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Passed comfortably thank goodness. First attempt, procrastinated after fellowship, kids, busy career.. 7 years out of residency! I did awesome board review last year, read notes 3x. Also did usmleworld, repeated missed questions and wrote notes off of these. I also watched all MKSAP videos and took notes in awesome board review notes for thoroughness. Oncology was a heavy subject that I felt wasn’t covered well on board reviews. I also did all mksap questions. Board basics was also clutch! Believe me, you can do this if you dedicate your time to understanding why you are answering questions incorrectly. Doing question banks (especially usmleworld) is key! I have board materials for sale for anyone interested as well. Happy to answer questions, best of luck to anyone reading this!!

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I passed this year, a bit below the mean. Did well on ITEs, 70%ile or so each year, but delayed taking the boards a year so I could take Pediatrics first. I did MKSAP and UWORLD each once, and reviewed some mistakes. No reading as I've never been able to read a textbook. More than that was impossible with my schedule so admittedly I was less than ideally prepared. Still, it was enough and glad to be done!
 
I feel bad for people who will have to retake that random bs exam. This exam serves no purpose to one's development as a clinician. It's amazing how these medical institutions got away with murder.
 
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I feel bad for people who will have to retake that random bs exam. This exam serves no purpose to one's development as a clinician. It's amazing how these medical institutions got away with murder.
I passed but I completely agree it's a terrible exam and does not reflect reality of real world practice. Its purely a money making scheme.. It should have a very low bar for passing to ensure a basic level of competence. No one should be barred from practicing medicine because of this exam.
 
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This forum really helped and encouraged me during this process.

I passed this exams. score 521. Failed in 2018 - score 256.
Step 1 = 224
step 2 = 221
step 3 = 215.

Inservice exams 30%->60%->70%. I honestly don't know how I scored this high given that I have always been an average test taker. Guess the things they said during rounds was sticking or God was just protecting me from getting fired from residency. Long story.

wrote the exams 2018 at 1year out of residency. Did not really study for it. My ITE scores gave me false confidence. Also, worked as a nocturnist and could not transition my sleep. I studied for two weeks and did well on questions at night time but during the day, I felt like a zombie.
canceled test in 2019, still working as nocturnist and my employer kept calling me to work more shifts. I was not assertive enough to say No.
got sick during test in 2020. studied for less than a month only (working for different employer and doing day shifts) and was very nervous on test day resulting in excessive vomiting. It was also COVID-19 season, so they got worried and kicked me out of exams hall.

what I did different in 2021:
- I did medstudy videos starting from January. Made summaries of video (combination of things said on video and notes). watched videos x 2. Used 2019 videos
- I started mksap questions. made additional notes on my summary. read sections I did poorly on and added summary. 1.5x.
- I attended awesome review in June. This was after doing most medstudy and mksap. This helped enforce certain things. Really helpful for cardiology/heart murmurs.
- last month, I did U-world and did 90% of it.
- Used board review (mksap) only for general internal medicine. Did not have time to go through all of it. I found it very helpful as most questions came directly from it and Uworld.
- used one of the practice test on NEJM to determine my percentile about 2 weeks to exams. This helped my confidence as I could not use Uworld or mksap to determine my preparedness. Could not get through NEJM question bank. only did 10%.

I also arranged my schedule from May - aug in such a way that I worked for two weeks on and then had extended periods off to focus on studying. Ended up with 8 full weeks just for studying.

What I would have done different if I have to take this again:
- use fewer resources. I was quite burnout by my exams. I studied while doing 16-17 shifts monthly.
- done uworld twice. However, I was scoring in 70-80s. I had also seen more than half of this questions a year before.
- done more questions at a time. I used to do 10-20 questions at a time as I did not have stamina to do 60 questions at once. by the time I wrote the exams, I could only sit through 2 blocks of questions without going crazy. I tired out at the end of block two and could barely think through the questions in blocks 3 and 4. Stamina is key if you've been out of residency for a while.

I hope this helps you.
For those that did not pass, just give yourself enough time to study. Prioritize yourself. I had to learn to say no to helping out in the hospital in order to study. you have come this far. You can pass this exams too.

just my two cents.
 
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Received my ABIM certificate..doesn't even include my degree. Is that some new PC thing not to include your degree in attempt to equalize everyone? My degree is far greater sense of accomplishment than this lame exam.
 
Received my ABIM certificate..doesn't even include my degree. Is that some new PC thing not to include your degree in attempt to equalize everyone? My degree is far greater sense of accomplishment than this lame exam.
I agree. I just wrote a letter to ABIM regarding this exact shameful issue! I have a strong feeling it's because they have NPs on the board that want to convert us all to "providers" instead of acknowledging the sacrifice that went into obtaining an MD/DO!!!! None of my other board certifications do this by the way!
 
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I agree. I just wrote a letter to ABIM regarding this exact shameful issue! I have a strong feeling it's because they have NPs on the board that want to convert us all to "providers" instead of acknowledging the sacrifice that went into obtaining an MD/DO!!!! None of my other board certifications do this by the way!
It's time for physician to rise up and stop the bs.
 
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AOBIM results are out, my DO brethren!

I took both because I'm historically not the world's best test taker and a few years ago when my program first became ACGME, a couple people failed ABIM but passed AOBIM, which freaked faculty out, so between those two things and my baseline risk aversion I was persuaded to part with an extra $800. n=1, but to be ABIM had more difficult material, but better questions so if I didn't know it was really because of a knowledge gap, whereas AOBIM was easier with more straightforward questions, but because it shorter questions and less context clues, if I didn't know it was because I forgot a factoid, not because I lacked clinical reasoning. But in the end I passed both comfortably, well above the mean on AOBIM and well above passing but just below the mean on ABIM. I don't remember my ITE scores, I know they were all In the 65-85 percentile, but since I have test anxiety on board exams and not on ITEs I knew I couldn't rest on my laurels there anyway.

Things I did to study:
--MSKAP. I did all the questions once throughout residency (finished during board prep toward the end), then reset and did it all over again. Sometimes I did question sets of just ones I had gotten wrong previously. Always went back and read the ones I got wrong or starred.
--Board Basics is great. I found it hard to sit down to read, but I used it to review the material I got questions on, and annotated extra info in there sometimes. Used like an encyclopedia, it's golden.
--ThePassMachine: recommended to me by an attending and was money well spent. If you're someone who wants more guidance, like a curriculum and lectures, this is great. Some lecturers are better than others, but most are solid. Dr. Raj Dasgupta does pulm and rheum and a few others and it's particularly good. It also comes with an extensive qbank (questions are a mixed bag of good vignette vs factoid, but it does include esoteric stuff MSKAP doesn't). Not cheap, but gives you access for 12 months with pass guarantee (if you fail they reimburse you and give you access until you pass) so for me it was money well spent.
--NEJM Knowledge Plus: did not pay for this, was paid for by our program. I really liked their questions, and the way it did timed repetition and explanations. I didn't like that you couldn't specifically go back to old questions/explanations. I don't know how much it costs but I found it useful.
--Cleveland Clinic Virtual Board Review: made mandatory but also paid for by my program. Live course now presented online thanks to COVID. Mixed bag: some parts (Nephro, heme, daily high yield pearls) were golden, other parts were awful. It was also death by powerpoint every day for 5 days, with a lot of technical issues. I preferred the flexibility that PassMachine's video lectures gave me.
--I did NOT do UWorld, mostly because I spent $800 on AOBIM and also bought my SUV new tires and then didn't want to spend more money. The ABIM questions really felt like MKSAP to me and I think you can get away with this plan if you're dedicated to reviewing explanations in MKSAP in detail. Maybe UWorld's better, I'll never have to find out.
 
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AOBIM results are out, my DO brethren!

I took both because I'm historically not the world's best test taker and a few years ago when my program first became ACGME, a couple people failed ABIM but passed AOBIM, which freaked faculty out, so between those two things and my baseline risk aversion I was persuaded to part with an extra $800. n=1, but to be ABIM had more difficult material, but better questions so if I didn't know it was really because of a knowledge gap, whereas AOBIM was easier with more straightforward questions, but because it shorter questions and less context clues, if I didn't know it was because I forgot a factoid, not because I lacked clinical reasoning. But in the end I passed both comfortably, well above the mean on AOBIM and well above passing but just below the mean on ABIM. I don't remember my ITE scores, I know they were all In the 65-85 percentile, but since I have test anxiety on board exams and not on ITEs I knew I couldn't rest on my laurels there anyway.

Things I did to study:
--MSKAP. I did all the questions once throughout residency (finished during board prep toward the end), then reset and did it all over again. Sometimes I did question sets of just ones I had gotten wrong previously. Always went back and read the ones I got wrong or starred.
--Board Basics is great. I found it hard to sit down to read, but I used it to review the material I got questions on, and annotated extra info in there sometimes. Used like an encyclopedia, it's golden.
--ThePassMachine: recommended to me by an attending and was money well spent. If you're someone who wants more guidance, like a curriculum and lectures, this is great. Some lecturers are better than others, but most are solid. Dr. Raj Dasgupta does pulm and rheum and a few others and it's particularly good. It also comes with an extensive qbank (questions are a mixed bag of good vignette vs factoid, but it does include esoteric stuff MSKAP doesn't). Not cheap, but gives you access for 12 months with pass guarantee (if you fail they reimburse you and give you access until you pass) so for me it was money well spent.
--NEJM Knowledge Plus: did not pay for this, was paid for by our program. I really liked their questions, and the way it did timed repetition and explanations. I didn't like that you couldn't specifically go back to old questions/explanations. I don't know how much it costs but I found it useful.
--Cleveland Clinic Virtual Board Review: made mandatory but also paid for by my program. Live course now presented online thanks to COVID. Mixed bag: some parts (Nephro, heme, daily high yield pearls) were golden, other parts were awful. It was also death by powerpoint every day for 5 days, with a lot of technical issues. I preferred the flexibility that PassMachine's video lectures gave me.
--I did NOT do UWorld, mostly because I spent $800 on AOBIM and also bought my SUV new tires and then didn't want to spend more money. The ABIM questions really felt like MKSAP to me and I think you can get away with this plan if you're dedicated to reviewing explanations in MKSAP in detail. Maybe UWorld's better, I'll never have to find out.
That's a lot of prep materials. How did find the time to use all of them?
 
Thought you would all appreciate the absolute BS reply I just received to my letter about not including our credentials. I think we all need to fill up their inbox and stand unified on this acknowledgment!

Dear Dr.,

I want to thank you for writing to us, and for your dedication to the profession of medicine, your commitment to achieving your Internal Medicine certification and, most of all, your service to your patients.

Unfortunately, we cannot accommodate your request to include your credentials on your wall certificate, and it may be helpful to understand why. We do not include degrees or other designations (e.g., MD, DO, MBBS, FACP, etc.) on certificates, and have not done so for some time, because doing so for the more than 200,000 physicians certified by ABIM would be more complex and resource consuming than you might think. It would include, among other considerations, confirming degrees and designations from institutions all over the world, a significant investment of time and resources. Another consideration is the amount of space available on the certificate – even adding just a few characters to a name requires us to account for the longest physician name in our records and adjust the font size, placement, and size of paper accordingly. Again, no small task considering the thousands of certificates we print in any given year.

Thank you again for writing to us, and for all that you do as an important member of the ABIM community.

Sincerely,

Operations Director, Customer Care
American Board of Internal Medicine
 
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the more than 200,000 physicians certified by ABIM would be more complex and resource consuming than you might think. It would include, among o

Absolutely ridiculous. For the amount of money they make, they can't print a few extra characters on a certificate?

At the very least, they could place our degrees (MD, DO, etc), that shouldn't require much 'verification'. You had to verify that I went to medical school and completed a residency, to sit for the test, right?!

Guys and Gals. . . .Please, please, please, I'm begging you and would do sexual favors in return if I physically could: consider joining the NBPAS, consider advocating for the NBPAS (at your home institutions, it's gaining popularity, but still very much on the 'grass roots' level) and help us thwart the entire Reich of the ABMS!

I known you can't stomach the idea of joining another BCing organization, but this is the only way (I think) to bring down the house.
 
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AOBIM will apparently have “Name, DO” on it, or at least that’s what the email says. If the AOA can sort if out I feel like it’s doable by ABIM. Do we know if this is also true of other specialties? And if it’s always been a policy? I’m trying to decide if it’s sinister or just laziness on their part.
 
Thought I would write for the first time to help anyone who may have been in my shoes. I finished residency in 2013 and being the procrastinator I am I waited till the last second to take the exam. Covid even gave me an extra year. I was literally one step to losing everything. Three years of residency would have been for nothing. Obviously my internal medicine knowledge was weak after all these years. I failed every ITE cause I never took them seriously and just wanted to be out as soon as possible. I wanted to keep my credentials and be a proud internal medicine physician but obviously I was nervous. I ended up with a 529. What did I do and what would I recommend to someone who failed all ITEs and have only one chance to pass this thing ?
I read a lot of Mksap early but it’s almost impossible to remember all that. I did USMLE world but the most important was awesome review. I took the course 2 months before the exam and just read those notes over and over again. Took the exam and was extremely nervous I failed. Not cause I don’t know my stuff but it’s a poorly written exam. I fell behind on 2/4 sections. Some fair questions but some ridiculous ones. I thank Gd that it all went well and I wish all the best of luck and want to give some hope to people who were in my shoes. I looked at this blog over and over and I never saw anyone that had one shot at this so I thought I could help anyone who could be in my shoes.
 
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AOBIM will apparently have “Name, DO” on it, or at least that’s what the email says. If the AOA can sort if out I feel like it’s doable by ABIM. Do we know if this is also true of other specialties? And if it’s always been a policy? I’m trying to decide if it’s sinister or just laziness on their part.
My
AOBIM will apparently have “Name, DO” on it, or at least that’s what the email says. If the AOA can sort if out I feel like it’s doable by ABIM. Do we know if this is also true of other specialties? And if it’s always been a policy? I’m trying to decide if it’s sinister or just laziness on their part.

My peds and subspecialty boards list name, MD. The certificates are MUCH smaller than the IM certificate!
 
Did everyone receive their ABIM certification/diploma paper yet? (I haven't received mine) :( and I passed.
 
Did everyone receive their ABIM certification/diploma paper yet? (I haven't received mine) :( and I passed.
I have a few friends who have not received theirs. One of them called and they told him they are sending them out as they are being made.
 
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Absolutely ridiculous. For the amount of money they make, they can't print a few extra characters on a certificate?

At the very least, they could place our degrees (MD, DO, etc), that shouldn't require much 'verification'. You had to verify that I went to medical school and completed a residency, to sit for the test, right?!

Guys and Gals. . . .Please, please, please, I'm begging you and would do sexual favors in return if I physically could: consider joining the NBPAS, consider advocating for the NBPAS (at your home institutions, it's gaining popularity, but still very much on the 'grass roots' level) and help us thwart the entire Reich of the ABMS!

I known you can't stomach the idea of joining another BCing organization, but this is the only way (I think) to bring down the house.
 
National Board of Physicians and Surgeons (NBPAS) -Internal Medicine vs
American Board of Physician Specialties (ABPS)- Internal Medicine?

There are multiple alternative boards out there.
 
National Board of Physicians and Surgeons (NBPAS) -Internal Medicine vs
American Board of Physician Specialties (ABPS)- Internal Medicine?

There are multiple alternative boards out there.

There are indeed, each one more ridiculous than the next.

I'll be a wonderful day in medicine when we get rid of the meaningless label, 'Board Certified' (who's board is it anyway?!) and just be content with the fact that you went to college, to medical school, completed a residency, +/- a fellowship . . .and that's enough! You can test the student/trainee as much as you want . . .but when they finish all school and training, they should be allowed to practice independently, for better or worse. If we don't have such faith, then there's something wrong with our systems.

Having said all of that; BC is a private product, so there should be multiple organizations offer it, and let there be competition.
 
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I am looking for a study partner to go over MKSAP questions and text. plz text me on Skype if interested.
 
Passed MOC 554
Did awesome review 2 times over .75% MedStudy and 60 % uworld.over 2-3 weeks .exam day —fast reader and finished all blocks 15-20 min before time and felt decent coming out of exam-and looked up uptodate on 2-3 q per block.
Don’t change answers too many times. Your first guess is best
I must admit that I ve been quite anxious over last 2 weeks waiting for result but with your blessing and gods blessings I came through victorious
I think pick up one q bank plus either awesome review or do board basic
Feel free to ask questions if any re preparation
 
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Anyone know if the real ABIM has a dark mode? UWorld has it so I am assuming the real one would have it too?... USMLE had dark mode and that saved my eyes on test day.
 
Anyone know if the real ABIM has a dark mode? UWorld has it so I am assuming the real one would have it too?... USMLE had dark mode and that saved my eyes on test day.
I believe you can change your colors. I remember changing color to black. not sure if its the same thing.
 
Hi everyone! Hope you're all enjoying the holidays to some extent. I've signed up for the ABIM this coming August 2022 and was planning to take Awesome Review in the months preceding, specifically the new "Live-Streaming" option. When attempting to register, there was a Consent pop-up that mentioned webcams and using "other monitoring devices". Is anyone aware as to what restrictions or requirements are placed on you for the the Live-Stream version of Awesome Review? Anyone that's taken it recently? Are webcams mandatory and are you using some sort of a lockdown browser or specail monitoring software?
 
Hi everyone! Hope you're all enjoying the holidays to some extent. I've signed up for the ABIM this coming August 2022 and was planning to take Awesome Review in the months preceding, specifically the new "Live-Streaming" option. When attempting to register, there was a Consent pop-up that mentioned webcams and using "other monitoring devices". Is anyone aware as to what restrictions or requirements are placed on you for the the Live-Stream version of Awesome Review? Anyone that's taken it recently? Are webcams mandatory and are you using some sort of a lockdown browser or specail monitoring software?
I suspect they’re going to prevent you from recording live lectures to sell/distribute on your own. Just like they’d take your camcorder if you set it up during a live, in-person class.
 
Hey guys, I’m preparing for 2022 August internal medicine board. Looking for a study partner, please let me know if anyone is looking for the same.
Thank you
 
Hi everyone! Hope you're all enjoying the holidays to some extent. I've signed up for the ABIM this coming August 2022 and was planning to take Awesome Review in the months preceding, specifically the new "Live-Streaming" option. When attempting to register, there was a Consent pop-up that mentioned webcams and using "other monitoring devices". Is anyone aware as to what restrictions or requirements are placed on you for the the Live-Stream version of Awesome Review? Anyone that's taken it recently? Are webcams mandatory and are you using some sort of a lockdown browser or specail monitoring software?
I took awesome review month and half before MOC
It will make u down load an app and that basically runs your webcam live while using it to prevent copyright infringement
It’s as good as as real and u save the money of flight and hotel
3-4 time glitched by freezing on me but overall great experience
I had to restart pc and there is a person available on phone to guide u for such issues
 
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Is anyone thinking about doing the Longitudinal Knowledge Assessment? I've heard from attendings the 10 year exam is brutal and recommended doing the LKA, but then I'd have to buy MKSAP regularly which is a pain. I wanted feedback from others about this.
 
What a load of crap . . . we're such fools and lap dogs.
The only way to stop that madness is for all of us to stop taking that cr***p. The problem is that physicians are so easily manipulated.


Hope to have enough money to retire in 10 yrs... Some of us have to draw a line somewhere.
 
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The only way to stop that madness is for all of us to stop taking that cr***p. The problem is that physicians are so easily manipulated.


Hope to have enough money to retire in 10 yrs... Some of us have to draw a line somewhere.

Indeed, I just joined the NBPAS (was pretty easy), and the hospital I work at (part time) just accepted it. Hopefully more hospitals accept it, then we can ditch the ABIM.

It's all silly. No other profession requires its professionals to take the same test they took coming out of school/training. Lawyers don't retake the bar, engineers don't retake the PE. They're simply judged by the merit/quality of their work.

And please, no one give me the crap that a doctor's work is more important than that of a lawyer/engineer. I like stable buildings/bridges and good legal advice just the same.
 
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Is anyone thinking about doing the Longitudinal Knowledge Assessment? I've heard from attendings the 10 year exam is brutal and recommended doing the LKA, but then I'd have to buy MKSAP regularly which is a pain. I wanted feedback from others about this.
I’m planning on it. Better than dealing with the exam every 10 years.
 
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New Year, new you with a concrete study plan for ABIM! :p

I currently have the outdated MKSAP 18 series (digital version with hardcopy of Board Basics) and plan to get the UWorld Qbank around May as I would like to purchase the 90-day subscription access. Not really worried about getting the MKSAP 19 because I hope that the UW are up-to-date and don't want to spend hundreds of dollars more (program only funds $500 per year for educational expenses).

The past year I have not been very active with using MKSAP online but now that the exam is coming in 8 months, will definitely get to it. What do you think about keeping the MKSAP 18 (reading through the text and doing questions and flashcards) and doing UW Qbank with a one-time look through? Step exam scores are 240s/220s/230s in that order and ITEs I have been passing the threshold (we don't take it during intern year but 2nd year was 60th percentile and 3rd year 40th percentile).
 
New Year, new you with a concrete study plan for ABIM! :p

I currently have the outdated MKSAP 18 series (digital version with hardcopy of Board Basics) and plan to get the UWorld Qbank around May as I would like to purchase the 90-day subscription access. Not really worried about getting the MKSAP 19 because I hope that the UW are up-to-date and don't want to spend hundreds of dollars more (program only funds $500 per year for educational expenses).

The past year I have not been very active with using MKSAP online but now that the exam is coming in 8 months, will definitely get to it. What do you think about keeping the MKSAP 18 (reading through the text and doing questions and flashcards) and doing UW Qbank with a one-time look through? Step exam scores are 240s/220s/230s in that order and ITEs I have been passing the threshold (we don't take it during intern year but 2nd year was 60th percentile and 3rd year 40th percentile).
highly recommend doing as much uworld questions as possible . and repeating. they show up on the test, close to verbatim
mskap is okay. medstudy for little bits and pieces here or there. the ACP videos were good.
 
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Hi everyone,
Have you or do you know of anyone who has completed the required one year of residency after a lapse in their board certification? I have not been successful on the boards for a variety of medical and other reasons. I was able to pivot careerwise, however, I would still like to be board certified. I completed residency and fellowship with my last graduation year of 2014. I have practiced in the past and have a graduate degree. If you have, I'd like to know the process one can follow to secure a residency spot. I assume that it's hard to get and probably requires a lot of leg work, begging, pleading and calling around. Would it be possible to complete the training without getting paid to save programs some money? I have no idea. I would appreciate any thoughts you may have .Thanks much!
 
For ABIM initial certification, which QBank study plan will work best in the interest of time, efficiency, exposure to questions, and review? What would you do and why?

Plan 1: MKSAP and UW w/detail review. Anki flashcards of things I don't know (I fear I may not have enough time to do all of this)
Plan 2: MKSAP (only educational objectives), UW w/detail review and Anki flashcards of things I don't know from UW's content
Plan 3: Do both Qbanks at least 2x (not in detail). During UW's 2nd pass, do it w/detailed review and Anki flashcards of things I don't know

Of note, plan to review the Boards Basic book and their "don't get tricked" sections multiple times
What study technique has worked for you in the past? Use that one again.

There's nothing magical about any specific QBank or review source. Use one (or 4, I don't care) and then whatever other techniques you have successfully used in the past and you'll be fine.
 
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Anybody have their old abim uworld account with days left that they want to sell?
 
always make time for questions . uworld for sure. make note cards of this
nah you don’t understand . make a high yield notes for you to review last minute.
 
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Indeed, I just joined the NBPAS (was pretty easy), and the hospital I work at (part time) just accepted it. Hopefully more hospitals accept it, then we can ditch the ABIM.

It's all silly. No other profession requires its professionals to take the same test they took coming out of school/training. Lawyers don't retake the bar, engineers don't retake the PE. They're simply judged by the merit/quality of their work.

And please, no one give me the crap that a doctor's work is more important than that of a lawyer/engineer. I like stable buildings/bridges and good legal advice just the same.
Everyone should ask their hospital if they accept other certifications (in case the ABIM is recognized already), to at least make them aware that there are other organizations out there.
 
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Is there free content for board study/questions, besides the weekly NEJM Board Review Q of the week? Such as:
- online content review
- email with clinically relevant updates for the internist/hospitalist?

If not, what is the best material for content review (not questions)? Most ppl now seem to be recommending MKSAP/Board Basics. 10 years ago I used Frontrunners (there was a content book and a question book) but don't think they're in business anymore, also MKSAP but I found the content/questions to be really awful and not representative of the actual exam; I guess it's improved since then.
Online or physical review material okay. I don't mind taking a board review course with video (or an outpt/inpatient update/review course), as long as there is separate standalone reference material so I can find exactly what I want to review at the moment.
Will take it sometime this year. Thanks!
 
Everyone should ask their hospital if they accept other certifications (in case the ABIM is recognized already), to at least make them aware that there are other organizations out there.

Of course. Board Certification is a private product not tied to any gov't, university, or hospital/clinical entity. As with any private product, there should be a free market enterprise filled with competition. In the same way you can chose between a Samsung or an iPhone, you (and your institutions) should be able to chose between Board Certifying bodies.

Or, we could be smart and just get rid of the entire notion of 'Board Certification', which really is a non-sensical credential (if you really think about it), and just say it's sufficient to go to medical school and complete an American residency +/- fellowships.
 
I don't find any reviews at all for Boardvitals for either IM or hospital medicine (they have a separate hospital medicine qbank). Seems more popular for pain, psychiatry, cardiology, podiatry. Any opinions for IM?
 
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