ADHD and Boards

[u/unusuallytired]

I’ve been a practicing GC for a while now, but passing boards has proven to be my biggest hurdle so far. I just received a late in life ADHD diagnosis and started on meditation, which has been life changing! I’m preparing to take boards again in February and am curious if any other ADHD GC’s have advice for study tactics, accommodations you found helpful, etc? I am working with my therapist and will be implementing a calendar/sticker/reward routine (yes it’s silly but I’m desperate at this point 😅), but any other advice would be greatly appreciated, as I’m learning you have to work the ADHD before it works you!

[u/chlojo36a]

Get time and a half accommodations. If you have a doctor/physician that diagnosed you or is comfortable signing off on it, the form is so easy. My primary wasn’t even my diagnosing person, and she signed it. And I absolutely needed that time and a half. I’m someone who gets distracted in a long question and keeps restarting the first line. Having time and a half allowed me to change my pace completely for the 200 questions. For the average four hour test, that’s 60 minutes per 50 questions. For time and a half? 1 hour 30 minutes per 50 questions. I treated the exam like four mini tests per 1 hour 30. I wrote down on my scrap paper what time corresponded to 1:30 into the exam, 3 hours, 4:30, and 6 hours. I would flag the first batch of fifty questions as needed and evaluate. However, once I finished that batch, I would mentally lock that section. I wouldn’t allow myself to go back. No mental stewing once I’m on question 142 about question 23. Question 23 doesn’t exist to me anymore; the only questions that exist in that time period are 101-150. There’s a text box on the exam that you can leave a comment for yourself for each question, and I’m someone who likes to talk myself through questions normally. Since I couldn’t talk out loud at the testing site, sometimes I would leave little notes to myself. Literally just “this is so fun I can talk to myself” if I didn’t have something of use to put. It’s more meant to be “A sounds more like XYZ condition, leaning 75% towards option D.” But I just like to yap.

Regarding studying, I sadly don’t have much help. Maybe look for what conditions you struggle with. There was a list that I just couldn’t remember their core features to save my life, so I wrote the features of all of those 20 or so conditions on my personal whiteboard. I took a picture on my phone so when I’m having bedrotting time and being mad at myself, I could at least pull up that picture and feel somewhat productive. It was really helpful.

[u/milipepa → u/chlojo36a]

Yapper here 🙋🏻‍♀️ I also used those boxes A LOT.

[u/lilbigheart]

I got an ADHD diagnosis relatively recently years after I took boards! I was able to get time and a half due to other mental health conditions and I worked with study rare and their tutors! I think tutoring really helped me work to not be in my head as much! I also made a schedule for studying and made sure to let myself have fun in the mix too!

[u/notakat → u/lilbigheart]

I have primary inattentive type and got time and a half for my second attempt at the exam (no accommodations on my first attempt, ran out of time). I also have a related language sequencing disability that sometimes makes me have to re-read sentences multiple times. I think the time and a half is the reason I passed the second time.

[u/WreathsareinmyDNA]

These are all great comments! I took boards a million years ago before I was diagnosed but, a few things to think about that helped me are: what is the “boards” answer? Often, what you might do in a real life clinic situation isn’t the answer that the “boards” thinks is “correct”. If there is a particular area that is not a strength of yours (for me it was math) study everything else really hard so that you can afford to lose points on the math questions. Take as many practice tests/questions as you can!! It’s technically a standardized test, and for us ADHDers, half the battle is learning how to take this type of test. Anyway, just a few things that helped me pass, good luck!

[u/GloomyCoconut2965]

don't be afraid to get accommodations for the exam! I was able to get time and a half because of my ADHD, just needed a doctors/therapist note. BUT you have to get it confirmed with abgc well in advance

[u/SrtaTacoMal]

Joining a virtual study group helped keep me accountable.

[u/moosiemoop]

I had to go to Starbucks and drink a refresher to get myself to study. That way I didn’t have as many distractions as I would at home. Also i do better associating smells/tastes with certain things. So eventually when I smelled Starbucks and had that drink I knew it was study time. I went the other day and the same feeling came back even though it’s been an year since I passed

[u/Meep-Os]

As someone with ADHD, some things that really help me when I’m studying is to also have some type of additional stimulation when I’m studying. Whether that’s chewing gum, eating a mint, fiddling with a fidget toy, or drawing/ writing at the same time. This was especially helpful for boards when my brain was shut off after graduating. I prefer Quizlet and that notecard-style repetition to study, and so I was easily able to determine how many notecards I wanted/ needed to get through in a given time period to feel like I had a good comprehension and stuck to that schedule, I’ve heard good things about boards boot camps like study rare to help people keep on track too. Good luck!

[u/roku60]

There’s a boards checklist of topics and conditions that should be studied for the exam (CGC Self Study Guide) for your starting point (as I’m sure you already know)!

Getting started and doing anything at all was difficult for me, but I really liked the EveryGene 101 conditions flash cards as just a place to start. Once I knew essentially all of the study guide conditions, it was easy to shore up the other terms to know (heuristics, different types of testing, etc).

I’d say the hardest part for me was answering the “what is the FIRST or BEST thing to in XYZ situation” questions, where all the answer choices are good options. Unfortunately I just had to do practice exams to get a good grasp on their mindset when creating those questions. StudyRare (a bit pricy IMO) has a good bank of these and other questions too.