ABEM Written 2018
Started by hoot504
Agreed. Tbh, out of all the resources out there, PeerXIII (not IX) was the best resource I used. All I used was Peer XIII and Peer IX from PGY-1 until graduation and it was sufficient. My advice to all who take this thing in the future is to use one resource and study that no matter what it is and you should still pass. I really don’t think using Rosh, Hippo, whatever other resource you want to choose all at the same time adds much of anything. Choose one, save some money, and let it ride.
Just use rosh.
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Just used rosh to study. Honestly only got through about 1200 questions.
Thought I failed the final exam but ended up doing much better than I expected. Also about 2-3 points higher than the predicted score on rosh.
Thought I failed the final exam but ended up doing much better than I expected. Also about 2-3 points higher than the predicted score on rosh.
Dumb as in easy? That wasn't my experience, but I've never been good with this type of test.
Anyways, I'm happy to have passed and be done with it for 9-10 years.
You are done with it forever due to the changes in MOC!
Dumb as in poor quality, at times esoteric, and utterly demoralizing? I left the exam feeling betrayed and angry. Just grateful for whatever strange magic abem used when calculating our scores that got me a pass and hoping the luck holds through oral boards. Oh and my predicted rosh was off by 10 my peer predicted score off by 20+
The MOC reform went through? That's some great news.
For those still needing to take this: I'm not a natural test taker but passed w/ an 83 on this after doing all the Rosh Qs + redoing most of PEER VIII+XI. I thought it was very similar to the in-services. Very few curveballs. Certainly easier than Step 1.
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Hmm we had very different exam experiences .. Didn't think the inservices were terribly representative and felt like I had more than a couple curveballs. Most questions I could eliminate a few of the answer choices and then it felt like a game of guess what the examiner was thinking. I left the exam completely convinced I failed and so did a lot of my residency class.
But to those who haven't taken this yet...odds are on your side and most people pass. Its not uncommon to feel bad about it and then still pass comfortably.
The oral boards are much easier than the written in my opinion. Buy the Okuda book, learn the game and format. 98% pass on their first attempt.
Just remember to always reassess after any intervention to make sure it worked
Can you update us with these details? I'd love to hear. I'd look it up myself, but I'm far from home.
This is honestly just flat out the correct analysis. I have no clue how you could take that exam and not come out with this takeaway.
No joke. I had a question on mine that asked me about biomarkers for SLE.
10 years in EM, and I have never once ordered an autoimmune panel.
I wonder if it appears to be curved because of the trial questions? As in, there are new questions that are being tested, and those that don't perform well get tossed out. So it feels curved, but really it's just that your score is only based on (something like) 85% of the questions.
In any case, I'm glad that when I recert this spring it'll be my last time!
Yes, that was my sense. About 10% felt like curveballs and I just assumed they were the experimental questions and moved on.
Statistically, if you can score >80%ish on an in-service, then you have like a 95% chance of passing the written exam per past years' data. I'd say work hard and then don't sweat it.
Not saying it was an easy test. Took me all summer to cover Rosh + 1200 Questions. Latter was dated and not quite as helpful BTW.
I thought the in-training exams were pretty representative of the real thing.
Rosh could be a better product for the amount of money they charge, however, it's the largest question bank around. PEER probably most representative of the style they use.
It's a standardized test - some questions you might have no clue on - you pick a choice at random and move on.
If you have a solid foundational knowledge of EM, there should be no reason why you don't pass this easily.
Rosh could be a better product for the amount of money they charge, however, it's the largest question bank around. PEER probably most representative of the style they use.
It's a standardized test - some questions you might have no clue on - you pick a choice at random and move on.
If you have a solid foundational knowledge of EM, there should be no reason why you don't pass this easily.
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I agree Rosh is completely overrated. I don't understand the popularity. They focus way too much on detailed explanations and not enough on formatting questions appropriately.
I didn't feel like I was taking a test on foundational knowledge of Em is the thing. I don't order or interpret some of the things I was asked about. But I also am an extremely anxious test taker who has a tendency to underperform on exams. Picking an answer and moving on has always involved a great deal of angst for me. I also have a great memory for test questions I wasn't sure on or thought were stupid so this tends to be what I remember about exams. There were likely plenty of foundational questions that I knew, answered and forgot about? I'm glad I passed and it's nice I did better than predicted (though largely irrelevant). Would love to know more percentile data and how my score compared to others that took the exam (have no specific reason other than curiosity). Didn't the ITE reports have national percentile data included?
For what its worth in case people end up reading this thread who did fail. I disagree with the above. I wouldn't say that someone who failed necessarily lacks a solid foundational knowledge of EM. I just think the test was poorly written. Just ask ABEM, I made my opinion perfectly clear with every angry (but polite) word in the question feedback/post-exam survey. Well mostly polite...pretty sure I said that a third-year medical student could get a better visual stim at one point but I digress. For what that exam cost they could improve the quality.
You can agree or disagree and write to ABEM all you want. It doesn't change the fact that it's a test that you need to pass in order to keep your job. Might as well learn the game and play it.
Test was terrible overall. Alot of my classmates felt the questions were way out of left field.
where does this put residents graduating in 2019? ConCert exam or whatever this new exam is going to be ..?
I burned the hell out studying for IM boards and pretty much just did HippoEM videos and Rosh questions, probably only made it though about 700 questions.
