A Roadmap for Success on the ABEM Board Exam

You wouldn’t start a long trip without directions would you? Before you know it, you’d run out of gas and end up on the side of the road. When you’re preparing for the American Board of Emergency Medicine exam, the TrueLearn ABEM SmartBank can be one of the most valuable ways for you to study. With content designed to mirror the stem styles and question content it closely mirrors the exam so that come test day you’re not walking in unsure of what to expect.

SETTING A GOAL FOR THE ABEM BOARD – AND GETTING THERE

Think of your board exams as a journey – planning ahead can make the experience less stressful and bring better results. At the start, determine what score you’re aiming for, evaluate where you are likely to score if you took the exam today and then come up with a plan on where you want to be. We suggest that you start studying at least six months in advance.

It wouldn’t be feasible to try and drive across the country in a single weekend, so don’t wait until the last minute to start studying. This isn’t just about the destination – at the core it’s about improving your knowledge and reasoning skills. To retain information more effectively, we recommend that you begin your preparation by taking 30 questions three times a week, while working up to 25-50 questions in the days just before the ABEM.

As you are taking practice questions make sure you don’t rush through your results. Take time to review question explanations and learn why the selected answer was the best response to the question. The explanations are critically important and will provide insight into why or why not the answer choice was correct, incorrect or insignificant. Having this level of detail will assist in when you are making informed decisions in the future.

TRACK YOUR JOURNEY

You’ve set a goal, you’ve begun your study routine – now measure where you are on your journey. TrueLearn’s ABEM SmartBank’s powerful system of analytics give you insights into your strengths and weaknesses. Discover how you compare relative to your peers, how you are improving by category and so much more. Using these analytics, you can identify where you should be spending your valuable study time. This will help you maximize your efforts as well as your eventual exam score.

TEST IN THE CLOUD ON TRUELEARN

Test in the cloud with any mobile device by downloading TrueLearn’s mobile app. Whether you’re testing from your iPad in the operating room between cases, on the train on the way to the hospital, or at home on your couch, you’ll always have access to the SmartBank.