PRITE/Board exam studying

[kaylasdf123]

I’m worried about my PRITE exam scores as I’ve been failing the in-service for the past two years.

What are the best way to get old PRITE exams for practice? What are the best resources to use for reading and practice problems. I’m obviously not as concerned about the PRITE exam (except the low score is a blow to my ego) and I’m more concerned about how I’ll do on my Board Exams coming up soon. Any help or info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

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[wolfvgang22]

My advice is to simplify things. Just get this book:
Psychiatry Test Preparation and Review Manual
3rd Edition
ISBN-13: 978-0323396158, ISBN-10: 0323396151

Read it, do all the test questions in the back timed repeatedly until you score at least an 80 on each test. Then you can do well on the PRITE and the actual board exam. That's it. Don't buy 15 different books or worry about digging up old PRITES, stop worrying, stop wasting time. There is no substitute for just doing the work. It takes about two weeks full time, or a month or two if you just work on it for an hour or two per day.

 

[MacDonaldTriad]

Old PRITE tests are not a curriculum. Going over old PRITE tests does help your PRITE score because they reuse, or slightly modify some old questions, but it doesn't teach you much psychiatry. There is literature that says PRITE scores do predict passing the boards, but this includes people who really know the material who didn't just memorize old tests. I don't think going over old PRITE tests helps you pass the boards much. At least, there are more efficient ways to learn about psychiatry.

 

[NickNaylor]

I bought Beat the Boards for board review and I like it as a resource. It would probably be a great PRITE study resource as well, but way too expensive for that purpose IMO.

 

[RolloMayy]

My advice is to simplify things. Just get this book:
Psychiatry Test Preparation and Review Manual
3rd Edition
ISBN-13: 978-0323396158, ISBN-10: 0323396151

Read it, do all the test questions in the back timed repeatedly until you score at least an 80 on each test. Then you can do well on the PRITE and the actual board exam. That's it. Don't buy 15 different books or worry about digging up old PRITES, stop worrying, stop wasting time. There is no substitute for just doing the work. It takes about two weeks full time, or a month or two if you just work on it for an hour or two per day.

May I ask when you took the board exam. On amazon I read several reviews which stated the book was not helpful for the new exam format. Please advise.
Sincerely.

 

[whopper]

This has been brought up so many times before.

Don't study specifically for the PRITE. 1) The PRITE itself doesn't matter, 2) It's a horribly written exam chock full of grammar errors, questions whose source of data is a study with only a sample size of 20, etc. 3) The PRITE has several useless questions which if you chose to study them and learn the knowledge of the subject matter don't really teach you psychiatry well. E.g. let's say for example they had a question on Leber's Hereditary Optic Neuropathy? I have yet to see this case ever in real life. EVER!

(Which also begs the question why do they test the zebras above, but don't teach/test the real-life stuff residents encounter EVERY DAY without specific recommendations such as how to handle malingerers? Hey I get it if you want to teach some rare stuff but it should be like Maslov's pyramid where if you're not breathing you shouldn't be concerned with how your next door neighbor is doing).

What you ought to do is study psychiatry for real, and not specifically for the PRITE. The only real importance is a bad PRITE score does correlate with some predictive value of a low board exam score.

The real board exam is well-written, does have relevant material, is mostly relevant clinical material, and my only criticism of it was the questions are mostly 1-2 decades old with no recent data or trends although this is understandable because they only want to put in the stuff that's well-established.

 

[reca]

The real board exam is well-written, does have relevant material, is mostly relevant clinical material, and my only criticism of it was the questions are mostly 1-2 decades old with no recent data or trends although this is understandable because they only want to put in the stuff that's well-established.

What would you recommend to use to study for the real board exam?

 

[splik]

This has been brought up so many times before.

Don't study specifically for the PRITE. 1) The PRITE itself doesn't matter, 2) It's a horribly written exam chock full of grammar errors, questions whose source of data is a study with only a sample size of 20, etc. 3) The PRITE has several useless questions which if you chose to study them and learn the knowledge of the subject matter don't really teach you psychiatry well. E.g. let's say for example they had a question on Leber's Hereditary Optic Neuropathy? I have yet to see this case ever in real life. EVER!

given that is has been many years since you took the PRITE, I don't think you can comment on what it is like. It isn't full of "grammar errors" (which is a grammatical error itself!), or full of obscure questions for the most part. Most of the questions have the answer found in Kaplan and Sadock, Stahl, or Gabbard. There has been a trend in recent years for more neuroscience, some of which is a bit more obscure but it has been a very long time since the PRITE was full of esoterica or been full of typos. The question format is not ideal, but that is set by the publisher. Also, the PRITE has been used as the basis for the new content outline for the new board exam.

 

[whopper]

Fair enough Splik. It has been several years since I've taken it!

 

[Mass Effect]

given that is has been many years since you took the PRITE, I don't think you can comment on what it is like. It isn't full of "grammar errors" (which is a grammatical error itself!), or full of obscure questions for the most part. Most of the questions have the answer found in Kaplan and Sadock, Stahl, or Gabbard. There has been a trend in recent years for more neuroscience, some of which is a bit more obscure but it has been a very long time since the PRITE was full of esoterica or been full of typos. The question format is not ideal, but that is set by the publisher. Also, the PRITE has been used as the basis for the new content outline for the new board exam.

I'm recently out of training and can vouch for there being multiple grammatical errors on the PRITE. I also didn't find many of the questions particularly relevant to real life psychiatry. I was never a rockstar on PRITE, but always passed. Still, I had trouble finding the relevance. I haven't taken boards yet, so will defer my opinion on correlation or best prep material.