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Recognizing Zebras in Family Medicine Clinical Vignettes

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The medical boards present multiple-choice questions that are fair and clinically relevant with pride. Simply meaning, they are not trying to trick you. Most of the case vignettes present a patient with a common form of the condition or disease, as these common forms are the ones assessed and treated by most physicians. On the other hand, as clinicians, we should be able to recognize rare disorders. Hence, the question is, how do you figure out if the question is… READ MORE

Dark Alley’s and the Internet When Studying for Your Boards

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No, I’m not talking about the “dark web” or anything controversial. I’m talking about something that is much more subtle and potentially devastating to your board review strategies – the allure of more interesting things you will encounter while looking up answers you need. I treat looking up a fact I need while studying for the boards like going into a dark alley. I increase my alertness, look around for what I came for, grab it, and get out quick.… READ MORE

Treatment Interventions In Gastroenterology Board Exams

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Board exams assess your knowledge regarding the details of myriads of treatment interventions that are used to treat diverse medical conditions. You are expected to have a knowledge of the details of each of these specific treatment interventions, in addition to knowing the situations in which to give preference to one particular intervention over another. Therefore, it is important to know how much knowledge of the details regarding a particular treatment intervention you should have. There are certain treatment interventions… READ MORE

How Stress Can Ruin Your Board Scores

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Stress can you ruin your board scores. It sounds like a cliché but actually it is true! Stress leads to fight, flight, or freeze scenarios. When our autonomic nervous systems are out of balance, we can go into overdrive or we can freeze up completely depending upon whether the adrenergic nervous system or the parasympathetic nervous system is over-activated. Neither one of these is helpful for a good outcome in your test scores. Acute stress and chronic stress can both… READ MORE

Finding The Sweet Spot On What To Study

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It turns out, there are several different types of “sweet spots” you should know about when you are picking what to study for your board exams. Some of them have to do with the types of material that the board focuses on, and some that the board avoids. Others have to do with the timeliness of the material, both in terms out how recent it is and how relevant it is to current practice. Brand new material tends to be… READ MORE

Treatments in Specific Populations – Family Medicine

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A large percentage of questions on the board exams are based on treatment interventions, as an appropriate treatment is what a patient seeks from a physician. Three major facets of treatment are tested on board exams: Treatment algorithms Treatments for specific variants of disease and patients belonging to specific populations Details regarding particular treatment interventions This post focuses on selecting the appropriate treatment intervention based on a patient’s specific variant of the disease or the patient’s specific population. Board exams… READ MORE

Sleep and Memory Incorporation for Board Exams

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Sleep is important for a lot of reasons. One critical function of sleep is memory incorporation. This is when memories go from short-term storage into long-term incorporation. Obviously, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to study all day and then lose everything that you put in your brain because your sleep is inefficient or disrupted. Here are some things that can help your sleep to be more complete, deeper, and more effective. Number 1: Know your sleep number –… READ MORE

Recognizing Zebras In Gastroenterology Clinical Vignettes

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The board exams pride themselves on not presenting questions that may trick you. In other words, the questions are fair and clinically relevant. This means that the majority of the questions will be related to a common form of a medical disorder. After all, these are the conditions that most of the physicians spend their days assessing and treating. However, it is also important for the clinician to identify the rare disorder. Hence, the question is, how to differentiate whether… READ MORE

VIDEO: What To Do If You Fail Your Board Exam

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I’m here to talk about a difficult topic with you today.  What do you do if you fail your board exam?  Below is a transcript of the video: Well, the first thing you should do is to take some time to come to terms with what has happened.  When you first open up that envelope and you see that you failed the exam, it will hit you like a ton of bricks.  You don’t need to do anything. You… READ MORE

5 Hacks To Get Your Studying Back On Track

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It’s easy to get derailed and have your study session go into a tailspin.  When you are not having fun, every diversion can turn into a time trap. One thing you can do is invest your passion into learning new material or being totally up-to-date on your areas of interest. Here are five more hacks you can use to keep your studying in the “power zone”. Paradoxically, the best study plans involve time away from study. That’s because things that… READ MORE

Oncology Treatments in Specific Patient Populations

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There is a high percentage of questions based on treatment in medical board exams because the reason patients see physicians is to seek appropriate treatment. Three aspects of treatment are tested by specialty board exams: Details of specific treatment modalities Treatments by disease variant and in particular patient population Treatment algorithms The focus of this post is on choosing the appropriate treatment for a particular population that the patient belongs to, or the disease variant. The writers of the board… READ MORE

Recognizing Zebras in Cardiology Clinical Vignettes

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Every multiple-choice exam question is presented to you on the exam only after being vetted to be clinically relevant and fair. (Note that there are a certain percentage – maybe 10-15% – of MCQs included in exams that are under assessment and not counted in results until they pass muster. This does lead exam candidates to sometimes scratch their heads when reading poorly written questions. These questions will likely be revised or retired.) Simply put, the boards are not trying… READ MORE

Treatment Interventions In General Surgery Board Exams

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The knowledge of the test-taker regarding the details of numerous treatment interventions gets tested on the board exams. It is important to know the situations in which to select a specific treatment intervention. In addition to this, you should also have knowledge of the details of particular treatment interventions. Therefore, the question is: “how much knowledge should one have regarding the details of various treatment interventions for the purposes of board exams?” There are certain treatment interventions that are delivered… READ MORE

Decrease Study Time…Increase Impact

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Whether preparing for an exam related to maintenance of certification, a primary exam of certification, or some other type of important exam, you undoubtedly have many reading materials at your disposal. In these scenarios, our effort is likely devoted to reading and re-reading material again and again. Unfortunately, though, scientific literature actually indicates that this sort of process of learning is not optimal, and may actually take a fair bit more time than a much simpler process—trying to recall the… READ MORE

Sleep and Board Exams

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I’m about to tell you something so obvious you may want to throw something at me. Despite the apparent obviousness, many exam candidates still will make the mistake I’m about to describe and do so for entirely understandable reasons. Let me explain. On the day (or several days) prior to your exam, your anxiety level likely will increase. You may realize you are not as prepared as you would like to be and regret not devoting more time to preparing.… READ MORE

VIDEO: 5 Tips to Minimize Procrastinating on Your Board Exam Studies

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 Welcome.  It’s Dr. Jack and I have 5 tips for you on how to minimize procrastination when it comes to studying for your board exam. Tip 1: De-Emotionalize the Job You Have to Do My first tip is based on a thought experiment.  I’d like you to take a minute to imagine that you have a clone of yourself, and your clone is identical to you.  They have the same bright smile and winning personality that you do.  There… READ MORE

Using Rational Statistics to Improve “Educated Guessing”

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So, you’ve spent the hours reviewing all of the important details for your exam. You’ve done your best to target the weak areas, spending extra time focusing on topics that you didn’t quite master the first time through. And, perhaps most importantly, you’ve spent a considerable amount of time and effort doing practice questions and exams—all written by different authors—completed with time constraints in a variety of environments. By all measures, you are ready for this exam. Once in the… READ MORE

Recognizing Zebras in General Surgery Clinical Vignettes

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Medical exam boards take pride in clinically relevant and fair multiple choice questions. This simply means the board is not trying to trick you. Most of the case vignettes describe a patient that has a common form of the disease. After all, we as physicians spend the majority of our time assessing and treating such cases. On the other hand, as clinicians, we should be able to recognize a rare condition as well. Hence, the vital question is: How do… READ MORE

I Passed My Internal Medicine Boards On The First Try By Doing This

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This blog post is written for physicians who are getting ready to take either their initial certification or recertification exam in internal medicine. I know it is a time of stress and apprehension for you as you prepare to take the test, which is why I will provide you with some practical strategies that will help you position yourself in the best possible way to pass. I have taken one certification and one recertification exam, and I used these strategies… READ MORE

Treatment Interventions on Anesthesiology Board Exams

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It is not a secret that the board exams test your knowledge regarding the details of numerous treatment interventions. Besides having the knowledge of the circumstances in which you have to choose a specific treatment intervention over another, it is also important to know the details regarding each particular intervention. Thus, the question arises “just how much detail regarding treatment interventions does the exam-taker need to know?” In every field of medicine, there are certain treatment interventions that are administered… READ MORE

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