How did you have enough time to get through the exam if you used Up to Date for 80% of the questions? Aren't you only allotted an average of about 2 minutes per question? You would have to be pretty quick with finding the answer on Up To Date with all those questions. It sounds like a pretty stressful exam.Took ABIM recertification test (this was my second recert test)
I chose taking the exam because I wanted to just do it one time and not have to deal with 5 years of LKA questions. As I was preparing for the exam I came to question this decision many many times, and I think if I had to do it over I probably would have chosen to do the LKA questions (maybe..)
Preparation: I did all 2200 MKSAP 19 questions (I used Uptodate on some of the questions, but honestly I was too lazy to use it and would usually just give a educated guess, My score was around 63-65%) I was planning on reviewing all of the wrong answers but I got totally tired out of studying and after I completed all of the questions I didn't have the mental energy to review the wrong questions. I assumed the exam itself would be easier than MKSAP (more on that later)
Arrived at testing center at 730. I asked the proctor how long are ABIM people usually at the test center, he said they are usually here until 430-530 depending on how much break time they use, in my mind I was thinking there's no way I'll be here until 430pm. I was thinking I would not need the full 2 hours per section (55 questions per section x 4 sections). I skipped the tutorial since I did it at home, and dove right into the first section. I quickly realized that this test was not easy, in fact I had to look up the answers to the first five questions and it took me a while to figure them out. It quickly dawned on me that this was going to be a long day. One hour into the exam, I was feeling pretty depressed knowing I had 7 more hours of questiosn. I estimate I had to use Uptodate on 80% of the questions. What helped me was I started to view it as not an exam, but a research exercise using Uptodate, and I just relaxed and took my time. The questions were very particular and there was no way to know the answer besides looking up the answers. I ended up using all of the time for each section, in fact on two of the sections I basically didn't have any time left, there definitely was not time to review any questions. I was pretty patient and took my time with uptodate hunting for answers, I think this strategy payed off because if you look long enough (usually) i could find the answer.
I was finished by 5:30pm. Long story short the test is basically 8 hours of searching Uptodate for answers to very particular questions. One thing I am not sure is: Is the original non recertification test (where you do not have Uptodate) the same, I really can't imagine doing this particular test without Uptodate. I didn't have any issues passing the original boards (20 years ago and the first recertification 10 years ago), so I don't know if they have now made the recertification test more difficult now or if it is the same. Honestly, in hindsight I would have studied less because I don't think any more studying would have made any difference.
If I could do it over, would I choose the exam over the LKA questions? This is a tough call. Now that I'm done, I'm happy to be finished. I actually think either option is reasonable, if you are someone who just wants to be done with it, I think the exam is a good option. Interestingly enough on this particular exam day, there were only a handful of other doctors taking the exam, I do not think the exam is a very popular option. I hope this helps anyone who is making the decision regarding ABIM recertification.
Official ABIM Exam/study tools thread!
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How did you have enough time to get through the exam if you used Up to Date for 80% of the questions? Aren't you only allotted an average of about 2 minutes per question? You would have to be pretty quick with finding the answer on Up To Date with all those questions. It sounds like a pretty stressful exam.
I don't know either. I timed myself with practice tests, giving myself 30 secs to use UpToDate for a question. Frankly if you can't find the answer in under a minute, you're not going to find it within the constraints of the timed exam without skipping some potentially easy questions.
I only used it about 6 times during each block on my first pass.
If I had some time left over (some easy 5 sec questions), I'd go back to my marked questions and look in UpToDate again. That was pretty low yield.
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I feel like it is gonna be so hard for me to get 64% of ABIM questions correct to pass. On UW, I average around 50-55%...
glorifiedresident
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Sorry for the late response. I haven’t been back to this thread since the boards. I’m not sure what to say, but I will say that I had to consult UTD on the large majority of the questions and I will say this, if you are patient and dig in you will likely find the answer on UTD. I would say in order to have the time to do this you will have to answer maybe 20% of the questions without consulting UTD. I didn’t finish the sections with much time if any left. I didn’t feel
Rushed and in fact I purposely took my time to hunt the answer on UpToDate because I figured every correct answer was worth the time spent. It’s a stressful test if you look at it like an exam, I chose to alter my perspective during the test and looked at it not as a test of my knowledge base (which I feel is good) but as a test of my research skills. It’s honestly a very useless test but it’s one of those proverbial hoops you gotta jump through.
Not sure if there is correlation. But I scored the low 70s on MKSAP. Did not do UWorld and my score on the real thing 3 yrs ago was in the 40s percentile. I felt the real exam was like MKSAP.
I've never seen any correlation that one can confidently use, although individuals on this thread have posted their question bank scores and final results. I guess you are in the (low-ish) ballpark for pass based on UWORLD score. I didn't use MKSAP. Did you use UpToDate with your failed questions? You need to practice and integrate UpToDate in your prep.
I scored, first time around, about 56% on UWORLD and did well on the ABIM recert exam. There are many factors involved in your actual pass/fail (score) on the real recert exam that are hard to quantify.
I think new information retention, as opposed to current knowledge assessment alone is overlooked in some of the posts here. You need to remember the things you got wrong or the question bank is simply an recurring assessment of your current knowledge without improving it (other than practicing test taking). Think repetition (flash cards with AnkiDroid, hand written cards, cards that can be made in the question bank, or going over questions multiple times). I found AnkiDroid flash cards was the most efficient and effective method to retain new/forgotten knowledge, especially across multiple banks.
You could do a few timed exams at home to test your pass/fail prediction. UWORLD will let you reset the question bank and go through a specified number of questions randomly.
I also really liked the NEJM question bank almost as much as UWORLD in terms of question/answer quality and visual format. It has two timed exams you can use. NEJM takes your percent correct on practice test and calculates your score relative to other test takers which I think is a useful but imperfect gauge. The cost of NEJM is relatively small compared to the stakes.
Good luck.
Remember, it is highly likely you'll pass but leave the exam feeling horrible. Don't give up or lose confidence on exam day. Push through it!
glorifiedresident
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don't kill yourself studying. the test is basically an exercise in using Uptodate as I wrote in my post.
