I’ve gotten a series of questions lately about the board success track. The truth is most of the information you need to decide if this track is right for you is in the website on the Requirements page on Board Success.

That said, this conversation has been interesting…. it goes something like this:

“I’ve been suggesting my mentees do something additional to make their Board Success Track more distinguished” and

“My mentee is taking the boards a few weeks before their Board Success Track ends, what do they do with the other two weeks of the course?”

Perhaps you can see these questions are just begging for the same solution…. don’t do the board success track – do a specialty track!

On the website boards requirements page, about mid way there is a section called “making the most of your time…”

Who should be doing Board Success vs Specialty? You’ve all heard me say specialty is the heart and soul of Clinical Distinction – there is a reason I call it SPECIAL-ty. So that’s one answer.

But if the SPC directed the student to spend time doing board study, probably they expect the student to use all four weeks. If that’s the case then the student needs to schedule the exam at the end of or just after the full four weeks. There’s no specialty track option here. There’s no way to add distinction. But there are two CD’s. A a great specialty track for CD II! is a fine option which will give a student a great chance at their dream residency.

If a student picked board review for any other reason and scheduled their board exam two weeks into the course they have to do a specialty track. They should talk to their advisor if this is daunting or just to get some support.

If a student picked board review and is thinking, “I wish I had done a specialty track,” they should consider doing it – especially if the time is spent in independent study of some exciting topic, it’s not terribly hard to make the switch.

Nothing in life is free though – the specialty track requires more work. The paperwork is a bit more complex, the expectations are a bit more. The effort is worth the reward, but the effort is unavoidable.

Want more information? Read the website…. have I mentioned there’s a lot of information there? Contact your CD advisor, or Dr. Weiss, or the curriculum Coordinator.