I feel like a broken record, yammering on and on about boards. But, Part 4 is this week and it’s coming far too quickly. Part 4 is held in a variety of places across the nation. Unfortunately, National is not included on the list of test sites. So, next Thursday a few colleagues of mine and I are going to be road-tripping to Davenport, Iowa, to test at Palmer. Test days are Friday – Sunday, but you only test on a combination of two days. Thankfully, my test days are Friday and Saturday so the agony won’t have to be drawn out into Sunday.

While school reimburses you for the thousands you sink into paying for boards, you don’t get reimbursed for travel or lodging expenses. So, being poor students, scrupulous budgeting is a must. Airbnb is the way to go for cost-effective lodging, so the six of us rented a house for the weekend, costing each of us a total of $82 for the weekend.

Part 4 is set up with a practical format: a series of rooms in which you have to perform a different orthopedic test or adjustment, take a history, read an X-ray, and make recommendations based off your findings. The only annoying factor is the unfortunate fact that if you start the exam early in the day, you have to sit around, sequestered, the rest of the day until students across the country finish the entire exam. This is done to ensure that no answers can be shared via text or call. Regardless of how the weekend goes, it’ll be good to not have any further board exams hanging over my head. Maybe I’ll finally get that sleep I desire so desperately.