Studying for the Exam

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 Practice Exam

Information about a 100-item Core Practice Exam, which includes with examples of content from all areas and all item types, is available here.  

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 Resource Guide can be found here. 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.

Breast Imaging	Pediatrics
Cardiac	Physics
Gastrointestinal (GI)	Reproductive Endocrinology
Interventional Radiology (IR)	Radioisotope Safety Exam (RISE)
Musculoskeletal (MSK)	Thoracic
Neuroradiology	Ultrasound
Nuclear Radiology	Urinary