Board Certified.

God be Glorified. I feel like a major load has been lifted off my shoulders and I can finally breathe.

I did not get the preliminary pass result like most of my colleagues did weeks ago when we took the Family Medicine board exam. For those who do not know, most exam takers receive a preliminary pass or fail notification within a week of taking the test. Then the official score report comes out around June. This protocol can be beneficial because docs don’t have to wait as long to know whether or not they can move on with life. What about those left in limbo, though?

Another preliminary exam outcome is Pending Review. That’s the result I received when I opened my email from the American Board of Family Medicine just weeks ago. I had not passed. I had not failed. The powers that be needed to do more calculating to determine what the end would be. I immediately started to panic and the step 1 debacle of 2017 began to wash over me all over again. Why hadn’t I received that preliminary pass? I’d studied 6 months for this exam while some study 2 weeks if at all. I’d taken and passed all but one practice exam. The one I failed fell on the day my younger cousin passed away (Love you, James). I’d completed ALL of the AAFP practice questions twice. Some of them I completed three times. Y’all know I do not play with board exams. Why couldn’t I be out celebrating like my colleagues and putting this exam behind me? Why couldn’t I get that $1300 board exam reimbursement right away like everyone else (m’kay?!) In that moment, I heard God say to me, “I just need to use one more exam from you. Someone else is going to receive that Pending Review email and will need your testimony. Bear with me.” God speaks to me, y’all. I quickly remembered the tactics I’d used to get be through step 1 back in 2018. I started speaking aloud what I wanted to see. Anytime I started to think negative thoughts, I would say, “Pass.” And so it is.

This past week, I received an email with my final score report. My heart nearly beat out of my chest as I logged into the doctor portal. PASS. Hallelujah!!! I was and still am just so ecstatic; so grateful. And I didn’t marginally pass either. I pass passed! The women’s health and reproductive health sections showed my best performance. I suppose I chose the correct post-residency job lol. One of my good friends from med school encouraged me so much during this time and I wanted to share with you all something that really helped: most docs who receive the preliminary pending review notice do actually pass. Her program director had never seen someone get that notice and then not pass. It’s just that sometimes exams are flagged if something strange happens during test day. When she said that, I did remember my computer glitched a few times during the exam. Perhaps that was it. I hope this gives you peace if you receive the same preliminary report. 

The fact I no longer have to take board exams is one of my favorite parts of this entire ‘end of an era’ experience. No, really. Family Med docs, did y’all know we can recertify via longitudinal assessment? Yes, we can complete 25 questions (open book) once a quarter in the comfort of our homes. This assessment is done over 3-4 years. It is meant to be a less anxiety-provoking experience and one where we learn as we answer questions. Will you look at that?! An ‘exam’ experience that is finally meant to teach instead of take all our money and “assess our clinical knowledge” without once actually seeing us in clinic. After all we’ve been through to become docs, we very honestly deserve!! In ten years, SIGN ME UP BABE!! And allow me to say this: Family Medicine is not easy. That false notion probably stems from the fact that Family Medicine is primarily outpatient and the hours are better. Still, having to know everything about adults AND children? Having to know information from every specialty? Having to rotate through lots of specialties during residency? Can you imagine what that kind of exam looks like? I’ve heard in years past people say the exam was not that bad, but this year the general consensus was, “what in the world was that?! There were so many random factoids and info from step 1. How was I supposed to remember?” Primary care and serving as patients’ central health care home are not easy. I thank God that test is behind me.

I am free. I feel free. After years of countless expensive exams that say nothing about my capabilities as a clinician, I am free. Step 1 made it so hard for me to sit for, study for, and receive results for board exams without panicking at least a little. I’m free of that now. Never again do I have to open up an email with “results” that may determine how I operate in my career. Never again. 

This is my season of Pride. I just cannot stop thinking how proud I am of me and how grateful I am to God for sustaining me so I could do what must be done to accomplish my goals. I mean, honestly. This 18 year journey with my medical education has been so long, so wild, so expensive, so ridiculous, and so uncomfortable. Yet, here I stand–A FULLY BOARD CERTIFIED FAMILY MEDICINE PHYSICIAN with a focus in Reproductive Health. I fought long and hard to get here. I’ve done more than the average person and I’m so much stronger for it. I am proud of the fact I did not let step 1 dictate anything about me. I am proud that I advocated for myself and faced a multitude of naysayers to get my fair chance. I am proud that I can email my alma mater’s President and she always responds almost immediately and says how she’s a champion for me. This time she shared my email with students AND faculty. Now in addition to already offering me a job, they’ve requested I become adjunct faculty. What a complete turnaround from 2017!!! I could cry! I am proud I BUCKED UP, rose to the occasion, and learned how to take exams so I could have the career I wanted. After step 1, I never failed not another board exam. No, not one. And I had to take step 2 before the pandemic when it was still two parts. I’ll never forget how I accidently signed up for the evening patient-centered part of the exam and was seeing simulated patients until 10:30pm. Ha! I am proud that I sucked it up and survived New York so I could leave with the skills I wanted. I am proud I get to celebrate it all by moving home, buying a home, and truly living life. 

I did it, y’all. I really do feel like my life is set up so nicely. I have a true, lucrative, transferrable skillset that allows me to create and afford a lifestyle I actually want. I get to use my hands and mind to heal, inform, and educate. I have a creative skillset that allows more streams of income. I got my house on the hill with a rooftop. I’m set…and I’m just getting started. Growth and expansion of my territory and even more abundance are coming in the name of Jesus. 

I thank you all always for cheering me on. Students, residents, doctors, you can do this. Morehouse students on your last step attempt, you can do this. No is not an answer. As always, I want to share my study resources. Again, most people study very little (weeks if anything) for the Family Medicine Board exam. I don’t like to gamble, so here’s what I did:

Everything I do for board exams at baseline

All AAFP board review questions

New England Journal of Medicine practice questions – We had a free subscription through our program. I only got through a handful of questions as they have super long question prompts and explanations. I quickly stopped doing these as they are not as reflective of the exam.

All ITE exams I could find – at least 4 years’ worth, located on AAFP doctor portal when you log in

I Prayed and Believed.

Never give up, y’all. I hope that if you take anything away from my platform, it’s that very message. Never give up. Onward.

xx,