In Training Exam

[justwondering]

Does anyone know how to rate your PGY1 score on the ITE? I know there's no official "pass" score and that we're just supposed to improve every year, but there should be some way to assess our 1st yr score. Anyone know what the national avg would be for PGY1 in percentage correct?

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[cdow18]

The scores are broken down by PGY year and compared nationally. You will see how you compare with all FP residents nationally who took the test and you will see how well your score compares to all PGY-1's who took the exam.

 

[justwondering]

i figured out my percentage correct since they had the answers online, but i guess i'll have to wait till they send us our official scores.

 

[razorback58]

Can people post what percentage right they got? My husband got a 61% and I got a 51%. We are PGY-I.

Does anyone know what the norm is on percentage right and how it correlates? I know we have to wait until the test is scored and skewed... but just curious.

There were some really messed up questions on that test.... some with clearly two right answers.

 

[MeganRose]

Can people post what percentage right they got? My husband got a 61% and I got a 51%. We are PGY-I.

Does anyone know what the norm is on percentage right and how it correlates? I know we have to wait until the test is scored and skewed... but just curious.

There were some really messed up questions on that test.... some with clearly two right answers.

This might be total hersay but I heard that 40% was "passing" which might mean that this is the mean. I dont know this for a fact, though. Also, one of the smartest guys calculated his score @ 60-something percent.

 

[thedman888]

This might be total hersay but I heard that 40% was "passing" which might mean that this is the mean. I dont know this for a fact, though. Also, one of the smartest guys calculated his score @ 60-something percent.

thats what i heard too

 

[razorback58]

Thanks everyone.

Anyone willing to post percentage of what they got right? Anyone willing to post their ranking last year and what percentage they got right?

 

[MeganRose]

54% Pgy1

 

[sophiejane]

Can someone post the link to the answers, etc. ? And there's a password, right? Where do you get that?

I know someone told me all of this at some point, but my brain is a seive these days, one with large, freely-flowing holes that spew out facts as fast as they come in. Sigh.

 

[dr0277341283141]

I know someone told me all of this at some point, but my brain is a seive these days, one with large, freely-flowing holes that spew out facts as fast as they come in. Sigh.

Hallelujah.

 

[andwhat]

This might be total hersay but I heard that 40% was "passing" which might mean that this is the mean. I dont know this for a fact, though. Also, one of the smartest guys calculated his score @ 60-something percent.

65% - 70% correct, I cannot even recall some of my answers. some just guessed right...this thread made me do it, now I have a headache on my night off..
ur husband got 61%, that is insane... must be higher than so many PGY 3s.. that is an excellent score...
It will be such a tremendous disappointment if some of those questions are not thrown out, some are just completely insane.... like newest recommendations, ok half of the country still does this, and the other half does this..
I mean its wild at times.. controversial questions, then again I assume that was the point, to be frustrating at times....

 

[benjee]

hey guys,
no worry about the ITE, cuz I have a friend who took the ABFM and passed it.
He said he failed the ITE all the time, ie for 3 yrs--not even in 10 % range and he said there is discrepency between qs in ITE and the real exam. not sure if this is true.but if it does, would wonder how this ITE effectively measure the progress??

 

[andwhat]

oh thats scary dude... wonder what happens if dont pass...... have no clue what sort of thing is considered "passing" on this thing... there are quite a few controversial questions, I mean it would be insane... that EKG, no way in hell do I agree with that interpretation..... I can show it to an electrophysiologist....

 

[razorback58]

I agree the questions were "nutty". Thanks for the feedback from everyone. My husband that got a 61% and a PGY 1 like myself always seems to do very well on exams.... he did well on Step 1 and Step 2 as well and seems to just guess the right answers on "toss ups". I got a 51% and would like to know how most people did. Of course it is hard to get an answer because people in my program say they have not figured there score or are vague about the score. Some said they dropped in score from the first year, some say the score is a bit better than last year etc......

I really hope they throw out some of those questions or give credit for two answers because in so many cases you can give good cause for choosing what you did. When I checked some of the answers, some just appear to be "dead wrong". I don't know who is writing these questions, but it does not in ANY way test our knowledge of family medicine as a whole.

I think it would be nice if you could find stats on pass rates on the real boards. Also, I think it would be great if you could find out about past ITE performace as well.

 

[sophiejane]

I really hope they throw out some of those questions or give credit for two answers because in so many cases you can give good cause for choosing what you did. When I checked some of the answers, some just appear to be "dead wrong". I don't know who is writing these questions, but it does not in ANY way test our knowledge of family medicine as a whole.

Am I missing something, or is this test more important that I was led to believe? Nobody studies for this at our program, and as far as I know, it doesn't count for anything re:licensing. All it does it help the residency program know where they need to improve their didactics, and compare to how others are doing at other programs.

I'm certainly not going to get worked up about it. I don't know how I did, but was just going to use the test book and answers to learn stuff.

I spent way too much energy getting worked up about tests and grades in medical school. I seriously don't care how I measure up to others anymore, because I know I'm doing the right thing for my patients and becoming a better doc every day.

 

[razorback58]

No the test does not count. However, we were told that we are expected to get in the 30th percentile in the first year and improve each year. It looks like when the results come out on the ITE our program is compared with how other programs rank. Also we are compared against how other residents are doing. My program took this very seriously and if you don't get into the 30th percentile - meaning 30% of the people did worse than you did, you will have to meet with preceptors and remediate yourself in some stupid way.

I heard the program I am with is increasing their cut-off scores for Step 1 and Step 2 in hopes of having better ITE scores.

I agree, worring about this test is stupid. Just thought I would get thoughts on other programs, attitudes etc.....

It has been helpful to read the responses.

 

[andwhat]

Am I missing something, or is this test more important that I was led to believe? Nobody studies for this at our program, and as far as I know, it doesn't count for anything re:licensing. All it does it help the residency program know where they need to improve their didactics, and compare to how others are doing at other programs.

I'm certainly not going to get worked up about it. I don't know how I did, but was just going to use the test book and answers to learn stuff.

I spent way too much energy getting worked up about tests and grades in medical school. I seriously don't care how I measure up to others anymore, because I know I'm doing the right thing for my patients and becoming a better doc every day.

I don't exactly know how important it is. However, faculty sure like it if we score high, as opposed to not. It must mean something. It means nothing at all as far as licensing. Ridiculous some of the questions I agree. Unbelievably irritating.

 

[ramonaquimby]

the test is insane. so much so that it's just BOTHERSOME. they tell us not to study for it, but deep down, i think they want us to (reverse psych?!)

my program has steadily gotten a ABFM 100% pass rate for numerous numerous years, however, depsite 'everyone' bombing this test each year, which is the only thing that reassures me.

check this out adn look for your program in alphabetical order by state...
(large file - give it a second to download)

https://www.theabfm.org/residency/residencyPerformance_v3.pdf

 

[labruy69]

Not sure if this will help, but maybe it will calm some of your fears down. I got either 54 (or 57%, can't remember completely) of the questions right last year (PGY-1) and scored 80 percentile for pgy-1 in the nation. This year got 61% of questions right. From what people have posted, you should be fine. This test doesn't matter too much, but many programs have the residents who score less than some arbitrary percentile do remediation. The remediation at our program is actually pretty cool and I kinda wish I could join, except for the whole required to attend part.

 

[razorback58]

Not sure if this will help, but maybe it will calm some of your fears down. I got either 54 (or 57%, can't remember completely) of the questions right last year (PGY-1) and scored 80 percentile for pgy-1 in the nation. This year got 61% of questions right. From what people have posted, you should be fine. This test doesn't matter too much, but many programs have the residents who score less than some arbitrary percentile do remediation. The remediation at our program is actually pretty cool and I kinda wish I could join, except for the whole required to attend part.

Thank you for the input. It is nice to be able to talk to people outside of our program.

 

[razorback58]

https://www.theabfm.org/index.aspx
Above link willl give you your individual score.

My husband ranked in the 90th percentile with around 62% right for PGY-1 standard score within training year was a 630.
I ranked in the 40th percentile with around 53% right for PGY-1 - standard score was 470 within the training year. I am just glad I made over the 30th percentile so they will stay off my rear end.

The scary thing is I am not sure I can improve that much with those far out questions. They threw out 3 and one question was accepted with two answers.
https://www.theabfm.org/PDFRenderer.aspx?id=2007IteHandbook
The above link tells how they score the test. The individual score report differs from the table in this link. The standard score is the same but the percentile was higher on my individual score report. Go figure?

 

[sophiejane]

57% correct. How this occurred I will never know, something to do with sleep deprivation, not studying, and pure dumb luck. I'm sure it's not repeatable, so if I learn more and have more sleep between now and next year, it will probably go down instead of up.

I thought I was in the 30s for sure.

Standardized tests suck.

 

[justwondering]

i forgot how to log in. i did before, now i dont remember. is our user name automatically our email address? is the passwd our aafp id or do we change it after the first login?

 

[razorback58]

i forgot how to log in. i did before, now i dont remember. is our user name automatically our email address? is the passwd our aafp id or do we change it after the first login?

If you did not change your userid and password when you first logged on, then you will need to use the original one with numbers given to you by the program and a crazy password like j8ytrd. You had to make an effort to change it when you logged in. Call the administrator of the program and ask what yours is or at least was.

 

[justwondering]

thanks

 

[dirtridndoc]

Am I missing something, or is this test more important that I was led to believe? Nobody studies for this at our program, and as far as I know, it doesn't count for anything re:licensing. All it does it help the residency program know where they need to improve their didactics, and compare to how others are doing at other programs.

I'm certainly not going to get worked up about it. I don't know how I did, but was just going to use the test book and answers to learn stuff.

I spent way too much energy getting worked up about tests and grades in medical school. I seriously don't care how I measure up to others anymore, because I know I'm doing the right thing for my patients and becoming a better doc every day.

Again SophieJane hits the nail right on the head! (I just read your post on rural FP and EM - well put...)
Our program tries to make the yearly In-Service Exam it a big deal but it only counts for moonlighting and getting into one of our "specialty" tracks. We need to score above the 10th percentile to moonlight and above the 20th to do EM or OB tracks. Hardly anyone wants the OB track (go figure) so that's not an issue and most of the PGY-I's do well enough b/c they are coming off the CK and all that great academic stuff from med school.

We all take the exam seriously as interns and the scores are usually pretty good. In PGY-II the scores drop and by PGY-III they are even lower. (my percentiles: 83-78-27. I didn't even study for it this year mostly b/c I wanted to see what I needed to work on for the Board Cert exam in June. Neither did most of the PGY-II/III's - unless they had done poorly last year. Most of us just do not care anymore - especially when we have had people "fail" it and still be allowed to moonlight.

What kills me is how the faculty are crying about our progressively lower scores but yet they do nothing to improve our weekly didactic lectures.....

BTW: for those of you who take the in-service seriously, the Southern Colorado Family Med Residency site has an excellent question bank.