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. For information regarding general requirements see the ABPN website https://www.abpn.com/become-certified/general-requirements/)

• 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?

Exam format

The 2024 Neurology Certification Exam is made of 400 questions. There are new content outline specifications for this year which are substantially different from the examination in the past, see Content Specifications on the ABPN website (link here).

The 2024 Neurology Certification Exam consists of 7 hours of test time and 50 minutes of pooled break time, which can be accessed during the optional breaks between sections and lunch time. Test time is divided into 8 blocks of 45-55 minutes.  See the ABPN site for a complete structure description  (link here).

There are two types of questions in the 2024 Neurology Certification Exam:

Stand-alone questions: one-best-answer multiple-choice questions that are not associated with any other questions. Stand-alone questions can be flagged for review and the answer can be changed (but after leaving a section you cannot review questions in that section again).

Vignette questions (questions in sequence): two to five multiple-choice questions in sequence, linked to a single common case presented in a text vignette or video clip. Every question in the sequence must be answered before moving on to the following question. Once you have answered a question and navigate forward, you cannot go back and change the answer. You can go back to revisit previously answered vignette questions within a section, but you cannot change the answers. 

Scores

Candidates will receive a standard score for their total test. An acceptable level of performance must be reached on the total score in order to pass the exam. The standard scores are never norm-referenced, and there is no predefined passing rate. 

• 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 900+ 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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