Good Morning. Another set of board exams are in the books!
Congratulations to all the students who completed their boards this
weekend. As soon as I walked out of that last exam on Sunday
afternoon, it was as if a huge weight was lifted off my
shoulders.
Being that I just took Parts II, III, and PT Boards, I figured
I'd take the time this week to provide some insight on what the
experience is all about, to hopefully save some of you some anxiety
when it's your turn around.
First, the board exams are national standardized exams used to
test the minimum competency of chiropractic students. These exams
have no bearing on your scores or standing with NUHS; these are
your licensure exams. Being that these are nationwide exams, there
is a broad scope of questions, that are for the most part, a little
more generalized than your specific class exams.
Each exam, for Parts I, II and PT, includes 110 questions and
covers the entire scope of the specific subject. For example, for a
Part I physiology exam, all of your trimester of physiology will be
examined in 110 questions. What I'm trying to get at here is to
know the underlying mechanisms of each subject and be able to
reason out answers because there's simply too much information to
cram into 110 questions, so the exam is somewhat general. This
holds true for every Board exam I've taken thus far.
This past weekend the rest of the Tri 8 students and I ventured
to Palmer Florida (the only Florida test site) near Daytona Beach
to take our Part II, III, and PT board exams. We decided to get to
our hotel the night before the exams on Thursday, rather than
trying to drive into Daytona and go straight into exams. We also
did this for Part I; it's not worth it to drive 3 hours and then
try to take an exam. Just spend the extra money for one more night
at the hotel; it will be cheaper than having to retake the
exam.
Friday morning kicked off the first day of Part II. These exams
are focused more on the clinical sciences and diagnosis and
management. I felt very prepared for this part; National does a
great job preparing us for this. (Not to knock the Palmer students,
but I heard a lot of growls and complaining from some of them after
these exams.) We finished up our Part II exam Saturday morning, and
closed the afternoon with PT (physiotherapy). Saturday was probably
the least stressful day, and Guy, Margot and I ended it celebrating
St. Patty's Day with a few green beers.
Sunday rolled around and with it came Part III. Part III puts
together Part II and PT in a more case-based aspect, testing your
clinical knowledge on diagnosis and treatment. All in all, I felt
pretty confident walking out of the test center on Sunday
afternoon. I treated the exams like all tests I take, by preparing
far in advance, and walking in confident that I know what I know.
If you can master this, the pre-test anxiety is kept to a
minimum.
I hope this entry helped, and if anyone out there has any
questions on Boards, please don't hesitate to send me an email. I'm
happy to answer any questions or provide any help I can.
Cheers,
Dex