Customer Reviews

Lewis's Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Review: 1400 Questions to Help You Pass the Boards

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As a fellowship-trained child psychiatrist about to take Part 1 of the child psychiatry boards, I was really hoping that this would be a helpful resource, but after completing the 1400 questions about five minutes ago, I was moved to go Amazon (where I purchased it) and write this review. Having taken multiple PRITE exams and scored above the mean, I must say that this review book is filled with questions that are unlikely to ever be asked on the boards. For example, Page 121: "For a pediatric residency program to be accredited, it must have how many months of child and adolescent psychiatry exposure?" Huh? Are we studying to join the ACGME board of directors? There are many more totally random questions of little clinical significance. This was clearly written as a review for the contents of the Lewis textbook--NOT as a board review book (despite the disingenous subtitle: "1400 Questions to Help You Pass Your Boards.") When I did the tests, I actually marked up the book with pen, and I was disheartened that I would not be able to resell it on Amazon at a good price. Now, I realize that I would not want to torment another board preparer with this text, and will therefore dump it in the recyclable bin.

This book contains 7 tests of 200 questions each. The questions are in standard A-D & A-E format, along with some additional T-F questions. Besides a foreword and introduction, there are many questions. (The editorial description states that two chapters are about test-taking strategies and tips, but these are not included here--there are no chapters, just tests.) The answer key provides the correct answer, an explanation for many of the answers, and a page reference to the parent textbook from which the questions are derived (helpful for those instances where you really don't know why you got an answer wrong); however, this book stands on its own. I was motivated to write a review to clarify what this book offers. The questions are geared to review it seems, covering a wider range than the boards, and harder than the boards. I do think this book offers what it purports to offer, hence the 5 star rating.