At 04:36 PM 2/3/02 -0600, Dogwood Ridge wrote:
Have you noticed that I've been posting more lately? Know why? I started my
computer guided recertification exam again and I am procrastinating. It seems
like yesterday that I did it, but the powers that be say another seven years
have gone by and it's my turn to do it again. And you know what else, the
questions seem harder this year. No, that's not true- it's just that the more
experience I have the more I seem to practice the "art of pediatrics" as
opposed to strictly the "science" of pediatrics and I can now think of more
exeptions to the answers. Sure, Alports is still the answer if someone tells
you the child has cataracts, hematuria, sensorineural hearing loss and a
family history of hematuria. But, some of the behavioral questions are not so
straight forward anymore. Since it is an open book test am I allowed to post
a question here? Has anybody else started theirs? Regards- Kim Burlingham,
MD rural peds, Winnsboro, TX
Just finished the first component of this go-'round and sent it in last
week. I agree with your feeling that some of the behavioral and other
"less scientific" questions are ambiguous.
I also consider specialist referrals in the same category as "books", and
if the exam is open book then calling a subspecialist about a perplexing
problem is no different than opening a book (and it's also what we do in
the "real world").
There was one particular orthopedic question that had one possible answer
that a pediatric orthopedist I spoke with had never even heard of. Guess
what - the answer that he hadn't heard of was the correct one. How "real
world" is that??? There was one child passenger safety question - I asked
one of the foremost authorities in the COUNTRY for an opinion, and she
couldn't figure out what answer they were looking for. This brings up one
problem, as Gary pointed out: trying to figure out what the author of the
question was looking for at the time the question was written, rather than
trying to figure out what the correct answer probably is - in 2002.
After 12 years of practice I did find that some of the "general" questions
seemed easier than they did when I first recertified 6 years ago, but many
of the "specialty" questions only brought back memories of topics I've
barely dealt with since residency (Vit D/Calcium/Phosphorus metabolism
anyone?). Thank goodness for Nelsons and Oski! BTW, I it seemed 6 years
ago that the answers to many of the questions were taken almost verbatim
from one of the standard textbooks. I didn't notice the same pattern this
time. What I did do about half-way through the test was order the CD-ROM
version of Nelsons (I might have ordered Oski, which I frequently like
better, but the newest edition of Nelsons was published more recently). I
finished the first component before the CD-ROM arrived, but I'm hoping
it'll be easier to search the index and text using the CD-ROM rather than
flipping through the hardcover version for the next two components.
Michael Sachs, M.D.
General Pediatrician