Home Forums Discussions General Discussion ABFM exam

To the other family docs out there:

I'm going to be taking the ABFM recertification exam next month. Since I'm a little out of practice (10 years since last one), I've been going through some of the sample questions on the AAFP website.

It surprised me how many questions are pediatric. My practice is almost exclusively adult, and for many of the questions, I had to think back to med school or residency (I finished residency in 1986.)

If anyone has taken the exam recently, is there indeed a significant percentage of pediatric esoterica covered? Did anyone find review material that may be helpful in this area?

Thanks.

Gene.

I took the exam in 2009 and yes there were several esoteric pediatric questions. I'm afraid I don't have any suggestions for review material though.

Gene,
Having taken the boards in 1990, 1996, 2002 and 2007, I can tell you that the practice questions never show up on the exams. I prepared by buying the various CURRENT DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT series such as Current Medical, Pediatric, Ob/GYn, etc. and reviewing them. The publisher is Lange. They offer concise reviews of various topics. Pediatric infectious disease always seems to be a recurrent theme, as do the various rheumatological diseases. The thing to remember is that you know most general things from day to day practice and review. It is the stuff that you do not see that will get you. If you do not know much about Peds, spend your review time there. On the last boards, there was a lot of OB. I was surprised at this. There were a number of ethical questions as well. I would also recommend doing a Google search on test taking strategies. I bought a strategy booklet that was not very expensive, and I found it to be very helpful, even having taking multiple exams in my career. I would not waste the time or money on a board review course, unless you feel very inadequate. Spending short periods of time reviewing in your books mentioned above will be more effective. You can buy the books on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc. Best of luck. Don't stress yourself out.

Hi Mel,

Thanks for your thoughts. I'm not that concerned about the exam, fortunately I have always been a very good standardized test-taker. My concern, I think, was that I too remembered past exams as being rather practical and clinically oriented. The AAFP review questions seemed much more trivial and esoteric.

My best exam preparation, as I recall, was for my second last exam, which would have been 16 years ago. I lived in western Pennsylvania, and was taking the exam in Philadelphia. I really had not had time to prepare, I had a review book but hadn't gone through it.

As I was driving out to Philly the night before the exam, traffic on the Pennsylvania Turnpike stopped, and remain stopped for about two hours, due to an accident ahead. I spent that two hours going through the review book!

And did just fine on the exam.

Thanks.

Gene.