Sleep Medicine Pass Rate

What do I do if I fail the Sleep Medicine 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?

Sleep Medicine 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 Sleep Medicine 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 Sleep Medicine 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.

Sleep Medicine Exam Format

The Sleep Medicine 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 group of researchers is studying the correlation between poor sleep, neurocognitive functioning, and reaction time. It is observed that histamine is one of the hormones that maintain a wakefulness state. Which of the following neuronal systems is associated with this neurotransmitter?

◯ A. Locus ceruleus ◯ B. Supraoptic nucleus ◯ C. Tuberomammillary nucleus ◯ D. Brainstem tegmentum ◯ E. Basal forebrain