AOBIM Exam

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Saccone

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I was like everyone else, a couple months before the Osteopathic Internal Medical Board Exam, curious to what exactly the test was like. Not surprising at all, the ACOI/AOBIM have kept the format, number of questions, and test-day procedures under extreme lock and key, and there is little or no information about what to expect anywhere on the internet...that being said...

Having taken the exam a few short hours ago, I figured I would give a decent layout, and overview on what its like, what to expect, and my preparation thoughts.

The test is 320 questions divided up into two 160 question blocks. You work though these with about 3.5 hours per block, and an hour for lunch. You are permitted to have a bathroom break during the blocks, but your clock keeps running.
You are not permitted any personal effects into the room, including, watches, bracelets, tissues,calipers, or as I found out, medication. If you need to take a medication at a certain time, they will let you go to your locker.

The questions are designed to test the uncommon presentations of common diseases and the common presentations of uncommon diseases. Don't expect them to ask you questions about blood pressure where you think to yourself "..well according the ALL-HAT".

The test does not give you a "data-sheet" of normal labs or values, but typically included them within the questions for the more obscure ones. The patients PTH level was 40 (nml 10-55 pg/mL)

The test tests all areas of Internal medicine and subspecialites. You do not know what area necessarily is being tested. There is no "Pulm Section" but rather the questions are all mixed together. I myself noted, as did others in previous years. that the blocks were definitely heavy in some sections and lighter in the others. For example my morning consided of Cardio, Pulm, ID, GI heavily and afternoon was Heme, Endo, Onc, Neuro heavily and nephro was distributed evenly thoughout...but there questions of all types in both blocks.

Now, for studying purposes. As I said earlier, i just got done taking the exam so I'm going off gut feelings here. But overall whether you choose MKSAP or Medstudy, they are both excellent and cover basically everything. I combined Medstudy with my slides from the ACOI review course and felt pretty prepared. Mind you, the AOBIM style of questions are MUCH SHORTER than MKSAP. most of the questions were a few sentences at most. I would not base you test taking style off the MKSAP question sets. The tests are contextually the same, but honestly different style tests. The Med-Study Q&A was closer to what i experienced, but still different. Please don't take this as plug for either, its really what you like best.

My biggest advice is to cover everything. Those things you hate, will definitely show up on the test. There were multiple questions on screening guidelines like when to repeat a EGD for this finding, when to biopsy a thyroid nodule vs uptake scan. Chemo vs Rads. Chest Tube or Thorocentesis. Diarrhea causes and the different infections and presentations thereof. I think you get my point.

Images? Yes, plenty. Know heme slides. Know what different glomeruli look like under the microscope. For the love of all things Holy know how to interpret a CXR and EKG.
HINT afib and NSR will probably not be answers

Study.
Don't blow it off, but also don't go crazy. Pretty much everyone taking the test is working in some capacity up to the day of the exam. I personally burned a week of vacation before and pulled a long cram session. Others just dedicated every weekend for a month before, and then every night when they got home the week before the exam. I would give youself in the neighborhood of 50-60hours of real dedicated study time. But remember, a lot of the stuff is in fact, memorized just for the test. Ask me in 3 weeks if Polyarteritis Nodosum is PR3 or MPO positive (trick question its neither); but my point is valid, divide up your time into your buzzword and memorizing; as well as your solid review of concepts and facts.

Now, as for topics or percentages etc. the AOBIM gives a decent breakdown on their website AOBIM.org --> IM certification--> Exam Information:Blueprint
Theres also some terribly written questions on the blueprint too. They didnt make it on to my test, but I got the feeling there were on years prior.

Dont expect a list of specific topics, the answer to "which topics are covered" is easy..All.

There wasn't any OMM style questions. I saw one that mentioned rotated and sidebent, but that really didn't affect the question.

Also, remember the boards can't test you on brand new information. If a new drug comes out a year before the test, it cant be tested (or at least shouldnt be). Most of the new drugs or tests have to wait about 2-3 years before they trickle onto the test... But the current hot topics can be tested. So keep an eye out in your journals when you're PGY2s, if you see a lot about strokes, per say, they will be on the minds of the test writers, when writing the test.

Scores: Mailed to you. When? I dunno i'll have to keep you posted. Last year it looks like it takes about 2 months for them to be mailed out.

Ok, well I think thats all I have to unload for now. I hope this overview helps the wary. Time for this guy to kick back and relax

Cheers!

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I just took the IM DO boards. I trained in both DO and MD residencies. I had little guidance in either and felt blind going into the exam. For all those out there thinking of how and what to study, here is what I learned:

What helped:
--DO board review. I had some colleagues tell me it didn't help but I listened to the "better know this" section the week before my test. I would have been lost without knowing all that stuff.
--Med Study book and answers. If you know all 5 books, you're golden. Yet, it's impossible. There is just too much to learn. The questions help reinforce it and they're short and to the point.

What I would have done differently:
--No MKSAP. Like most residencies, mine recommended MKSAP. I read through the books during residency and did all the questions twice prior to boards. MKSAP focuses on "that's interesting for rounds" knowledge while MedStudy focuses on "just let me pass my boards!". I can't speak for ABIM exams but for the AOBIM, MKSAP was of little help.
--Instead, I would have read MedStudy during residency and again for the test, known all of MedStudy questions well, and done MKSAP questions only if I had some extra time.
--I found no use of MKSAP audio CD

I felt the test was evenly distributed as it was in board review--ie not everything was allergy or cardiology but a "normal" distribution. MKSAP questions led me to believe that I would have some information given to me about the patient but rather I had questions that didn't tell me age, gender but gave me a "systolic" murmur (w/o location, radiation, etc..). It's true, it's a buzzwords test and I was as frustrated as everyone else upon completion. The test is not too much about anything and a little bit of everything.

Hope this helps future studiers.
 
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I was like everyone else, a couple months before the Osteopathic Internal Medical Board Exam, curious to what exactly the test was like. Not surprising at all, the ACOI/AOBIM have kept the format, number of questions, and test-day procedures under extreme lock and key, and there is little or no information about what to expect anywhere on the internet...that being said...

Having taken the exam a few short hours ago, I figured I would give a decent layout, and overview on what its like, what to expect, and my preparation thoughts.

The test is 320 questions divided up into two 160 question blocks. You work though these with about 3.5 hours per block, and an hour for lunch. You are permitted to have a bathroom break during the blocks, but your clock keeps running.
You are not permitted any personal effects into the room, including, watches, bracelets, tissues,calipers, or as I found out, medication. If you need to take a medication at a certain time, they will let you go to your locker.

The questions are designed to test the uncommon presentations of common diseases and the common presentations of uncommon diseases. Don't expect them to ask you questions about blood pressure where you think to yourself "..well according the ALL-HAT".

The test does not give you a "data-sheet" of normal labs or values, but typically included them within the questions for the more obscure ones. The patients PTH level was 40 (nml 10-55 pg/mL)

The test tests all areas of Internal medicine and subspecialites. You do not know what area necessarily is being tested. There is no "Pulm Section" but rather the questions are all mixed together. I myself noted, as did others in previous years. that the blocks were definitely heavy in some sections and lighter in the others. For example my morning consided of Cardio, Pulm, ID, GI heavily and afternoon was Heme, Endo, Onc, Neuro heavily and nephro was distributed evenly thoughout...but there questions of all types in both blocks.

Now, for studying purposes. As I said earlier, i just got done taking the exam so I'm going off gut feelings here. But overall whether you choose MKSAP or Medstudy, they are both excellent and cover basically everything. I combined Medstudy with my slides from the ACOI review course and felt pretty prepared. Mind you, the AOBIM style of questions are MUCH SHORTER than MKSAP. most of the questions were a few sentences at most. I would not base you test taking style off the MKSAP question sets. The tests are contextually the same, but honestly different style tests. The Med-Study Q&A was closer to what i experienced, but still different. Please don't take this as plug for either, its really what you like best.

My biggest advice is to cover everything. Those things you hate, will definitely show up on the test. There were multiple questions on screening guidelines like when to repeat a EGD for this finding, when to biopsy a thyroid nodule vs uptake scan. Chemo vs Rads. Chest Tube or Thorocentesis. Diarrhea causes and the different infections and presentations thereof. I think you get my point.

Images? Yes, plenty. Know heme slides. Know what different glomeruli look like under the microscope. For the love of all things Holy know how to interpret a CXR and EKG.
HINT afib and NSR will probably not be answers

Study.
Don't blow it off, but also don't go crazy. Pretty much everyone taking the test is working in some capacity up to the day of the exam. I personally burned a week of vacation before and pulled a long cram session. Others just dedicated every weekend for a month before, and then every night when they got home the week before the exam. I would give youself in the neighborhood of 50-60hours of real dedicated study time. But remember, a lot of the stuff is in fact, memorized just for the test. Ask me in 3 weeks if Polyarteritis Nodosum is PR3 or MPO positive (trick question its neither); but my point is valid, divide up your time into your buzzword and memorizing; as well as your solid review of concepts and facts.

Now, as for topics or percentages etc. the AOBIM gives a decent breakdown on their website AOBIM.org --> IM certification--> Exam Information:Blueprint
Theres also some terribly written questions on the blueprint too. They didnt make it on to my test, but I got the feeling there were on years prior.

Dont expect a list of specific topics, the answer to "which topics are covered" is easy..All.

There wasn't any OMM style questions. I saw one that mentioned rotated and sidebent, but that really didn't affect the question.

Also, remember the boards can't test you on brand new information. If a new drug comes out a year before the test, it cant be tested (or at least shouldnt be). Most of the new drugs or tests have to wait about 2-3 years before they trickle onto the test... But the current hot topics can be tested. So keep an eye out in your journals when you're PGY2s, if you see a lot about strokes, per say, they will be on the minds of the test writers, when writing the test.

Scores: Mailed to you. When? I dunno i'll have to keep you posted. Last year it looks like it takes about 2 months for them to be mailed out.

Ok, well I think thats all I have to unload for now. I hope this overview helps the wary. Time for this guy to kick back and relax

Cheers!
This is the most accurate feed I've seen on this. Thanks for taking the time to post this. Found it extremely helpful.
 
Bump.....anyone have any tips? I took the abim last year and did pretty well. This year I'm taking the aobim.....any suggestions would be great.
 
Bump. I searched there is not a lot of information about the ABOIM. Any other thoughts about resources? For the ABIM, MKSAP seems to be the best resource, but maybe medstudy for ABOIM? What tools for medstudy are helpful? the books, questions? What about uworld, knowmedge, and other resources for questions?
 
I took the exam last year. So very accurate posts from above. I used medstudy which was a really good and more similar to test questions, however if you are using MKSAP not to worry I had several friends who used MKSAP and passed. I had medstudy books but did not read it I felt doing questions is more helpful. I tried to focus on topics that I felt I did not get a whole of exposure to during residency or felt I was weak on like outpatient endo, heme/onc, etc. The morning section I felt was more difficult, but I remember the afternoon section being better - endo, rheum, heme/onc qs. I think it was a mix of all the subjects they hit a lot of high yield topics that would be expected. Overall everyone I know passed the exam, I think it's like a 92% pass rate. So if you spent time studying you are likely to pass.
 
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After reading so many comments, I came to realize that MedStudy is more suitable for the AOBIM exam, while MKSAP is more suitable for the ABIM exam, correct me if I am wrong!
 
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