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At the suggestion of some of our subscribers, we are putting up a review on the AAN RITE examination. 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 AAN website (www.aan.com). If you have thoughts you feel would be useful to the greater community, let us know..
The AAN website says the following of the AAN RITE. “The AAN Residency In-service Training Exam (RITE) is a self-assessment tool designed to gauge knowledge of neurology and neuroscience, identify areas for potential growth, and provide references and discussions for each. The RITE is not designed to be a certifying or qualifying examination, and its use in that manner is vigorously discouraged by the AAN”
Misuse of the AAN score for purposes other than as specified above is strongly discouraged by the AAN.
Since 2019, the RITE is a computer-based test taken at the home institution.
- What does a good RITE score imply?
The RITE is thought to be a self-assessment instrument for the resident to assess his/ her areas of strengths and weaknesses and guide their training accordingly, often with input from the residency program.
Further, it has been proven that the RITE scores have a good correlation to the Neurology Board (ABPN) examination scores.
1. RITE performance predicts outcome on the ABPN Part I examination. J. Clay Goodman, MD, Dorthea Juul, PhD, Barbara Westmoreland, MD and Rosalie Burns, MD. Neurology 2002;58:1144-1146
2. Association between performance on Neurology In-Training and Certification Examinations. Juul D1, Flynn FG, Gutmann L, Pascuzzi RM, Webb L, Massey JM, Dekosky ST, Foertsch M, Faulkner LR. Neurology. 2013 Jan 8;80(2):206-9.
https://www.aan.com/siteassets/home-page/tools-and-resources/resident--fellows/residency-in-service-training-examination/rite-and-abpn-correlation_tr.pdf
- What resources are available for preparation?
Although a self-assesment examination, many residents engage in a healthy preparation for the RITE examination, partly to assess their preparedness to take the boards (see reference above). The following are resources which could help with such preparation.
- Previous RITE discussion manuals
- 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.
- How do I obtain the previous discussion manual?
Candidates who took the previous year's RITE exam have online access to the discussion manual here. You would have to enter the password provided at the end of the examination. Alternatively program directors can email AAN and request a copy of the discussion manual on behalf of those who do not have a password for this.
Previous discussion manuals may be available with those who had taken the previous tests.
- What books would help review Neurology?
Recommended Reading for the RITE 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 600-700 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 AAN. Please see more details here.
Click here for the detailed blueprint.
About 100+ questions are images and generally fall into the following categories.
- Radiology: CT/ MRI (about 60)
- Pathology: Microscopy and gross pathology (about 45)
- EEG/ EMG/Polysomnogram (5-10)
- Neuro-anatomy (about 5)
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