I PASSED MY BOARDS.. and stuff.

It has been forever and a day since I last blogged (well, 30 days to be exact) but I have a good excuse. I was studying for my National Board exam..and if you couldn't tell by the title, I PASSED! YAY!
I now get to sign my name with MS, OTR/L at the end. As if my name wasn't long enough. For you non-OT people, thats Master of Science, Occupational Therapist-Registered/Licensed. Thaaaaats right I am a board-certified OT licensed in the state of FL :) Round of applause please?

Ok anyway, I know a few people asked me to share my tips on how to conquer this beast of an exam. I don't really have any guaranteed study tricks as everyone learns differently but I am willing to hand out some advice on what worked and did not work for me. I am going to keep these short and sweet but if you want more elaboration on these feel free to contact me: samanthaot12@gmail.com

Happy studying! :)

1. Don't start studying while you are on fieldwork. If you want to skim through a few practice questions, fine. I firmly believe that 80% of all of your knowledge comes from fieldwork and you should channel your focus into that instead of worrying about the exam.. yet. So, put down the study guide and make the most out of your 6 months of internships. The entire exam is composed of 'scenario' questions that challenge your clinical judgement and reasoning skills not just recall and memorization. For example, a question might say "The inability to recognize familiar faces is.." A: prosopagnosia. However, I honestly had maybe 2-3 questions like that. The other 200 something question your decision-making as a competent therapist. Which you will not be able to rely on these skills without a solid FW experience beforehand. Of course, you will not be exposed to every single diagnosis during FW but ..just trust me on this.

2. Use your textbooks. You know those big, heavy, expensive door stoppers. I read my Physical Dysfunction and Pediatrics textbooks from cover to cover before I started going through the study guide I purchased from TherapyEd. Once I felt I had sufficient background information, I went through the study guide chapter by chapter, making index cards, and writing out my own notes. Highlighting doesn't work for me because I end up highlighting the entire page. Whatever I didn't know in the study guide or felt I needed to review, I made a list. and then made sure to look up the information later. 

3. Make a study schedule and stick to it. I made a calendar. (see right) of what topics I was going to cover each day. Schedule days off. Your sanity will thank you. Take breaks often. Go for a walk. Eat junk food. Whatever. Just get through it. If you miss study time, make it up the next day. Write down something motivating. I know people who wrote their favorite mantra. I wrote my credentials at the top to remind myself what I was working for.

4. By this point in your educational rollercoaster ride, you should have probably figured what type of learner you are. For me, I HAVE to have music or TV on in the background. For whatever reason, the extra auditory input helps me focus. Other people like quiet. Just do what works for you. I studied in my bedroom with the door closed. I tried to study in public places such as Panera and Starbucks but just got distracted. I found this to work best for me. Others may not. I deactivated my facebook account for almost 2 weeks to limit some distractions. How did I ever survive, right?

5. Allow yourself some free time. I struggled with this a lot. If I did anything "fun" I felt guilty the whole time and just thought about what I should be doing. You do not have to study 24/7. A few hours a day with breaks in between is plenty. You WILL burn yourself out and probably have a nervous breakdown or two. I had several, one the night before my exam. I feel I should also mention that I had my first ever panic attack while studying for this. I am usually a very good test taker and never stress before tests but this one made me crazy. Again, this is different for everyone so do yourself a favor and allow yourself to have a life outside of OT world so you don't end up like this<<-----------

6. My final tip (because I am getting lazy and don't want to continue typing) is just to believe in yourself. You know more than you give yourself credit for. Be confident. I know, easier said than done. Walk into that testing center, knowing that you prepared your hardest for this test and go kick the test in the balls. And have a cocktail with some fried food after. Then just relax and wait for your results to be posted online. The waiting part is worse than the actual test BTW.


Oh and one more tidbit: It does not matter what your score is. It is like the SATs..once you pass, nobody will EVER ask you your score. Nobody cares. It's not a competition. You need a 450/600 to pass. Get a 451. Be happy. Go to work, get your (big) paycheck and enjoy life! I start my job on 11/12 and can NOT be anymore excited!!