One of the most common questions we receive at Beat The Boards! is: “How many hours should I devote to preparing for my board exam?”
On the one hand, I have a firm answer: 200 hours for a specialty exam and 150 for a subspecialty exam.
On the other hand, I have no answer at all. Vast differences in study time and effort exist among individual learners and for different exams. Instead, I have a way for you to arrive… Click to Read More
How to Study for Your ABPN Board Exam: Prioritize “the Big and the Bad” for Smarter Board Prep
No matter how much time you have remaining to prepare for your ABPN board exam, you must still prioritize certain exam topics over others. This is true because even if you go through ALL the material once or even twice during your board exam prep, there will always remain topics that you’ll perform worse on during your practice tests.
How do you know which topics you’re weaker on as you’re progressing through your studies? If you took the exam previously… Click to Read More
ABPN® Exam: What’s in Scope and Out of Scope on the Psychiatry Board Exams?
As part of our ongoing quality assurance, I’ve been reviewing and addressing comments left by learners regarding specific multiple-choice questions that make up our ABPN® exam psychiatry 2300+ question QBank. (Our QBank allows each learner to comment on any and all QBank questions.)
One of the most common comments I’m encountering is one that questions whether the topic of the QBank question is in the scope of the exam, meaning whether it is a learning point that is tested on… Click to Read More
Neurology Topics on the ABPN Psychiatry Board Exam
Prepping for an ABPN Psychiatry Board Exam? Get a comprehensive Psychiatry Board Review Course from Beat the Boards! to get your board prep on track.
There are two questions I get asked related to neurology disorders on the ABPN psychiatry board exam:
Are the neurocognitive disorders included in the neurological disorders category?
What should I study when studying the neurological disorders on my psychiatry exam?
Neurocognitive Vs. Neurological Disorders On ABPN Psychiatry Exam
First clarification: the neurocognitive disorders topic on… Click to Read More
Should I Take a Combined ABPN Board Exam?
If you’re reading this, it probably means you’re double or triple boarded and you’re struggling to decide whether to take a combined ABPN board exam or, instead, take the two or three individual exams in the specialty areas in which you’re seeking to maintain your board certification.
I cannot decide for you, but I can lay out the pros and cons so you can make a more informed decision.
Important Information About ABPN Combined Continuous Certification Exams
Note, first, that… Click to Read More
How to Pace Yourself on ABPN Board Exams with Linked Vignettes
Question: “Dr. Jack, how do you recommend pacing ourselves during the clinical vignette sections of the ABPN board exam? You mentioned aiming for 70 seconds a question but how would that work if there is a long vignette question stem or a 2-3-minute-long video?”
This is a great question and I’ll answer it here (and then move on to address a larger question): Not every medical board exam question takes the same amount of time to answer. The pace at… Click to Read More






