Customer Reviews

Passing Strategies: A Helpful Guide for the Psychiatry Oral Exam

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This book will not give "everything" you need to know to pass the ABPN Part II exam (aka Oral Boards), but it will give you an excellent framework on how to organize your studies for the exam. I used this book during my studies for the exam and I passed on the first try.
What I found most helpful was:
1) Rayel gives a list of the most common dignoses encountered during the exam. I studied until I knew these inside and out.
2) The book has excellent outlines for presenting the "live patient", with helpful vignettes.
3) At the end of the book is a list of commonly asked questions which were helpful to gauge the actual questions.
The only drawback to this book is it doesn't describe the new vignettes which are now included in addition to the videotaped patient. However, since these vignettes are brand-new (as of May 2006), it isn't a fair criticism. I would expect the vignettes to be covered in later editions.

This is a decent book but I wouldn't spend the money on it again; the information is also covered in "Boarding Time" in an easier to read format. There's nothing incredibly helpful in it, it's just another point of view about how to approach the boards. I passed, but I can't point to any particular helpful information in this book that contributed to my result. If you are studying with friends, buy one copy and pass it around.