My path to board qualification began when I started my third year of residency. Up to that point, I was doing a bit of self-study, as well as viewing lectures in Present Courseware.

Lets face it, once we graduate from podiatry school, cram sessions, all-nighters, and 4 – 5 hour periods of intense studying end forever. We become academically flabby !

Coffee becomes a breakfast beverage, not a study aid. It’s not easy to motivate yourself, though the fear of failing the Board Qualification exam is very real. For this reason, I recommend beginning this process now, if you haven’t already done so. Many of my fellow graduating residents believed that they could sit for the Board Eligibility Examination armed only with what they absorbed during their training. Others thought they could fork over a hefty fee to a live Board Review Course and the information would be magically absorbed during a grueling 3 day program. That is, unfortunately, not the case. This is the LARGEST test on the LARGEST body of knowledge that you have ever taken.

YOU MUST TAKE THE TIME TO STUDY SLOWLY AND DELIBERATELY OVER A PERIOD OF AT LEAST THREE MONTHS. 

This year, you can take the exam from Monday, March 14, 2005 through Thursday, March 31, 2005 at regional exam centers.

YOU CAN’T CRAM...IT’S JUST TOO MUCH MATERIAL

ABPS puts out their document 420 Board Qualified and Certification Examinations Study Guide which you can download here.  It lists as "Suggested Reading" 110 TEXTBOOKS, including a number that are OUT OF PRINT !  Who can read TEXTBOOKS to prepare for an exam on so large a body of knowledge ?  Do take the sample tests (110 questions) and review the answers.  This is the type of review that you need to do a lot of.

YOU MUST PREPARE PROPERLY, OR YOU WILL BE MAKING ANOTHER TRIP TO THE REGIONAL TESTING CENTER

Taking this test is expensive and time consuming. Considering the time that you must be away from home, the air fare, the hotel and meals, you will see that getting Board Qualified is an expensive undertaking. The last thing you want to do is go through the time and expense involved, only to have to repeat it the following year.

I went to a live review course. The lectures were very intense and non-stop for 10-12 hours each day. What I found was that there was too much information. I couldn’t absorb most of it, so it was wasted time.

It was like cramming all four years of medical school into 3 days worth of lectures. A lot of the information was also irrelevant to the exam. I was looking for more pearls, outlines and more direction for my studying and found myself overwhelmed with the volume of information that was presented to us. It was like reading those text books !  Looking out at those in attendance, I saw most faces either baffled, scared or asleep.

The handout material and study guide were only marginally better than the course. However, the CD-ROM that was included in the deal, called Boards By the Numbers, was a good academic resource. It contained outlined study material, as well as simulated practice exams. I even found that some of the questions in the exam simulations appeared on the actual exam.

I fully believe that the way to prepare for the exam is through effective self-study using the best multimedia resources available to us. I needed relevant facts and information, good summaries of the key topic areas, not a repeat of medical school. The live courses are not bad…they just are not an effective use of your time.

There are a number of resources on the market today that can help you to prepare for the exam and the exam process without having to incur thousands of dollars in expenses. I understand that Present Courseware’s board review product, PRESENT for Board Review, now INCLUDES the current copy of Boards By the Numbers. This is a great comprehensive package that you can purchase for a fraction of the cost of a live program. I wish it were available when I took the exam.  I’d encourage you to look into it. 

Be selective! Travel, hotels, food, cost of the seminar, and time away from home can be very costly. Study effectively and you will do fine. Good luck !