With all of the resources out there which one should medical students be using for the dreaded NBME Psychiatry Shelf exam. In this article, I give my objective review on the resource that I used which was Boardvitals!

Which Question topics are most frequently tested in the BoardVitals Psychiatry Shelf Question Bank?

One of the reasons why I like using the BoardVitals question bank to study for the psych shelf is that BoardVitals asked a lot of pharmacology questions related to drug toxicity.

For example, I distinctly remember seeing multiple questions in the Boardvitals question bank which required you to be able to recognize lithium toxicity. This is high yield to know for any NBME psychology shelf exam

Another question topic that showed up on the Boardvitals question bank in compared more then the other question Banks we’re questions that showed radiology images for example one of the questions that you could get on a psych shelf are questions that ask you to be able to come up with a diagnosis just by looking at a MRI scan or a CT scan this was commonly done with diagnoses like frontotemporal lobe dementia and normal pressure hydrocephalus

click here to start using the boardvitals question bank

Number of Questions in the BoardVitals Psychiatry Question Bank

The Boardvitals Question Psychiatry Shelf question bank contains over 750 questions. This beats out its competitors by a good amount as most other psychiatry shelf question banks out there were normally around the 200–400 question range. I actually ended up not even finishing all of the questions in the Psychiatry Shelf bank. Despite this, however, I still did well on the shelf exam. this just goes to show you how well-rounded all of the questions are in the BoardVitals Psychiatry Shelf exam question bank.

Is the BoardVitals Question Bank similar to the Psychiatry Shelf NBME exam

It was similar enough. While the exact question style was not 100% the same, it was enough to challenge me in the same way that the NBME does and help me memorize high-yield topics that have a tendency to show up on the Psychiatry Shelf exam.

The question below is a good example of what I mean by this. While

Does Boardvitals cover all of the Psych NBME topics?

The BoardVitals Psychiatry Shelf is comprehensive and contains all of the topics that the NBME commonly tests on the Psychiatry Shelf exam.

Personally, when I used it I felt as if I knew more than what I was tested on. Some people may say that this is overboard however I actually like that Boardvitals goes super in-depth like this. By doing this, they are essentially guaranteeing that you will be prepared to conquer the psych shelf exam come test day

Question difficulty of the BoardVitals Question Bank

Overall I found the BoardVitals question bank to be more difficult than the actual NBME exam. What made the questions more difficult than the real thing is that Boardvitals tests on a larger range of topics.

Despite Boardvitals being more difficult than the actual exam, the main reason why I liked using this for the psych shelf is because overall it was an ACCURATE representation of the exam. Despite their being alot of hard questions.

It is not the case where the question bank just has questions on extremely minute details that are completely out of the blue. All of the questions you get help you understand a high yield and fundamental topic on the Psych shelf

For example, in the Psychiatry question bank, BoardVitals included a lot of Neurology. This was actually helpful because I had my Neurology Shelf exam right after I took my Psych Shelf exam.

In addition to testing a larger range of topics, Boardvitals also goes into a lot of depth for each topic as well.

Final thoughts

I think that overall Boardvitals is a great addition to your study plan for for the NBME Psych shelf exam. Even if you dont finish the entirety of the questions. Doing some portion of these questions can definitely help you for the psych shelf

If you are interested in using the boardvitals question bank for the psych shelf click here