Transcription:
Study Tips for Neonatal Board Review

Dr. Julie Weiner: Hello everyone. And welcome back. On today's episode of Neonatal Review, Isolette to Crib, I thought it would be helpful to discuss a few tips and tricks of the trade regarding studying for boards. I'm Dr. Julie Weiner, one of the Neonatologists and the current Medical Director here in the NICU at Children's Mercy Hospital. Thanks for tuning in. So, I know there's a lot on your plate, but hopefully these tricks and tips will be helpful. So, we're going to cover setting goals, getting started, resources, managing your time and accountability. So, let's get started. One of the first things you want to do when getting started, is set goals.

So, you want to make sure you have a timeline. So, one of the first things you want to do is make sure that you're setting and writing down goals and a timeline. If you're starting and you have long-term goals. So, usually greater than a year prior to boards, there's short-term goals, which are about three to six months before boards. And then, ultra short term goals. So, one month to one day before you take boards. So, keeping that in mind and where you are when you're preparing, kind of helps set the tone for the goals and the timeline that you're creating for yourself. So, first step is to get organized. Make an electronic folder of board stuff.

This is where you want to dump all the things that you may find helpful for getting ready to take the boards. I think one of the first steps is identifying your current strengths and areas for improvement. One way to do this is to download and review the Neonatal Perinatal Medicine Content Specifications for the boards. It's located at www.ABPAmericanboardsofpediatrics.org. and you just download the content specifications for the Neonatal Perinatal Medicine Boards. This is really a blueprint for the exam. You want to read through it. You want to highlight the content categories, the ones that you feel really strong with and the ones you maybe need to spend a little bit more attention or felt more weak in.

The content specifications will give different categories and what percent they represent on the test. Respiratory is the highest. This represents 12% of the exam. Other areas that are also high are your cardiovascular, nutrition, genetics. So, as you go through the content specification, it's just a general rule of the aspects that will be on the exam. Really, ideally you're starting this at the start of your Fellowship and that will also just help identify areas and help you organize what's going to be on your boards. And then again, review this about one year to six months before you take boards. Now, this is where you really want to get serious.

So, write down what you feel strong in. If you've had more exposure to neonatal respiratory and you feel really strong, but maybe not cardiology, this is where you kind of want to make note of that. Another way to help assess areas that you're strong in versus maybe a little bit more weak is to take a pretest. If you're attending an in-person or online review course, yes, I know most are all online now in the current era of 2020 and COVID, but if you ever do get to attend also in person, they usually provide a pretest. Or you could also create your own pre-test from different question banks, such as NeoReviewsPlus.

Now kind of an insider tip on when you're taking or you're answering questions, you want to make sure you read the question completely. Read all the choices. And then if you do not know the answer right away, do the elimination. Cross off the ones that you know are not, and kind of narrow it down. If you're still not sure, don't waste time, pick the best choice, mark it and move on and then come back later if there's time.

But as you kind of assess, where are your strengths and weakness, this really kind of helps set the timeline and the goals as you move forward. So, as you're also getting started, you want to make sure you've identified what resources that you're going to use, and I would choose multiple different types. Make it a little bit more exciting. Spice up how you're going to study for boards. You want to make sure you pick at least one textbook, that is going to provide you with a little bit more detail in how to study for boards. So in neonatology, there's really three main textbooks that you could choose from.

So you have Avery's Diseases of the Newborn. You have Neonatal Perinatal Medicine, and then Avery's Neonatology. There's maybe slight variations and some pathophysiology is covered better in one text versus the other. Or there may be certain other texts that can be helpful such as Neurology of the Newborn or specific cardiac books. But for the main portion of studying, choosing one of the three textbooks is really going to cover the majority of the things that you, you're going to encounter for the boards. So pick one, decide on a system to review each month, take brief notes, whether that's a composition notebook or a spiral notebook, have something that you can use for note-taking.

You also want to choose a book for pictures. So, whether it's Smiths Recognizable Patterns of Human Malformation, or Atlas of Pediatric Physical Diagnosis. But there will be pictures on the boards. You also then want to choose one of the board review books. So, this is going to give you a great overview, quick hits, quick topics, but if you need more detail, that's where that textbook is going to come in to play.

So, the board review books, some of the main ones are Neonatology Review, Neonatology Review Question and Answer by Brodsky and Martin. There's also an Avery's Neonatology Review. Also attending a board review course, one to two years before you take the exam, they usually provide you with detailed notes that are useful also for studying for the boards.

There's usually Pediatrics or NeoPrep. They are slightly different times of the year in different locations. They also have the options of having the online version of the board review courses. Now, also there are other online or digital resources that can help you prepare for boards. Such as NeoPrep or NeoReviewPlus, and then other things as far as podcasts, recorded lectures.

And I would really add things that you feel weak in to help build that area. So, the next thing you kind of want to plan out is really utilizing your time and really break it down to when you have long study periods, short study periods and really like kind of very short study periods. So, long study periods are where you have a day or half a day that you're going to commit to reviewing board topics.

You want to pick a place free of distractions, at home or work or some other alternative place, make sure to take kind of short breaks. So, I like to do 50 minutes of study, with five to 10 minute breaks. Studies have shown, just trying to push through really, you need that downtime or those breaks built into your long study periods.

Now your short study periods and ultra short study periods are really meant to review quick notes, flashcards. You want to make sure you always have something with you for when you have unexpected downtime. So, especially as you're transitioning out of fellowship into an attending or that first job, you're going to find unexpected downtime as you're waiting for a delivery or labs to come back.

Those are the times to review those notes, review of recent topics that you've studied, answer question banks and really maximizing your downtime. Like I said, always have something with you. If you have a long commute, listening to podcasts or recorded lecture, things like that are really just going to help solidify the things you need to know for boards.

Another thing that you really need to think about is accountability. So, having a study partner is a great way to have this accountability. Another way is creating a calendar, but give yourself a little bit of slack. So, if you're making a calendar, you want to build in make-up time, there are always things that come into play or happen that when you thought you were going to be able to dedicate some time to study and that may change.

So, you definitely want to build in makeup time. Also finding a mentor, somebody that can help give you tips or guidance on preparing for boards. So, really once you are able to do all these things, you have your timeline, you have your accountability partner and what tools you're going to use; the next step is really just diving in and preparing for the boards.

So, give yourself plenty of time. Be prepared. The night before, day before, really, take that time to rest so that you're on your A game when you show up for the boards the next day. So, thank you for joining and listening. I really hope these tips and tricks will help you. This is Neonatology Review, Isolette to Crib and again, I'm Dr. Julie Weiner. Thank you for listening and good luck with your boards.