Who's doing the ABPN Pilot Project?

[wolfvgang22]

While I really like the idea of never taking another MOC exam, I'm not sure taking one for the team and doing the open book article tests from 2019 to 2021 makes sense for me, especially since you have to get 100% on those article questions or be forced to take the exam anyway with only two chances to pass.

My next MOC exam is due in 2023 and the ABPN FAQ says they plan to start giving everybody the option of doing article quizes instead of the traditional exam in 2022, so I'm thinking I can just wait and see how bad the article quizes are and choose my poison in 2023.

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[nitemagi]

Thinking about it.

 

[WingedOx]

I think I'm just outside of the date of eligibility. Mixed feelings about it, to be honest.

 

[aim-agm]

Not relevant to me, but I ran the numbers on an earlier post and it didn't look like a good idea. Because of the way the test is structured, if you want to have the same 99% odds of passing as people who take the written test, you have to have at least a 98% chance of getting any given question right.

 

[PikminOC]

I thought you only needed to answer 4 out of 5 questions on each quiz correctly to pass. This whole thing is confusing. You have to find the articles on your own and pay for that.

 

[SeniorWrangler]

You can do up to 40 CME articles before you run out of chances, is my understanding. Worst case scenario, I don't pass and I have to study for the exam which is what I'd have to do anyway. I'm not worried about not passing so it is not a big deal.

 

[zihuatanejo]

You can do up to 40 CME articles before you run out of chances, is my understanding. Worst case scenario, I don't pass and I have to study for the exam which is what I'd have to do anyway. I'm not worried about not passing so it is not a big deal.

My main concern would be the cost of the 30 to 40 articles that would need to be reviewed to complete this project. I don't understand why ABPN is not covering the cost of these articles, which could potentially run into hundreds or perhaps even thousands of dollars beyond the cost incurred for MOC and taking the MOC test.

 

[FlowRate]

As an aside, what do people out in the world do to get article access? I'm fortunate that our med school provides ongoing medical library / full-text after graduation (and I'm still in residency where we have similar resources). I have a hard time imagining that anyone pays $50+++ a pop for articles having only read the ****ty abstract...

 

[clausewitz2]

As an aside, what do people out in the world do to get article access? I'm fortunate that our med school provides ongoing medical library / full-text after graduation (and I'm still in residency where we have similar resources). I have a hard time imagining that anyone pays $50+++ a pop for articles having only read the ****ty abstract...

*coughcough* Scihub *coughcough*

 

[tr]

As an aside, what do people out in the world do to get article access? I'm fortunate that our med school provides ongoing medical library / full-text after graduation (and I'm still in residency where we have similar resources). I have a hard time imagining that anyone pays $50+++ a pop for articles having only read the ****ty abstract...

See if you can get an alumni library account through your med school or undergraduate institution. There will be some kind of yearly fee but should absolutely be worth it.

 

[michaelrack]

I took the MOC exam last year and would much rather take it again in 9 years than do this lame pilot project

 

[nexus73]

I don't see the downside in signing up. If you complete it, you don't have to cram and take a day off to test. If you don't, just take the test.

 

[PikminOC]

So we pay the yearly fees for moc, pay for the articles, and if you dont pass the articles, the test is already paid for with the yearly fees? Or are there more fees for the exam?

I am due for renewal in 2022 so would the articles be enough to not have to take the test, provided they are passed? Are there cme credits for the articles?

This is too confusing. I may just go with npbas.

 

[wolfvgang22]

Got this email from the ABPN

This is a courtesy reminder concerning the final deadline to enroll in the ABPN MOC Part III Pilot Project for your Psychiatry certification. The enrollment deadline has been extended throughMay 4, 2018.



Based on questions we have received about the pilot, ABPN wanted to clarify a few issues:



· There is no penalty to enrolling in the pilot if you are interested in this journal assessment option instead of the traditional 10-Year MOC examination and later change your mind.



· You may withdraw from the pilot at any time, even after the journal list is published, and revert to the 10-Year MOC exam without any penalty. MOC exam deadlines remain the same.



· If you are unsuccessful with completing the pilot, you will be allowed two consecutive attempts at passing the traditional 10-Year MOC exam to remain certified. Your first attempt at passing the MOC exam will be at no additional cost if you have already paid your MOC program fee.



· The usual MOC fee structure will be in place for Pilot Project participants. Specifically, those transitioning from 10-year MOC into C-MOC will be required to pay a fee equal to the amount for the 10-year MOC examination. Those currently in C-MOC will not be required to pay any additional fees to participate in the Pilot Project.



· There is no fee due at the time of enrollment.



· Diplomates who participate in the pilot for both Psychiatry and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry will pay a fee equal to the Combined MOC exam fee but will read articles and answer questions for both certifications.



Participation in the Pilot Project is optional. You can still sit for the traditional MOC examination if preferred. See our website for more pilot details at MOC Part III Pilot Project - American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.

I went ahead and signed up. I figure there's nothing to lose, because if the questions are **** I can just drop out of the pilot.

 

[MacDonaldTriad]

No real skin in this game, but the MOC test pass rate is 98%. Unless you are the dumbest psychiatrist in every room you stand in, you really don't need to study. On the other hand, I like the idea of reading articles and answering questions. This is much more likely to teach doctors something than assuming they study for a test 98% of people pass. Since reading is something we should all be doing anyway, I would suggest the pilot. I do get the projected hate towards doing anything for the ABPN who makes these tasks that are inflicted on us. If I were king of the ABPN, I would start grading psychiatrist's test performance and make them put As, Bs or Cs in their windows like restaurants. Wouldn't that be fun. Since the task is to certify people, they have to keep the bar very low, but then that makes the whole process meaningless. At least a reading curriculum has a chance at making some difference.

 

[wolfvgang22]

It would be nice if we could earn some CME reading these articles, too.

 

[Doctor Freud]

I took the MOC exam last year and would much rather take it again in 9 years than do this lame pilot project

So the MOC exam is pretty easy?

 

[Doctor Freud]

Got this email from the ABPN

I went ahead and signed up. I figure there's nothing to lose, because if the questions are **** I can just drop out of the pilot.

Can you just drop out with no penalty?

 

[wolfvgang22]

Can you just drop out with no penalty?

Yes.

 

[wolfvgang22]

So the MOC exam is pretty easy?

For me, on a scale of 1 to 10, if USMLE Step 1 were a 10, I would give the board certification exam a 5.5. For me PRITE exams were about the same difficulty as the board exam.

I'm just so damn tired of tests, tests, tests. I welcome trying the new MOC journal article open book test approach.

 

[michaelrack]

So the MOC exam is pretty easy?

Yes, the psych moc has a higher pass rate than other specialties

 

[Doctor Freud]

Yes, the psych moc has a higher pass rate than other specialties

Michael,

Thanks for your response.

Do you know what the pass rate is for the psychiatry MOC exam?

I am considering doing the Pilot Project as I am dreading reviewing a bunch of material I no longer use, such as child psychiatry. I easily passed the initial certification exam, if the MOC exam is really a lot easier maybe I should just do that.

 

[michaelrack]

the pass rate was 98 % in 2016; and it is usually in the high 90's.

 

[whopper]

I'm in it. Can't really tell you much so far. The questions for the journal articles aren't available till January.

 

[wolfvgang22]

I'm in it. Can't really tell you much so far. The questions for the journal articles aren't available till January.

I've got all the articles if you need them.

 

[alina_s]

I'm in. I have to do general and child and adolescent. The article list for child was much easier to get. I still have a WA license, and that lets me use the HEAL-WA resources, plus AACAP membership gets me JAACAP. I think I got 38 or 39 of the child articles for free. I am not an APA member and couldn't get even 30 articles. I guess I have to splurge on APA membership.

 

[alina_s]

Has anybody else started this? What do you think of the questions? They seem a lot worse than those than the ones usually included when I read articles for CME.

 

[wolfvgang22]

Has anybody else started this? What do you think of the questions? They seem a lot worse than those than the ones usually included when I read articles for CME.

Worse in what way? I haven't had a chance to look yet.

 

[alina_s]

I've worked through the anxiety module, it feels like questions are set up to trick you rather than assess your understanding of the article overall. Like on the OCD study, 1/5 questions is about OCD with tics, not addressed in the guidelines that are the main focus of the article, but just in a blurb on a table, and two of the choices involve a medication that isn't addressed in the table.

 

[prominence]

Any updates on how people are doing with this ABPN Pilot Project?

 

[benjee]

I 'm done with those articles.

 

[notlucid]

I finished too. It was worthwhile doing the articles imho.

 

[whopper]

OK I've done 16 of the articles.

I strongly endorse this method instead of a test.
Pros:
1) With a test you got to cancel your office for a day. You do that you lose about $2000 in revenue. (If you own your practice).
2) Like most people, if you take the exam, you're going to take days off to do some review course that will cost several thousands of dollars, also cost days taken out of your private practice.
3) The articles you need to read are good, substantive, and clinically-relevant. These are the type of articles where if read would make you a better clinician and are very useful.
4) If you have an APA membership you can get pretty much almost all of the articles with your membership. There's still a few not with APA membership but they are very few.
5) You can do them at your own pace. I find that pace actually pleasant and rewarding. Reading a very good article IMHO is uplifting vs studying and cramming for an exam. My wife is a psychotherapist and she would occasionally glance at the articles I was doing and we'd have a very enjoyable conservation concerning the article material.

Cons:
Seriously I can't think of many. Out of the 16 articles I've done so far only about 2 questions I thought weren't well done. At first I was flipping out cause I didn't know if this was going to be the type of thing where I'd find a significant number of bad questions cause the writing/editing was terrible (kind of like on the PRITE) but I've only had 2 out of 64 questions I didn't like and that's not bad. 1 of those questions turned out was valid, but could've been better written, the other was a question where you needed graduate level knowledge of statistics and MDs don't get this level of training so I thought it should've been tossed out. Still that's very good overall.

I don't mind collaborating on the rest but the test does make you sign an agreement that you will not cheat on the exam. IMHO one could collaborate in a positive manner, e.g. discuss the articles but you're not supposed to take someone else's answers. Wolfgang-I'll be messaging some of the above people to ask if they can provide me with PDFs of any of the articles I'd have to otherwise pay for outside of my APA membership.

 

[JKinSC]

WRT accessing articles, I’ve had success in the past just emailing one of the authors. They’re generally more than happy to share their work. Just a thought.

 

[brazilianpsych]

Coming from a third world country I have to tell you that no one else around the world buys articles, we just use sci hub.

If it was like 1$ maybe, but most of the times its 30$ or something around that.

 

[michaelrack]

I rather take the test, I usually finish fast and just arrange to go to my inpatient job later in the day rather than miss day of work. I like attending board review live conferences but in future I guess will have to do mostly online review.