> catastrophize a minor setback v. peers as "the end of the world."
The counterpoint to this is that most medical trainees endure a tremendous number or setbacks during training that they must overcome. If anything residency teaches it is grit. I would say trainees generally tend to evolve in this respect from premed undergrads and 1st/2nd year med students who are relatively insufferable throughout the rest of training where there is necessarily a personality shift.
> Anecdotally, I've only heard friends in medicine (US) refer to them (the USMLE exam[0] and steps) as "boards,"
Yes, probably when talking to non doctors to keep it simple. But everyone inside usually just says specifically Step 1, Step 2 etc or USMLE.
> Those are usually singular because you only need one
No. If you subspecialize - you will board in two or more things. For instance an interventional cardiologist will be boarded in internal medicine, general cardiology and interventional cardiology each with their own training requirements and exams.
> sometimes they're oral, like a thesis defense where you get grilled on a schedule of of your cases over the past couple years.
The vast majority of even the oral exams are standardized tests with standardized cases. I can only think of OBGYN that does the case review.
Again, I'm not qualified to get at the nuance so I defer to you if you're in the industry.
> No. If you subspecialize
Sure. I agree that you need a singular board for a terminal specialty and potentially interstitial boards along the way.
> Yes, probably when talking to non doctors to keep it simple. But everyone inside usually just says specifically Step 1, Step 2 etc or USMLE.
Again, I'm not in the field, but see a lot of references on the web using "boards" language. From a quick google search "USMLE called steps or boards", I get a test prep site [0]. I'm assuming this is a matter of "precise v. common" usage.
> The United States Medical Licensure Exam (USMLE) Step 1, commonly called “the Boards,” is a standardized test
The counterpoint to this is that most medical trainees endure a tremendous number or setbacks during training that they must overcome. If anything residency teaches it is grit. I would say trainees generally tend to evolve in this respect from premed undergrads and 1st/2nd year med students who are relatively insufferable throughout the rest of training where there is necessarily a personality shift.
> Anecdotally, I've only heard friends in medicine (US) refer to them (the USMLE exam[0] and steps) as "boards,"
Yes, probably when talking to non doctors to keep it simple. But everyone inside usually just says specifically Step 1, Step 2 etc or USMLE.
> Those are usually singular because you only need one
No. If you subspecialize - you will board in two or more things. For instance an interventional cardiologist will be boarded in internal medicine, general cardiology and interventional cardiology each with their own training requirements and exams.
> sometimes they're oral, like a thesis defense where you get grilled on a schedule of of your cases over the past couple years.
The vast majority of even the oral exams are standardized tests with standardized cases. I can only think of OBGYN that does the case review.