I’m planning to take my 10-year Family Medicine recertification exam in May 2023, and in preparation for this, I just got my first study guide, the 827-page Swanson’s Family Medicine Review.
The test itself has a simple structure: 4 sets of 75 multiple choice questions ( 300 questions total). My study plan is equally simple. I will work through roughly 5000 multiple choice questions several times over the next 9 months by working through several books, and I will concurrently take one board review course. Heck, I might even take a week off two weeks prior to the exam for that last little push (although I would rather take a week off after the exam to have some fun).
Now, why I am taking the exam is another matter. My deep focus is on writing, and it’s unlikely (although not impossible) I will ever practice clinical medicine again. In this sense, taking a medical board exam exam is not useful. Yet I do find a joy in reading and understanding medicine. In fact, in some ways I consider studying for this test an intellectual break.
And I suppose that is the deciding factor: joy. Why deprive myself of a little bit joy just because it may not be “useful?”