Beyond the Clinic Family Medicine on a Mission Part 1: How Air Force Physicians Achieve Humanitarian Goals Read Family Medicine on a Mission Part 1: How Air Force Physicians Achieve Humanitarian Goals
Phoenix Newsletter - March 2025 President’s Message: ABFM’s Unwavering Commitment to Diplomates and the Specialty Read President’s Message: ABFM’s Unwavering Commitment to Diplomates and the Specialty
Home Research Research Library Performance on the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) certification examination: are superior test-taking skills alone sufficient to pass? Performance on the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) certification examination: are superior test-taking skills alone sufficient to pass? 2011 Author(s) O’Neill, Thomas R, Royal, Kenneth D, and Puffer, James C Topic(s) Family Medicine Certification Keyword(s) Psychometrics Volume Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine Source Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine INTRODUCTION: Certification examinations used by American specialty boards have been the sine qua non for demonstrating the knowledge sufficient for attainment of board certification in the United States for more than 75 years. Some people contend that the examination is predominantly a test of superior test-taking skills rather than of family medicine decision-making ability. In an effort to explore the validity of this assertion, we administered the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) Certification to examinees who had demonstrated proficiency in taking standardized tests but had limited medical knowledge. METHODS: Four nonphysician experts in the field of measurement and testing were administered one version of the 2009 ABFM certification examination. Scaled scores were calculated for each examinee, and psychometric analyses were performed on the examinees responses to examination items and compared with the performance of physicians who took the same examination. RESULTS: The minimum passing threshold for the examination was a scaled score of 390, corresponding to 57.7% to 61.0% of questions answered correctly, depending on the version of the examination. The 4 nonphysician examinees performed poorly, with scaled scores that ranged from 20 to 160 (mean, 87.5; SD, 57.4). The number of questions answered correctly ranged from 24.0% to 35.1% (mean, 29.2%; SD, 0.05%). Rasch analyses of the examination items revealed that the nonphysician examinees were more likely to use guessing strategies in an effort to answer questions correctly. Distracter analysis suggest near-complete randomness in the nonphysician responses. CONCLUSIONS: Though all 4 nonphysician examinees performed better than would have been predicted by chance alone, none performed well enough to even fall within 8 SE below the passing thresholds; their performance was far below that of almost all physicians who completed the examination. Given that the nonphysicians relied heavily on the identifying cues in the phrasing of items and the manner in which response options were presented, the results affirm the notion that the ABFM certification examination is not primarily a measure of generic test-taking ability but measures information critical to the estimation of a family physician’s knowledge sufficient for certification. Item analysis confirmed that items were well written, provided minimal cueing, and required medical knowledge to answer correctly. Read More ABFM Research Read all 2021 Clinical Quality Measure Exchange is Not Easy Go to Clinical Quality Measure Exchange is Not Easy 1989 Reconsecratio medici Go to Reconsecratio medici 2016 Transforming physician certification to support physician self-motivation and capacity to improve quality and safety Go to Transforming physician certification to support physician self-motivation and capacity to improve quality and safety 2014 The Consequential Validity of ABFM Examinations Go to The Consequential Validity of ABFM Examinations
Author(s) O’Neill, Thomas R, Royal, Kenneth D, and Puffer, James C Topic(s) Family Medicine Certification Keyword(s) Psychometrics Volume Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine Source Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine
ABFM Research Read all 2021 Clinical Quality Measure Exchange is Not Easy Go to Clinical Quality Measure Exchange is Not Easy 1989 Reconsecratio medici Go to Reconsecratio medici 2016 Transforming physician certification to support physician self-motivation and capacity to improve quality and safety Go to Transforming physician certification to support physician self-motivation and capacity to improve quality and safety 2014 The Consequential Validity of ABFM Examinations Go to The Consequential Validity of ABFM Examinations
2021 Clinical Quality Measure Exchange is Not Easy Go to Clinical Quality Measure Exchange is Not Easy
2016 Transforming physician certification to support physician self-motivation and capacity to improve quality and safety Go to Transforming physician certification to support physician self-motivation and capacity to improve quality and safety
2014 The Consequential Validity of ABFM Examinations Go to The Consequential Validity of ABFM Examinations