Boards

My husband has been studying for the boards coming up this summer and asked me what my plan was. I guess I thought I would stay at home while he studied (I never have been a great plan-maker), but he mentioned that some of the wives of his friends at school were planning trips home during some of the more intense study times. Though I don't know the joys of residency or rounds yet, there have been some exam weeks that seemed to be a hint of what is to come. He would get up well before I did and come home after I had fallen asleep. We would talk a bit on the phone when he had a break, and maybe once a week we would have dinner together. So what did you all do during the boards? I know I can get a bit tired of always making dinner for myself and always picking up after an absentee husband, but at the same time, if I left for a week I'm not sure he would remember to eat, take showers, or sleep!

Shella

[Auspicious]

I'm not planning to go anywhere. We'll probably do what we normally do--when he's home I'll keep the TV on mute (I've gotten very good at reading the close-captioning ), and he'll study in the bedroom. Most of his studying, though, he does away from home anyway.

I'm looking forward to the end of the classroom years.

[SuzySunshine]

My husband took his boards one week before our wedding so we didn't live together and I went ahead and went home to deal with last minute wedding plans. Before we were married we lived about 3 blocks apart and saw each other almost every night except for the month before boards. During that time it was probably every other night, but put himself on a regimented schedule. He would make sure to be at the library or with his study group by 8 or 9 and would come home around 5, then relax in the evening - the last week he studied more but he didn't want to burn himself out either. Good luck!

lol Julie-I do the same thing, watch the tv on mute so the closed caption comes on! Its just like subtitles on a movie, you forget you are even reading after a while. I probably won't leave, it seems like it will be a pretty important time and I'd like to think that my presence will be more of a help than a hindrance.

I'm looking forward to the end of the classroom years as well. From what I hear I'll probably see less of my husband, but I also hear that its so much more interesting for them to finally be in the hospital. Has your cohabitant boyfriend decided on a speciality yet? My husband goes back and forth between a few quite a bit. It will be interesting to see how the rounds will effect that.

Shella

[Michele]

How are your husbands studying for the boards? Russ is debating taking a Kaplan class or just buying the books...and possibly buying last years or the year before's books off someone to save money.

My husband had said a few times that the two things that he uses most are
1. Kaplan books and QBank, which is a huge quantity of online tests available for a fee, of course. He takes one or two a day, they are usually short 30 minute things that give a lot of information (how many times did you change a correct answer to an incorrect answer...)

2. Another book called First Aid for the USMLE, or something similar. He has it with him everywhere he goes. He has an older version from another student and is planning on buying the newest edition when it comes out. I don't know if it has year specific info or what that would make the newest one better.

Other than that, he also uses a MASSIVE quantity of Gold Standard Board review CDs. They are pretty expensive if you are going to buy the set yourself, but there have to be 50 or more CDs so he went in on it with other students. They just switch off, its not like you can listen to more than one anyway. He likes them for his commute to school since its about 40 minutes or so. Its actually pretty impressive how well it works, when we are in the car its just running in the backround and I'm surprised how much I've picked up. I know more about embryology and derm layers than I ever thought I would!

Do you mean buying last year's Kaplan books? I think my husband considered that too, but couldn't find any without writing in them. Since there are actual tests in the book, he didn't want one with the answers already filled in.

Thats about all I know about. Hope it helps and good luck!

[Auspicious]

Has your cohabitant boyfriend decided on a speciality yet? My husband goes back and forth between a few quite a bit. It will be interesting to see how the rounds will effect that.

He's gotten some ideas, but definitely has not decided. Someone on here (Nellie, I think?) said that often the spouse will be able to predict the specialty before the doctor-to-be themselves. With that in mind, I'll go on record with my early prediciton of Pathology--not the dead-people kind, but the other kind. He rocked his pathology block (there were even two days where the instructor couldn't stay so she asked him to take over the class, and his classmates said he explained things way better than she did), he had a reasonably auspicious start to a microbiology reasearch career before he left it for medicine, and so far it's definitely the thing that most makes him "light up." There's lots he hasn't been exposed to yet, though, so we'll see. I'm glad to finally see the "light up" thing, though, because his first year was rough, and there was painfully little lighting up going on.

I know he's planning to take the Kaplan course for Step 1, because he was very pleased with their MCAT course. I think he also has the First Aid books, but I'm not sure.

[peggyfromwastate]

I'm really interested to read how everyone is preparing for their mates' boards! (If the punctuation makes you cringe in the preceeding sentence, I apologize but have no idea how to fix it )

Anyway, since DH is a M1 and I'm an obsessive compulsive person, I have already made a plan to take the kids away next summer before he takes the boards, then he can meet up with us or whatever. With my husband, if we are home he'll come home at 5:30 and get very little studying in during the night (max of 2 hours). I think that with the USMLE, he'll be more stressed and feel guilty if he needs to study through dinner or something like that. Therefore, for him I think we need to be separated!

At USUHS they give them about 3 weeks before the boards to just study. Is that enough? Do they need to start studying even earlier, or will 3 weeks of very intense study do the trick?

[migirl]

At USUHS they give them about 3 weeks before the boards to just study. Is that enough? Do they need to start studying even earlier, or will 3 weeks of very intense study do the trick?

My husband and brother both took about four weeks and I think it was enough time since they both scored very well. They both stuck to very regimented, intensive study schedules, so I think if they had to study any longer than that they would have burned out. I think your plan to leave him alone during his board study time is a good idea. I was living in Michigan (and busy tending to last-minute wedding details!) while DH was studying in DC, and I think it made it easier for him to concentrate and focus on studying since I wasn't there to 'distract' him. It sounds as if he didn't do much other than sleep, eat, and study anyway, so I would probably have been bored.

DH didn't take a course but used the First Aid for the Boards study books. He also did a lot of practice exams to get in the mindset and know what to expect of the exam (he thought this was the most helpful part of the Kaplan MCAT course). I think he studied for about 4-6 weeks and no more than 8 hours a day. There gets to be a point where additional study hours just don't help. Sometimes they need a little reminding of that.
This method worked quite well for him.

[/quote]often the spouse will be able to predict the specialty before the doctor-to-be themselves[quote]

Thats interesting. I think he will do optho. I'm really not sure why, just a feeling. His main criteria for speciality is time spent with family (thank goodness surgery is out!). I've read a bit on optho and it seems like you have good hours, light call, and good patient interaction, another important thing to my husband. You also are making a huge difference in peoples' lives, enabling them to see or see better. But who knows. He really enjoyed neuro and thought about that, earlier this year it was emergency med, and as a premed he wanted to do path. He shadowed a few pathologists as an M1 and found the work fascinating but he needed more patient interaction. He's really a people person. Wow, thats wonderful that he enjoys it so much and knows it so well. From what I've heard its the most difficult class of the M2 year.

Guess I don't know how to quote yet I'll figure it out eventually

At USUHS they give them about 3 weeks before the boards to just study. Is that enough? Do they need to start studying even earlier, or will 3 weeks of very intense study do the trick?

In my husband's opinion, that is not anywhere near enough time. He started very light studying last summer 8O . Don't get me wrong, it was nothing structured, mainly getting organized, and only a few hours a week. This year he has started more serious studying during breaks like Thanksgiving and Christmas, and he always does at least one QBank test every day. I think its because he is so goal oriented. He's struggled at times because he couldn't see a specific goal that wasn't a grade. Right now the specific goal is a good boards score. I always think he is going to burn out, but he is by far the most diciplined person I have ever met. I think sometimes he may just be crazy. In any case, I'm sure a bit of craziness helps.

[peggyfromwastate]

I told my husband about how early some were studying for the boards, and he was genuinely surprised! I think that he'll start somewhat this summer, since he has about 6 weeks without school classes, although there are some other military obligations that will take up about 4 weeks of his time. Anyway, besides that the 2nd year is supposed to be pretty tough, and so he'll probably look at it a little but not focus on it until about a month before the exam. I think he'll do ok with this plan. He's not a type "A" personality, at least not as much as most med students are. He can accept it pretty well if he doesn't get in the 99th percentile on the USMLE! Anyway, I appreciate reading what the good study aids are! I pass this info on to him! His MS-2 sponsor hasn't told him anything about studying for the boards, so we suspect that he hasn't begun yet!

[mommax3]

Just a note.....it has been a while since my husband took the boards you are referring to, but we had our first baby in April of second year, and you can imagine that our world was pretty much turned upside down for a while! He took advantage of the three weeks he had after classes ended, and did most of his studying then and he did fine......actually, he did very well. I remember that he got some review books for Christmas from his parents and he looked at them throughout the semester. He was very regimented about studying during med school....I can still remember his schedule: every evening until 9 (at home) and every Saturday from 8 to 12 at the library; longer if he had tests coming up. He rarely studied on Sundays. It really paid off for him during those years......he even felt better prepared for tests/pimping during residency (when he barely had time to eat, let alone read/study) because of the time he put in during med school.

I am just glad that my husband never has to take another set of Boards!

Good luck!

Sally

I think it depends on studying style, comfort with standardized tests, personality, etc....but DH really did fine with about 4 weeks of serious study before the boards. Much more than that and I am sure he would have burned out on it. He did take the time he was studying very seriously, though, and stuck to the schedule that he drafted. He had similar study hours/schedule to what Sally mentioned.
He also said that he used the thought of Boards coming up as incentive to really understand learn and retain, rather than temporarily memorize, class materials. Maybe that helped too!