CAQ-Peds study plan
CAQ-Peds · Give each week a clear focus.
8 weeks · About 6 hours per week
Pediatrics
Map the full CAQ-Peds content outline into a personal checklist and mark every subtopic as known, shaky, or unknown before studying anything.
Build a one-page growth-and-development reference covering motor, language, social, and cognitive milestones from birth through adolescence, and self-quiz it aloud until recall is fluent.
List the red-flag developmental findings that mandate referral or urgent evaluation and write one clinical vignette for each to anchor recognition.
Set up a spaced-repetition deck seeded with 40 milestone and screening facts, tagged by subtopic so weak areas are visible.
Your checkpoint
A completed self-assessment checklist with every subtopic rated and a 40-card milestone deck created.
Pediatrics
Work through preventive-care content: well-child visit intervals, immunizations, and lead, anemia, and vision/hearing screening schedules.
Explain the immunization schedule logic well enough to justify catch-up dosing for a child who is behind, without looking at a table.
Draft comparison notes distinguishing developmental screening tools from diagnostic evaluation and from surveillance at each visit.
Answer 40 board-style questions on development and preventive care, then log every missed concept with the reason for the miss.
Your checkpoint
A two-page immunization and screening quick-reference plus a logged error list from 40 practice questions.
Pediatrics
Organize newborn and neonatal content: transition physiology, jaundice evaluation and treatment thresholds, feeding and weight-gain expectations, and sepsis risk stratification.
Practice interpreting newborn screening results and state the immediate next step for each abnormal pattern.
Summarize common congenital and genetic presentations with their key discriminating features in a single comparative table.
Complete 50 mixed neonatology questions and redo every missed item two days later.
Your checkpoint
A comparative table of 15 congenital/genetic conditions and a 50-question practice set with a documented second pass.
Pediatrics
Consolidate growth, nutrition, and endocrine content: growth-chart interpretation, failure-to-thrive workup, obesity assessment, and thyroid and adrenal presentations.
Interpret growth velocity and bone-age concepts and explain when short stature warrants laboratory evaluation.
Identify the highest-yield weaknesses from weeks 1 to 3 and rewrite condensed notes for each.
Take a timed 50-question cumulative block covering weeks 1 to 3 and review the rationale for every incorrect answer.
Your checkpoint
A timed 50-question cumulative score recorded with a written remediation list of the top five weak areas.
Pediatrics
Build an organized approach to pediatric respiratory disease: asthma severity and stepwise control, bronchiolitis, croup, and pneumonia by age group.
Distinguish upper from lower airway presentations by history and exam findings and match each to first-line management.
Review pediatric cardiology basics: murmur timing and quality, cyanotic versus acyanotic lesions, and when to escalate urgently.
Answer 50 respiratory and cardiac questions and write a one-line decision rule for each item missed.
Your checkpoint
A one-page asthma stepwise algorithm and a murmur-classification cheat sheet, each self-tested from memory.
Pediatrics
Cover gastrointestinal, renal, and genitourinary content: dehydration assessment, acute gastroenteritis, reflux, urinary tract infection, and common renal anomalies.
Practice fluid and electrolyte calculations for maintenance and deficit replacement and verify each against a reference.
Review hematology and oncology screening: anemia classification by indices, bleeding disorders, and when cytopenias need urgent referral.
Complete 50 questions on these systems and categorize each error as knowledge gap, misread, or reasoning error.
Your checkpoint
A worked set of 10 fluid and electrolyte calculations with verified answers and an error-category tally.
Pediatrics
Review infectious disease and dermatology: fever without a source by age, common exanthems, and antibiotic selection principles.
Review neurologic and behavioral content: seizure classification, headache red flags, ADHD and autism evaluation pathways, and adolescent mental health screening.
Rehearse the approach to pediatric emergencies, including dehydration, respiratory distress, and altered mental status, in a written stepwise format.
Take a timed 60-question mixed block weighted toward previously weak subtopics.
Your checkpoint
A timed 60-question score with a written list of the remaining top three weak subtopics.
Pediatrics
Complete two full-length timed practice exams under exam-day conditions and record scores by subtopic.
Review every missed question from both exams and write a corrected reasoning line for each rather than just the right answer.
Re-drill the spaced-repetition deck to full fluency and retire cards that are consistently correct.
Finalize a one-page pre-exam summary of high-yield decision rules, thresholds, and dosing principles for last-day review.
Your checkpoint
Two full-length practice scores with subtopic breakdowns and a completed one-page pre-exam summary sheet.
Milestones
Week 2: Self-assessment checklist is fully rated, and practice accuracy on development and preventive care is at or above 60 percent.
Week 4: Timed 50-question cumulative block completed with a score of at least 65 percent and a written remediation list of the top five weak areas.
Week 6: All major organ-system content covered once, and the error-category tally shows reasoning errors shrinking relative to knowledge gaps.
Week 8: Both full-length practice exams completed at or above the target passing margin, with no subtopic left unrated or unreviewed.