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Took it today and joining the "I hope I passed club"

At least it's over
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The worst part of it all is when I changed an obviously correct answer to a clearly incorrect answer because I had a second of self-doubt that then turned into an agonizing "oh but what if?" I'm okay getting a question wrong that many/most people get wrong. I feel like a buffoon when I get a question wrong that I really should have gotten correct, but had a moment of herpderp and messed it all up. I just hope I'm not the only one who has that moment of stupidity :smack:
 
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I will be so glad to get this stupid test over with. Taking mine on the 22nd.

Congrats to everyone who finished. At least you're done!
 
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I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that the test isn't that bad. If you did well on USMLE 1-3 and you study for this test I think you'll be ok. I did UWorld, BB x 2, MKSAP questions on areas I wasn't strong in from UWorld stats (heme, endo, onc, cards) and read further into the highest yield topics (cough, HTN, obstructive airway disease). Felt like it was a good test. There are some "man I haven't thought of about this in a while or seen this or encountered this before" but I'd say 85% of the material was appropriate. I'll let ya know if this is true in a few months...
 
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Finished it today... like everyone else has said, the exam is both easy and not easy. A lot of the questions are random pure memorization, so either you know or it you don't (the types of which I didn't find to be well represented in either the MKSAP or UW qbanks - these are almost like flash card material). However, the ACP review in Seattle was helpful with a few of them, bringing out connections I may not have necessarily made on my own just through using the qbanks (but not impossible if you didn't do it). The rest of them were more like MKSAP/UW with regards to being able to narrow it down based on question stems. A few really weird ones thrown in there that I had no idea about.

Mechanics-wise, finished with 30 minutes extra in each block (so took about 90 minutes) and took a break between each section... took me about 8 hours in total. It was sort of weird having to turn your pockets inside out and pat yourself down prior to going back into the test center, but I guess that's the ABIM security for you. Haha.

Just glad it's over, and I hope I passed!
 
Anri of Astora said:
The worst part of it all is when I changed an obviously correct answer to a clearly incorrect answer because I had a second of self-doubt that then turned into an agonizing "oh but what if?" I'm okay getting a question wrong that many/most people get wrong. I feel like a buffoon when I get a question wrong that I really should have gotten correct, but had a moment of herpderp and messed it all up. I just hope I'm not the only one who has that moment of stupidity :smack:
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No i did that too for a few questions!
 
Are you allowed to look at study materials during breaks?
 
Wow MKSAP has changed. If I get a question right, I feel validated that 95% of others got it right too! If I get it wrong, I'm in the idiot 5%! Guess people have been going through it the past couple days and redoing their wrong answers!
 
E92er said:
Wow MKSAP has changed. If I get a question right, I feel validated that 95% of others got it right too! If I get it wrong, I'm in the idiot 5%! Guess people have been going through it the past couple days and redoing their wrong answers!
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agree ... hate that lol... dont feel smart cause everyone else got it right and feel supper dumb for the wrong answers lol
 
medie10 said:
Are you allowed to look at study materials during breaks?
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i am sure you are ... but i wouldnt waist brain power trying to learn stuff... you are better off using that power to eliminate options....
my two cents anyway
 
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medie10 said:
Are you allowed to look at study materials during breaks?
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You can do whatever you'd like during the scheduled study breaks (I think you get a total of 2 hours to use for the whole test). During unscheduled (during the actual exam portion) you are most likely not.
 
Took it yesterday. Will say my study method probably wasn't the best. I'm usually a reader who does very few questions and I've done fine on steps. This test was all about test taking skills. Prep for this exam should largely be questions, 2 question banks easily. Let's hope I will not have to buy a Qbank 3 months from now...
 
Well it's over for everyone. I thought it was a fair test as in I don't think they threw in much that was not in MKSAP and BB3. Having said that, I still could have failed, so oh well. Good luck to all of us! If I pass, I'll come back and document my strategy to increase the sample size.
 
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Since I'm sure y'all will start the countdown for results soon, here is the table I put together last year (updated) of the first reported results:

2016: Saturday, October 15 @951 pm (snafu on the website as results rolled in over the next 12 hours or so)
2015: Thursday, October 8 @ 817AM
2014: Monday, October 6 @ 1059AM
2013: Monday, October 7 @ 323 AM (seriously)
2012: Thursday, October 4 @ 814 AM
2011: Wednesday, November 2 @ 1033 AM
Unable to find 2010, but it was prior to November 9
2009: Tuesday, October 20 @ 540PM

Basically, there's no telling when results will come out except that more likely than not, they'll in the first half of October sometime.
 
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Just took the ABIM initial certification exam and I feel like I failed...ahhhhhh

I checked some answers when I got home and I missed some really easy questions (and I'm sure I got other wrong as well), anyone else feel the same way?

Can anyone post similar experience...

Does anyone know people who felt like they failed and they passed?
 
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common post-test feeling, uncommon to fail but happens. Nothing you can do now but let it ride.
 
I was wondering if anyone has taken an abim re-examination.

Just took it and there was construction on the building wall on my exam day. Couldn't even hear myself think, the room was practically shaking. Proctors said they would file a report with abim. I called abim, they said they review the reports and decide from there- it's been several days.

Has anyone had any issues on their exam day or been offered a retake?
 
it says in the rules that once a score is returned, there is no recourse. any retakes have to be before score release- if the abim thinks the situation was bad enough to warrant a retake
 
It says that you cannot have the result cancelled. It doesn't say you can't wait for scoring and then request re-examination. Failing then passing a repeat exam doesn't really cause any problems. I would write ABIM and ask whether you can get a fee-waived retake assuming you don't pass. I doubt they'd open any additional dates so your next chance to take the exam will come after scores have been released.

Policies for Physician Certification | ABIM.org

Occasionally problems occur in the creation, administration and scoring of examinations. For example, power failures, hardware and software problems, human errors or weather problems may interfere with some part of the examination process. When problems occur and ABIM determines that they have compromised the integrity of the examination results, ABIM will provide affected candidates with an opportunity for re-examination.

A candidate who believes that testing conditions or other examination administration issues have adversely affected the candidate's ability to take and complete an examination should notify the proctor at the test center, or contact ABIM as soon as possible after the exam. In no event will ABIM consider a request to cancel an examination result after the result has been released to the candidate.

Re-examination shall be the candidate's sole remedy. ABIM shall not be liable for inconvenience, expense or other damage caused by any problems in the creation, administration or scoring of an examination, including the need for retesting or delays in score reporting. In no circumstance will ABIM reduce its standards as a means of correcting a problem in examination administration.

 
I know it won't be there, but I can't help checking the ABIM certification doc lookup to see if I'm certified yet. Am I the only one? :)
 
I felt like I had failed when I left the testing center. I passed. However, my percentile was pretty much exactly my 3rd year ITE percentile.

There is a calculator out there... somewhere. I forget where. But, I feel that's pretty accurate.
 
Raryn said:
You called it.
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6bccde79ff52e59d68de84f95bcaa747bd8d9a04024e1b2bd046dea319f8d42d.jpg
 
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I specially created an account so I could weather this agonizing wait with you all.
 
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Raryn said:
The first half of MKSAP 18 comes out in something like 4 months,
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Just for clarification, MKSAP 18 will not be releasing in 4 months but in 2018:
"MKSAP 18 Print Part A will publish July 31, 2018; Part B will publish December 31, 2018."
 
disorder said:
I felt like I had failed when I left the testing center. I passed. However, my percentile was pretty much exactly my 3rd year ITE percentile.

There is a calculator out there... somewhere. I forget where. But, I feel that's pretty accurate.
Click to expand...

Would appreciate the calculator: that might be helpful as the ITE scores return this year for those of us taking ABIM in 2018.

Anyone know this calculator and can share it with us?
 
rheum18 said:
Would appreciate the calculator: that might be helpful as the ITE scores return this year for those of us taking ABIM in 2018.

Anyone know this calculator and can share it with us?
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It won't allow me to post the link. But google search "abim pass predictor." According to that I have > 99% chance of pass. But I know how bad I felt walking out of the test center.
At this point I'd say I have a 50 / 50 chance of pass.
 
Results likely will post on 10/16 - last year ABIM posted results 2 months from the first test date (actually released them over the weekend). Will see them middle of this month.

My ITE in PGY2 was upper 80s/low 90s, generally I'm an ok test taker (but typically score higher on the practice exams compared to real thing - scored in 250s on step 1 practice then scored 240s on real thing).

For current test takers, I used
Uworld - had ALL the concepts tested, even 1-2 questions that were verbatim (maybe not as verbatim as "awesome review"). Scored 68% on first pass and second pass got half way through scoring in upper 70s/low 80s. Great source and probably closest to the real thing (need to narrow between 2 choices with what is most likely/common). However, q bank makes you question a lot of the slam dunk questions you get from MKSAP (can make you "over think" some of the easier questions).

MKSAP x3 starting in 2nd year residency. Good resource for wards, IMO over detailed in some subjects- heme/onc specifically (I had zero questions on chemo/xrt approaches/regimens, but qbank is relentless w/these questions). Certainly a good qbank and most used by your colleagues.

I did ACP videos, which were ok - not very in depth and only covered zebra stuff as they expect you to know the common stuff . Only got through it once .

Boards basics - great source, got through it about 1.5x - wish I could have gotten through it much more 2-3x. I annotated some of the material from Uworld into BB book which helped.

I didn't do Awesome Review, but had many colleagues use it and they spoke highly of it , although pretty intense 6 12hr days

ABIM test overall I felt was fair, yes some questions that harken back to medical school and buzz words, but pretty much most questions were reasonable (even if they were challenging). More than enough time to get through the exam (I'm avg with test taking time). I should have studied heme better, and I know I got some really easy ones wrong. Overall, probably a 50/50 chance with passing given that I got some of the easy stuff wrong.

Good luck everyone
 
Raryn said:
Sorry, you're right. It's July and January typically but I got the order backwards. July first.
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No problem!! I was partly clarifying too as I wanted to make sure there was not a new MKSAP releasing before the 2018 ABIM :)
 
Raryn said:
Since I'm sure y'all will start the countdown for results soon, here is the table I put together last year (updated) of the first reported results:

2016: Saturday, October 15 @951 pm (snafu on the website as results rolled in over the next 12 hours or so)
2015: Thursday, October 8 @ 817AM
2014: Monday, October 6 @ 1059AM
2013: Monday, October 7 @ 323 AM (seriously)
2012: Thursday, October 4 @ 814 AM
2011: Wednesday, November 2 @ 1033 AM
Unable to find 2010, but it was prior to November 9
2009: Tuesday, October 20 @ 540PM

Basically, there's no telling when results will come out except that more likely than not, they'll in the first half of October sometime.
Click to expand...
 
Why ABIM does not announce exact date of exam results? Waiting is painful.
 
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How much earlier does the certification status come up before the results?
 
Has anyone else stopped giving a crap? I'm mentally ready to face the beast again and all the humiliation of failure.

Historically speaking the certified status should be up Monday and score reports on Wednesday.
 
I'm anticipating that they may not be out Monday due to
blazkavcic said:
Has anyone else stopped giving a crap? I'm mentally ready to face the beast again and all the humiliation of failure.

Historically speaking the certified status should be up Monday and score reports on Wednesday.
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several recent natural disasters. I'm hoping they will be ASAP, but, not expecting it.
 
Lndsay85 said:
I'm anticipating that they may not be out Monday due to

several recent natural disasters. I'm hoping they will be ASAP, but, not expecting it.
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Very good point! I think Nov release is quite possible. Enjoy your days in the meantime everyone.
 
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blazkavcic said:
Has anyone else stopped giving a crap?
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As with every exam I've taken since my freshman year of college, I stopped giving a s*** the second I walked out of the room (for the IM and Onc ABIM exams).

Why?

The die is cast. The result will be what it will be. If I get the results in 2 minutes or 2 months, the answer is the same.

Why get so worked up about it?
 
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gutonc said:
As with every exam I've taken since my freshman year of college, I stopped giving a s*** the second I walked out of the room (for the IM and Onc ABIM exams).

Why?

The die is cast. The result will be what it will be. If I get the results in 2 minutes or 2 months, the answer is the same.

Why get so worked up about it?
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That's very wise. I had to learn to do that. Still need to improve.
 
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blazkavcic said:
Has anyone else stopped giving a crap? I'm mentally ready to face the beast again and all the humiliation of failure.

Historically speaking the certified status should be up Monday and score reports on Wednesday.
Click to expand...

I've reached a nihilistic source of peace with it as well. Fully expecting to need to retake next year. I got > 97th percentile on my ITEs throughout residency but fellowship (+ last couple rotations of residency) was utterly crushing and I got no time to study; the test felt like a bloodbath.
 
Seems like a silly question, but- where do we go to check our certification status? It is just the ABIM site?
 
Another silly Q if you pass do you get a certificate ? And how long does it take to get? Thnx
 
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