the questions before answering. Whew!
After those changes, I turned my 496 into a 503 and passed that dang test. Of course, I would love to know my raw score... did I 'really' improve or did everyone else do worse than me and it artificially boosted me? Who knows. I'm not a fan of their scoring model but it's the game we have to play.
Look at your domains...if you got 'slightly below' or 'considerably below' average for biostats/regulatory--YOU STILL HAVE TIME TO STUDY. You have 8 weeks to become an expert in biostats. It IS doable. Go over your notes again. Consider getting another company's resource (HYMR is pretty good. I also used ACCP). Reach out to your biostats professor from pharmacy school. After studying and studying the biostats part, my professor really helped me fill in some of the holes I had even after exhaustively going through it.
You've done all this work to prepare for the BCPS exam...don't give up now!
Good luck everyone!
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