Clinical Writtens -- All Testing Centers Full

[Neuronix]

It's day 1 to register for the clinical writtens. Almost every testing center in my large, heavily populated state was full this morning.

Every center is full within 200 miles of my major US city. That's four testing centers in the area, all full on the morning of day 1!

I called ABR and Pearson VUE and they both tell me there is nothing they can do. This is ridiculous. Anyone else having these issues?

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[BobbyHeenan]

LOL, it's like Comcast took control of scheduling....

I"m sorry Mr. Neuronix, we're very busy this time of year with many state food handler's license exams and we cannot accomodate your request. We can put you on a waiting list and I see here that we have a testing center in Salina, KS that has plenty of openings, if you can hold for a minute I can connect you to them.

 

[mpdoc2]

It's day 1 to register for the clinical writtens. Almost every testing center in my large, heavily populated state was full this morning.

Every center is full within 200 miles of my major US city. That's four testing centers in the area, all full on the morning of day 1!

I called ABR and Pearson VUE and they both tell me there is nothing they can do. This is ridiculous. Anyone else having these issues?

Yup that's normal, happened to me many years ago. And no it can't be changed and yes you have to go somewhere else.

 

[Neuronix]

Huh? Your center can be changed if a spot opens up... It's on us to keep checking though of course...

 

[mpdoc2]

Huh? Your center can be changed if a spot opens up... It's on us to keep checking though of course...

I mean you can't change the fact that if there's no openings you have to drive 200 miles. Openings usually don't happen.

 

[Gfunk6]

It sounds like reserving spots for written exams has essentially become a parody of the jobs situation. Nothing available within 200 miles of major metro areas.


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[Mr RADical]

It should be pretty interesting next year when everyone reads this thread and logs in at 12:01 to reserve their spot, thereby crashing the website.

 

[deleted18755]

I thought I had it bad when I had to drive 120 miles two towns over to take the written exam 6-7 years ago.

They had some power issue so the exams started about 45 minutes late and it threw off their schedule and there was a lot of chaos and distraction. I didn't really care since it was the written exam but the AC wasn't working either and it was a freakishly warm 90 degree day in May in some random town North of Buffalo.

When I complained about the conditions the woman basically yelled at me for bothering her and told me I was welcome to go to another testing center (they are apparently aware that they have a monopoly and shortage of site sap we are at their mercy and they couldn't care less).

Our "leaders" don't even care about the deteriorating job market so they obviously couldn't care less about this ... just add it to the list of crap you need to deal with and take.

 

[XRT_doc]

It should be pretty interesting next year when everyone reads this thread and logs in at 12:01 to reserve their spot, thereby crashing the website.

I logged in at 12:01 a year ago, still had to drive 2 hours away. Most of the spots are taken up by people taking nursing and other unrelated exam where they have the benefit of leaders who realize the spots are taken up early. Why ABR can't get their act together is beyond me.

 

[offaxis]

I logged in at 12:01 a year ago, still had to drive 2 hours away. Most of the spots are taken up by people taking nursing and other unrelated exam where they have the benefit of leaders who realize the spots are taken up early. Why ABR can't get their act together is beyond me.

FYI--despite the notice that reg opens at XX date at 12am, it will occasionally allow you to register prior to this. This is likely why the centers are full on day 1. Obviously, why they open the site up before the date specified is absurd.

 

[XRT_doc]

FYI--despite the notice that reg opens at XX date at 12am, it will occasionally allow you to register prior to this. This is likely why the centers are full on day 1. Obviously, why they open the site up before the date specified is absurd.

No, I actually tried to log in 5 minutes before that and it wasn't available. This wasn't just for the physics boards but also the clinical written.

 

[Phantom1]

It's day 1 to register for the clinical writtens. Almost every testing center in my large, heavily populated state was full this morning.

Every center is full within 200 miles of my major US city. That's four testing centers in the area, all full on the morning of day 1!

I called ABR and Pearson VUE and they both tell me there is nothing they can do. This is ridiculous. Anyone else having these issues?

I had this same problem, it is real. What I did was book the nearest available or accessible site so that you have a exam site on the books. Then check every day or every other day until a spot opens up. You can then change your exam location online. Fortunately a spot opened up for me in the city that I was going to be in at the time. I think the lack of Rad Onc exam spots has more to do with the individual private exam site policies and booking schedules than any actual limitation on the specific number of Rad Onc exam spots. I don't think any Rad Onc leadership can tell them to open up more spots, they would probably just say there are none available, but this is just a guess..

 

[RadOncDoc21]

Sounds like an issue based on maximizing their profits instead of doing what's best.

It's already stressful enough to have to take a test with such high stakes involved (board certification) and offer it only once a year.

The exam facilities should be able to reserve slots but instead use a first come, first serve approach for test-takers in other areas that can easily be reserved anytime of year.

 

[Mandelin Rain]

My Pearson story from a few years ago. Details a bit sketchy, but this is the gist.

Let's say he test is open from 8AM to 10 AM (or something similar). After that, the ABR shuts it down.

I got to my testing at 7:30 AM, and was told I'd be allowed to enter in a couple minutes. As 8AM approached, it became clear there was something wrong as the tiny waiting room filled with throngs of people. We were told there was a slight glitch at the site and we'd enter in 5 minutes. At 8:30 AM, they offered to allow people to reschedule their exam "free of charge". When the woman looked at me, she winced and said "I guess for you.... that'd be next year." After a couple weeks of studying, I almost stroked out. The "Glitch" was fixed 15 minutes later, and I asked if I'd get the full time to take the exam. The woman said she didn't know, but thought not. So I got 45 minutes less to complete the exam and was actively dripping with sweat over the uncertainty coupled with the hot box situation they created by stuffing roughly 25 stressed/angry people into a 8x8 ft waiting room for 45 minutes. Luckily it is a fairly easy exam, but I have no love for Pearson.

 

[Gfunk6]

I had a similar freak-out event at Pearson which is documented on an older thread. When I showed up to take Radiation Biology/Physics written exams, I found out that the calculator did not work. I consider myself a reasonably bright person, but I cannot perform inverse natural logs in my head (or on paper!). Therefore, I just made a blind guess at the few questions which required calculations.

After the exam, I learned that some centers had this problem and others didn't. It was a bit of a mess, we wondered if ABR would void the whole exam. In the end, they did some analysis and just voided out those questions and added some "x factor" for examinee stress. I passed both so didn't complain, but am sure others felt otherwise.

 

[DrBowtie]

the reality is that the ABR and its radiation oncology leadership need to be made aware of this and charged with improving this situation. It's unacceptable for residents to have to travel that far to take the exam. Unlike many of the exams offered by Pearson, the ABR exams are only available once a year. As it stands, the best solution is for the ABR to figure out how many residents need to take each test (for rads and rad onc) in each region and then contract with Pearson to ensure those seats locked into place. That being said it requires the ABR to take a hard stance and I am unsure if they would be willing to since at the end of the day residents will drive or fly where needed to take the exam.

It may be worth contacting leadership at the ABR exam services: http://www.theabr.org/sites/all/themes/abr-media/pdf/ABR_Staff_Directory.pdf or the ABR Rad Onc Trustees: Drs. Zietman, Wilson, Shrieve, Hahn, or Alektiar.

Not sure you want the ABR to take a stand on this because it would most likely require everyone to fly to their own ABR testing centers for two testing dates in Tuscon or Chicago like they do with ~1200 diagnostic radiology residents.

 

[radiaterMike]

Not sure you want the ABR to take a stand on this because it would most likely require everyone to fly to their own ABR testing centers for two testing dates in Tuscon or Chicago like they do with ~1200 diagnostic radiology residents.

And like they used to do with rad onc.


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[medgator]

Not sure you want the ABR to take a stand on this because it would most likely require everyone to fly to their own ABR testing centers for two testing dates in Tuscon or Chicago like they do with ~1200 diagnostic radiology residents.

Moc will now be in the comfort of our own homes I think with the new changes. Will be a nice, unfortunately, I don't see that happening with written boards for obvious reasons

 

[offaxis]

No, I actually tried to log in 5 minutes before that and it wasn't available. This wasn't just for the physics boards but also the clinical written.

Yes, registered on in the AM of 5/16 after being given a heads up by co-residents. So a couple of days before the site officially opened.