Structuring your Studying for the IBCLC Exam

You’ve finished your clinical hours, completed your lactation education, and passed your 14 health science courses. Congratulations! But - you’re not done yet. After YEARS of preparation, the IBCLC exam looms large.

I thrive on order and organization, and I was so overwhelmed trying to study for the exam. In part, this is due to the nature of the certification: we all have extremely different backgrounds and pathways for training, but then we all have to take the same test. Also, there is just SO MUCH to know. You’re expected to know basic information about a TON of topics.

In an effort to organize my own thoughts, I created a specific method of studying. Every 6 months, I see a flurry of Facebook posts asking for study tips, I wanted to put this out into the universe in hopes that it can help you, too. Typing it all out made me feel a little bit insane, but keep in mind that I am a serial over-preparer: it’s just how my brain works! If you are more of a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants test-taker, this is not the post for you.

Author’s Note: I am unable to distribute or sell any of the materials listed in this post.

Part A: Baseline Knowledge

I began my study process with a comprehensive (surface-level) review of lactation. For this, I used two sources: The Lactation College, and The Breastfeeding Atlas.

The Lactation College (TLC) on Substack

TLC was founded by Dr. Barbara Philipp and is an absolutely fantastic resource. The standard subscription is free, although I am a paid member and I love the included “Research Thursday” posts. (Dr. Philipp and my colleague Mary Foley have just launched the formal Lactation College with a variety of wonderful online courses - check it out!).

Once you subscribe to TLC on Substack, you get a few emails each week, jam packed with exam-specific education. The emails are short and to the point, and very easy to read & understand. For TLC and all of my other studying, I used the Microsoft program OneNote. I went back and forth for a long time about whether to take notes on paper or on the computer; I’m really glad I decided to type them because I can easily search topics these days as part of my private practice, and it made it much easier to study as the exam approached (more on that later).

I set up Cornell-style notes in OneNote for each topic in TLC. At the end of each topic, TLC sends you a multiple choice quiz; before taking each quiz I would reread my notes and then try to take the quiz closed note. The Lactation College emails continue until a couple of weeks before the exam, so I followed this process throughout.

Cornell Notes Example

The Breastfeeding Atlas

The Atlas is absolutely essential reading for any IBCLC candidate, and I frequently use it in private practice. The first half is a written overview that matches up with the hundreds of photographs in the second half. Before reading, I took my Atlas to Staples to have the two halves bound separately so I could read the information and look at the photographs at the same time (I cannot take credit for this genius idea!).

I read the Atlas cover to cover, following the same procedure as with TLC: reading and taking Cornell Notes in OneNote as I went along.

Part B: The Detailed Content Outline

With a general refresher under my belt, I determined which areas to hone in on. There are 7 disciplines of knowledge required of the IBCLC, clearly labeled and elaborated on in the IBLCE’s Detailed Content Outline.

Official Practice Exam

The IBLCE’s Official Practice Examination has some drawbacks: I was not thrilled about paying $50 for it after the hefty price tag for the “real” exam. You can only take it one time. The system gives you a score (broken down by discipline), and you never get to see the questions again or know which ones you got right and wrong. Two good things, though: the score I got was very close to what I ended up scoring on the actual exam (84% on the practice, 90% on the actual); and it gives a helpful breakdown of your score on each of the 7 disciplines.

Using my score report, I calculated the percentage correct in each discipline, which gave me an idea of which of the areas I needed to study most before the exam. For me, this was Pharmacology & Toxicology and Development & Nutrition.

Breaking Down the Detailed Content Outline

Next, I made the Detailed Content Outline into an Excel spreadsheet, using a free PDF to Excel converter like this one. Using the far left column, I assigned dates to act as deadlines for each section, starting with today and ending about 1 week before my exam date:

If you’re short on study time, this is where you can make adjustments: delete topics where you feel very confident, especially your top disciplines from the practice test. I assigned more topics to days where I was more confident in the information (for example, I knew I could review all “Education and Communication”, 8 topics, in one day), and fewer topics where I knew I needed to spend more time (for example, spending 5 days on the 10 topics in Pharmacology).

Filling in the Gaps

To round out my knowledge, and for the bulk of my studying, I used the following resources:

Starting with “Feeding behaviors at different ages,” I reviewed each topic in the Detailed Content Outline from top to bottom. My goal was to have electronic notes on all of the topics. I would first try to locate information on this topic in my existing notes (TLC or Breastfeeding Atlas). If it didn’t exist, I would use the two textbooks listed above (or sometimes a website) to find the information and make notes in a new section of OneNote. Of the two textbooks, I found BFHL to be much easier to read, but I think this is a matter of personal preference. As I studied, I used my Detailed Content Outline spreadsheet to keep track of where I was finding the information for each topic in the far right column, so I could easily find it again if needed.

At the end of each of the 7 disciplines (the first one is Development & Nutrition), I studied all of my notes and then I used the LER Question Bank to review. I LOVE this resource. You can create multiple choice question quizzes that pull from a specific section, which was insanely helpful. After each question that you answer incorrectly, there is a detailed explanation. I particularly found LER helpful when figuring out how to answer the questions with tricky phrasing, like “What would you do first?” Many of these questions require you to answer from a counseling perspective, and it was invaluable to learn how the questions would be worded on the exam.

As I took the quizzes (and reviewed my answers), I made flash cards for the questions I answered incorrectly. Each discipline was a different color. I can’t recommend this enough. From the day I started making these flash cards, I carried them around with me everywhere and was able to easily study on the go, even if I just had a couple of minutes.

Part C: Final Preparations

In the last week before the exam, I:

  • continued to use the LER Question Bank; specifically, I made quizzes with the questions that I had originally answered incorrectly and re-answered them.

  • drilled my flash cards, focusing especially on my weakest disciplines.

  • reprinted and re-answered all of the TLC quizzes.

  • studied the photos from the Breastfeeding Atlas, referencing the text associated with each photo

Part D: The Exam

I was, of course, very nervous on the day of the exam. My test-taking strategy was to go through the questions and answer the really easy ones first, flagging all of the ones that I paused for, even for a second. Then I went back through and answered the more challenging questions.

The exam is in two sections, with a short break in the middle. Before submitting each section, I counted the number of “unflagged” questions (the questions I was absolutely positive about). There’s no “passing score” that’s standard for each exam date, but it’s typically around 70%. After leaving the exam, I did a quick calculation that my unflagged questions were about 75% of the test, which made me feel a little bit more relaxed during the looooooooong 3 month wait for my score.

After a long wait, I found out that I PASSED! It was the longest wait of my life, but I am now running a busy private practice as an IBCLC. I use the notes that I took all the time when working with clients, so even though it was very time-consuming, this preparation was well worth it.

If you made it this far, congratulations! I hope this was helpful. Please leave me any questions or your own test-taking strategies in the comments, and good luck!

Sarah is a newly-certified Internationally Board Certified Lactation Consultant in the Greater Boston area, and she also sees clients virtually. Learn more and book a consult here.

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