The best way to prepare for the Pathology Board Exam is to be really involved in your rotations throughout residency. Be ready for signout: write up all your cases, pay attention to the details, stage everything, read about the IHC, prognostic factors, demographics, and molecular in particular. Same goes for CP- especially handling calls from clinicians and troubleshooting.
Go to unknowns.
When you present at conference, choose your topics wisely. It’s tempting pick a topic that you already know a lot about, or have presented on another rotation, but resist the urge. Pick a topic you aren’t comfortable with or that you find conceptually challenging. Read everything you can about it, especially the difficult questions/diagnostic pitfalls. You’ll thank yourself when it’s time to study for boards, and these topics are just a quick review instead of an overwhelming jumble of information. I referred to my old presentations (and other people’s) a number of times while studying.
People say RISE is very different from boards but I did not find this to be true at all! I thought the RISE was harder, overall, but the topics that show up are the sorts of things you should be familiar with for the Pathology board exam. Go through the questions you got wrong- for me this was really high yield right before boards.
Logistics and Study Schedule for the Pathology Board Exam:
Make sure all your stuff is logged in at the beginning of your 4th year. The ABP website has an autopsy log form that I used. Tally up your numbers for your cytology and CP cases. It makes it a lot easier when it’s time to fill out the application (which can take a while).
Make an aggressive but realistic study plan and stick to it (more or less)
I think this is incredibly important. It’s such a broad test that if you don’t have a plan to review everything, it’s really easy to not get to huge topics. Build in some flexibility because you’ll probably fall behind (I did). My study plan: I started with areas outside of my comfort zone so that I’d have time to review them again before boards. It will also freak you out less to study stuff you don’t know when you still have lots of time before boards. I studied a CP topic and an AP topic each week. I also tried to adjust the schedule according to the rotation I was on (topic-wise and time-wise). The amount of time to budget totally depends on how comfortable you feel/how diligent you’ve been during residency. I think 4-6 months if you’re AP/CP and 2-4 months if you’re only taking one test is reasonable. On that note, if you plan to take both tests at some point, I highly recommend taking both at the same time. Not only are some topics truly overlapping (hemepath, molecular, lab management, stats, micro), but there’s a bunch of stuff (tumor markers, endocrine stuff, forensics/toxicology, etc) that show up on either or can help you figure out answers.
Below is the pathology study schedule that I used (hope it helps):
Week 1 AP GYN
Week 1 CP Immunoassay, TDM, Toxicology
Week 2 AP Bone/ST
Week 2 CP Diabetes and Renal Function
Week 3 AP Renal, Endocrine, Neuro
Week 3 CP Lipids and Proteins
Week 4 AP Liver, Pancreas, GB, Forensic
Week 4 CP Enzymes and Liver
Week 5 AP Derm
Week 5 CP Endocrine
Week 6 AP Pulm
Week 6 CP Acid Base, Electrolytes, Tumor Markers
Week 7 AP GI, Breast
Week 7 CP Bacteriology/Antibiotics
Week 8 AP GU, Male reproductive
Week 8 CP Bacteriology/Antibiotics
Week 9 AP Inflammation/Repair, Neoplasia
Week 9 CP Virology
Week 10 AP ENT, Cardiovascular
Week 10 CP Mycology
Week 11 AP Catch up
Week 11 CP Parasitology
Week 12 AP Peds, Placenta
Week 12 CP Mycobacteria
Week 13 AP Immunopath, Molecular, CG
Week 13 CP Humoral and Cellular Immunology
Week 14 AP Hemepath
Week 14 CP Immune Deficiencies and Autoimmunity
Week 15 AP Hemepath
Week 15 CP Platelets
Week 16 AP Cytology
Week 16 CP Coag
Week 17 AP Cytology
Week 17 CP RBC Disorders
Week 18 Catch Up
Week 19 Catch up
Week 20 AP Derm
Week 20 CP Cytogenetics & Molecular
Week 21 AP GYN
Week 21 CP Lab Management & Informatics
Week 22 AP Bone
Week 22 CP Stats and Quality Control
Week 23 AP Neuro
Week 23 CP Blood Bank
Week 24 AP Cytology
Week 24 CP Blood Bank
Week 25 AP Tumor Syndromes
Week 25 CP Blood Bank
Week 26 AP Review/Catch up
Week 27 AP Review/Catch up
Week 28 AP Review
Week 29 Review
Week 30 PASS!!
This post was contributed by a guest who recently passed their boards
