Hey guys,
Anyone use psychiatry boards prep for the initial certification exam last year and have good results? Any thoughts on how it compares to Board vitals or BTB? Any comments would be appreciated as I am super stressed about what to study in the limited time I have....
I actually used Psychiatry Boards Prep so I can help! My friend used Board Vitals and Beat the Boards and she let me use her subscriptions so I can give a little perspective for what it's worth. Here's my not-so-expert analysis haha:
Quality of Questions:
winner: Psychiatry Boards Prep = A
Beat the Boards = A -
Board Vitals = B -
Psychiatry Boards Prep seems like the clear winner here because their questions felt like what I saw on the real board exam. They seem well written, all written by actual psychiatrists in the field. Nothing random or weird. Their explanations are very good and seem to come from articles on PubMed.
Board Vitals have some really good questions, and some really awkward and random questions that feel like they just didn't fit. It was like someone opened a text book and wrote questions from it. BtB had decent quality of questions but I did see mistakes, and while some felt like the board exam others did not. So it was a mixed bag with BtB.
Multi-Media Options:
winner: Beat the Boards = A
Psychiatry Boards Prep = B
Board Vitals = B
BtB is the winner here for offering lots of lecture videos and PDFs for their customers. I saw lot and lots of videos. That's not my thing, I don't like using videos to study since they're slow and uninteresting but if it works for you then check them out. I didn't see learning videos for PBP or BV but they both have video case vignettes (Psychiatry Boards Prep are professional).
Learning Efficiency and Interactivity:
winner: Psychiatry Boards Prep = A
Board Vitals = A -
Beat the Boards = B
This is where I think Psychiatry Boards Prep really shines because it's just like UWorld where you pick how many questions you want from any category and the system generates a mock board exam based on what you pick. For example, you can pick, say, 12 schizophrenia, 10 bipolar, 13 psychotherapy, 20 neurology, 5 paraphilia, and 5 clinical vignettes and the system creates a board exam using those questions. And you can create as many exams as you want. It's pretty nifty. I was able to quickly practice weak spots, and ended up doing rather well in those sections on the board exam. BV and BtB don't have anything that comes close to this. You can pick some categories in BV but that's about it. BtB offers video lectures but it's tons of material that one might find overwhelming and slow to get through.
Clinical Vignettes Quality:
winner: Psychiatry Boards Prep = A
Board Vitals = B+
Beat the Boards = C -
I'll keep this brief. Board Vitals had pretty decent video vignettes but they seemed amateur. Topics seemed right, questions were ok, but actors and filming quality seemed lacking. They also didn't have as many videos as Psychiatry Boards Prep. PBP I'm guessing hired professional mental health actors. They were really good. Filming quality was high too. Questions presented in a sequential fashion just like on the real board exam and their questions felt like the real thing. As for Beat the Boards, I never found any video clinical vignettes. I think BtB relies on you learning using their online lectures to get through clinical vignettes. Maybe they're there but I couldn't find any.
Overall:
winner: Psychiatry Boards Prep = A
Beat the Boards = B+
Board Vitals = B
So this is just my opinion so take it with a grain of salt. After looking at all 3, I was happiest with Psychiatry Boards Prep. The questions I saw on Psychiatry Boards Prep felt like the questions I saw on my board exam. I also really appreciated the ability to pick and choose questions to create my own tests. That by far was very helpful to my passing the board exam. It allowed me to focus on my weaknesses more than the other websites. The quality of questions seemed higher on Psychiatry Boards Prep. It also comes down to learning style. If you want to watch lecture videos all day the try Beat the Boards. If you want tons and tons of random questions try Board Vitals. Maybe some people want that.
If anyone has more questions I'll try to help out!