Official ABIM 2012 Thread

[Vitamin_Ng]

A nice feature is the reference section.

Fist 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 not 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.

was there a calculator built into the program? i haven't been able to try out the tutorial yet, since it requires that macs be based on PowerPC, and my mac air doesn't have that.

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[Atlanticman]

I took the exam again. First of all I feel horrible. I had done MKSAP with average of 70%. USMLE world percentage was far lower (will not post...you get the idea). All with a full work schedule. I feel for "Hospitalist 7" wanting to boycott the ABIM. Did awesome review 4 times. Did Medstudy cases(note cards - actually helped with some questions). But the feeling is the same if not worse than last year's exam. I actually took the whole of the two hours for each section and for only one section did I have time to review my marked questions. Reviewing afterward I found that I got at least two easy questions wrong (questions that I should not have gotten wrong as I had knew the concepts). Depressed. I feel that putting the exam off for a percentage right of 70% on MKSAP is not a smart move and would only prolong the task. Nevertheless it was incredibly difficult to get to the magic number of 85% correct (at least that is what I gather from the posts here. Sounds like that I had reached a knowledge ceiling with juggling with work and all. I am probably going to start reading again this month for next year to get a head start on things. And I will probably start making contingency for next year as far as jobs are concerned.

 

[Bandido]

I am sorry you feel that way. I am taking the exam the very last day. I am still studying for it and exhausted, but this is the home stretch, so here goes everything. As a repeat test taker I can tell you, first of all, congratulate yourself on making the decision of going for it again. Yes, you can decide to put it off for later, however I'm not sure if that would have been counter producing, especially since you have the knowledge still fresh in your mind.
Second: Take a break!! you don't have the results yet, and there is nothing you can do about it until they are released, so for now, don't go back to study for it. Put your study materials in a safe place and leave them there.
About those who are asking if you can find a job without the boards, the answer is yes, there are options. I am not recommending to anyone to not take it obviously, because I will be taking it in a couple of weeks, but this is not the end of the world. Just be honest when you apply and go with your gut feeling. Why would someone want to work with a bunch of snobs who make you feel down if you repeated a test. Yes, the offer may be more tempting, but it does not men the work is better. And yes, before anyone tries to explain how things are in the real world, I know that having the boards is preferable when you apply for all the reasons behind it (hospital bylaws, insurances, etc). In the end it is only an exam and it does not mean that ANYONE is stupid or makes you a better doctor just by passing. I now a few who have passed and couldn't take care of any patient. There are others that last year were freaking out and soling their pants only to find out they passed and now are acting as if they are superior, HA!
I will let you know when I take it. May need moral support as well...Who knows?

 

[MEMBER23141]

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).

That was my guess as well. Thanks so much for sharing your experience. In general, does ABIM test audio as a lone evaluation or more as a necessary part of assessing a clinical stem? I've been averaging 1:15 for MKSAP test. How would you compare your time answering a ABIM vs. MKSAP question?

Thanks!

 

[Vitamin_Ng]

i noticed that there weren't any statistics questions in the mksap 15 Qbank; however, medstudy has a whole section dedicated to the bayesian 4 square and deriving calculations for PPV, NPV, sensitivity, specificity, etc.

i looked at the "exam blueprint" on the ABIM website, and it says that epidemiology accounts for 3% of the exam, which equates to 5-9 questions.

does anyone who has already taken the exam recommend taking the time to re-learn these equations?...

thanks!

 

[Thinker123]

was there a calculator built into the program? i haven't been able to try out the tutorial yet, since it requires that macs be based on PowerPC, and my mac air doesn't have that.

There is a calculator but I didn't need to use it. I only wrote one thing on my sketch pad...simple math (but with decimals so I wanted to see it to be sure) for biostats.

The nice thing is you didn't really need the calculator. The had a way of displaying the answers in a way that it showed you the equation you would have been using and then the calculation and answer for that equation (if that makes any sense). So really you had to do your simple math then locate the answer of your simple math in the answers.

This required you to:
1. Know what elements should be combined together for the simple math.
2. Know what equation should be used

I wish I could just explain but you know how they are. LOL

 

[Thinker123]

I took the exam again. First of all I feel horrible. I had done MKSAP with average of 70%. USMLE world percentage was far lower (will not post...you get the idea). All with a full work schedule. I feel for "Hospitalist 7" wanting to boycott the ABIM. Did awesome review 4 times. Did Medstudy cases(note cards - actually helped with some questions). But the feeling is the same if not worse than last year's exam. I actually took the whole of the two hours for each section and for only one section did I have time to review my marked questions. Reviewing afterward I found that I got at least two easy questions wrong (questions that I should not have gotten wrong as I had knew the concepts). Depressed. I feel that putting the exam off for a percentage right of 70% on MKSAP is not a smart move and would only prolong the task. Nevertheless it was incredibly difficult to get to the magic number of 85% correct (at least that is what I gather from the posts here. Sounds like that I had reached a knowledge ceiling with juggling with work and all. I am probably going to start reading again this month for next year to get a head start on things. And I will probably start making contingency for next year as far as jobs are concerned.

Sorry to hear that. Yes...the exam was challenging. I feel like the key was having a study partner. I'll say more pending results. Remember you are allowed to miss like 60. You won't know until you see the score.

 

[Thinker123]

I am sorry you feel that way. I am taking the exam the very last day. I am still studying for it and exhausted, but this is the home stretch, so here goes everything. As a repeat test taker I can tell you, first of all, congratulate yourself on making the decision of going for it again. Yes, you can decide to put it off for later, however I'm not sure if that would have been counter producing, especially since you have the knowledge still fresh in your mind.
Second: Take a break!! you don't have the results yet, and there is nothing you can do about it until they are released, so for now, don't go back to study for it. Put your study materials in a safe place and leave them there.
About those who are asking if you can find a job without the boards, the answer is yes, there are options. I am not recommending to anyone to not take it obviously, because I will be taking it in a couple of weeks, but this is not the end of the world. Just be honest when you apply and go with your gut feeling. Why would someone want to work with a bunch of snobs who make you feel down if you repeated a test. Yes, the offer may be more tempting, but it does not men the work is better. And yes, before anyone tries to explain how things are in the real world, I know that having the boards is preferable when you apply for all the reasons behind it (hospital bylaws, insurances, etc). In the end it is only an exam and it does not mean that ANYONE is stupid or makes you a better doctor just by passing. I now a few who have passed and couldn't take care of any patient. There are others that last year were freaking out and soling their pants only to find out they passed and now are acting as if they are superior, HA!
I will let you know when I take it. May need moral support as well...Who knows?

Good luck. Go in with a bright mind. The way my exam was is that it focused on several themes. So I would get 3 question on one topic and non on other core bread and butter topics. This means either one of two things...either the computer is designed to pull blocks of questions to see if you have mastered that topic OR since it is completely random, they don't care if you have a topic come up 3 or 4 times.

I don't think it is against the rules to say what the exam didn't emphasize right? LOL
-It didn't emphasize which chemo drug goes with which cancer but you should know possible side effect of common cancer drugs. Also if there is a cancer that has an awesome special treatment, know that.
-Like I've said...the swanz ganz numbers are in the labs section. Don't spend all day memorizing but know how to interpret what they mean.
-Know all your "guidelines"...whether they be preventative screening, immunization or what to do when you find something (sign, symptom or nodule/mass)...how to gather info to make assessments regarding guidelines etc. Know them COLD!

I think I will stop there. I don't think I've done anything illegal. I haven't given any specifics.

 

[Thinker123]

That was my guess as well. Thanks so much for sharing your experience. In general, does ABIM test audio as a lone evaluation or more as a necessary part of assessing a clinical stem? I've been averaging 1:15 for MKSAP test. How would you compare your time answering a ABIM vs. MKSAP question?

Thanks!

The MKSAP questions are WAY longer than the ABIM. While ABIM has some long ones, it balances that out by having some super short ones...more than in the past (at least on my exam). Keep in mind that strategy I mentioned where you could choose to skip some of the long ones and then when you answer some of the short ones that take 20 seconds, you get to bank the bonus time to be used on the long ones later so you can spend more than 2 minutes and not have to feel rushed. If you do it that way, time won't be an issue at all. I'm not a fast reader and with that strategy it was great because I was calm knowing I was always ahead of schedule.

I hate counting with that clock so I used a simple strategy that worked for me:
-By 90 I should be past 15
-By 60 I should be past 30
-By 30 I should be past 45

If you use these three insread of full calcs, you should be fine. So let's say you are on 12 and you are panicking wondering whether you are going fast enough and you look and it says 100 min...then you say "I need to finish 15 by 90 so I'm in good shape"...then when you get to 15 you look again to see if you are OK. The less efficient method would be to count your number, multiply by 2 then subtract that from the original 120...all that is simple but wastes MORE time. LOL

...so it feels good when you get to 30 and you look and it is at 72 minutes...then you know you have a bonus 12 minutes to use how you want. So in a way, doing the short ones first helped me feel more relaxed. I tried not to overdo it. In my head, i didn't want to skip more than 10. i ended up skipping 2,3, 5, then 6. As i became more confident in the method, I felt more comfortable skipping more.

You can tell the really long ones. If there is a scroll bar on your page, it is long. LOL It feels so good to know you can spend 4 min on such a question...and you can if you use the skip method.

 

[Thinker123]

i noticed that there weren't any statistics questions in the mksap 15 Qbank; however, medstudy has a whole section dedicated to the bayesian 4 square and deriving calculations for PPV, NPV, sensitivity, specificity, etc.

i looked at the "exam blueprint" on the ABIM website, and it says that epidemiology accounts for 3% of the exam, which equates to 5-9 questions.

does anyone who has already taken the exam recommend taking the time to re-learn these equations?...

thanks!

You need to know the first 2 and 1/2 pages of BB2 GIM. That should be fine. I would agree with your assessment on number of questions from the blueprint. I think the Medstudy is overkill for that section...just my opinion though. I can't be responsible if your exam is different. LOL

 

[Thinker123]

i noticed that there weren't any statistics questions in the mksap 15 Qbank; however, medstudy has a whole section dedicated to the bayesian 4 square and deriving calculations for PPV, NPV, sensitivity, specificity, etc.

i looked at the "exam blueprint" on the ABIM website, and it says that epidemiology accounts for 3% of the exam, which equates to 5-9 questions.

does anyone who has already taken the exam recommend taking the time to re-learn these equations?...

thanks!

I want to share my mnemonic I made the night before the exam. I feel it helped me.

For specificity and sensitivity the key thing is to remember once you put one thing on top in the numerator, the denominator is the same thing plus the opposite of each letter (two letters...either true or false and either positive or negative):

Teens think they are special so for specificity, TN is on top and you can determine the rest of the equation from there. So...Specificity= TN/ TN+FP

Senators think they are clean (but they are really dirty) so i think of TP (as in toilet paper) so Sen is TP on top...then from there you should be able to get the rest of the equation...so Sen = TP/ TP+FN

Next PPV is positive so it is True positive / all positives
NPV is negative so ti is True negative / all negatives

Next: Likelihood Ratio I based it on saying the Sun rises so Sensitivity is always on top (you can also say Senetors over the special teens). If it is positive LR then the sensitivity will be full and complete and the lower number will have the "1-X"...if it is Negative LR then the sensitivity will have the "1-X" and the lower number (denominator=specificity) will be full.

NNT is important too. You need to know the NNT= 1/ARR and then know how to calculate the ARR. They made it simple by offering percentages rather than numbers so you were able to convert those percentages directly to decimals (for example 6% = 0.06) If they gave you numbers, that would suck because you would have to change the numbers into percentages then change the percentages into decimals. I hope I'm not revealing too much. I haven't given any specific examples. I'm just explaining a skill that might be needed on the exam. if that's wrong, then they are *******s.

ARR is Absolute risk reduction which is the difference in outcome observed between placebo and active treatment. So if they were to say the drug was used and in the placebo the disease occurred in 20% and in the treated it occurred in 5% then the ARR would be 0.15 (0.20-0.05) and thus your NNT would be 1/0.15 which would be 6.67.

BB2 goes on to discuss RR and CI...you need to know these.

So....Positive LR = Sensitivity/ 1-Specificity
Negative LR = 1-Sensitivity/ Specificity.
You need to know this AND memorize what the numbers mean regarding percentages.

 

[Vitamin_Ng]

I want to share my mnemonic I made the night before the exam. I feel it helped me.

For specificity and sensitivity the key thing is to remember once you put one thing on top in the numerator, the denominator is the same thing plus the opposite of each letter (two letters...either true or false and either positive or negative):

Teens think they are special so for specificity, TN is on top and you can determine the rest of the equation from there. So...Specificity= TN/ TN+FP

Senators think they are clean (but they are really dirty) so i think of TP (as in toilet paper) so Sen is TP on top...then from there you should be able to get the rest of the equation...so Sen = TP/ TP+FN

Next PPV is positive so it is True positive / all positives
NPV is negative so ti is True negative / all negatives

Next: Likelihood Ratio I based it on saying the Sun rises so Sensitivity is always on top (you can also say Senetors over the special teens). If it is positive LR then the sensitivity will be full and complete and the lower number will have the "1-X"...if it is Negative LR then the sensitivity will have the "1-X" and the lower number (denominator=specificity) will be full.

NNT is important too. You need to know the NNT= 1/ARR and then know how to calculate the ARR. They made it simple by offering percentages rather than numbers so you were able to convert those percentages directly to decimals (for example 6% = 0.06) If they gave you numbers, that would suck because you would have to change the numbers into percentages then change the percentages into decimals. I hope I'm not revealing too much. I haven't given any specific examples. I'm just explaining a skill that might be needed on the exam. if that's wrong, then they are *******s.

ARR is Absolute risk reduction which is the difference in outcome observed between placebo and active treatment. So if they were to say the drug was used and in the placebo the disease occurred in 20% and in the treated it occurred in 5% then the ARR would be 0.15 (0.20-0.05) and thus your NNT would be 1/0.15 which would be 6.67.

BB2 goes on to discuss RR and CI...you need to know these.

So....Positive LR = Sensitivity/ 1-Specificity
Negative LR = 1-Sensitivity/ Specificity.
You need to know this AND memorize what the numbers mean regarding percentages.

thanks Thinker123! those are actually really clever and memorable mnemonics that i haven't seen before! i will definitely co-opt those.
also, what is "BB2 GIM"-- i'm guessing GIM = general internal medicine, but what is BB2? i'm only using mksap Q's and medstudy as my study material.

 

[CanIMakeIt]

thanks Thinker123! those are actually really clever and memorable mnemonics that i haven't seen before! i will definitely co-opt those.
also, what is "BB2 GIM"-- i'm guessing GIM = general internal medicine, but what is BB2? i'm only using mksap Q's and medstudy as my study material.

BB2 = Board Basics 2

 

[Vitamin_Ng]

BB2 = Board Basics 2

thanks for the clarification.

also, does anyone recommend getting the mksap 15 updates? i'm at the point where i will be going through the mksap 15 qbank a second time, but it may also be beneficial to get a fresh set of questions. i'm taking the exam in 1 week. is the material covered in the mksap update fair game for the boards within the same cycle? (i.e. i'm assuming any information from mksap 15 updates would have been incorporated into mksap 16, and would be tested on subsequent board exams). based on what everyone is saying about the UW qbank, it doesn't seem like those questions are very high yield or representative of the actual board exam.

again, thanks for the replies. for the most part, everyone has been extremely helpful and supportive!

 

[MEMBER23141]

Remember you are allowed to miss like 60.

Thanks for your impressions. Can you tell me where that 60 figure comes from?

Also, with a week left to study, which does you think would have the highest yield:
1) MedStudy flash cards -- done them twice already
2) MedStudy questions - done them once already with average 80% score
3) MKSAP questions - done 40% of them, average 70% score
4) BB2 - read about 40%

Many thanks, I hope that you passed!

 

[gutonc]

Also, with a week left to study, which does you think would have the highest yield:
1) MedStudy flash cards -- done them twice already
2) MedStudy questions - done them once already with average 80% score
3) MKSAP questions - done 40% of them, average 70% score
4) BB2 - read about 40%

Many thanks, I hope that you passed!

Depends on how you study best. I'd vote for more questions. Or if you can nail down any glaring deficiencies from your practice tests, perhaps read BB2 in those sections.

 

[MEMBER23141]

Depends on how you study best. I'd vote for more questions. Or if you can nail down any glaring deficiencies from your practice tests, perhaps read BB2 in those sections.

Thanks, that's a great idea. On the MedStudy online questions, they give a score for each section. Reading the BB2 section for those low scoring areas makes a lot of sense. Many thanks!

 

[Thinker123]

thanks Thinker123! those are actually really clever and memorable mnemonics that i haven't seen before! i will definitely co-opt those.
also, what is "BB2 GIM"-- i'm guessing GIM = general internal medicine, but what is BB2? i'm only using mksap Q's and medstudy as my study material.

Sure...You haven't seen them before because I made them up the night before the test. They were helpful! (arrest me ABIM...LOL).

Yes BB2 is Board basics 2. I must say that was a helpful book. No pressure. BB2 is the Boards correlate to go along with MKSAP. It was helpful to read while going along with the MKSAP questions but if you know Medstudy, Medstudy is certainly more thorough than BB2.

 

[Thinker123]

thanks for the clarification.

also, does anyone recommend getting the mksap 15 updates? i'm at the point where i will be going through the mksap 15 qbank a second time, but it may also be beneficial to get a fresh set of questions. i'm taking the exam in 1 week. is the material covered in the mksap update fair game for the boards within the same cycle? (i.e. i'm assuming any information from mksap 15 updates would have been incorporated into mksap 16, and would be tested on subsequent board exams). based on what everyone is saying about the UW qbank, it doesn't seem like those questions are very high yield or representative of the actual board exam.

again, thanks for the replies. for the most part, everyone has been extremely helpful and supportive!

I would say use the week to go over all the MKSAP questions again...reading the question answer, objective and key point and deciding whether you are comfortable with not only the topic but the differential...the wrong answers etc. If you are, move on. It's fun and every time you go through it it makes it more solid. You won't have time to do every question again...nor should you. You should be filling in weaknesses. So if you run into a question where you would like extra help, go for it. Be honest with yourself.

 

[Thinker123]

Thanks, that's a great idea. On the MedStudy online questions, they give a score for each section. Reading the BB2 section for those low scoring areas makes a lot of sense. Many thanks!

Yeah...that's good advice. I agree. make sure you've done all the GIM questions for MKSAP. They were extremely high yield and while there are a lot of them they go a lot quicker than say...cardiology.

Oh yeah...the 60...I made that up. Of the 205 questions that count, 10% would be about 20 questions and i think you need about 70% to pass so 60 questions would be about 30% plus it would leave you 5 questions to spare ...so 145/205 would be 70.7%...a likely pass. Also keep in mind 35 of the questions are practice questions so if you missed any of those, it won't count. So if you remember 5 that you missed, keep in mind, you would probably need 56 more wrong to fail. The best would be if someone from last year barely passed and they could share what percent they got correct, that would be cool. You may even be able to miss more than 60. 60 was just a safe number. You definitely should be able to miss 50. That would be nearly 76% correct. That would definitely be a pass...so 50 is safe for sure.

 

[MEMBER23141]

I want to share my mnemonic

Great post, thanks!

Another way to look at it is the mnemonic I learned from the MedStudy DVD's are SPIN and SNOUT. SPIN refers to SPecificity that helps rule-IN a disease (TN/Total negative tests) = TN/(TN+FN) That is, the lower false negatives help rule-in a disease.

Conversely, SNOUT refers to SeNsitivity that helps rule-OUT a disease (TP/Total positive tests) or (TP/(TP+FP)). That is, the lower false positives help rule out a disease.

 

[Thinker123]

Great post, thanks!

Another way to look at it is the mnemonic I learned from the MedStudy DVD's are SPIN and SNOUT. SPIN refers to SPecificity that helps rule-IN a disease (TN/Total negative tests) = TN/(TN+FN) That is, the lower false negatives help rule-in a disease.

Conversely, SNOUT refers to SeNsitivity that helps rule-OUT a disease (TP/Total positive tests) or (TP/(TP+FP)). That is, the lower false positives help rule out a disease.

You've made an error there with your sensitivity and specificity. What you have described is actually the NPV under specificity and what you have described under sensitivity is actually the PPV.

Instead, once you get the first value, remember that the denominator is that value plus the opposite of each letter.

So Specificity = TN/ TN+ FP
Sensitivity = TP/ TP+ FN

If you remember that opposite rule along with the Senators and Teens, you should be good with those two.

 

[MEMBER23141]

Ugh, Gotta review that section!

 

[Thinker123]

Ugh, Gotta review that section!

If you use my mnemonics, you should be golden...

 

[c5a]

Yeah...that's good advice. I agree. make sure you've done all the GIM questions for MKSAP. They were extremely high yield and while there are a lot of them they go a lot quicker than say...cardiology.

Oh yeah...the 60...I made that up. Of the 205 questions that count, 10% would be about 20 questions and i think you need about 70% to pass so 60 questions would be about 30% plus it would leave you 5 questions to spare ...so 145/205 would be 70.7%...a likely pass. Also keep in mind 35 of the questions are practice questions so if you missed any of those, it won't count. So if you remember 5 that you missed, keep in mind, you would probably need 56 more wrong to fail. The best would be if someone from last year barely passed and they could share what percent they got correct, that would be cool. You may even be able to miss more than 60. 60 was just a safe number. You definitely should be able to miss 50. That would be nearly 76% correct. That would definitely be a pass...so 50 is safe for sure.

someone last year passed with 68.3% correct (140). someone else failed with 69.3% correct (142). questions are weighted differently. a safe area to be is greater than 70%.

 

[Tastebuds]

Can anyone who has taken the exam tell me if I need to spend a lot of time on genetics and allergy/immunology?

Thanks!

 

[Vitamin_Ng]

hey everyone-- you may or may not have looked at the pdf provided by ABIM regarding the pass rates since 2007.

http://www.abim.org/pdf/pass-rates/cert.pdf

one thing that i thought was interesting is that they alternate testing certain disciplines every other year in what appears to be a predictable pattern. looking at the trend, do you think we should anticipate being tested on transplant hepatology, hospice and palliative medicine, and advanced heart failure/transplant cardiology? i haven't heard from people that transplant medicine was on the exam, and it certainly isn't covered in any appreciable detail in mksap or medstudy.

 

[MEMBER23141]

hey everyone-- you may or may not have looked at the pdf provided by ABIM regarding the pass rates since 2007. ... one thing that i thought was interesting is that they alternate testing certain disciplines every other year

Those are pass rates for sub-speciality exams.

What I found more interesting is that last year's fail rate for the general IM exam was almost 3 times higher than 2007. Has the general test become that much harder?

 

[Vitamin_Ng]

oh, my bad! thanks for pointing that out. i guess i must have glossed over the heading over the second table.

i was wondering the same thing-- assuming the training/preparation of the pool of test takers remains consistent year after year, you would have to wonder if the ABIM is making a concerted effort to make the test more difficult or is lowering the cut-off to pass. and what would be the motivation for maintaining a lower pass rate? one of my friends theorized that the ABIM is trying to force people to re-take the test multiple times so as to collect more test fees! :-/

 

[MEMBER23141]

someone last year passed with 68.3% correct (140). someone else failed with 69.3% correct (142). questions are weighted differently. a safe area to be is greater than 70%.

Does anyone know how MKSAP correct answer rates compare with ABIM correct rates?

 

[Thinker123]

someone last year passed with 68.3% correct (140). someone else failed with 69.3% correct (142). questions are weighted differently. a safe area to be is greater than 70%.

Wow...that's rally interesting...or maybe one miscalculated. It does sound like 70% would be a safe bet. They would feel guilty failing someone with a solid 70 I would think.

 

[Thinker123]

Can anyone who has taken the exam tell me if I need to spend a lot of time on genetics and allergy/immunology?

Thanks!

There was some allergy/immunology there. I think the BB2 section (like 7 pages) should be fine (no guarantees though).

As far as "genetics", the best thing to do is check the ABIM blueprint. I don't remember being overwhelmed with basic genetics but I'm comfortable with that. There were some things on specific diseases...just a little...but those would be covered under specific diseases that you are studying.

 

[mksap2012]

It sound like IM boards is getting difficult. I am currently in fellowship and it is very difficult to read. Tons of consult every day and do not even get enough sleep, what to talk about reading.
Did MKSAP and average is 68% (60-70%) and read couple of MKSAP books like GIM, heme.
What do guys think. I am freaking out.
Any one in same boat.
What would be last week advice. taking board on last day. Trying to read BB2.

 

[academicpath23]

It sound like IM boards is getting difficult. I am currently in fellowship and it is very difficult to read. Tons of consult every day and do not even get enough sleep, what to talk about reading.
Did MKSAP and average is 68% (60-70%) and read couple of MKSAP books like GIM, heme.
What do guys think. I am freaking out.
Any one in same boat.
What would be last week advice. taking board on last day. Trying to read BB2.

Sorry, I don't have any advice for you.

I am curious however, what are you doing your fellowship in?

Best wishes on your upcoming exam.

 

[CanIMakeIt]

Wow...that's rally interesting...or maybe one miscalculated. It does sound like 70% would be a safe bet. They would feel guilty failing someone with a solid 70 I would think.

No those are real number from last year

 

[Thinker123]

No those are real number from last year

Yeah...but we can't be absolutely sure both people added up their numbers correctly. You need to convert the percentage for each section into a number then add them together. There is room for error.

 

[Gibbyvette]

Wow...that's rally interesting...or maybe one miscalculated. It does sound like 70% would be a safe bet. They would feel guilty failing someone with a solid 70 I would think.

I am the one who passed with the 140 and I definitely did the math correct!

 

[robin082006]

Doing MKSAP questions are not enough.

 

[2012ABIM]

I failed last year and retook last week. I did BB2x5, Awesome Review x6, MKSAP books, Medstudy Book but I can tell you that losts of questions cannot be seen in the these books. The questions for test repeaters seem to be more difficult and very confusing because answer choices are similar.

I feel very horrible after I took the exam, but nothing I can do now, just wait for the result.

 

[Thinker123]

I am the one who passed with the 140 and I definitely did the math correct!

Cool. The other person may have miscalculated. It's hard for me to believe different weight for different questions. You know how they tell you the Standardized score needed to pass? Was your exactly the same as that? If you don't mind, I'm curious what that standardized score was.

 

[Thinker123]

I failed last year and retook last week. I did BB2x5, Awesome Review x6, MKSAP books, Medstudy Book but I can tell you that losts of questions cannot be seen in the these books. The questions for test repeaters seem to be more difficult and very confusing because answer choices are similar.

I feel very horrible after I took the exam, but nothing I can do now, just wait for the result.

Hang in there. I'm a repeat test taker too. If it makes you feel better, this was my 3rd time. I last took it in 2010. The first 2 times I didn't study well for it and didn't even do the MKSAP questions. I had the classic excuses of work, blah blah. I drove far away to take my test both times. I felt awful and ashamed until I ran across someone on here that admitted they had taken it 5 times (not saying I was better off than that person but my point is if they were not hanging their head in shame, then maybe I shouldn't either. I thank them for sharing.)

I think we are all smart. This is a tough exam and often we don't prepare appropriately and lie to ourselves. I see you went through a lot of content this time. For me the difference this time was actually having a study partner. It made studying more fun, I went through all MKSAP questions at least twice. I remember conversations on topics. Usually repeaters are in hiding because they don't want anybody to know they failed the first time so they are doing secret studying...often alone. I think this contributes to the low passage rate.

Which day did you take the exam? I took mine Monday Aug 6th.

 

[workingdoc]

I am also a repeat test taker this year. I'm just curious, how are people calculating their scores? I had no idea what my score report meant last year, or how to interpret how many questions I actually got right, etc...

I retook a few days ago and agree that it was still very discouraging. Was averaging 80 on MKSAP and the problem was not that I didn't know the material, it was the answers were very similar and I had trouble deciding between two good answers. Feeling very freaked out that I likely failed again, as I can think of many answers I changed from correct to incorrect for insecurity...argh!!!

Any advice on how I can calculate from last years score would be appreciated! Good luck to all

 

[Gibbyvette]

Cool. The other person may have miscalculated. It's hard for me to believe different weight for different questions. You know how they tell you the Standardized score needed to pass? Was your exactly the same as that? If you don't mind, I'm curious what that standardized score was.

Actually the person who out scored me yet didn't pass sent me he's scores. I could only note that I minimally beat him in what I assume were bigger core specialities ie.. Cardio, pulmonary and I think gen med. don't know if that's how they do it but that's what I noticed. GOOD LUCK to all! We've all earned this already!

 

[academicpath23]

Hang in there. I'm a repeat test taker too. If it makes you feel better, this was my 3rd time. I last took it in 2010. The first 2 times I didn't study well for it and didn't even do the MKSAP questions. I had the classic excuses of work, blah blah. I drove far away to take my test both times. I felt awful and ashamed until I ran across someone on here that admitted they had taken it 5 times (not saying I was better off than that person but my point is if they were not hanging their head in shame, then maybe I shouldn't either. I thank them for sharing.)

I think we are all smart. This is a tough exam and often we don't prepare appropriately and lie to ourselves. I see you went through a lot of content this time. For me the difference this time was actually having a study partner. It made studying more fun, I went through all MKSAP questions at least twice. I remember conversations on topics. Usually repeaters are in hiding because they don't want anybody to know they failed the first time so they are doing secret studying...often alone. I think this contributes to the low passage rate.

Which day did you take the exam? I took mine Monday Aug 6th.

GREAT advice... just wanted to say thanks for sharing

 

[disc99]

I just took the test again... I feel very frustrated. The answers were very similar, I was so afraid of getting the answer wrong that I looked over the question over and over again but could not find a certain answer half of the time. Very discouraging.

 

[Thinker123]

I am also a repeat test taker this year. I'm just curious, how are people calculating their scores? I had no idea what my score report meant last year, or how to interpret how many questions I actually got right, etc...

I retook a few days ago and agree that it was still very discouraging. Was averaging 80 on MKSAP and the problem was not that I didn't know the material, it was the answers were very similar and I had trouble deciding between two good answers. Feeling very freaked out that I likely failed again, as I can think of many answers I changed from correct to incorrect for insecurity...argh!!!

Any advice on how I can calculate from last years score would be appreciated! Good luck to all

Hi,

What you need to do is look at the percent correct for each subtopic (e.g. cardiology, pulm, GI) and look at how many questions there are for each. Convert each percentage to a number then add them up. It will be easy to convert percentages to numbers. At the end when you have your total, you can divide that by 205 for your overall percentage.

 

[Thinker123]

I just took the test again... I feel very frustrated. The answers were very similar, I was so afraid of getting the answer wrong that I looked over the question over and over again but could not find a certain answer half of the time. Very discouraging.

Yeah...when you come out you focus on the ones you got wrong. I can think of 5-10 that I definitely got wrong. Keep in mind, we can likely miss 60!

I don't know why but my last session seemed much harder than the previous 3. I guess they didn't want me to leave with a good feeling. LOL I won't know until the results come in October but I would have been feeling better before that last session. WTF was that? LOL

 

[katang]

first time taker here-...took the exam yesterday....it was a mauling-plain and simple-so many confusing choices and many of them actually being done simultaneously in real life-so you dont know what the best/next step would be.....was averaging abt 80% on MKSAP week before exam, but I felt this year exam was much worse than the MKSAP 15.....what do others think?

 

[disc99]

Yeah...when you come out you focus on the ones you got wrong. I can think of 5-10 that I definitely got wrong. Keep in mind, we can likely miss 60!

I don't know why but my last session seemed much harder than the previous 3. I guess they didn't want me to leave with a good feeling. LOL I won't know until the results come in October but I would have been feeling better before that last session. WTF was that? LOL

I felt the same way! The last session was THE WORST! and I do think that I am just remembering the ones that gave me a lot of trouble and (thus) got wrong... Well, we will just hope for the best and wait for the results...

 

[c5a]

1st block, at least 75% correct,
2nd block, at least 70% correct,
3rd block, at least 75% correct,
4th block, at least 70% correct.
i found blocks 2 and 4 more difficult. i think i passed the threshold. definately agree, mksap was not enough. this exam requires you to dig very deep. it requires a great understanding from multiple sources. you need to get information from multiple angles, and it has that many more ways of sticking in your head. i got some Qs right from mksap, some more from Uworld, some more from awesome review, some more from the other board review sources (Johns Hopkins board review, medstudy). every source of info adding a few more points to the final score. hopefully it was enough. i was the one who scored 142 (69.3% correct) last year and failed. the calculation was correct. not all questions are scored the same, and some questions give them "more information" than others.
notice over the last 5 years, consecutively the average pass rate for 1st time test takers has gone down. From 2007-2011, I believe it was 94%, 91%, 88%, 87%, 84%. Wonder what this year will bring. It seemed harder.
i should also add this disclaimer... i probably rushed through the exam last year, finishing most blocks with 50 minutes left to spare, not realizing that the questions were not as easy as they seemed, and i really needed the full 2 minutes per question to consider all options, and carefully rule out the wrong ones.