Ever since starting here, I knew I’d have to take board exams someday, but they always seemed so far away.
Long story short, time flew and I took my first round last Friday. It was Part I, which consists of six exams covering the major basic sciences content we studied the previous five trimesters. The specific subjects were microbiology, general anatomy, spinal anatomy, physiology, biochemistry and pathology. As you may assume, this required quite a bit of preparation.
One part of the preparation process was attending the Irene Gold Board review sessions on the weekends. They are not mandatory, however I would recommend a board review course for everyone. This was a set of sessions that generally ran from Friday evening through Sunday afternoon on three alternating weekends leading up to the exam. Each attendee received a review book for the lecture-style classes. It helped to follow along in the book as the material was presented to us. The other part of studying was on my own. I spent most of my trimester break with my nose in the review book.
No, I didn’t have as much fun as my friends who were posting pictures of themselves on beaches while on break, but it was worth it because I felt pretty good coming out of the exams. I’ll have to wait and see at the end of October if my feelings were right. In the end, I’m glad I studied so much anyway because it seems to help in my regular courses anyway!
