Benefits of In-Person Attendance at the Beat The Boards! Psychiatry Certification Courses

Last updated on April 29th, 2025

Our annual live Beat The Boards! In-Person Psychiatry Review Course is coming up July 16-20, 2025. And this year we are including an in-person review course for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry as well from July 9-13, 2025.

Let me share the benefits – as I see them – of attending the course in-person.

Pros of In-Person Psychiatry Course Attendance

CRAMMING

Cramming for an exam, if that’s all you do, is not a great strategy, but it can be a key part of a greater preparation strategy. Attending the Beat The Boards! Psychiatry Board Review gives you the opportunity to review all the most important exam material in one intense and concentrated period of time – 5 days straight. During this time, exam preparation becomes your top (or only) priority. In your normal work-a-day life, you either run out of time at the end of the day to study OR you study when your mental focus is at low ebb, often at the end of a long taxing day of work.

DISCIPLINE & INTERACTION

By attending the course in-person, you get the opportunity to be among and interact with other exam-takers. This is more important than it may initially seem. It is common for exam candidates to start out strong in their studies but lose focus and motivation as time goes on. Attending the course live solves much of the problem of flagging motivation and discipline.

OVERCOMING SELF-DOUBT

Studying alone makes it easy – unfortunately – to begin questioning oneself: “Am I doing this the best way?” “How does my knowledge compare to others?” “Am I going to pass?” “How do I know if I’ve learned enough one topic and should on to the next one?” Live course attendance can help you lay your unhelpful self-questioning and self-doubt to rest through discussion with faculty and other course attendees.

FORMING STUDY / SUPPORT GROUPS

You get the opportunity to develop a support system of ‘study buddies’ which you can maintain over the time to your exam. Many learners do best in study groups because they can gain a sense of accountability, share tips, divvy up work, and maintain a sense of emotional equilibrium, etc.

Having laid out the benefits of in-person attendance, I need to add that not every person preparing for their board exam needs to attend a live course. Much depends on your learning style. Some learners are able to maintain discipline on their own and like to study on their own. Others greatly benefit from the built-in discipline of attending an intense course and doing so with others learners with whom they can form study groups.

IN-PERSON VS. REMOTE PSYCHIATRY CERTIFICATION COURSE OPTIONS

I do NOT think that either option (the online only option vs the option of adding in-person attendance) is superior to the other. It is an individual choice based on the factors I wrote about above plus, I’m sure, there are additional ones unique to you.

Check out the Beat The Boards! Psychiatry Certification, Continuing Certification Course, and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry pages to read more and choose either the online course version alone or with added live course attendance.

Whatever you decide, I wish you the best on your psychiatry boards.

Yours in Learning,

Jack Krasuski, MD, Founder American Physician Institute