A Pediatric Board Study Schedule with Step-By-Step Instructions

Why You DO Need A Study Schedule for the Pediatric Boards

Introduction

Developing an effective Pediatric Board Study Schedule is crucial for success in the pediatric boards. In this article, we'll outline a comprehensive strategy tailored to your needs, whether you're juggling a busy practice or an unpredictable fellowship schedule.

I often get asked questions along the lines of…

“Can you give me a general pediatric board study schedule?”

“I'm in practice and very busy. Can you provide me with a pediatric board study plan that's going to work for me?”

“Can you provide a pediatric board study schedule for those of us with an erratic schedule because we're in fellowship?”

The answer to all of these questions is “yes.” But, when you’re preparing for your pediatric board exam, the most essential first step is to map out a dedicated amount of time for your studying based on your personal availability and the recommendations in this article. If you are a first-time test taker, and you:

Graduated from a US medical school
Have done well on prior board exams
Scored above 222 on the USMLE Step 1
Come from a residency program with a high passing rate, and
Have done well on your most recent In-Training Exam

Then you are likely at low risk for failing the pediatric boards, and this is the study plan for you! For low-risk test-takers, I recommend finding a MINIMUM of 300 hours to block out in your schedule, with plans to go through your Pediatrics Board Review material at least THREE times.

Click Here Now & Go Through the Full PBR Risk Calculator

Pediatric Board Personalized Study Schedule

Please remember, though, that a schedule is only as valuable as your DETERMINATION to follow it. In this article, I break down those 300 hours into a manageable, concrete schedule that you can use to guide your studies and PASS the pediatric boards.

Since it’s impossible for me to know exactly what your commitments are, what I’ve tried to do below is map out 14 weeks of study time based on the goal of studying approximately 300 hours.

Even if you do not agree with everything I recommend, keep reading to get some ideas that you can incorporate into your own board preparation plan. At the end of this article, I also share some pearls of wisdom to help you manage all of the study time that will be needed to pass your boards!

What If I'm at “Moderate to High Risk” of Failing the Pediatric Boards?

If the risk calculator helped you realize that you are at moderate or high risk for failing the boards, don’t worry! I've created a 16-week study schedule to help you succeed on the boards! The recommendations in the other article are tailored towards graduates who were told that they were “at risk” of failing the boards based on their in-training exam scores, and those who have already failed the boards at least once.

What Should I Review to Pass the Pediatric Boards?

In this article, we will reference PBR’s core content for the studying resources, which refers to the PBR’s Course Study Guide and PBR’s Q&A book. We strongly recommend that you review your board materials using a multimodal approach. Doing so has proven to increase learning retention. The different modalities should be congruent; they should all work well with each other to reinforce your knowledge base. This strategy has helped thousands of pediatricians pass the boards – from first-time test takers to those who have failed up to 7 times.

While these two books are what we use in this study schedule, the most common bundles that our members use are the All Access Pass and the No Brainer. The All Access Pass includes:

PBR’s Core Study Guide (Hardcopy and Online Editions)
PBR’s Question & Answer Book (Hardcopy and Online Editions)
Virtual Atlas of Pediatric Picture (Online and PDF Editions)
Audio Course (Streaming and Downloadable Editions)
Online Video Course
Live Summertime Q&A Webinars
And more…

The No Brainer includes everything in the All Access Pass, but it also includes:

PBR's Full Online Test-Taking Strategies Course
Personalized Study Schedule creation services by Team PBR (up to 3 schedules)

Click here to get the full pediatric Dermatology and pediatric Gastroenterology Chapters From THIS YEAR's Edition of the PBR. “Try Before You Buy!”

A Pediatric Board Study Schedule For First-Time Test Takers

This comprehensive pediatric board exam study plan is based on committing to an average of 23 hours of studying per week. If you follow the schedule below, you will go through the PBR materials three times, and answer over 500 practice questions. If you stick to the plan, you’ll be done in 14 weeks or LESS (based on your personal life commitments).

A successful study schedule is comprised of both learning and application. Which is why this article will focus on helping you go through the PBR materials and practice questions. I usually recommend AAP PREP ® questions. Below you’ll find a guide that breaks down how you should consider spending your time.

When you go through AAP PREP ® questions (I recommend going through about 3 years of questions), you should NEVER get bogged down with any individual question. Those questions should only be used for practice as I’ve mentioned in the article titled “How Many AAP PREP Questions Should I Do?”

Spend a maximum of 5 minutes on each question. That's 75 seconds to answer each question, and then no more than 3.5 minutes to review each answer. That comes out to about 40 hours of practicing questions. Approximately 240 hours will be spent going through PBR's “core content,” with 20 hours of buffer time to account for additional content review, additional questions, and even mock exams.

What If My Board Exam Is Less Than 8 Weeks Away?

If you have less than 8 weeks, it is still possible to use this schedule. Think of the study schedule as a guide. This outline was created based on the assumption that most people would begin studying at least 14 weeks prior to test day.

If your exam is less than 8 weeks away and you have just started your board preparation, then you will need to study approximately 37 hours per week in order to reach the 300 hours mentioned. We've helped pediatricians pass their board exams even when they waited until the last 4-6 weeks to study! But you must be committed to adjusting your personal and professional obligations in order to put the time in.

And if you need some additional help to stay on track, visit the Discord Channel and find an accountability partner! Or, reach out to Team PBR to see if we are currently offering our Personalized Study Schedule creation service.

Highlighter Study Tip for Passing the Boards

One final tip before you dig into the schedule! This is a great highlighter trick that I teach my PBR members as a focus tool. If you can master this, you will have a more efficient board preparation experience.

For each round of the material, you highlight (or underline) only the areas you are interested in reviewing again. If it feels like you know a topic well enough to recall it on the day of the exam, don’t highlight it.

First, start with your lightest color. Then, with each read through thereafter, use a slightly darker color to highlight sections that you want to review again.

Here are my suggested colors to highlight with each read:1^st Round: Pale Yellow2^nd Round: Pale Pink3^rd Round: Pale Orange

For your first pass, you may end up highlighting 80% or more of the book in yellow. By the time you start your 3rd pass, you should only have to read the areas you highlighted in pink, which could be as little as 30% of the books. In your final weeks, you can focus on just the areas that you highlighted in orange and go through that material again and again.

This will allow you to curate your studying to focus only on items you DON’T understand, as opposed to continually spending time on topics you understand well.

Now let's get started with more details on each week of this 14-week study schedule!

PEDIARTRIC BOARD STUDY SCHEDULE: WEEK #1 – WEEK #6

These first six weeks are all about getting a deep understanding of the materials. Go through PBR’s core content (the Core Study Guide and the PBR Q&A book) at a pace of 18 minutes per page. Take 6 weeks to do so and allot 120 hours in your study schedule for this (20 hours each week).

Cross-check facts, create mnemonics, and make notes in the margins so that you never have to go outside of PBR for additional knowledge or clarifications, and pay close attention to challenging areas. Aim for an average of 18 minutes per page within the two PBR books.

Break up your studying with an average of 5 AAP PREP ® questions per day as directed by PBR. Aim for 5 min per question (including the review of the answer). Over these six weeks, you should complete 210 questions. Questions will take about 3 hours of your time each week.

Listen to your audio board review course EVERYWHERE. Listen during your commutes, listen at the gym, and even listen in the shower. Save the video course for later.

PEDIATRIC BOARD STUDY SCHEDULE: WEEK #7 – WEEK #10

Since you have gone through the material in painstaking detail once, this round will be much faster! At most, you will need about 80 hours over the course of these next four weeks to go through your core content. Aim for an average of 12 minutes per page as you go through the PBR core content and try to only highlight/underline areas that you think will need more review and repetition.

Break up your studying with an average of 5 AAP PREP ® questions per day as directed by PBR. Aim for a maximum of 5 min per question, including the review of the answer. By the end of week 10, you will have completed a total of 350 questions in 12 hours (3 hours per week).

Since you will need 80 hours to review the core content and 12 hours spent practicing questions, you will again need to block off 23 hours per week (92 hours divided by 4 weeks is 23 hours/week). Again, listen to your audio board review course EVERYWHERE. You can choose to build in the Online Video Course during this round, or the next (it follows our core content almost EXACTLY).

PEDIATRIC BOARD STUDY SCHEDULE: WEEK #11 – WEEK #14

The Final Round of Core Content Review

Stick to the schedule and stay disciplined! You should now have a strong foundation of pediatric knowledge and your goal for these four weeks should be to complete your last round of PBR's core content. This final round of review should focus on helping you refresh your memory of familiar topics, and finally cement your knowledge of the difficult ones. For this reason, I recommend that you rely on the Online Video Course heavily during this time.

The Online Video Course is approximately 26 hours long and it covers the core content at a pace of approximately 4 minutes per page. This schedule has budgeted an additional 6 minutes per page for this final round so that you can use the Online Video Course with your Core Study Guide. So pause where needed, and take your time.

To be clear, you must read along in your hardcopy books as you watch the videos in order to count this as one of your 3 rounds of review. This multimodal way of preparing will ensure that you:

See the highlighted content that you struggle with most
See the slides in the videos
Hear a board-certified pediatrician teach you the material that you've been reviewing for 10 weeks, but in a slightly different way
Force you to review 100% of the content, including anything that you think you know very well and might have otherwise skipped during this crucial time leading up to the boards. And, this system will ensure that you…
Pass.

Maximizing Final Study Days

Continue to actively read through the core content (take notes, make mnemonics, and continue to highlight using the above strategy). It's quite possible that you will have additional time to study in the final few days before the exam. If so, the content that you highlight during this round (in orange) will be the sole focus of your attention in those final days, and that content will be extremely beneficial for you. It's likely the material that you would otherwise struggle with on the exam.

Make SURE you know the PBR Core Study Guide and the PBR Q&A book inside and out. I simply can't stress this enough because this will be the key to your success! And if you are still uncomfortable with your knowledge base, then it's time to focus on “core pediatrics” that has not changed in the past 10 years.

Practicing Questions In the Final Weeks

The amount of time that you spend on questions during your 14-weeks of preparation can vary quite a bit. Understanding how to fully process a board-style question is a skill. Once you have mastered your test-taking technique, you only need to maintain that skill.

So if you feel like you're now an excellent test-taker, then you may only need to do a handful of questions per week in order to maintain your skill. But if you are still working on improving your test-taking strategy, you'll need to continue practicing questions daily.

When practicing questions, aim for a maximum of 5 minutes per question including the review of the answer. At this point, consider batching questions and doing at least 40 questions in a single sitting per week. Keep in mind that each block in the ABP Initial Certification exam contains over 80 questions, and that you should pace yourself at a pace of 75 seconds per question when answering the question. The remaining time of approximately 3 minutes and 45 seconds per question should be used to review the answers.

Where Do I Go If I Need Help?

The PBR system is designed to ensure that you do not have to do this alone. During this entire experience, you will have multiple ways of getting help.

Reach out to fellow members of the PBR community in our private Discord channel with any questions or trouble spots. It's an extremely supportive area, and it's for members only.
Reach out to our content experts using our ASK THE EXPERT! buttons within the Online Video Course and get your questions answered during our live, summertime Q&A webinars.
Reach out to the PBR editor (and me) by submitting a content error, or a request for content clarification, through our dedicated page for error submissions.
And if you're just confused about how to move forward, just email me and I'll see if I can point you in the right direction.

The system created by PBR is meant to provide you with a streamlined and supportive approach as you prepare for a very challenging exam. If you follow the advice in this article, you shouldn't need any outside resources to support your knowledge base.

Setting Up Your Pediatric Board Mock Exams

While studying is a crucial part of passing the boards, getting familiar with the test environment is just as important. That’s why I recommend that moderate to high risk test-takers go through at least two pediatric half mock exams before the actual test; one 6-8 weeks prior, the other 4-6 weeks prior. A mock exam allows you to not only test your knowledge thus far, but it also gives you a good understanding of how the very long day of testing will go.

Here are a few key tips to keep in mind if you decide to setup a mock exam:

Use multiple question banks. Several people write questions for the boards, meaning every question has a different personality to it (I would know, as I have written some for the ABP). Getting familiar with the many different ways questions can be written ensures that you will not get blind-sided on test day!
Recognize that taking a mock exam is about much more than your score. It’s about understanding the challenges and barriers that come with a very long day, and then optimizing your behaviors to ensure that you are the best version of yourself from the beginning to the end. Start working on your test day habits now, and replicate them on test day!
If you need help setting up a mock exam, be sure to read our article on the exam structure of the ABP Initial Certification exam so that you can create a mock exam of your own.

You're Almost Done!

By the end of this 14-week study guide, you will have gone through 300 hours of board preparation. All by simply scheduling 23 hours of study time per week. If you are at low risk of failing the pediatric boards and you were able to push through and make the above happen, I have a Money Back First-Time Pass Guarantee that says that you will pass the pediatric boards.

At the end of the day, YOU must be the one to have the commitment and self-discipline. But, I can GUARANTEE that if you follow the study schedule outlined above, and couple it with a strong focus on test-taking strategy, you'll put yourself in an excellent position to pass the pediatric board exam.

By the way, if you are not a PBR member yet, then what are you waiting for?

The No Brainer package is the most common bundle used by our members to prepare for, and pass, the Initial Certification Exam. It provides you with a comprehensive and multimodal approach to studying. It also includes three 90-Day Personalized Schedules created by Team PBR and our Full Online Test-Taking Strategies Course.

Here is a list of everything you get in this very inexpensive bundle:

PBR’s Core Study Guide (Hardcopy and Online Editions)

PBR’s Question & Answer Book (Hardcopy and Online Editions)

Virtual Atlas of Pediatric Picture (Online and PDF Editions)

Audio Course (Streaming and Downloadable Editions)

Online Video Course

Live Summertime Q&A Webinars

Three 90-Day Personalized Schedules Created for You by Team PBR

PBR's Full Online Test-Taking Strategies Course

And more…

Pass the pediatric boards on your FIRST TRY.

Click here now and learn more about the No Brainer and our other proven products.

Are you still unsure? Download the entire Table of Contents, the PBR Roadmap to Success and the PBR Memory Pegs chapter absolutely free! Click HERE and download.

Failed Pediatric Boards? Find Success with the comprehensive study blueprint

Failed Pediatric Boards? Find Success with Our Blueprint

If You Failed the Pediatric Boards, It’s Time to Study Smarter (Not Harder)

A failed pediatric boards attempt is devastating. Although I'm now the author of the Pediatrics Board Review (PBR) study guides, I failed the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) initial certification exam the first time I took the boards. I know what you're thinking, but before you throw yourself back into the depths of studying, here are two things you need to understand:

Failing the boards doesn’t make you a bad pediatrician.

Passing the pediatric boards will have more to do with having a comprehensive strategy than studying harder.

After failing the pediatric boards, your chances of passing decline by almost 50%. Having helped pediatricians pass the boards after as many as NINE prior failed attempts, I'm confident that you can increase your chances of passing with an effective study schedule and the right study guides in place.

What Do My Pediatric Board Results Mean?

There are a number of factors that led to your pediatric board examination results being less than 180. It could be due to 1 factor or it could be due to 10 factors. Meaning, that if you are only focusing on the board scores in isolation, you are likely to repeat your mistakes and fail again in the board exams. While you're familiar with some of the factors that can lead to success on your pediatric board exam, there are many that you probably haven't considered.

One important factor is creating a study schedule to ensure you cover all the necessary material. By following a study schedule, you can increase your chances of achieving high scores on your exam. These scores will play a crucial role in shaping your future as a pediatrician. Before you begin studying, consider all of the factors that could have led to your failure and strategize around them to create a comprehensive pediatric boards study plan.

Success Factors Related to Passing the ABP's Pediatric Exam

Tailoring your study schedule is crucial for achieving high examination scores. Personalized preparation, with the guidance of mentors, can help mitigate the risk of failing the boards
The pass rate of your pediatrics residency program is directly linked to the risk of failing your examination board scores
Your USMLE Step 1 pass/fail scores in med school are related to your personal risk of failing
Your in-training exam scores are related to your personal risk of failing
Repetition of study content breeds reinforcement of difficult concepts
Your available time and the density of your study materials will impact your ability to have repetition, which can greatly improve your scores
Studying from multiple resources prevents repetition of your core resource and helps improve your understanding and scores
Board review questions should be used to assess your test-taking strategy, not build knowledge
Study sessions should be long and uninterrupted
Multimodal studying at key points of your board preparation is crucial
The ABP Content Outline and prior ABP score reports should not be the basis of your study plan
Sleep hygiene should be excellent
Personal, professional, and social obligations must be limited
Distractions must be eliminated in order to have a “Deep Study”
The time of day, when you study, is critical
Abortive techniques for test-taking anxiety require practice
Investment of time, energy, and money into success factors is required to pass

Study Schedule for Repeat Board Exam Test-Takers

This article outlines a detailed schedule that will help you pass the boards if you have failed the pediatric boards. Specifically, how to do so with materials that will help you (not fail you) during your next pediatric board exam. Remember, there are 3 pillars to passing the pediatric boards: Content, Test-Taking Strategy, and Commitment. Your failure(s) on the boards may have been due to a lack of knowledge or a lack of test-taking strategy. For most people reading this, failure was a result of a combination of both. For many, the commitment to spend the time, energy, and money to help secure the pediatric knowledge and test-taking strategy needed to pass the exam was also a major contributor.

The 16-week schedule provided below will give you the pediatric knowledge that you need to pass the boards. For help with test-taking strategy, poor attention to detail, falling for traps on the board exam, challenges with pacing, and problems attaining high-quality studying, the PBR article on test-taking strategy is a must read.

Throughout this study schedule, you’ll find references to the AAP PREP® series of questions. Note that while those questions are well-structured and thorough, you should use multiple question banks this year. Use each question to help you develop, or refine, your test-taking strategy. Do not use questions as a source of study material. You can learn much more about this recommendation in a PBR article on how to best use the AAP PREP® questions.

If you are a first-time test-taker, and you consider yourself a good test-taker, you have done well on prior board exams, and you come from a residency program with a high pass rate, then this schedule isn’t right for you. Read the PBR article discussing a less rigorous 14-week study schedule for first-time test-takers.

The Benefits of Starting Board Preparation Early

Please note that while the 16-week schedule in this article provides the pediatric knowledge needed to pass the boards, I strongly recommend starting as early as January. Repetition reinforces learning, and this allows for a a greater opportunity for multiple rounds of reading. Additionally, starting early gives you the best chance of staying on track, even if unexpected personal or professional events arise. Remember, this schedule is just one part of the overall preparation process, and beginning sooner will significantly increase your likelihood of success.

THE “ASHISH GOYAL” HIGHLIGHTER TRICK

Before you dive into studying, it's important to understand how to best use a highlighter to increase your efficiency as you go through the schedule. As a high-risk test-taker, you should aim to repeat your core material (the PBR Core Study Guide and the PBR Q&A Book) at least 5 times. With a little help, this is absolutely doable.

For each round of the material, highlight (or underline) only the areas you are interested in reviewing again. If you believe that you know something well enough to recall it on the day of the exam, don’t highlight it. If you believe you need to review at least 1 more time, highlight it.

How using different colors can aid in information retention and organization

For the first round, use a light-colored highlighter. In subsequent readings, switch to a slightly darker shade each time and focus only on the content highlighted in the latest round. If it wasn't highlighted in the latest round, skip it. There's no need to revisit familiar material and waste precious study time at this point in the process. In one of your later rounds of going through the material, you should skim through any information that has not been highlighted in the latest round.

For my highly successful second attempt at the boards, I used these colors during each study pass:

Pale Yellow
Pale Pink
Pale Orange
Pale Green
Pale Blue

On your first pass, you might highlight up to 80% of the book in yellow. That's normal. By the 5th pass, you might only need to review 20%-30% of the content marked in green. In the final weeks, focus only on the blue-highlighted areas and go through those sections as many times as possible before the exam. This approach will help you curate your study sessions to concentrate on areas that are specific challenges for you, rather than wasting time reviewing familiar topics.

16-WEEK PEDIATRIC BOARDS STUDY PLAN OVERVIEW

This comprehensive study schedule includes both PBR books (Core Study Guide and Q&A Book) and AAP PREP ® questions. Set aside 500 hours to go through approximately 440 pages of core content and over 700 practice questions. Here’s the schedule breakdown:

Weeks 1-4: First round through the core content
Weeks 5-10: Second round
Weeks 11-14: Third and fourth rounds +/- practice exams (aka mock exams)
Weeks 15-16: Fifth round +/- a mock exam

As a repeat test-taker, the key to your success will be to read the PBR material at least FIVE times to establish familiarity, identify patterns in the material, and promote strong reinforcement through repetition. The pediatric board exam focuses less on how much ‘knowledge’ you have, and more on your ability to select the right diagnosis or next step. By identifying the similarities and differences between diseases, you will get a deeper understanding of the material., and by learning test-taking strategy, you will be able to answer some questions with only limited knowledge.

Spend no more than 5 minutes on each of the 700 questions (an average of 75-90 seconds to answer each question and no more 3.5 minutes to review). At 5 minutes per question, that’s about 60 hours (700 questions multiplied by 5 minutes). Again, use this time to focus on test-taking strategy rather than focusing on trying to learn pediatrics by going through questions. As you get closer to the exam, decrease the time per question to 75 seconds since that’s what will be expected on the actual exam. You will spend the remaining 340 hours going through the PBR core content. Make sure you treat both PBR books (Core Study Guide and the Q&A Book) as core content that you must know. Okay… here we go!

FAILED PEDIATRIC BOARDS STUDY SCHEDULE WEEK #1 – WEEK #6: ROUND 1

Allocate 130 hours over 6 weeks in your study schedule (roughly 21 hours each week). The goal for the first 6 weeks is to read through everything carefully and make all the notes, drawings, and mnemonics you need to ensure complete understanding. Highlighting/underline/bracket only the areas that you think will need more review and repetition. Read the PBR article on creating mnemonics if creating mnemonics doesn't come naturally to you. Aim for an average of 18 minutes per page to cover approximately 430 pages of core content. Do any cross-referencing of facts needed but spend no more than 5 minutes outside of the PBR resources so you don’t get drawn into the black hole of Google. If you still struggle with some of the content, then post your questions in PBR’s private Discord group.

Break up your studying with an average of 5 AAP PREP® questions per day to work on your test-taking strategy. At 35 questions per week, you should be aiming for 210 questions over this 6-week period. Questions will take about 3 hours of your time each week. This first 130 hours is crucial to anyone who has failed the pediatric boards. Approach this as a marathon, not a sprint.

FAILED PEDIATRIC BOARDS STUDY SCHEDULE WEEK #7 – WEEK #10: ROUND 2

After having gone through the book in painstaking detail once, the second round should be much quicker (approximately 86 hours). Aim for an average of 12 minutes per page. Like the first 4 weeks, break up your studying with an average of 5 AAP PREP® questions. Aim for 5 min per question, including the answer review. By the end of Week #10, you will have completed an additional 140 questions for a total of 350 questions.

FAILED PEDIATRIC BOARDS STUDY SCHEDULE WEEK #11 – WEEK #14: ROUNDS 3 AND 4

Stick to the schedule and stay disciplined. You should now be familiar with the PBR content, but continue reviewing the books a few more times to develop the solid knowledge base you’ll need to pass the exam. For the next 4 weeks, read the PBR materials 2 more times. Aim for approximately 10 minutes or less per page (roughly 72 hours per round). If the 3^rd read through takes 3 weeks, that’s OKAY because your 4^th and 5^th readings are even faster. Also, there is built-in “cushion” time within this schedule.

For these two reads, focus on refreshing your memory of familiar topics and work to cement your knowledge of the difficult ones. If you're mentally struggling or have questions about the PBR content, reach out to members of the private Pediatrics Board Review Discord Group or submit your questions through the PBR “ASK THE EXPERT” question portals. If you find that you are moving through the content faster than 10 minutes per page, consider using the extra time to review recently visited chapters to promote even greater repetition of the challenging topics.

Continue working on questions with an average of 5 AAP PREP ® questions per day. At this point, you may want to consider batching questions and doing 12-18 questions per sitting as you aim for your 35 questions per week. If you would like to do a mock exam before the exam, this would be a good time to set one up to work on your pacing and your test day schedule (more details below).

FAILED PEDIATRIC BOARDS STUDY SCHEDULE WEEK #15 – WEEK #16: ROUND 5

By the 15^th week, you should have made it through at least four rounds of the material. You should now have a solid foundation of the pediatric knowledge needed to pass the boards. During your 5^th reading, VERY quickly read the topics you know well to ensure your understanding is correct and continue to focus on the more challenging topics in depth until they’re cemented in your mind. The challenging topics should be easy to identify if you’ve been using different color highlighters for each successive reading.

Since you will primarily be reviewing the difficult topics, it’s possible that your average pace could be faster than the recommended 10 minutes per page. Use the extra time to hone your test-taking strategy, review recently visited chapters, or do a mock exam. If your exam is within two weeks, the best thing you can do during this time is to repeatedly review the areas you are struggling with as many times as possible. That will be the key to your success.

Continue practicing your test-taking strategy on practice questions from the AAP and other question banks. By the end of the 16^th week, you will have done about 560 questions (35 per week x 16 weeks). That leaves 140 questions remaining to reach 700. By this point, you should be comfortably pacing at approximately 75 seconds per question, and you should consider doing larger batches of questions.

HOW TO SET UP PEDIATRIC MOCK EXAMS

While studying is a crucial part of passing the boards, getting familiar with the test environment is just as important for your pediatric board prep. If time allows, I recommend taking at least 1 mock exam before the actual exam. This will give you a good understanding of how the very long day of testing will go. You can consider taking one full exam in a day, or you can consider taking a half-mock exam one morning and another half-mock exam the next afternoon to gauge your energy levels at different times of the day.

Here are a few key tips to keep in mind when setting up your mock exam:

Use multiple question banks. Many different pediatricians across the country write questions for the boards. This means every question can have a different personality to it (I would know since I've written questions for the ABP too). Getting familiar with the many different ways questions can be written ensures that you will not get blind-sided on test day.
Recognize that taking a mock exam is about more than your score. It’s about understanding the challenges and barriers that come with a very long day and then optimizing your behaviors to ensure that you are the best version of yourself from the beginning to the end. Start working on your test day habits now, and replicate them on test day.
Set up your exam block timer and the timer for your breaks exactly as the ABP sets them up. If you need help setting up a mock exam, be sure to read the PBR article on the exam structure of the ABP Initial Certification exam.

LEARN FROM OTHERS' EXPERIENCES

Watch the videos below to see how these PBR members overcame prior failed pediatric board experiences.

DR. STEPHANIE MOSES

Dr. Moses made the common error of studying from board review questions. Watch this video to see how ultimately passed the boards.

DR. YESSENIA CASTRO

Dr. Castro made the mistake of trying to use multiple resources to study. She failed five times but got a great new job and $20,000 more in her annual pay after passing. Watch the video below to see how she did it.

DR. KERRI LOCKHART

Dr. Lockhart passed every medical board exam until the ABP initial certification exam. She even failed once with PBR because she refused to invest the recommended resources. Watch the video below to see what happened after her third failed attempt.

The members above passed after attending PBR's Live Test-Taking Strategies & Deep Study Course. If you truly want the best chance of passing, learn about PBR's VIP Bundle that helped one doctor pass after NINE prior failed attempts.

Do you have the right resources and the commitment to do what is needed to pass the boards? If you follow the study schedule outlined above, and if you use the VIP Bundle to include a strong focus on test-taking strategy, then you will pass the pediatric board exam. The Live Test-Taking Strategies & Deep Study Course is included in the VIP Bundle, and it is an absolute must for every pediatrician who is at moderate or high risk of failing the boards.

The VIP Bundle also includes the No Brainer package, which includes PBR's multimodal study materials to help you build your fund of knowledge, an Online Test-Taking Strategies Course (a great warm-up for your Live Test-Taking Strategies Course), and up to three 90-Day Personalized Study Schedules created by Team PBR. After filling out a questionnaire about yourself, your pace of reading, and your available days to study, Team PBR will take care of the rest.

Not a PBR member yet? What are you waiting for? Click HERE now and get ready to pass the pediatric boards!

HELPFUL ABP RESOURCES

Pediatric Board Exam Time Per Question, Number of Blocks & More

The Ins & Outs of TEST DAY!

As the pediatric board exam nears, I'm often asked the following questions:

Pediatric board exam time per question and pacing is something I struggle with. Can you help?
How many questions are on the pediatrics board exam?
What is the number of sections for the American Board of Pediatrics INITIAL board certification exam?

The information on the American Board of pediatrics website is a little confusing, so I've tried to clarify some things below. I try to address some of the more key information you will need on test day. In this article I'll talk specifically about the INITIAL pediatric board certification exam. You'll learn:

How many sections are administered for the initial certification exam
How many questions are on the peds exam
How many questions you can expect to see in each section
How much time per question to allot

The break up for the ABP Click Here And Continue Reading…

Passing the Pediatric Board Exam – Maximizing CRUNCH Time

When it comes to passing the pediatric board exam, all logic and reason can get thrown out the window during “crunch time.”

In this article, I want to share some resources and tips to help you calm the nerves, help you focus on maximizing your chances at passing the pediatric boards and most of all… ensure that at the end of the test-taking process you have absolutely NO REGRETS!

What Should I Do When It's “Crunch Time?”

Well, let’s answer all the following questions:

Should I Be Doing A Ton Of PREP Questions?
What Are The Best Pediatric Board Review Books For Me To Study?
What’s the BIGGEST “Bang For The Buck” At CRUNCH TIME?
What’s the ONE THING I Can Do to LEARN MORE EFFECTIVELY?
What Should I Do If I Have Questions About A Topic That’s Confusing Me?
Is Passing the Pediatric Board Exam Realistic for Me?

Should I Be Doing A Ton Of PREP Questions?

I answer this question in detail in a Pediatrics Board Review article titled, “How Many AAP PREP Questions Should I Do?”

In summary, the idea behind using ANY sort of board questions should be for PRACTICE. It is NOT to learn board-relevant content. For that, you should be focusing on a single, primary study resource (called the PBR).

This means that you don’t aim to learn new content from those questions. Your aim should be to practice your test-taking SKILLS. When I refer to “test taking skills,” I mean…

Are you falling for traps?
Are you reading the English within the actual question carefully?
Are you extracting the appropriate information from the clinical vignette?
Are you keeping a steady pace, and able to LET GO of a question when it is one that is…
- Taking you forever to think through?
- About a topic that you KNOW you are weak in?
- Is SUPER long?

Passing the board exam requires a blend of strong board-relevant clinical knowledge, plus test-taking skills. Many physicians do not realize this and they continue to fail over and over again. They assume that board questions are like miniature patients, but they are not! Click Here And Continue Reading…

Pediatric Board Questions – 3 Strategies to Skyrocket Your Score!

ARE TEST QUESTIONS LIKE MINI-PATIENTS?

NO! Pediatric board questions are NOT like mini-patients.

Don’t believe me? Well, by the end of this article you’re going to:

Learn the difference between real life patients and test patients
Learn 3 strategies towards correctly answering board-style questions that you can put into practice IMMEDIATELY to increase your board score
Become familiar with free and paid resources at your disposal to help you work on your test-taking techniques
Feel inspired to approach board-style questions as 75-second puzzles rather than stressful patient encounters

A SAMPLE PEDIATRIC BOARD REVIEW QUESTION

How would you proceed with the little girl below? It’s a short question, so please set your timer to 60 seconds, read the question below and commit to ONE answer choice.

A 3-year-old female toddler presents for a routine well child visit. You note an abdominal mass on exam. You suspect the child may have a Wilms tumor. There have not been any urinary symptoms, but urine dipstick shows evidence of blood. There’s a history of breast cancer in the family.

Which of the following is the most appropriate diagnostic test to determine the cause of the patient’s abdominal mass?

A. CT scan of the abdomen and pelvis

B. Complete urinalysis

C. Oncology referral

D. Biopsy of the mass

E. BRCA gene testing

Click Here And Continue Reading…

2013 Pediatrics Board Review Corrections and Clarifications

50-70 Pages of FREE High-Yield Content Now Available!

In 2012, the Pediatrics Board Review Corrections & Clarifications Guide was only about 25 pages. The guide contained corrections that I found and that others found in the 2nd edition of the Pediatrics Board Review Core Study Guide. The guide provided a TON of value and helped many people correctly answer questions they would have otherwise gotten wrong! I think there's still value in reviewing it today because these guides give me the freedom to write freely about pretty much anything related to topics, studying for the boards, etc.

Want the 2012 guide? Just click LIKE below and then download it (Sorry! As of Sept. 2014, the LIKE software no longer works… so I'm now just giving it away! Just click on the image to download the guide. It would be GREAT if you could visit https://www.facebook.com/PedsBoardReview and give it a LIKE).