ABR Core Examination : Tucson vs Chicago, What to Expect
I share some thoughts on my experience taking ABR exams in Tucson (core exam and ABR nucs exam) and Chicago (final certifying exam) (spoiler: Tucson wins mostly because there is no bus to the testing center like in Chicago). Also I review basics on the ABR Core exam structure and provide a few study tips.
Bonus Episode: ABR Core Tips
Note that information until 2 minutes and 45 seconds on the podcast is not listed here because it pertained to the now forgone in-person testing in either Chicago or Tucson and is no longer accurate/relevant to the Core Exam.
Edited episode transcription as follows:
...Remember that in addition to physics and your radiology questions in each subspecialty area, you also have questions on the radioisotope safety exam for short, that is called RISE which is a requirement to become an authorized user. (Note: The ABR recently announced (June 2022) plans to drop listing of AU eligibility on the ABR board certification certificates and it is currently unclear what this means for RISE testing. There are multiple current pathways to become an authorized user and this ABR route was only one potential option. Please check with the ABR and your local nuclear medicine section regarding the latest status of RISE testing and authorized user requirements).
I plan to provide an audio summary of key RISE concepts later. An additional resource that is very useful for this is the chapter on radiation safety in Frank Mettler's nuclear medicine book that probably every residency program in the country has available. I found that to be an excellent resource in general, I won't recommend any single source, but for the RISE portion I think anybody would agree that this might be one of the best sources out there.
Also remember the Noninterpretive Skills section which is a unique entity in that the ABR provides a study guide that is updated regularly for the examination. You should read and understand this. I plan to also provide some audio summaries on that topic as well. I must tell you I'm not necessarily looking forward to that because I find the Noninterpretive Skills section very dry. But nonetheless it is a very important area to be proficient at when you come to take the ABR Core Examination and one advantage you have in that area compared to others is that the ABR is telling you specifically what they want.
Be aware that the ABR has provided a core practice exam online. You can find this at the ABR website. (Note as of June 2022 this is now called the “Exam Readiness Check and Sample Questions” and is only available for those registered to take the exam). The practice exam mirrors the actual software interface that you see in the testing center, and it is very useful, and I would say requisite that you do this ahead of time. The practice exam also has a tutorial on how the software works and if you're familiar with how the software works. You can click faster through the actual tutorial on the day of the test, and at least when I took the examination this time can be added to your break time, which is helpful.
My suggestion when taking the core practice exam is not to approach it so much in terms of whether you have the knowledge base necessary to do well on the Core Exam, although it does provide some feedback, but rather to look at the types of questions they are giving you and how they ask the questions. Also pay attention to how you can interact with the actual software for the examination. For example, some questions allow you to click on an image to show where the image finding is.
I'm guessing the practice questions will have some that illustrate that to you also get familiar with how to zoom on images, how to navigate through images, how to scroll, how to watch video or cine clips. All those things are important.
I can tell you from my experience in general the image quality on the Core Exam is good, but not universally perfect. Some of the images are displayed too small, so it is important to know how to enlarge these quickly on your screen. I also found at times that the cine video clips go through very quickly so it's helpful to see how you can pause the scroll bar and scroll at your own speed through the images to evaluate more carefully what imaging finding they may be showing you. My suggestion is to take the ABR Core Examination practice test, probably about a month before the test.
Lastly, in terms of board study materials, there's an abundance of study material available to you, most of which is high quality. I think it could be easy to get overwhelmed with the vast amount of study guides and materials that you can find, whether buying an actual book or a Qbank online or other website resources and practice tests.
My suggestion in general is to find one good resource for each subspecialty area and focus on that. Once you feel like you have mastered that resource move on to another one if you have time, or if you feel you need more help in that area.
I think you do yourself a disservice if you plan to get through more material than is possible. For example, for cardiac imaging, select one established resource and get through that (in entirety first). I think that will serve you better than getting through portions of five separate resources where you may have gaps in what you learn due to not completely getting through any single resource.
Also, I think it is important to have a mix of different study preparation material in terms of having some study preparation with question banks throughout your board study while also spending time reading and going through actual study guides.
My motivation in providing this podcast to you is to fill in the gaps in terms of your schedule to allow more time for board preparation to occur. For example, you cannot read a book easily while you run or take a bike ride outside. However, you can listen to an audio summary. You can learn from an audio source while you are out on the go.
I hope a few of these tips will be helpful to you.
