Studying for Boards

[Mr. Osh Kosh]

I'm a rising PGY4 looking for advice on board prep. I've only been doing so so on SAE (like around 33rd percentile both years) and haven't done any formal studying apart from occasionally reading pertinent stuff before work and doing practice questions prior to SAE. In all honesty I have yet to read the bulk of cucurrullo yet. Can anyone give me advice on what worked best for them in the context of my situation? My tentative plan was to just start reading a few pages of cucurrullo daily and then start doing questions closer to boards. Thoughts?

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[runfastnow]

Get the AAPMR QBank (I did once through early PGY4 then once more closer to testing time), PM&R Q&A book/app, and read the Cucc book 2-3 times. If you are still PGY3 it wouldn't be a bad idea to read the high yield chapters of Braddom or De Lisa now (SCI, TBI, etc. - look at ABPMR break down of questions).

If you are doing fellowship interviews the Q&A book/app are awesome because you can just do questions while in airport/plane. They are mostly just first order/straight facts memorization type questions but you need that in order to answer any higher order questions.

 

[Piebaldi]

I'm a rising PGY4 looking for advice on board prep. I've only been doing so so on SAE (like around 33rd percentile both years) and haven't done any formal studying apart from occasionally reading pertinent stuff before work and doing practice questions prior to SAE. In all honesty I have yet to read the bulk of cucurrullo yet. Can anyone give me advice on what worked best for them in the context of my situation? My tentative plan was to just start reading a few pages of cucurrullo daily and then start doing questions closer to boards. Thoughts?

As runfastnow said, I would get the AAPM&R question bank. I did the other question bank too which I forget what it's called- not as good but helped. I would read Cuccurulo's book a few times - I read most of it several times, as, like you, I had not read during residency. I think Cuccurullo was helpful as was the AAPM&R book. I would say that SAEs are probably not likely to be very helpful. I wouldn't waste time with SAE. Given that it's already May, I would start doing a little more prep work if I were you. The exam this year is early August I believe, so realistically you have about 3months at most.

 

[Mr. Osh Kosh]

As runfastnow said, I would get the AAPM&R question bank. I did the other question bank too which I forget what it's called- not as good but helped. I would read Cuccurulo's book a few times - I read most of it several times, as, like you, I had not read during residency. I think Cuccurullo was helpful as was the AAPM&R book. I would say that SAEs are probably not likely to be very helpful. I wouldn't waste time with SAE. Given that it's already May, I would start doing a little more prep work if I were you. The exam this year is early August I believe, so realistically you have about 3months at most.

Thanks for the suggestions. Fortunately I'm still PGY3 so got plenty of time But I still feel pretty behind the ball, cucurrullo is around 1000 pages! Reading it several times doesn't sounds easy

 

[Piebaldi]

Thanks for the suggestions. Fortunately I'm still PGY3 so got plenty of time But I still feel pretty behind the ball, cucurrullo is around 1000 pages! Reading it several times doesn't sounds easy

My apologies. Yes it's not easy i agree. I didn't read it cover to cover but still pretty painful.

 

[runfastnow]

Thanks for the suggestions. Fortunately I'm still PGY3 so got plenty of time But I still feel pretty behind the ball, cucurrullo is around 1000 pages! Reading it several times doesn't sounds easy

Unfortunately there is not magic bullet or resource outside of just sitting down and putting in the work. If you put in the time to read it carefully and intently one time (I went through and highlighted/made notes) then coming back becomes more of a refresher course.

It is doable. You just have to start and dedicate the time if you want to pass and/or do well on the boards.

 

[TheGreatestTrochanter]

An FYI for those taking boards, not necessarily for your situation specifically, about correlation between SAE and Board pass rates:

Does the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Self-Assessment Examination for Residents Predict the Chances of Passing the Part 1 Board Certification Examination? - PubMed

The SAE-R scores provide some information regarding the likelihood of passing the part 1 certification examination. This study supports the SAE-R as a means of providing PMR residents with feedback regarding their level of knowledge.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Can provide a little guidance on how "worried" you should be about boards. Though it doesn't really say how much studying those that were doing well on SAEs were doing...

 

[j4pac]

The boards were hard. I honestly felt that I could have failed it after taking it, and I’ve probably only felt that way a few times in my entire life. Many friend told me the same. I did just fine. The failure rate is low. But you definitely need to take it seriously.

You need to know the high yield info cold. I’d also look at the old SAE tests and AAPMR questions because you need to prepare yourself for second order questions. PMR QBANK was good for testing basic knowledge but the questions were much more complex on the real test.

 

[runfastnow]

The boards were hard. I honestly felt that I could have failed it after taking it, and I’ve probably only felt that way a few times in my entire life. Many friend told me the same. I did just fine. The failure rate is low. But you definitely need to take it seriously.

You need to know the high yield info cold. I’d also look at the old SAE tests and AAPMR questions because you need to prepare yourself for second order questions. PMR QBANK was good for testing basic knowledge but the questions were much more complex on the real test.

Agree - the thing I found most hard on the actual test was the lack of context clues. Short question stems and you had to know the information cold as you couldn't "back into" an answer like on Step 2 or Step 3 by using question stem context clues. One key on top of the high yield stuff is to know your anatomy VERY well (brachial, plexus, brain for stroke/TBI syndromes, innervations, etc.). I found that anatomy saved me on a lot of questions.

 

[Piebaldi]

The boards were hard. I honestly felt that I could have failed it after taking it, and I’ve probably only felt that way a few times in my entire life. Many friend told me the same. I did just fine. The failure rate is low. But you definitely need to take it seriously.

You need to know the high yield info cold. I’d also look at the old SAE tests and AAPMR questions because you need to prepare yourself for second order questions. PMR QBANK was good for testing basic knowledge but the questions were much more complex on the real test.

the boards were hard - I would agree. And very random in my opinion. Some questions that I have never encountered in practice - either as. a resident or even as an attending, and that were nowhere to be found in a book.

 

[Piebaldi]

Agree - the thing I found most hard on the actual test was the lack of context clues. Short question stems and you had to know the information cold as you couldn't "back into" an answer like on Step 2 or Step 3 by using question stem context clues. One key on top of the high yield stuff is to know your anatomy VERY well (brachial, plexus, brain for stroke/TBI syndromes, innervations, etc.). I found that anatomy saved me on a lot of questions.

Interesting that you mention that. I did find that for strokes, knowing anatomy helped but overall I had very little anatomy on mine.

 

[j4pac]

the boards were hard - I would agree. And very random in my opinion. Some questions that I have never encountered in practice - either as. a resident or even as an attending, and that were nowhere to be found in a book.

I would have been wise to memorize the entire board review board. Not just the higher yield clinically relevant factoids but the entire damn thing.

And yes, there were some questions that I wouldn’t have gotten right if my residency was 20years long. I remember after about the fifth question I asked myself if I was taking the right test. Lol

 

[RangerBob]

I don’t remember much about the test, other than I also felt that I had failed after I took it.

I passed. But it’s not a good feeling to think you failed such an important test.

The best prep for boards is to study as you go in residency, studying TBI while on TBI, etc. Review Cucurullo for high yield stuff and do the practice questions. I also had the PM&R Q&A app to do during down moments while on rotations-I’d do about five questions at a time.

Board Review courses are helpful too, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say it got a little hard to focus towards the end of the day. The Mayo residents caught me dozing off during one particular post-lunch lecture. Though the fact we were still showing up for the lectures when a lot of others had stopped says something though!

 

[Sea Otter]

Anyone have opinions on the BoardVitals PM&R qbank?

 

[Piebaldi]

Anyone have opinions on the BoardVitals PM&R qbank?

I never used it nor have heard anyone else using it, so can't comment. however i would say to pick one or two resources and stick with them. having too many resources will make u go crazy and wont add much to ur studying.

 

[jonnylingo]

Prep course is helpful. I attended UW in Seattle for boards, and again for recert. Great program.