Board Certification in Psychiatry

Here are the resources I used for the board certification process:

Written

1. Massachusetts General Hospital Psychiatry Update & Board Preparation 2nd Edition by Theodore A. Stern and John B. Herman

2. Clinical Neurology for Psychiatrists 6th Edition by David M. Kauffman

3. Focus Psychiatry Review: 400 Self Assessment Questions by Deborah J. Hales and Mark H. Rapaport

4. Psychiatry Test Preparation and Review Manual by John C. Spiegel and John M. Kenny

5. Psychiatry for the Boards by William W. Wang and Wen-Hui Cai

6. Psychiatry: 1200 Questions to Help You Pass the Boards by Maju Mathews, Kumar Budur, Biju Basil and Manu Mathews

Oral

1. Clinical Study Guide for the Oral Boards in Psychiatry by Nathan R. Strahl

2. Boarding Time 4th Edition, The Psychiatry Candidate's New Guide to Part II of the ABPN Examination by James Morrison and
Rodrigo A. Munoz

3. "The Ultimate" Psychiatry Oral Board Preparation: Preparatory Manual of Style, 2nd Edition by John C. Spiegel

4. Passing Strategies: A Helpful Guide for the Psychiatry Oral Exam by Michael G. Rayel

5. Cases Files Psychiatry, Third Edition by Eugene C. Toy and Debra Klamen (this book is intended for third year medical students,
but I found it helpful reading through the case vignettes and the case discussions)

6. The Biopsycosocial Formulation Manual, A guide for Mental Health Professionals by William H. Campbell and Robert M. Rohrbaugh

7. The Beat the Boards! Psychiatry Oral Manual by Jack Krasuski (I found the following sections helpful: Oral Board Case Presentation, from pages 123-176; Vignettes Section, to understand the format, from pages 195-233; Review of Psychiatric Clinical Management, from pages 237-257; The section on the Review of the Psychotherapies was the most helpful for me, from 259-312)

8. Dr. Jack's MedQuik Guide, A Psychotropic Medication Guide for Board Exam Preparation by Jack Krasuski

9. Beat the Boards! Live Course: I felt that the overall course was impersonal, and did not offer much additional content beyond the written manual. But the most beneficial aspect of Dr. Krasuski's course is that each person gets a live patient interview and a live set of four vignettes which are graded by an examiner, with complete feedback afterwards. I took the course five months before my actually oral boards, and I found the critique from my performances most helpful in my exam preparation. These were the only practice exams I was able to schedule during my preparation, and from this perspective, the live exams made the price of the course worthwhile for me. Watching others during their live interviews and vignettes and listening to their examiners' critiques was also helpful for me to observe.

The list of resources I used for each exam is definitely overkill when I look back at the whole experience. I intentionally overprepared for my own piece of mind. Nothing surprised me when I took the written and oral psychiatry board exams.

I passed the written exam easily on my first try. The written exam is a much more objective exam than the PRITE exams. I did embarrassingly poor on my first PRITE exam as an intern, but significantly improved with each year thereafter. I would put some stock in the PGY-4 PRITE score with regards to which areas of weakness to address.

The oral exam vignettes are pretty straightforward. I had a challenging patient for my live interview, and I was sure I had failed because I had forgotten simple things I otherwise do routinely, secondary to my anxiety. But I was fortunate and relieved to have passed the oral boards on my first try. Thirty minutes to interview a patient, and then another thirty minutes to perform a case presentation, mental status exam, formulation, differential diagnosis and treatment plan, while allowing enough time to answer the examiners' questions is a challenging task given the time constraints. A candidate's anxiety and failure to perform an adequate safety assessment are probably the two main reasons people fail this exam. My advice would be to try to get at least a few mock oral exams (i.e. supervised patient interviews, followed by you presenting the case and answering questions from a colleague or mentor, and then obtaining their constructive feedback; it is preferable to seek such assistance from a psychiatrist who has recently gone through the board certification process) under your belt prior to your oral board exam.

Best of luck to everyone going through this stressful process!

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Board Certification in Psychiatry