A Resident Initiated Prite Review Course: Trials and Tribulations

The experience of developing a review course to study for the Psychiatry Resident\u27s In-Training Exam (PRITE) is discussed. Residents in our program felt that the review course was useful with respect to the following: studying for the PRITE; future study for National Boards; and learning of new material. The Psychiatry Resident\u27s In-Training Exam (PRITE) was developed in 1979 as a mechanism to assess the knowledge base of psychiatric residents in a standardized format (1,2,3). The exam was originally designed to simulate the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN) examination, PART I, and has gained widespread acceptance despite questions about its ability to accurately test or reflect the knowledge of the examinee (1,4,5). Principles derived from a system for self-education of residents published by Taylor and Torrey (6) were applied to a review course developed at this institution to improve the knowledge base of each resident with the goal of increasing performance on the PRITE and, ultimately, ABPN exam Part 1. This paper discusses the review course from its conception to final evaluation with views offered from the organizers, the residency director, and the residents taught by this method. It was hypothesized that most participants would feel that the review course was useful in studying for the PRITE exam and that those who had actively participated (i.e., made a handout or gave a lecture) would feel the review course was more useful than those who were passive participants