An Annotated Guide to ABIM Board Examination Study Sources
by Patrick C. Alguire, MD, FACP
Director, Education and Career Development, ACP
Dr. Doug Paauw, University of Washington School of Medicine has provided the following guide to study sources for the ABIM certifying board examination. Dr. Paauw has presented resident workshops on board preparation at the College's Annual Session.
Use the following list to select the resource that is most likely to meet your needs. Most of the sources are accompanied by a link to the publishing company. You can do an online search for your source by entering either the name or the ISBN code into the search screen.
Key:
|
**** |
Best available study source |
|
*** |
Good source with specific qualities to improve review for boards |
|
** |
Somewhat helpful with limitations |
|
* |
Limited help |
|
Rating |
Source |
|
**** |
Title: MKSAP 14 Publisher: ACP 2006 Contact: http://www.acponline.org/catalog/mksap/ Comment: Best source of questions, written in the same style as they appear on the boards. Each question comes with a critique explaining the rationale for the answer. |
|
*** |
Title: Diagnostic Strategies for Internal Medicine Authors: Grodzin CJ, Schwartz SC, Bone RC Publisher: Mosby; 1995 ISBN: 0815106424 Contact: http://www.amazon.com/Diagnostic-Strategies-Internal Comment: Case-based teaching with cases similar to the type offered by the boards. The questions and responses are variable in quality but the format is a good one for board studying. |
|
*** |
Title: Mayo Clinic Internal Medicine Board Review Publisher: Lippincott-Williams &Wilkins; 1999 ISBN: 078171477X Comment: Long text of 800-900 pages with bullet highlighting of key points. Only a fair source of test questions. About 50% of the questions are case-based and 50% poorly written. |
|
*** |
Source: Med Study Publisher: Med Study Contact: Med Study. PO Box 6008 Woodland Park, CO 80866, (800) 841-0547 Comment: Text is helpful, many peals written in key point fashion. Emphasizes areas heavily covered by the boards. Easy to get through the booklets in a reasonable amount of time. Questions are not uniformly strong, only about half are in board format. Does have a board simulation test included in the price. |
|
*** |
Title: ACP Medicine Editors: Dale DC, Federman DD Publisher: Scientific American Contact: http://www.acpmedicine.com/cgi-bin/publiccgi.pl?loginOP Comment: Available on both CD-ROM and a 3-volume text. Case-based CME questions with key concept outlined. Useful for reviewing for the boards. Now it is available as a packet of CME questions without purchase of Scientific American text. |
|
** |
Title: Cecil Review of General Internal Medicine, 7th Edition Authors: J. Allen D. Cooper and Peter G. Pappas Publisher: W.B. Saunders; 2001 ISBN: 0721677894 Comment: A comprehensive review book that presents a series of board-type questions on ever subspecialty area of internal medicine. |
|
** |
Title: Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine Self-Assessment and Board Review Author: Stone R Publisher: McGraw Hill; 2001 ISBN: 0071373756 Contact: http://www.mhprofessional.com/product.php?isbn=007149619X |
|
** |
Title: Differential Diagnosis of Common Complaints, 4th Edition Author: Seller RH Publisher: W.B. Saunders; 2000 ISBN: 0721680178 |
|
** |
Title: Harvard Intensive Review of Internal Medicine Publisher: Harvard Contact: Brigham Medical Group, 221 Longwood Avenue, Room 306, Boston MA 02215. (617) 432-1525 or e-mail hms-cme@hms.harvard.edu Comment: Book with tape set. Practice test at end of book but answers are not provided; you must mail in for CME scoring/credit and answers. Heavy on pathophysiology. Questions are quite variable; some are excellent case-based while others are simple recall questions. |
|
* |
Title: Atlas of Clinical Diagnosis, 2nd Edition Author: Mir MA Publisher: W.B.Saunders; 2003 ISBN: 0702026689 Contact: http://www.us.elsevierhealth.com/product.jsp?isbn=0702026689 |
Also, don't forget to check out the College's Board Review Courses and Annual Session lecture audiotapes.
Page updated: 3/25/2008
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