Power Through Those Distractions (Like the Pandemic!) as You Prepare for the Board Exam

Dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic while trying to manage the ordinary stressors of daily life is challenging. It’s even more challenging when you are a pathology resident who is preparing for the Board exam.

Here are a few tips from Kendall S. Brewer, MD, who passed her pathology board exam a year ago.

Start early, create a study schedule, study when you are not rushed and pick a study resource that works best for you. There are many resources geared toward individual learning styles, depending on if you are a visual learner, an auditory learner or follow another style.

“There are also several good books to study, depending on if you are a person who likes to read or use bullet points,” says Dr. Brewer. “When I was studying for the board exam, I used the ASCP Quick Compendium for Clinical Pathology. That was fabulous. There is another book by ASCP, Practical Surgical Pathology, Second Edition, that I used a lot.”

She also made flash cards and used ASCP’s Resident Question Bank (RQB). “It is a good study tool,” she notes. “It’s a bank where you won’t get 100 percent on it, and then you figure out why you got certain questions wrong.”

The upshot, she says: “Go in prepared knowing this will be a test you’ll walk out feeling awful about. You won’t get 100 percent. Go in with expectations that you’ll struggle with it, but most do fine. We are all in this together.”

To find out more about the resources that are available to residents, click here.