2017 ABA ITE Results

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Looking at the norm table, scores have skyrocketed across the board in the past two years! A CA-3 would now have to score a perfect 50 just to sniff the 99th percentile (which I didn't lol). Looking at the score report, they only counted 196 of the 200 questions, and I think you could miss ~20 (maybe slightly fewer) to get a perfect score, for the neurotic souls among us who worry about this stuff. People must be preparing for this stuff a lot more than in previous years... My score went up but my percentile went down. Doesn't matter, I'm riding the CA3 train to the promised land :D

I noticed this as well, basically it was an easier test (based on a significantly higher average for CA-2/3). Remember, all we need is just to pass the boards I don't need that 99th pecentile for much...

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It's really weird how much CA3s care about the test.. It's a pretty meaningless score by then. We have CA3's who score <10th percentile (and I've even heard of CA3's skipping the ITE all together) Even CA2 year is not that meaningful since ITE is only useful for fellowships and most fellowships you apply before your CA2 ITE score even comes out. The most important is CA1 ITE if you want to do a fellowship
 
I made a 36 as a CA-1, 77%tile. Im unsure which fellowship ill be applying for, but Im guessing cardiac and pain arent out of reach? I dont have publications/research and frankly I dont plan on it.
 
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More than a specific %ile I think programs just wanna make sure you don't suck at these exams.

You should be competitive for whatever you want as long as you have solid letters
 
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CA-3's care about the test because it's an indicator of how much effort they need to put forth in the next few months.

OR their program may pay for advanced based on a certain percentile.

Both of the above apply to me.
 
As a CA-1 I often feel like a idiot, but these my results tell me I am doing okay and I hope will not hold me back during fellowship applications.
 
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Looking at the norm table, scores have skyrocketed across the board in the past two years! A CA-3 would now have to score a perfect 50 just to sniff the 99th percentile (which I didn't lol). Looking at the score report, they only counted 196 of the 200 questions, and I think you could miss ~20 (maybe slightly fewer) to get a perfect score, for the neurotic souls among us who worry about this stuff. People must be preparing for this stuff a lot more than in previous years... My score went up but my percentile went down. Doesn't matter, I'm riding the CA3 train to the promised land :D

ITE scores for senior residents have gone way up since they introduced the basic exam. Not a coincidence.
 
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Thanks for posting the guideline report! Are the "percent correct" tables literally how much you got right out of 200? Also, I guess basic means "easy" questions and advanced means "difficult" questions...

My PD emailed us yesterday saying our scores are in, but I didn't want to ruin my weekend.
 
got 49th percentile as a ca-1, how much will this affect my fellowship applications?
 
CA-3's care about the test because it's an indicator of how much effort they need to put forth in the next few months.

OR their program may pay for advanced based on a certain percentile.

Both of the above apply to me.

Advanced is a lot later than ITE. And i wonder how common that is for the scores to be THAT high for CA3. Pretty impressive
 
Landed at 49/CA3, up from 48/CA2, 47/CA1, and 32/CBY. I honestly believe that the Hall questions are STILL the best thing out there for the ITE. If you haven't pounded those out a couple times, don't worry about any other banks. I only did Hall between CBY and CA1, and haven't read a textbook in residency. After that, the best sources are ACE exams, followed by TrueLearn. M5 qbank content seems OK but it's not a user-friendly interface so I gave up on it very early. Recipe for success = large volume questions, read ASA guidelines, read review articles, always think mechanistically, and remember exactly what everyone tells you (attendings and co-residents; people talk about board-testable topics, and from a large sample you'll distill the truth subconsciously).

edit: FWIW I missed 22/196, and also have the last 2 scores to let me perform an extrapolation, which is why I think missing ~20 is a 50.
 
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Landed at 49/CA3, up from 48/CA2, 47/CA1, and 32/CBY. I honestly believe that the Hall questions are STILL the best thing out there for the ITE. If you haven't pounded those out a couple times, don't worry about any other banks. I only did Hall between CBY and CA1, and haven't read a textbook in residency. After that, the best sources are ACE exams, followed by TrueLearn. M5 qbank content seems OK but it's not a user-friendly interface so I gave up on it very early. Recipe for success = large volume questions, read ASA guidelines, read review articles, always think mechanistically, and remember exactly what everyone tells you (attendings and co-residents; people talk about board-testable topics, and from a large sample you'll distill the truth subconsciously).

edit: FWIW I missed 22/196, and also have the last 2 scores to let me perform an extrapolation, which is why I think missing ~20 is a 50.


Disclaimer: I've only used one Q-bank for ITE prep.

I disagree with where you put TruLearn on that list. Like you, I rarely open a book. Went through Baby Miller once as a CA-1 and that's more or less it. I used TruLearn as a CA-1 for ITE and got >80th percentile, for the Basic (passed), and again for CA-2 ITE and got 95th percentile. I think TruLearn is a great q-bank with awesome explanations and easy to use software. I did look at some Hall questions as a CA-1 and didn't particularly like them, but I did maybe 20-30 questions before giving up on it so I maybe didn't give it a fair shot. No idea about ACE and M5, but my n=1 says TruLearn is solid.

P.S. TruLearn if you're around here reading this, I'm a broke resident with a wedding to pay for and will gladly shill your product for some kickback ;)
 
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Disclaimer: I've only used one Q-bank for ITE prep.

I disagree with where you put TruLearn on that list. Like you, I rarely open a book. Went through Baby Miller once as a CA-1 and that's more or less it. I used TruLearn as a CA-1 for ITE and got >80th percentile, for the Basic (passed), and again for CA-2 ITE and got 95th percentile. I think TruLearn is a great q-bank with awesome explanations and easy to use software. I did look at some Hall questions as a CA-1 and didn't particularly like them, but I did maybe 20-30 questions before giving up on it so I maybe didn't give it a fair shot. No idea about ACE and M5, but my n=1 says TruLearn is solid.

P.S. TruLearn if you're around here reading this, I'm a broke resident with a wedding to pay for and will gladly shill your product for some kickback ;)

Agreed! Used TruLearn for Basic and ITE. Solid stuff for sure.


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I am a PGY1. I got a solid 50. I missed 16. I used Hall 4 weeks prior to the test.
 
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Disclaimer: I've only used one Q-bank for ITE prep.

I disagree with where you put TruLearn on that list. Like you, I rarely open a book. Went through Baby Miller once as a CA-1 and that's more or less it. I used TruLearn as a CA-1 for ITE and got >80th percentile, for the Basic (passed), and again for CA-2 ITE and got 95th percentile. I think TruLearn is a great q-bank with awesome explanations and easy to use software. I did look at some Hall questions as a CA-1 and didn't particularly like them, but I did maybe 20-30 questions before giving up on it so I maybe didn't give it a fair shot. No idea about ACE and M5, but my n=1 says TruLearn is solid.

P.S. TruLearn if you're around here reading this, I'm a broke resident with a wedding to pay for and will gladly shill your product for some kickback ;)

Agreed! Used TruLearn for Basic and ITE. Solid stuff for sure.


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I'm not saying TrueLearn isn't solid... I think it is the best resource for the Basic exam, and presumably will be good for the Advanced exam. Hall, while seemingly out of date, is the most "fundamental" source. Mastery of Hall alone could easily yield a 40+, and obviously higher. Like most Qbanks, it's all about time spent. Do you average 3-4 minutes to do/review and question, or 10-12 minutes? If you are using "Dr. Google" and cross-referencing primary literature or textbooks when you don't 100% understand something -- taking time to make mnemonics and what not -- you just need a core bank like Hall. TrueLearn and M5 reference a lot more esoteric stuff, which is only worth investigating once you're getting the basics right almost every time.

Just my opinion... I'm not the world's expert but I think I was lucky to figure this test out 3 years ago and it's been easy since. You can reinvent the wheel if you want, I'm trying to save everyone the stress.
 
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Really curious why some programs would get grades back before others...
Results are given to the individual programs at the same time by the ABA (via email). It is up to the program as to when to release the results to the residents. It is a lot of information that takes time to process and divide up for individual release.
 
It's really weird how much CA3s care about the test.. It's a pretty meaningless score by then. We have CA3's who score <10th percentile (and I've even heard of CA3's skipping the ITE all together) Even CA2 year is not that meaningful since ITE is only useful for fellowships and most fellowships you apply before your CA2 ITE score even comes out. The most important is CA1 ITE if you want to do a fellowship
The CA-III ITE is a great marker for how prepared you are to pass the next ABA exam (Advanced). That is the main purpose of all ITE's; to help guide your preparation for the tests that really matter. The tests are drawn from the same question banks and there is a ton of overlap. So the ITE's are an important part of your preparation for the real ABA exams. It would be foolish for a CA-III resident to not use the last ITE as a trial run for the real thing to gauge readiness for the advanced exam.
 
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pics or it didn't happen ;)
 
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Lets say if you score below the 30% percentile as a CA-1, will that make it difficult to match into a chronic pain fellowship?
 
My program is stating that the ABA failed to send them our ITE scores and that they have been working with the ABA to get them released. It seems like it would be a simple thing for the ABA to resend them out, but per our administration the ABA is aware and admits fault in the matter. They've also stated that we are not the only program with this issue. As of now none of us have our scores. Has this happened to any other programs?
 
My program is stating that the ABA failed to send them our ITE scores and that they have been working with the ABA to get them released. It seems like it would be a simple thing for the ABA to resend them out, but per our administration the ABA is aware and admits fault in the matter. They've also stated that we are not the only program with this issue. As of now none of us have our scores. Has this happened to any other programs?

This happened to my program as well. My program director has emailed the ABA, though I'm not sure what response was given.
 
If this is the case with my program, it seems my program director sent out an email threatening to withhold scores even longer if people don't stop asking about the results. :sigh: Oh well. I guess we'll get them, when we get them.
 
Current CA-1: 40/92nd percentile, will probably go into cardiac. I used Hall, ACE, and TrueLearn (predicted 94-99th percentile first pass). I missed a lot of basic questions compared to the advanced topics so will be hammering those home for the Basic in June. May sound ungrateful and am overall satisfied with my performance, but I wanted my score to be higher if I'm being completely honest. Staying hungry. Best of luck to you all out there.
 
If this is the case with my program, it seems my program director sent out an email threatening to withhold scores even longer if people don't stop asking about the results. :sigh: Oh well. I guess we'll get them, when we get them.

That sounds awful... good t hing my PD doesn't do that. PD couldve just sent a class email addressing the issue
 
If this is the case with my program, it seems my program director sent out an email threatening to withhold scores even longer if people don't stop asking about the results. :sigh: Oh well. I guess we'll get them, when we get them.

Sounds like your program needs a new program director. I would never rank a place like that.
 
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Lets say if you score below the 30% percentile as a CA-1, will that make it difficult to match into a chronic pain fellowship?

Yeah, definitely doesn't help. Your immediate focus needs to be passing the BASIC exam. One bad score can be overcome with strong clinical LORs and research in the field (get on it soon for a more meaningful project), and of course a stronger performance on next year's exam. But this all assumes you pass the boards this summer so make sure that happens.

Interestingly we don't have our scores yet either. Not sure what the hold up is, but apparently there is some issue on the ABA side.
 
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Are you talking about percentiles or about score?

Raw scores. Good but evidently not great, haha. I defer all future questions on strategy to the PGY0 with the perfect score.
 
If this is the case with my program, it seems my program director sent out an email threatening to withhold scores even longer if people don't stop asking about the results. :sigh: Oh well. I guess we'll get them, when we get them.

Sounds just like my program:boom:
 
first post!!!

For those of us that are wondering, what percentile score is realistic for fellowships in:

Chronic pain,
Cardiothoracic
Pediatrics
Regional?
 
Hi PGY-1 here, scored a 23 scaled score (percentile 77), basic score of 59 (percentile 85), what is the difference between the two exactly?
 
You mean PGY1 hahah. But your Ca1-3 scores seem to be 99% across the board!

oh hahaha, yeah pgy1! My scores went up but my percentiles sort of went down (prob ~99.9, 99, 98). At higher scores it's tough to put up consistent performances so you approach the ceiling while other people catch up.

Hi PGY-1 here, scored a 23 scaled score (percentile 77), basic score of 59 (percentile 85), what is the difference between the two exactly?

The scaled score ranges 1-50, and your percentile vs other interns was 77th percentile (at raw score 23). You answered 59% of the "basic" questions correctly (it's not obvious which are basic vs. advanced when you take the test), which was 85th percentile for interns. That tells me you probably made ~69th percentile on the "advanced" questions vs other pgy1s, check your score report to verify. In any case, it's a decent starting point :)
 
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Hi PGY-1 here, scored a 23 scaled score (percentile 77), basic score of 59 (percentile 85), what is the difference between the two exactly?

Just look at your scaled score which is from basic and advanced and look at the norm table
 
first post!!!

For those of us that are wondering, what percentile score is realistic for fellowships in:

Chronic pain,
Cardiothoracic
Pediatrics
Regional?

Welcome! As has been said frequently, the ITE doesn't have as much influence in fellowship applications as USMLE 1/2 does for residency - LORs become much more important the narrower the field gets, and programs want to see some dedication to the subspecialty (even case reports, they are easy to do and gives you something to talk about during an interview).

That being said, a low score puts you in danger of failing the written board exams and a reasonable score shows (in the only way programs that don't know you can see) that you are keeping up with your education as an adult learner. I suppose if I had to make a recommendation it would be to be in the top 50 or 25th percentile of scores, but it's not as dire as for Step 1/2. Intern/CBY scores do not matter.

Regional isn't very competitive to my knowledge and of the programs I know of, the majority of fellows come from the core residency.
 
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I am a PGY1. I got a solid 50. I missed 16. I used Hall 4 weeks prior to the test.

Your photoshop skills need some work...why you would want bragging rights on an online anonymous forum...I have no idea...but no one believes you got a 50 as an intern...no one
 
Welcome! As has been said frequently, the ITE doesn't have as much influence in fellowship applications as USMLE 1/2 does for residency - LORs become much more important the narrower the field gets, and programs want to see some dedication to the subspecialty (even case reports, they are easy to do and gives you something to talk about during an interview).

That being said, a low score puts you in danger of failing the written board exams and a reasonable score shows (in the only way programs that don't know you can see) that you are keeping up with your education as an adult learner. I suppose if I had to make a recommendation it would be to be in the top 50 or 25th percentile of scores, but it's not as dire as for Step 1/2. Intern/CBY scores do not matter.

Regional isn't very competitive to my knowledge and of the programs I know of, the majority of fellows come from the core residency.


>50% can land you a chronic pain fellowship?? everyone told me you had to be at least in the 70th percentile.
 
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