Pulmonary Disease Pass Rate

What do I do if I fail the Pulmonary Disease board exam?

The first thing you should do is just take it easy, sleep on it. Give yourself a few days, a week or two to come to terms with what has happened. Your next exam is six months to a year away. Dr. Jack has more advice in this video, What Do You Do If You Fail Your Medical Board Exam?

Pulmonary Disease Certification Exam Scoring

Overall performance is reported on a standardized score scale ranging from 200 to 800, with a mean of 500. To pass the Pulmonary Disease board examination, your standardized score must equal or exceed the standardized passing score. Your performance on the entire exam determines your pass-fail decision.

The passing standard for the Pulmonary Disease exam is set by ABIM committee using standard-setting techniques that follow best practices in assessment. Because the passing standard is based on a specified level of mastery of Infectious Disease content, no predetermined percentage of examinees will pass or fail the exam.

Pulmonary Disease Exam Format

The Pulmonary Disease Certification Exam (CERT) is composed of up to 240 single-best-answer multiple-choice questions. Most questions describe patient scenarios and ask about the tasks performed by physicians in the course of practice. (Note that around 40 of these are new questions that do not count in your score.)

Example of a single-best-answer multiple-choice question format:

A 70-year-old man presents to the outpatient department with complaints of fever, productive cough, and chest pain for the last 4 days. According to the patient, the sputum is thick and blood-tinged, resembling ‘currant-jelly.’ The chest pain is mild and is aggravated by coughing. There are no other systemic symptoms. The patient does not have any comorbidities. He has been drinking 2-3 glasses of wine daily for the last 30 years. He does not smoke and does not have pets at his house. On physical examination, his pulse is 104/minute, his respiratory rate is 24/minute, his temperature is 101°F (38.3°C), and his blood pressure is 130/80 mmHg. Respiratory examination findings include reduced air entry in the right lower lobe and coarse crackles on inspiration. The rest of the systemic examination is unremarkable. Sputum examination reveals gram-negative rods that form mucoid colonies when grown on media. Which of the following is the most likely pathogenesis of pneumonia in this patient?

◯ A. Increased sensitization of the respiratory cilia
◯ B. Decreased recruitment of neutrophils
◯ C. Decreased production of interleukin-10 (IL-10)
◯ D. Enhanced tumor necrosis factor (TNF) response to endotoxins
◯ E. Increased colonization of the oropharynx with gram-positive cocci