Master Your Boards (MYB) is an 8-week online course delivered through 10, one-hour group coaching sessions held 1-2 times per week. Each live session is video-recorded and participants are able to access all course content until they have taken and passed their board exams.
Joining MYB would connect you with a group of like-minded physicians who have had similar struggles with passing their board exams. Master Your Boards (MYB) begins June 11, 2020 and ends on July 30, 2020.
Through Master Your Boards, you will be able to implement—in a supportive, safe learning environment—research-based study strategies grounded in self-regulated learning theory. These are strategies that help to reduce test-taking anxiety, increase motivation, and build confidence. How so? These strategies will provide you with a clear path to success that is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-based. In other words, they are SMART strategies.
"I had failed my neonatal boards the year prior and had never failed an exam before. The questions you instructed us to use before answering the [practice] questions helped to logically answer instead of memorizing. Preparing the second time was harder due to fear and intense doubt. However, the skills you provided certainly help me to improve during the last few months of preparation. Thanks again, and you are truly gifted."
~Board-certified neonatologist
"I was glad Adrian reviewed exactly how to do questions (i.e., respond to the actual question before reading the answer choices). Specifically, because I usually look at all the answers and then rally between two of them, I found myself taking his tip on test day!"
~Board-certified neonatologist
"Doing questions from different topics was very helpful, as well as using questions as a guide to test knowledge. When it came down to the wire and I was running out of time, I started doing questions so that I could see where my deficits were, so I could study those areas since there is often no way of studying everything. That really helped me. I never thought of questions in those ways before Adrian explained that to us."
~Board-certified pediatrician
"I'm glad we had a new variety of strategies to use. I hadn't heard of any of these before, so the course did give me a tool or an approach in my studying to make it more valuable to me. I like that the course was kind of longitudinal because, I mean, we work: It gave us time to get a concept, and in the free time that we do have, actually apply it and be able to discuss feedback with you before learning a new one. I also think the time was sufficient because it takes a lot to unlearn habits that you've had for how you approach your learning."
~Licensed internist
~Licensed internist
~Board-certified pediatrician
Your Instructor
Hello! Welcome to Master Your Boards. I am Adrian Reynolds, Ph.D.,YOUR learning coach. I am a medical education professor at a Research 1 university. The science of learning/ learning how to learn is my calling, and I'd love to share it with you. I teach research-based study strategies to physicians across a broad range of specialties including, but not limited to pediatrics, surgery, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, critical care medicine, neonatology, and psychiatry. I help to rebuild the confidence and motivation of physicians who have not passed their board exams after multiple attempts, and my coaching strategies have helped reduce test-related anxiety and self-doubt while increasing motivation.
I am the recipient of Legacy Magazine's "40 Under 40 Leaders of Today and Tomorrow". As an educational linguist, medical educator, (former) teacher of English as a second language (ESL) and Spanish as a foreign language, I have over 15 years of teaching experience in the science of learning. Given my interdisciplinary background, I am uniquely positioned to coach physicians across specialties, linguistic and cultural backgrounds on how to implement research-based study strategies that will increase their chances of passing their board exams.
In all my interactions with learners of diverse backgrounds, I have identified one consistent theme: Studying for standardized exams goes far beyond knowing your content. To earn that passing score, you must be able to master study and test-taking strategies that will, in turn, lead to content mastery. Together, we can make it happen. Let's begin the journey! As a start, I’ll introduce you to the three guiding principles that shape the culture of this learning community. Say them out loud:
- I am not defined by the obstacles of my past.
- I have the power to shape my own destiny.
- I declare I am who I hope to be: “I AM A BOARD-CERTIFIED _____.”