Abim 2011

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Imgrens said:
I agree with above. I am gonna take my wife's advice and not check until I receive an email. 🙁
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That is the best advice for me! I am not going to waste my time and check the webpage again!:laugh:
 
"ABIM experienced a system-wide network outage this weekend and yesterday, and apologizes for the problems you may have experienced in accessing Physician Login. Should you have additional questions, please call our Customer Service team at 1-800-441-ABIM, Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. ET, or Saturday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET, or e-mail
We again apologize for the inconvenience this delay may have caused you."
 
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If they can take the time to update us on a website glitch, why can't they just send us a brief message telling us when they plan on releasing results!? They have to know by now what the plan is. I mean, are they really still grading these tests or what? I don't get why this stuff takes so long to report!
 
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jacksparrow82 said:
If they can take the time to update us on a website glitch, why can't they just send us a brief message telling us when they plan on releasing results!? They have to know by now what the plan is. I mean, are they really still grading these tests or what? I don't get why this stuff takes so long to report!
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Can you check your SDN e-mail? Thanks.
 
dkpwalker said:
Finally they are out and I passed...YAY 😀
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Congrats. Long wait......🙂, looks good!

Exact scores should be there in the next 5-7 days via mail.

Might be, we could all leave some advice for future test takers on this thread in the next days?
 
failed.

never failed a board exam before. very shocked. my pgy-3 ITE was the 36%-ile, and i thought i studied enough to compensate for not being in the top 50%-ile. had to work a lot in july, unfortunately. some people were able to take off for a month and study, but i have a wife and kids, and bills to pay, so this was not possible. better luck for you all. it'll be interesting to see if the pass % has gone down again this year (as it has for the couple years).
 
c5a said:
failed.

never failed a board exam before. very shocked. my pgy-3 ITE was the 36%-ile, and i thought i studied enough to compensate for not being in the top 50%-ile. had to work a lot in july, unfortunately. some people were able to take off for a month and study, but i have a wife and kids, and bills to pay, so this was not possible. better luck for you all. it'll be interesting to see if the pass % has gone down again this year (as it has for the couple years).
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Sorry to hear that. I was in your shoes last year. Repeat test taker pass rate is a dismal 35%! Don't be a statistic. Start early and get the right review materials. Last year I was planningway wedding and was a cheapskate and did not buy any review materials. I just took of 1000 questions my friend gave me and tried to learn from the questions I got wrong. This year I did MKSAP, medstudy, board basics 2, some medstudy videos and the Awesome Review course. All you really need is Awesome Review and questions from MKSAP and Medstudy. Good luck.
 
ckplay2011 said:
Sorry to hear that. I was in your shoes last year. Repeat test taker pass rate is a dismal 35%! Don't be a statistic. Start early and get the right review materials. Last year I was planningway wedding and was a cheapskate and did not buy any review materials. I just took of 1000 questions my friend gave me and tried to learn from the questions I got wrong. This year I did MKSAP, medstudy, board basics 2, some medstudy videos and the Awesome Review course. All you really need is Awesome Review and questions from MKSAP and Medstudy. Good luck.
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Also medstudy flash cards!

Again, I think all you need to guarantee that you pass is Awesome Review course, medstudy flash cards, questions from MKSAP and Medstudy. Do the questions twice. Start at least 6 months before the test.
 
For the first time in my life I have failed an exam, and this is it. Still in shock!

3 yrs of residency, 1 yr of chief residency, in my 2 nd yr of rheumatology fellowship and now I'm sitting here shattered, wondering what went wrong.

Didn't take it for a year after graduation due to family reasons- getting married and having kids becomes a full time job, and now I'm not sure If I'll be able to pass this next year.

Was wondering (since I'm too scared of asking my fellowship program director this qs)- can they hold off graduating me or make me repeat my last yr of fellowship because I didnt clear my IM boards (I'm supposed to graduate June'12)? This is the only forum I could turn to for help.
 
whimsical1980 said:
For the first time in my life I have failed an exam, and this is it. Still in shock!

3 yrs of residency, 1 yr of chief residency, in my 2 nd yr of rheumatology fellowship and now I'm sitting here shattered, wondering what went wrong.

Didn't take it for a year after graduation due to family reasons- getting married and having kids becomes a full time job, and now I'm not sure If I'll be able to pass this next year.

Was wondering (since I'm too scared of asking my fellowship program director this qs)- can they hold off graduating me or make me repeat my last yr of fellowship because I didnt clear my IM boards (I'm supposed to graduate June'12)? This is the only forum I could turn to for help.
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I would talk with the FPD rather sooner than later, so you can stop worrying about that and get on a plan for the repeat....next year it will look different!!!
 
Fred21 said:
I would talk with the FPD rather sooner than later, so you can stop worrying about that and get on a plan for the repeat....next year it will look different!!!
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Thanks! I was just wondering if programs can do that? I don't remember signing a clause in my contract which said I must clear ABIM IM boards before I can graduate. But I was thinking that I'm not eligible to take the Rehumatology boards till I take the IM boards and clear those, and will they use that to make me repeat a yr?
 
The server has crashed. I can't even breathe!
 
whimsical1980 said:
Thanks! I was just wondering if programs can do that? I don't remember signing a clause in my contract which said I must clear ABIM IM boards before I can graduate. But I was thinking that I'm not eligible to take the Rehumatology boards till I take the IM boards and clear those, and will they use that to make me repeat a yr?
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I would e-mail the FPD soon and then you have this out of your way and know.....I doubt that they will make you repeat a yr
 
ckplay2011 said:
Also medstudy flash cards!

Again, I think all you need to guarantee that you pass is Awesome Review course, medstudy flash cards, questions from MKSAP and Medstudy. Do the questions twice. Start at least 6 months before the test.
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One month - medstudy questions. Went through once. That's all I needed.
 
Fred21 said:
Congrats. Long wait......🙂, looks good!

Exact scores should be there in the next 5-7 days via mail.

Might be, we could all leave some advice for future test takers on this thread in the next days?
Click to expand...

Well personally the actual scores are neither here nor there for me, I passed and that's good enough but I guess It would be good to see the actual breakdown of the questions. My entire class passed... 7 years in a row that we have had 100% board pass rate thanks to the awesome review course with Dr. Rahman

Job well done guys. For those who have not passed It gets better. You will pass next sitting. I read the awesome review books like 3 times before I went for the exam and did practice MKSAP questions. Started 3 months before the exam and for my first month of fellowship. I hope this helps
 
Congratulations to all certified doctors!!! Your hard work did pay off!!!

I wish you the best in your careers.
 
Passed!
 
Hi all,

I am currently a hospitalist, started working from 07/05/2011 right away after my residency. I have 4 dependents so I have to work ASAP.

I am shocked when I know that I failed the ABIM. I could not believe myself. I did really good for ACP (60%) and never fail any boards before.

Shocked and unhappy.
 
Such a relief... All you need is mksap. My friend who also passed can't stop going on and on about awesome review.
 
Hi all,


I am shocked when I know that I failed the ABIM. I could not believe myself. I did really good for ACP (60%) and never fail any boards before.

Shocked and unhappy.

Anybody who failed ABIM please gather here, We have to overcome this sorrow.
 
2012ABIM said:
Hi all,

I am currently a hospitalist, started working from 07/05/2011 right away after my residency. I have 4 dependents so I have to work ASAP.

I am shocked when I know that I failed the ABIM. I could not believe myself. I did really good for ACP (60%) and never fail any boards before.

Shocked and unhappy.
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Sorry to hear that but never give up.
 
whimsical1980 said:
For the first time in my life I have failed an exam, and this is it. Still in shock!

3 yrs of residency, 1 yr of chief residency, in my 2 nd yr of rheumatology fellowship and now I'm sitting here shattered, wondering what went wrong.

Didn't take it for a year after graduation due to family reasons- getting married and having kids becomes a full time job, and now I'm not sure If I'll be able to pass this next year.

Was wondering (since I'm too scared of asking my fellowship program director this qs)- can they hold off graduating me or make me repeat my last yr of fellowship because I didnt clear my IM boards (I'm supposed to graduate June'12)? This is the only forum I could turn to for help.
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear that. Try your best next year, you will pass absolutely.
 
for anyone who failed, could you post your ITE percentile last year?

I was at the 36th percentile, or 63% of exam questions were correct. THEN I started studying intensely for 9 months. This doesn't make any sense. How could I drop to the bottom 13th percentile (or the fail threshold given last years 87% pass rate) after 100s of hours of studying, MKSAP completed (I'm talking the entire text), and the questions 2-3X? Also MedStudy questions, some of that text, and an ACP Board Review course, and a residency board review course?

I think I worked harder than the average test taker. Even if I had studied about as hard as my peers, I should have at least maintained somewhere in the 30 percentile range, but not drop all the way down to the bottom! Very confused. I walked out of the exam thinking I'd done well. I felt like I understood the material well. I'm wondering if there was a scoring error. This isn't right!

My overall MKSAP score was 70% the first go around. The second go around it was 79% correct. Very interested to see my score report, because right now I'm in the twighlight zone.
 
Yes we have to! We can't let an exam decide how we feel about ourselves and our lives. Though unfortunately programs and people will judge us based on this.

I'm currently in 2 nd yr of fellowship in Rheumatology. First time I ever failed an exam! Shocked, depressed, I could go on and on.

I think I underestimated this exam. Started studying this July. My crazy work and call schedule didn't allow more time. Did only medstudy text about twice and about 10% of MKSAP qs. So I have only myself to blame!

Plan to do medstudy, mksap qs, medstudy flash cards, videos, and awesome review course in preparation for next yr's exam, will start about Dec-Jan.
 
Does anyone know if all scores were released today? I checked myself and I passed but I searched the other fellows in my program and 2 out of 6 of us are listed as Not Certified. I really can't believe this is true and I feel so bad for them Since studying for this exam, as you guys know, was a real bit**
 
Another failure here. I'm pretty shocked because I had myself convinced that I wasn't going to fail. But, looking back I think I can blame only myself for not studying hard enough. I barely got through probably 80% of the MKSAP questions once and I now realize it would have been very useful to go through all of them at least twice if not more. I really didn't start studying seriously until late June or July and that was a big mistake too.

This time I plan on tackling all the MKSAP questions very early on, taking notes on my weak subjects and going back and taking them all again. I haven't decided if I plan on repeating a review course or not because that seems like the least useful part of all my studying.

The most painful thing is knowing I have to spend another year of my life wasting time and money on this useless exam.
 
The impact of a good board review course can't be overstated if you take it seriously (i.e., attend all of the sessions during the day, do the practice questions, and review material in which you're weak in during the evenings in your hotel room). It's 5-7 days of protected time from all other responsibilities in which you are saturated with "high-yield" data. Moreover, you then get to take the syllabi and PowerPoint presentations used for the course home with you to review on your own as part of your independent study in the subsequent months. This approach (with an ACP board review course in late May) combined with MedStudy provided by my residency program got me through IM boards (in late August) without a hitch.
 
c5a said:
for anyone who failed, could you post your ITE percentile last year?

I was at the 36th percentile, or 63% of exam questions were correct. THEN I started studying intensely for 9 months. This doesn't make any sense. How could I drop to the bottom 13th percentile (or the fail threshold given last years 87% pass rate) after 100s of hours of studying, MKSAP completed (I'm talking the entire text), and the questions 2-3X? Also MedStudy questions, some of that text, and an ACP Board Review course, and a residency board review course?

I think I worked harder than the average test taker. Even if I had studied about as hard as my peers, I should have at least maintained somewhere in the 30 percentile range, but not drop all the way down to the bottom! Very confused. I walked out of the exam thinking I'd done well. I felt like I understood the material well. I'm wondering if there was a scoring error. This isn't right!

My overall MKSAP score was 70% the first go around. The second go around it was 79% correct. Very interested to see my score report, because right now I'm in the twighlight zone.
Click to expand...

I got 58% percentile for last ACP exam. Like you, I felt very confident after the exam and thought it was easy. Each block I finished 20 minutes before time and then reviewed all questions.

Still shocked and depressed, unbelievable.
 
Entol said:
Does anyone know if all scores were released today? I checked myself and I passed but I searched the other fellows in my program and 2 out of 6 of us are listed as Not Certified. I really can't believe this is true and I feel so bad for them Since studying for this exam, as you guys know, was a real bit**
Click to expand...

Not sure, 5 friends of mine are not certified as well. But at this time, if one took the exam this year and not certified, I think that she/he failed.
 
jacksparrow82 said:
Another failure here. I'm pretty shocked because I had myself convinced that I wasn't going to fail. But, looking back I think I can blame only myself for not studying hard enough. I barely got through probably 80% of the MKSAP questions once and I now realize it would have been very useful to go through all of them at least twice if not more. I really didn't start studying seriously until late June or July and that was a big mistake too.

This time I plan on tackling all the MKSAP questions very early on, taking notes on my weak subjects and going back and taking them all again. I haven't decided if I plan on repeating a review course or not because that seems like the least useful part of all my studying.

The most painful thing is knowing I have to spend another year of my life wasting time and money on this useless exam.
Click to expand...

Absolutely agree with you on the part that the most painful thing is knowing another year is going to be wasted on this! Also the feeling that I'm in the bottom 10-13% of all ppl who took it! That sucks! Some of the best ppl I know have failed this exam however, and some of the worst have passed it.
 
whimsical1980 said:
Absolutely agree with you on the part that the most painful thing is knowing another year is going to be wasted on this! Also the feeling that I'm in the bottom 10-13% of all ppl who took it! That sucks! Some of the best ppl I know have failed this exam however, and some of the worst have passed it.
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I totally agreed with you, the result is shocking.

Now I have another issue: OCD.

I continue to check my result again and again.
 
2012ABIM said:
I totally agreed with you, the result is shocking.

Now I have another issue: OCD.

I continue to check my result again and again.
Click to expand...

I have to admit I am doing the exact same thing! I keep checking on the website every hour, hoping they made a mistake and my status says 'Pass'!

I think I've started going through the 5 stages of grief here! Currently in denial!
 
So glad I am not the only one who keeps rechecking it-this is so crazy. Everyone told me to just do MKSAP and MKSAP questions, but that obviously didn't work for me. I guess I will also need to take some kind of course. How can one pass all 3 steps and fail the IM boards?
We all need to figure out the best strategy to pass this test so they stop stealing all our money! This is crazy.
 
2012ABIM said:
I got 58% percentile for last ACP exam. Like you, I felt very confident after the exam and thought it was easy. Each block I finished 20 minutes before time and then reviewed all questions.

Still shocked and depressed, unbelievable.
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clarification: do you mean 58% questions correct, or the 58th percentile?
 
Boondahgle said:
So glad I am not the only one who keeps rechecking it-this is so crazy. Everyone told me to just do MKSAP and MKSAP questions, but that obviously didn't work for me. I guess I will also need to take some kind of course. How can one pass all 3 steps and fail the IM boards?
We all need to figure out the best strategy to pass this test so they stop stealing all our money! This is crazy.
Click to expand...

I passed all USMLEs at first attempt and scored >90 for all but failed ABIM.

I did MKSAP 15 questions X 2, MKSAP 14 questions X 1. I think I was over-confident and underestimated the exam.

Now we have to wait for 1 more year, that is so stupid. Why don't they have the exam every 3 months?
 
I went through MKSAP in its entirety once, along with all of the associated questions once. I scored between 65 and 75% on each section, usually in the 70-75% range. I reviewed the discussion regarding every question I got wrong in addition to every question I got correct. I was devastated to see that I had failed my exam today as well.

Making matters worse is the fact that I am an American medical grad, born and raised here, so language barriers did not exist in my case.

For anyone who has been through this - does ABIM tell you exactly what the threshold for passing was, so you can know how close you were to passing? I am wondering if the score report mentions this.
 
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Passed !!

Eager to see the score breakdown though.

Congrats to all who have passed and better luck next time to those who didn't. Just one less thing to worry about for now.
 
I am also in total shock. I took the awesome review, did MedStudy questions and was doing 65-75%. I don't understand what happened and cannot believe it. I have been rechecking the webpage over and over again. Almost all of my fellow residents passed! I feel so humilliated and embarassed. And to top things off, I am already working and they were expecting me to pass the Boards. I studied really hard and felt very confident during the exam. Any recommendations for this year?
 
Entol said:
Does anyone know if all scores were released today? I checked myself and I passed but I searched the other fellows in my program and 2 out of 6 of us are listed as Not Certified. I really can't believe this is true and I feel so bad for them Since studying for this exam, as you guys know, was a real bit**
Click to expand...

Do you know for sure they actually took the exam?

You don't have to take it.
 
c5a said:
for anyone who failed, could you post your ITE percentile last year?

I was at the 36th percentile, or 63% of exam questions were correct. THEN I started studying intensely for 9 months. This doesn't make any sense. How could I drop to the bottom 13th percentile (or the fail threshold given last years 87% pass rate) after 100s of hours of studying, MKSAP completed (I'm talking the entire text), and the questions 2-3X? Also MedStudy questions, some of that text, and an ACP Board Review course, and a residency board review course?

I think I worked harder than the average test taker. Even if I had studied about as hard as my peers, I should have at least maintained somewhere in the 30 percentile range, but not drop all the way down to the bottom! Very confused. I walked out of the exam thinking I'd done well. I felt like I understood the material well. I'm wondering if there was a scoring error. This isn't right!

My overall MKSAP score was 70% the first go around. The second go around it was 79% correct. Very interested to see my score report, because right now I'm in the twighlight zone.
Click to expand...


Sorry to hear, especially since you did study hard. ACP Review is crap from what I heard. Do Awesome Review course. Everyone swears by it. I was a skeptic at first, but the course is really great. Many board questions are esoteric so all you can do is do even more questions next time to hopefully pick up a few more points. GL.
 
Well, I'm already trying to figure out the best approach to re-studying for this test. I'm thinking I should start hitting my weak areas first, like now. (rheum, heme/onc, endocrine, maybe others?) I'm thinking I need to just start doing those questions right away and spending lots of time taking notes and reading the subjects I miss. Then, repeat all questions in that section until I'm able to answer 90% or better correct everytime. Then, I suppose I can do the same for the rest of the subject matter.
I feel that if I can go through MKSAP questions several times and get 90% or more right I'll be okay? Last time I was barely pushing 65% right on most sections and there were plenty of questions I didn't even get to once. So, that's an easy area to improve.
I'm also thinking I need to start doing more studying as part of my day at work while seeing patients. For example, I'm at work now and just got done doing a consult for HTN. Even though it was an easy consult, I should spend my down time looking up HTN subject matter in the review books.
I need to also decide if I should add a second source of review material to what I was using last time (primarily MKSAP). Any suggestions there?

I'll probably end up attending the ACP board review course again because they allow you to sign up for free if you fail (although I'll still end up paying for travel and hotel rooms again).

Trying to stay positive. I wish this exam didn't exist because I truly believe its useless, but unfortunately it does and there's nothing I'm going to be able to do about it except pass it.

I've read that 96% of re-testers pass after 3 attempts even though the pass rate for re-testers is only like 30-40%? Has anyone else heard this?
 
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