I have also posted a ‘combo special’, with significant discounting if you purchase several of the recordings together.  As always, I appreciate your patronage, and I appreciate the nice comments that some of you have written back to me about the tapes.  I recommend that you continue to use them during you morning and afternoon drives;  using that little bit of extra time by popping the CD into the car CD player (or using an I-pod) will put you ahead of the pack, come exam time.

My hope is that by first covering ‘Q and A’ the preparing student or resident would learn the areas that need the most ‘brushing up’, and then focus on those areas for the other studying programs. These Q and A recordings consist of questions similar to those found on old Board Exams, Prites, studying guides, tests I helped make up for undergraduate studies…  and completely consistent with the questions found on the Part I Boards.  That does NOT mean that they won’t be helpful for Part II;  On the contrary the questions are similar to those asked during the newer portions of the Part II exam, and also provide the facts needed to converse about the differential diagnoses for the patient interview (e.g. how many weeks before bereavement becomes depression?).

The Q and A recordings will be released every two weeks, in a series of different categories.  This first category is ‘adult psychopathology’; future categories will include child psychiatry, forensics, emergency psychiatry, neuro, consult-liason. and others.   Each edition will contain from 110 to 120 minutes of questions and answers.

As always, the recordings are intended for use during otherwise wasted time, such as a morning or evening commute, or during a jog at the end of the day.  I simply ask the question, list the possible answers, pause for you to come up with the correct response, and then provide the correct response.  If you miss a question I suggest that you make a mental note of that section, or better yet use the myriad of recorders that are now found on I-phones, cell phones, and other hand-held devices.  Or buy a cheap voice recorder at best buy!  You will quickly identify the areas that you ahve down cold from those where you need to do a bit of review.

I welcome suggestions that would improve upon the product;  if you have nice things to say (and thank you to those of you who have already sent me those!), send them in with your name if you don’t mind.  I am realizing that for marketing purposes I should put a few of them on the site.

Thank you for your interest and for your purchase, and good luck, as always, in your studies!

Jeffrey T Junig MD PhD

If you are reading this after searching for ‘part II preparation’, you have made it– you won’t neeed to really memorize that material for another ten years– for recertification! (sorry).

Part II is different– you need a totally different set of skills.  You need to think on your feet.  You need to diagnose on the ‘fly’.  You need a bit of confidence.  You need the basics down cold.

That is why I focus on these recordings so much– they are 90% of what you need!  They improve the basics– dramatically.  And they provide confidence–  Think about it–  think about how it would feel to KNOW, for CERTAIN, that the criteria will come to mind no matter how threatening the case?

If you can talk CRITERIA during the exam, and point out how the criteria match up with your patient, you are SET for Part II.

These recordings saved time, using time that was otherwise wasted:  my morning and evening commute!

Despite completing a good residency I worried that in the heat of the moment I would forget the specific criteria– the criteria I needed to defend the diagnosis I gave to my Boards patient.

I realized that I needed to focus on the FUNDAMENTALS– the criteria themselves!  If the criteria popped into my head during the exam, everything else would be gravy!

I realized that the way to accomplish what I needed was to engrain the material into my memory so completely that I could recall it automatically–

That is what these recordings did for me– and what they will do for you!

Click the purchase links at the right for the 3-CD set of recordings, or choose the instant download option.  The instant download option is less expensive, as it does not require me to burn the CDs and run to the Post Office–  You can simply burn the CDs yourself, or even easier place the MP3 files on your I-Pod or other MP3 player!  If you prefer the CDs I will have them to you within two weeks.

The recordings are efficient– I don’t drone on and on about things you won’t need to know.  I recite the criteria– listen to them, then listen again, and again– after two weeks if someone says ‘major depressive disorder’ the criteria and qualifiers will roll off your tongue with ease.  In my case that made my confidence take off like a rocket!  I walked to my exam room feeling as if I had a ’secret weapon’ to success!

Try Them– They Work!

After your purchase, come back in January of 2009 for additional recordings.  Purchasers of the current recordings will have the opportunity to receive subsequent recordings at a discount.

At my own boards I went out to dinner the night before;  a friend from residency was talking about his preparation, and spouting off the different diagnoses, along with how to support each one in patients– I saw the faces of the people at the dinner table turn white as they realized that this guy was much more prepared than they were.  On the other hand, I felt pretty good.  I was impressed by my friend, but I knew that I had gone through the criteria so many times that there was no way that I would have trouble remembering them.  And I was absolutely right about that!!

Try my tapes– just click on the button on the right of this page, your choice of CD or instant download.  You won’t be disappointed!

For those who have purchased the recordings, or for those who make a purchase, please write to me after the Boards with your feedback.  If I use your comment on the page for my advertising (after the Boards I am going to add a ‘feedback’ page) I will pay you $100.  I will select the top five comments– the ones that provide the best message for my advertising.  A list of the winners will be provided afterward for anyone who asks.

Finally, let me know what types of recordings would be useful for YOU.  If you make a purchase, and then suggest a recording that I end up producing, I will send your suggested recording to you for free!

Thanks, and good luck studying!

JJ

The Psychiatry Board examination process is quite thorough. After completing residency you are eligible for Part I of the exam, a day-long test that covers topics in psychiatry, psychology, neuroscience, and neurology. The test is difficult, and requires a great deal of study for most candidates. Your reward for successfully passing the Part I exam?  The ability to sit for Part II, the Oral Boards in Psychiatry.

The psychiatry oral boards consist of two parts. During the first part you will interview a real patient under the scrutiny of two examiners, and then present the case, come to a multi-axial diagnosis and treatment plan, and answer questions about the patient and related psychiatric issues. For the second part of the exam you will be given four patient vignettes that are either written or on video; you will reads or watch the vignettes in the company of an examiner, and then answer a series of questions about the patients portrayed in the vignettes. During both halves of the oral exam, to be successful you must make an impression on the examiners in several spheres: you must appear professional, you must be organized, you must know the material, and finally you must be able to think and formulate while at the same time being observed and feeling anxious.

Passing the oral portion of the psychiatry board exam is as much about performance as it is about knowledge. I do not mean this as a criticism of the exam, because being a good psychiatrist involves more than knowing facts. If Board Certification is to mean something, psychiatrists who obtain that distinction should be able to interact with other physicians using effective organizational and communicative skills, present themselves to the public in a professional manner, and have the ability to educate patients clearly and succinctly.

That said, I recognize the challenge faced by physicians who are taking the boards in their second language or struggling with performance anxiety. The exam day goes by very quickly; if a person has a problem early in the process there is little if any chance to recover and make it up on the rest of the exam. If you do in fact have problems with one part of the exam, I recommend that you do all in your power to forget about it and move on as the next part of the exam will be with a different examiner who will judge you anew.

How do you prepare for the performance factor? Like everything else- practice, practice, Practice! I suspect that one of the most effective techniques is rarely used– consider videotaping yourself presenting a case, and then watch the tape to identify all of the nervous little tics that take away from your performance. You can learn a great deal using this technique– and not just for the boards. I learned for example that I am a bit ‘hyperbody’ when I am nervous, and my hand and arm movements reduce my ability to put psychotherapy patients at ease. Behaviors identified in this manner CAN be changed… with PRACTICE.

Psychiatric Diagnostic Criteria Audio Board Preparation

I found something that made a tremendous difference duing my own preparation for the oral board exam. I realized that during both halves of the exam, I would be called on to talk about how different symptoms are assimilated into psychiatric diagnoses. I knew that I would become confused– for different diagnoses there are different lengths of time, different numbers of individual criteria, different exclusionary criteria, etc, and I knew that if I became too nervous, all of the criteria would start to jumble together. But if I really knew the criteria themselves– the building blocks of psychiatric diagnosis– I would be much less nervous and the other parts of the exam would fall into place. And so I prepared audio tapes where I recited the crieria for the diagnoses one by one, and then I played the tapes during my morning and evening commute using time that was otherwise wasted. I listened to the recordings over and over again.  And it worked– during the first half of the exam as I interviewed my patient her symptoms seemed to check themselves off against the criteria– criteria that were firmly entrenched in my mind.

The audio tapes were also very helpful with the performance part of the exam. The multiple sections of the exam gave me ample opportunity to demonstrate my knowledge, and being able to recall the criteria in an automatic fashion made me appear– and FEEL– professional and knowledgeable. Moreover having the criteria in mind and at the ready-knowing that I would be able to come up with the diagnostic criteria even when I was ‘on stage’-eliminated that internal voice that otherwise would have made my voice shake and my mouth go dry. I was able to portray a sense of confidence throughout the exam.

I am now Board Certified in Psychiatry, thanks to a large part to the recordings and the firm knowledge they provided of the buidling blocks of psychiatric diagnosis. Knowing the criteria so well helps me even now as I assign diagnoses to patients I see in my solo practice. I have since made similar but new recordings, using good audio equipment and compressing the dynamic range so that they are easier to hear over the background noise in a car. The recordings are available for a reasonable price on the right side of this blog page–  I paid over $800 for Osler review tapes, and I have no doubt that these recordings are more useful. I invite you to purchase a copy, either on Audio CD or by Direct Download of MP3 files, and study with me as you prepare for your own Part II Exam in Psychiatry.