Reading for the Boards

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At the suggestion of some of our subscribers, we have put up a review on the ABPN certification. This is just collected wisdom and not meant to be authoritative. If you find this helpful, you can send in other info to admin@neuroprep.com. For definitive answers you are referred to the ABPN website (www.abpn.com)
  • What is the ABPN certification examination?

The ABPN issues certificates for the specialties of neurology and neurology with special qualification in child neurology.
Specific requirements for certification in each of these specialties are described in detail in the Information for Applicants (IFA) publications. These publications and corresponding applications are revised each year and are available as pdf files.

  • Content outlines for those starting residency after 2005.

the ABPN annually revises content outlines of topics that will be covered in each examination that is offered. These publications may be downloaded from the Content Outlines page. Specific links are given below.

Adult Neurology

Child Neurology
  • What is the new format of the boards?

There are no more oral boards since 2008. In its place the written part has been modified to include more clinically oriented material. 2008 Neurology Certification Examination: New Format and Scoring

There are two sections: a morning session and an afternoon session. Both are 3 1/2 hours long with a mandatory 1-hour break in between the sessions, totaling 8 hours for the entire examination.

AM Session:
There are 210 items from the Neurology A (Basic Neuroscience) and Neurology B (Behavioral Neurology, Cognition, and Psychiatry) content outlines. These are all stand-alone, multiple-choice items, and as such, all will be available to be marked for later review at any time during the test.

PM Session:
There are 210 items from the Neurology C (Clinical Neurology) content outline. Most of the items are linked to a common case ('sequence' model questions) that may be a video clip (lasting 30 seconds to 1 1/2 minutes), or text vignette with images (i.e., CT, MRI, or EMG). The video clips require headphones provided by Pearson VUE (the testing center). Each sequence case may have as many as 5-6 associated items, but could be as short as 2-3 items. As this is a sequence, answers to previous items may be revealed in subsequent questions. Therefore these questions cannot be marked for later review as in the morning session. Also, you will be have to mark an answer to proceed to the next item.

Scoring
Subtest and total percent correct score (rounded % of correct answers) will be made available. An acceptable level of performance must be achieved on the total score to pass the examination.
  • What resources are available for preparation?

What has been found to be useful to previous test-takers of the new format include

  • Previous RITE discussion manuals- this covers many of the topics that are common to both examinations
  • Websites like NeuroPrep
  • Review Books (see recommended list below)
  • It goes without saying that clinical experience and discussions are precious resources which immensely help not only in real-life, but also in test situations which are designed to assess competency for real-life situations.
  • What resources are available for preparation?

Recommended Reading for the Boards includes the following titles.

  • Anatomy: Duane Haines
  • Behavioral/Psychiatry: Kaplan and Sadock review for psychiatry. Old USMLE review books could be useful.
  • Clinical Adult : Everybody has their own favorite book. As a rule, Adams and Victor can be considered as comprehensive enough to cover almost all the asked questions, but this is by no means the only resource.
  • Clinical Pediatrics: Fenichel is sufficient for exam purposes.
  • Contemporary Issues/ ethics: recent Neurology (Green Journal) articles
  • Neuroimaging : Loevner- Neuroradiology essentials (easy to read, lots of pictures) or Grossman-Neuroradiology requisites (more comprehensive).
  • Pathology: Online pathologic series, Kumar, Cottran and Robbins
  • Pharmacology/Chemistry: Clinical adult and pediatric books would be sufficient for most of these questions.
  • Physiology: For EEG- Abou-Khalil and for EMG- Pease or Misulis.

Various programs have their own resources/ favorites for preparation. If you are aware of another resource, which could be included here, let us know on admin@neuroprep.com
  • What about specific examination reviews?

There has always been review books and courses designed to help prepare for the Boards and Inservice exams.
Our website (www.neuroprep.com) is a refreshing new development in the field of Neurology test preparation. It makes use of sophisticated software employing innovative algorithms in training residents and students in Neurology to achieve their full potential and score well. It is well known that good test preparation strategies translate into good scores. We have a database of 700-800 high-quality questions which try to give a focused coverage of the examination horizon.
Other specialized review courses and books are available.

  • What is the distribution of questions?

The distribution of questions is according to a blueprint published by the ABPN (see links above)

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