Today, I present an email I received from one of our Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Oral Board Exam Prep Course Participants. Since there is so much detail, it is presented anonymously.
Encouraging News About Exam Mistakes
December 11th,2009
One of my constant messages to Psychiatry Oral Board candidates is not to give up even if you make a mistake. The danger is that a mistake that could have been discounted by the examiner becomes a catostrophic event in the candidate’s mind, leading to a complete performance meltdown – a self fulfilling disaster. Here’s a message from a psychiatrist who made mistakes on his Psychiatry Part 2 Exam and still passed.
Treatment Plan – Wrong Way & Right Way
December 10th,2009
Let’s start with the wrong way. The following is an efficient way of making your treatment plan weak, generic, and not optimized to help the patient. Drum roll, please ….
The Doughnut Interview
November 14th,2009
One type of interview error I run across among both adult and child adolescent psychiatrists preparing for their oral boards is what I call the ‘doughnut interview.”
Biggest Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Exam Weakness
November 2nd,2009
After we held our CAP Part 2 Prep Course in October 2009, I received feedback from our course faculty regarding the biggest weakness that they observed in candidates at the course. Now, I asked them to focus on the biggest weakness not because I like to highlight our frailties, but because the biggest weakness should become the biggest preparation focus.
Increased Suicide Risk from Antiepileptic Drugs
October 2nd,2009
Beginning in 2008, the FDA began notifying clinicians of the potential of antiepileptic drugs to increase suicide risk and earlier in 2009 issued a public health advisory notifying the public of this increased risk. Also, the FDA is mandating that manufacturers of antiepileptic drugs change the labeling of their meds, adding this risk to the Warnings section of the drug insert.
Informed Consent for the Boards
October 1st,2009
The concept of Informed Consent comes up on board exams in many specialties, including psychiatry and neurology ones.
The Underutilized Anti-Depressant “Wonder Drug”
September 18th,2009
Today’s post is about an antidepressant augmenter that can lead to incredibly powerful responses and yet, that is NEVER used by a majority of psychiatrists. What drug am I referring to? It is T3 or triiodothyronine.
Another Case of a Sleeping Psychiatry Oral Board Examiner!
September 17th,2009
Today, I received this message.
“Jack, I want to ask you about your thoughts regarding “A Sleeping Examiner”.
Why Stopping Even 10s Early On Your Oral Boards Leads To Failure
September 14th,2009
I just returned from our Kansas City Psychiatry Oral Board Course. I saw some truly awesome performances. One doctor I mock-examined, however, made a slight but hugely costly error. He stopped his interview 10 seconds early!
It cost him the exam!
Why? Let me explain.
