Official ABIM 2012 Thread

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Thinker123

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We need a new thread for the test this August! Hopefully they will sticky this!
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Is there anyone around who has failed before who is starting review around now?
 
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Just a quick question: does anyone know what the ABIM pass rate is for those who have FAILED on their first attempt. My colleague had this question (yes...my colleague since -thankfully-- I have passed mine), since he couldn't find it on the ABIM website. Thanks!
 
Need help. I have read these past threads in here from ABIM. I am a recent IM residency grad that failed the IM boards twice. I went to Awesome review for the 2010 exam and for the 2011 exam. I have been a poor test taker ever since Med school, but excelled in College. I always know that I had to put in more time than other individuals in my field for these exams but given that I had personal matters in 2010 and in 2011 including starting a fellowship right before my first sitting for my ABIM boards in 2010 plus a wedding in that month prior and a failed engagement plus having started a job right before my second sitting for my boards in 2011, which did not 100% honor my request for time off prior to my exam and even requested that I work two days prior to my board, heavily destroyed my studying time.

Now I feel that I have an inferiority complex in front of my collegues and feel that my boss at my current job will possibly ask me to leave my job given the lack of board certification, all the while I am trying to study for the exam again. This is too bad as I feel like it is a dream job but the feeling of studying for the boards again robs the positive feeling that I get from my job. I feel like I should have postponed the exam for two years and taken a low key part time job nearby but that affects medical knowledge negatively anyway. All of this needlessly adds to the anxiety.

I plan on getting Medstudy books/flashcards/questions. I already have awesome review books and will start using awesome review once I finish Board Basics 2. My plan is to get through awesome review 4 times and do all of MKSAP 15 three times. Sounds herculean but I have to get this done. All free weekends and days off are spent studying. Will put my social life on hold again until August (after the test).

Need advice.
 
Is anyone taking board review courses for abim? I am planning on taking the ACP course in Seattle in July. Anyone taken this before? If so, can you offer any suggestions on getting the most out of the course. Also, I have been using mksap to study so far..some colleagues are telling me mksap is too detailed and that I should use medstudy. Any suggestions??
Thanks!
 
I'm looking for suggestions on what to listen to in the car. I have the MKSAP books and the MedStudy videos but honestly, I think the time I spend in the car can be the most productive since I don't have a choice but to sit and listen.

I'll probably buy anything second hand, so I don't want cost to be a factor. Has anyone heard of any good audio lectures to study for the ABIM? What have you heard about the MKSAP audio?
 
JohnnieBlue said:
I'm looking for suggestions on what to listen to in the car. I have the MKSAP books and the MedStudy videos but honestly, I think the time I spend in the car can be the most productive since I don't have a choice but to sit and listen.

I'll probably buy anything second hand, so I don't want cost to be a factor. Has anyone heard of any good audio lectures to study for the ABIM? What have you heard about the MKSAP audio?
Click to expand...
It's been awhile since you posted, so I'm not sure if this will be useful or not. I used MKSAP audio, which is time-consuming and expensive, but I felt like it gave a good foundation for answering the questions on the day of the exam. I would say that the focus is more on understanding medicine and its subspecialties as opposed to "teaching to the exam," but I found this approach preferable. I thought the exam was difficult, but I did pass comfortably. One other note: If you're going to use something like an audio review, you're probably better off starting it sooner rather than later. If you're closing in on your test date, then you'd probably be better off doing MedStudy or another question bank. Hope that helps.
 
Atlanticman said:
Need help. I have read these past threads in here from ABIM. I am a recent IM residency grad that failed the IM boards twice. I went to Awesome review for the 2010 exam and for the 2011 exam. I have been a poor test taker ever since Med school, but excelled in College. I always know that I had to put in more time than other individuals in my field for these exams but given that I had personal matters in 2010 and in 2011 including starting a fellowship right before my first sitting for my ABIM boards in 2010 plus a wedding in that month prior and a failed engagement plus having started a job right before my second sitting for my boards in 2011, which did not 100% honor my request for time off prior to my exam and even requested that I work two days prior to my board, heavily destroyed my studying time.

Now I feel that I have an inferiority complex in front of my collegues and feel that my boss at my current job will possibly ask me to leave my job given the lack of board certification, all the while I am trying to study for the exam again. This is too bad as I feel like it is a dream job but the feeling of studying for the boards again robs the positive feeling that I get from my job. I feel like I should have postponed the exam for two years and taken a low key part time job nearby but that affects medical knowledge negatively anyway. All of this needlessly adds to the anxiety.

I plan on getting Medstudy books/flashcards/questions. I already have awesome review books and will start using awesome review once I finish Board Basics 2. My plan is to get through awesome review 4 times and do all of MKSAP 15 three times. Sounds herculean but I have to get this done. All free weekends and days off are spent studying. Will put my social life on hold again until August (after the test).

Need advice.
Click to expand...

This is almost exactly the situation I'm in. The difference is that I've only taken it once and I'm trying to decide if I should postpone taking it again until next year. I don't feel prepared in my studies and I'm only 11 weeks away. Not sure what to do, but I don't want to be in your exact position after failing it twice and adding to my already high anxiety levels. Is it a bad idea to wait two years to retake? If I'm studying all along I don't see how it would be bad?
 
Hello all, I will be attending the ACP Board review course in Chicago on May 20-25 2012, and I am looking for a female room mate to share the hotel room on-site at the course location, which is the Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel and Convention Center. Pl reply if interested! Thanks!
 
Hey folks... what study material are you guys using to prepare medicine boards. I am PGY3 doing IM residency taking ABIM in August. Have not been able to start preparing yet. Please advise how can i prepare best in next 2 months...any word would be great help!!
thanks
 
Medstudy is the only one that comes to my mind for such a short time to prepare. Although it is concise, there is A LOT of information. Do MKSAP questions also. Try to be disciplined throughout this time since it is very easy to slack and dedicate time to other things, especially if you are going to be in practice or fellowship right after residency. Study hard, hopefully pass and be done with it. It is much easier than having to study for it after residency when other responsibilities take most of your time.
 
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I'll be a first time test taker. Starting fellowship right after residency. Got about 65-70 percentile on my in service exams. Will just mksap questions be enough to study? Don't think I'll have a lot of time to read while starting my cardiology fellowship.
 
I enrolled in the medstudy review course. Does anyone have experience with it. Do you recommend the study groups?
 
Hi guys, just wondering if anybody out there has used/is familiar with the usmleworld qbank for IM boards. I think they are fairly new. I've used usmleworld for all Steps and really found them helpful. Just wondering if anybody else has used their abim bank? Best of luck to all!
 
How do you enroll for the med study review course
 
Is anyone using UW IM QBANK as question preparation for ABIM?
An someone give me some advice..I'm done w/ MKSAP 15..
 
gutonc said:
No...if you haven't started studying by now, you need to cancel and take it next year.
Click to expand...

wow, so much doom and gloom. blanket statements are dangerous. or maybe that was a joke... anyway, i would counter that you need to take into account the individual test taker's circumstances-- are you going straight into fellowship or practice? or are you taking time off? at my program, the new hospitalist hires are preferentially given most of july off for the express purpose of studying for the boards. is your clinic schedule packed (i.e. are you walking into a full clinic on day 1 a la the kaiser permanente model, or are you building your practice from scratch, in which case you may be looking at a relatively light schedule that gives you lots of study time in the office?)

also, the in-service training exam (ITE) is predictive of pass rates.
http://www.im.org/Meetings/Past/2010/AIMW10/Presentations/Documents/2010%20APDIM%20Fall%20Meeting/Wksp%20208_Drake.pdf
this is a talk from the association of program directors in internal medicine (APDIM) meeting in 2010. it's geared towards PDs and expressly addresses the question of what to do w/ ITE results. the most useful information for answering the question of "will i pass?" is within the first 7 slides. looking at 2009 data, 88% of first-time test takers passed. using pooled specificity and sensitivity from various studies, residents who scored >35th percentile had a 96.1% chance of passing the ABIMCE. below the 35th percentile, there is a 37.6% failure rate.

also, the ABIM also publishes pass rates for individual programs. these numbers are from 2009-2011. if you trained at a program that has a historically low pass rate, then maybe you would need to devote more time for self-study.
http://www.abim.org/pdf/pass-rates/residency-program-pass-rates.pdf

fwiw, i remember reading somewhere that if you score >65th percentile at ANY POINT during your residency (i.e. even if you did awesome your intern year, and scored lower in subsequent years), that is predictive for successfully passing the boards. in talking w/ my co-residents, it seems like most people are planning on doing medstudy + mksap questions, with most of the emphasis on doing mksap Q's. (and i would agree w/ jdh71 that just doing questions alone would be sufficient.) i have the mksap 15 books, but in hindsight, i really wish i had gotten the electronic version so i could work on questions on the computer, which is more representative of the actual test-taking conditions. i do fully appreciate people's concerns that they want to pass the test on the first try-- the fees are expensive, there's the stigma of failing and retaking the test, and juggling work and family obligations and study time is challenging. anyway, those are just my thoughts-- and full disclosure, i will be a first-time ABIMCE test taker this august, so please take the post w/ a grain of salt. :)
 
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Hello all,

I have been doing MKSAP and USMLEWORLD ABIM bank. I find UW to be very difficult with most of the questions misleading. MKSAP is easy in comparison. Does anybody else find the UW questions to be way outside the scope of the ABIM?

Thanks
 
Yes, I have been doing both MKSAP and UW IM bank. UW is very difficult. If its any indication of how the ABIM is than I think I will fail. What do you think?
 
you are totally correct..i dont know if i really need to do UW or just re do MKSAP..what do you think?
 
I just did all MKSAP, and now just started UW for ABIM... i agree that it is ridiculously hard.. first time through MKSAP i was averaging around 70-75% (granted that was after reviewing that section).. and on UW i've only done two blocks and i'm getting about 50%. I find the questions to be very knit-picky and not very high yield.. i.e. you either know a random fact or you don't. a lot of questions I wasn't even able to use deductive reasoning to get to a reasonable answer.. but on others that i did not have a clue, I was.. so my thoughts on UW are to use it as a tool to refresh your memory, not as a tool to predict ABIM exam outcomes... use the questions to rule out some answers and to get it down to one or two.. work on test taking skills with UW.. just my thoughts.. good luck to everyone!
 
Totally freaking out. My wife just finished residency and she is averaging 86% on MKSAP. I am taking the test again this year and I am averaging 75%. I just hope I pass...
 
disc99 said:
Totally freaking out. My wife just finished residency and she is averaging 86% on MKSAP. I am taking the test again this year and I am averaging 75%. I just hope I pass...
Click to expand...

It's a good score, I bought Kaplan IM qbank and used it as simulation exam (timed, random) and score 65%.
 
I totally understand. I am averaging 70-75% on MKSAP questions and I feel so unprepared. Would like to have more time to study better, but it is what it is. We'll see...
 
I just re-took ABIM today after failing my first attempt last year. It didn't feel great, to be honest, even after studying for months. Still the same esoteric questions.

Anyway, I think I'm about to join the movement to boycott ABIM, except a job I may want in the future requires one to be board certified. So although I have to wait until November to get the results, I am wondering about the big picture for the future.

Does anyone know
1) How many times can you take the exam?
2) Can you just keep taking it every year? i.e. if you fail it 3 times in a row, do you have to wait awhile to retake?
3) Are the jobs out there that require you to be "board certified" any better than the ones that don't?
 
OK I just found this on the ABIM website; I think it is a strange stipulation, anyone know why it exists?

"Re-examination

Candidates who are unsuccessful on an examination may apply for re-examination as set forth below. To be granted admission, candidates must meet all applicable licensure, professional standing, and procedural requirements.

Beginning with the 2011 administration of initial certification exams, candidates who fail three consecutive initial certification exams in the same discipline over three years will not be permitted to take an exam in that discipline during the next annual exam administration.

For example:

A candidate who is unsuccessful on the Internal Medicine Certification Exam in 2011, 2012, and 2013 would need to wait until the 2015 administration of the exam to re-apply for admission.
As long as the above requirements are met, there is no restriction on the total number of opportunities for re-examination. Only exam failures occurring 2011 and after will count toward the three-examination limit.

This policy applies only to ABIM initial certification exams offered annually; it does not apply to:

Certification exams offered every other year - Sleep Medicine, Hospice & Palliative Medicine, Transplant Hepatology or Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology
Certification and MOC exams offered by other ABMS boards - Sports Medicine and Adolescent Medicine
Maintenance of Certification exams"
 
Hospitalist7 said:
I just re-took ABIM today after failing my first attempt last year. It didn't feel great, to be honest, even after studying for months. Still the same esoteric questions.

Anyway, I think I'm about to join the movement to boycott ABIM, except a job I may want in the future requires one to be board certified. So although I have to wait until November to get the results, I am wondering about the big picture for the future.

Does anyone know
1) How many times can you take the exam?
Click to expand...
As many times as you want.

2) Can you just keep taking it every year? i.e. if you fail it 3 times in a row, do you have to wait awhile to retake?
Click to expand...
ABIM addressed this last year. The answer is here but to paraphrase...you can take it 3 straight years, if you fail all 3, you have to take a year off before you take it again. At that point, if you haven't taken every board review course on the planet, your 4th failure is just you being stubborn and stupid.

3) Are the jobs out there that require you to be "board certified" any better than the ones that don't?
Click to expand...

Generally yes. There are always exceptions but "beggars can't be choosers" is true on both sides of the equation.
 
gutonc said:
As many times as you want.


ABIM addressed this last year. The answer is here but to paraphrase...you can take it 3 straight years, if you fail all 3, you have to take a year off before you take it again. At that point, if you haven't taken every board review course on the planet, your 4th failure is just you being stubborn and stupid.



Generally yes. There are always exceptions but "beggars can't be choosers" is true on both sides of the equation.
Click to expand...
I don't appreciate your reply. I am neither stupid nor stubborn. I have been valedictorian, AOA, at top national med school and residency program... I have taken 2 review courses and I'm the top physician at my hospital. Something about this test has been a huge obstacle to me, and your comments are thoughtless and cruel.
 
i agree. keep your head up. several people feel worse after their second attempt, only to find out they passed. just wait it out until november. what did you do differently to prepare?

i failed last year, and this year i've done every question bank i can get a hold of... mayo (500 Q), kaplan (500 Q), John's Hopkins BR Qs (1100), MSKAP (1100), MedStudy (500), and UW Qbank (600). It's over 4000 Qs, and I've written down most concepts I got wrong. UW Qbank was tuff, with average test scores around 53%, mine was 57% overall. my MKSAP was 83% overall. Did Awesome Review course, etc. hoping for the best this year.

anyone else do USMLE World? Do you mind posting your scores?
 
Hospitalist7 said:
I don't appreciate your reply. I am neither stupid nor stubborn. I have been valedictorian, AOA, at top national med school and residency program... I have taken 2 review courses and I'm the top physician at my hospital. Something about this test has been a huge obstacle to me, and your comments are thoughtless and cruel.
Click to expand...

Whoa, whoa whoa?! WTF Clarence? Let's go back and break down your initial post and my reply?

1. Q: "How many times can I take the exam?" A: "As many times as you want."

2. Q: "Is there a limit on the number of times in a row you can take it?" A: Yes. Here's a handy link mo********er.

3. Q: "Are jobs that require BC "better" than those that don't? A: Probably. If they don't require BC, there's probably a reason for it.

Where in there did I insult you? I get it, the test is hard. I left it assuming I failed. I didn't...barely. I understand that you're freaking out but that's no reason to be a total douchewad.
 
gutonc said:
Whoa, whoa whoa?! WTF Clarence? Let's go back and break down your initial post and my reply?

1. Q: "How many times can I take the exam?" A: "As many times as you want."

2. Q: "Is there a limit on the number of times in a row you can take it?" A: Yes. Here's a handy link mo********er.

3. Q: "Are jobs that require BC "better" than those that don't? A: Probably. If they don't require BC, there's probably a reason for it.

Where in there did I insult you? I get it, the test is hard. I left it assuming I failed. I didn't...barely. I understand that you're freaking out but that's no reason to be a total douchewad.
Click to expand...

I think he disagreed with your comment "beggars are not choosers". I read some of your posts and saw you used this comment in some of your posts. This comment is inappropriate and should not be used, particularly form a highly educated and professional person. Hope you understand.
 
c5a said:
i agree. keep your head up. several people feel worse after their second attempt, only to find out they passed. just wait it out until november. what did you do differently to prepare?

i failed last year, and this year i've done every question bank i can get a hold of... mayo (500 Q), kaplan (500 Q), John's Hopkins BR Qs (1100), MSKAP (1100), MedStudy (500), and UW Qbank (600). It's over 4000 Qs, and I've written down most concepts I got wrong. UW Qbank was tuff, with average test scores around 53%, mine was 57% overall. my MKSAP was 83% overall. Did Awesome Review course, etc. hoping for the best this year.

anyone else do USMLE World? Do you mind posting your scores?
Click to expand...

I took the exam today, studied very hard this time but still freaking after the exam. I felt this time is more difficult than the exam I took last year.
Just wait for the result.
 
2012ABIM said:
I think he disagreed with your comment "beggars are not choosers". I read some of your posts and saw you used this comment in some of your posts. This comment is inappropriate and should not be used, particularly form a highly educated and professional person. Hope you understand.
Click to expand...

Y'all need to get the **** over yourselves. The...End.
 
I took the exam yesterday. That last session wasn't easy. I've taken it before and at least this time I can identify a lot that I definitely got right. Some of the questions were so random. I feel like I passed this time but time will tell.
 
One thing I will say is that this time there were a whole lot of short ones where either you know it or not (maybe 10-15 out of every 60). Some had no clinical case. Some had a case of 3 sentences or less. Because of this, feel free to simply skip some of the long ones if you are not in the mood then at the end of the exam, it will take you to the review page and just click "review all incomplete". Doing it this way, you can relax and spend 5 min on a long question (at the end) knowing you have plenty of time. You can also consider skipping all audio questions until the end.
 
Thinker123 said:
One thing I will say is that this time there were a whole lot of short ones where either you know it or not (maybe 10-15 out of every 60). Some had no clinical case. Some had a case of 3 sentences or less. Because of this, feel free to simply skip some of the long ones if you are not in the mood then at the end of the exam, it will take you to the review page and just click "review all incomplete". Doing it this way, you can relax and spend 5 min on a long question (at the end) knowing you have plenty of time. You can also consider skipping all audio questions until the end.
Click to expand...

interesting test-taking strategy. thanks for the tip! i'm used to such a linear, orderly way of answering questions-- although i frequently go in reverse order (i.e. start at the last item and work backwards) just to shake things up, if i feel like i'm in a rut.
 
Vitamin_Ng said:
interesting test-taking strategy. thanks for the tip! i'm used to such a linear, orderly way of answering questions-- although i frequently go in reverse order (i.e. start at the last item and work backwards) just to shake things up, if i feel like i'm in a rut.
Click to expand...

Feel free to be flexible. Before when I took it I wasn't as confident to change things up and skip. Now I think it is the only great way to do it. If you are going to use that strategy though, decide to skip quickly. Don't spend a lot of time on it, read it THEN decide to come back to it.

Keep in mind that the nice part about skipping is it requires no marking and when you go back to them the cpu will give them to you in order. It's not like you have to mark each one then go back and individually answer each one. I didn't overdo the skipping. I think I went something like 2, 3, 5, 6. It's nice when you look and you have 20 min left and you only skipped 5...then you know you can do a nice relaxing 4 min per question.

One important point is if you do answer one you want to come back to, you must "mark" it.

There is a way to practice this skipping technique on the tutorial. I had already decided that i was going to skip all audios until the end since my reasoning is that it shouldn't count. I think the practice is to test all questions first before they count. This is the first test using audio so my guess is it is a test run. Next year they will start counting (is my guess). So I wasn't planning to waste a lot of time on something I knew I knew wouldn't count. I had to play my audio 5 times.
1-nothing-was loading too
2-nothing after being loaded
3. I found the additional volume control on the wire to the headphones
4. I wanted to hear it from the beginning now that it was working
5. I was paranoid and wanted to listen again even though it was so easy...wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything.
...so yeah...skip audio until the end. LOL
 
A nice feature is the reference section.

First off, I never had to look up any labs. Unlike MKSAP, they put all the relevant normal labs right in the question next to the values (like real life).

The reference had 3 sections...as you can see in the tutorial.

1. Labs-I did note that the cardiac swanz ganz numbers are there so don't spend forever memorizing the normal values since you can pop that open.

2. abbreviations -didn't need them

3. Drugs -cool. This section gives you the trade name equivalents to all the generics provided. I only used it twice but it was nice to have there.
 
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