The UTMB dermatology residents scored
in the top 70th percentile on the dermatology boards this year. We
recently asked the recent graduates what they did to score so well and if they
could identify anything about the UTMB dermatology residency that helped them
achieve this academic excellence.
“I think it is hard to pinpoint exactly
what prepared us for this test...we have so much clinical exposure in our
clinics at UTMB that I think that is #1. I think our Friday academic day was
important (Kodachromes in particular). My suggestion regarding journal
club would be to read through “Journal Watch”, they publish the Top 10
"stories" of the year and also list the 10 most important/impactful
articles). It would be great to definitely read and analyze those articles as a
group. The other residents and read those together this year and I think
it helped. DermPath unknowns (I think we stress DermPath quite a bit in
our program which came in very handy on the boards). The two board review
courses that I attended really helped as well (Galderma Review in Dallas and
Barron's DermPath review in Cincinnatti, OH).”
“I don't think there is one thing in particular that helped
us to score well on the boards, however I do think that the academic curriculum
at UTMB is very strong, and this has been demonstrated over the years with the
program's very low fail-rate on the boards over the years. I have always
thought that giving lectures in your third year is one of the best ways to
solidify your knowledge (after learning the material for the 3rd time -
"see one, do one, teach one" method). I also think our faculty
members were very helpful in gearing their lectures and teaching sessions
toward high yield and board-relevant material. A lot of the studying comes down
to your own methods and integrating all of the materials you have. I think a
combination of Galderma, referencing (and studying) Bolognia, looking at as
many clinical photos as possible (including the AAD kodochrome database on the
website), and doing tons and tons of practice questions worked best for me.
Also, I attended several review courses including the Galderma course in April
and the Dermpath100 course in Ohio. It was helpful to get a sense of the types
of questions and topics that were high yield (as well as those topics that I
was weaker in). All in all, I don't think there is a "magic
bullet" for this test. It really comes down to how prepared you are to
choose the "best" answer on the exam, as well as stamina to do
hundreds of questions in one day. I don't think anyone felt super confident
after this exam, which shows you that it really is variable.”
“I agree with my fellow residents,
however, I didn't attend any of the extra review courses, which made me nervous
I was missing out, but I think we are prepared well enough. I personally didn't
want to spend the money on the reviews and travel and it was difficult to be
away from my family. But, yes, Galderma binder, lots of review questions,
clinical reading and presentations throughout residency. Reviewing lots of
slides (UTMB has large study sets).”
Thank you for your very useful
information!