Studying for the Exam
Last verified on September 23, 2021
ABR exams are developed by volunteers from a wide range of practice settings and reflect the breadth of information a candidate is expected to know by the time of an exam. While we offer study guides on our website, each candidate should decide what type of resources he or she should use for our exams. Candidates who use test preparation materials developed by other organizations or commercial entities should not expect an ABR exam to completely align with these materials regarding the scope or item types on ABR exams.
Core Exam Study Resources
A comprehensive
Core Exam Study Guide, which lists the domain of each category, along with sample questions, is available
here.
Since the range of content relevant to the topic of radiology quality and safety is broad, a separate document has been produced to serve as a syllabus of the quality and safety knowledge that residents eligible to take the Core Exam are expected to know. The
Noninterpretive Skills Study Guide can be found
here.
To understand how exam questions are written and learn more about different types of exam questions, please see the ABR Item Writers’ Guide. For a look at the extensive QA process that each question goes through, please see the Illustrated Life Cycle of an ABR Exam Item.
The
Core Exam Blueprints listed below provide an estimated breakdown of the content from most categories that are included on each administration of the exam, which may be useful when preparing to take the Core Exam. While the study guides provide a more detailed listing of the domain of knowledge being examined, the blueprints provide the relative percent distribution of content that is tested across the domain. Candidates should remember that no two exam forms are the same as they represent a sampling of knowledge from within the larger domain, with forms statistically equated for difficulty when determining cut scores for passing.
