A picture speaks a thousand words.. So here it is, this is what it’s like studying for boards. I have successfully built a nest of nerd that can keep me equally enthusiastic while supporting my distractable nature as I go from TCM to botanical medicine to seizures to etc.
One thing that I’m appreciating is that I’m getting a chance to connect information that may have not been as solid in my mind. I’m getting a chance to review modalities that maybe I wasn’t to keen on while in school (ahem, physmed..) and I love reviewing my ERmed before actually going out into practice. We have so much we need to know for this exam including bot med, homeopathy, pharmacology, ERmed, geriatrics, pediatrics, HEENT, pulm, I could keep going. So I will: ALL of chinese medicine, nutrition, physical and lab diagnosis, environmental medicine, psychology, cardiology, urology, nephrology, and I could keep going. But I won’t.
As for the process itself.. I’ve minimized distractions and focused on surrounding myself with positive affirmations. I may have been a little slow in realizing that NPLEx creates a cut-off every year so that a certain # of students fail. Yuck. Nevertheless, all of the doctors I’ve been talking to have told me that this entire process is more of a mind game than anything else. Making sure you can stay calm under pressure and make good clinical decisions even after 4 years of medical school and 1 month (or in my case 3 weeks) of cramming in three days of 8 hours of testing.
So long story short: It’s time to invoke my inner Jedi.
myhippocraticoath 