Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Dec 31:17:12-22.
doi: 10.1016/j.sopen.2023.12.013. eCollection 2024 Jan.

A scoping review of successful strategies for passing the American Board of Surgery certifying examination

Matthew D Cahn  1 , Ace St John  1 , Stephen M Kavic  2
Affiliations

A scoping review of successful strategies for passing the American Board of Surgery certifying examination

Matthew D Cahn et al. Surg Open Sci. .

Abstract

Background: This scoping review identifies existing literature that investigates what factors contribute to success on the American Board of Surgery (ABS) Certifying Exam (CE) to provide practical, evidence-based recommendations.

Methods: A Pubmed search was completed utilizing the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis extension for scoping review (PRISMA-ScR) method.

Results: Of 4368 articles identified, 45 articles met criteria for review. Manuscripts were placed into one of five categories: predictors from medical school, program interventions, modifiable candidate factors, the effect of mock oral exams, and those factors shown not to provide benefit for CE preparation.

Conclusions: A variety of factors have either been shown to provide benefit for or be predictive of CE performance. Acknowledgement of these factors can provide benefit to both surgery residents as well as surgery programs. Despite these findings, research into these factors is generally of low quality, prompting the need for ongoing, high-quality investigations.

Keywords: American Board of Surgery; Board certification; Certifying examination; Residency.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors of this manuscript have no related conflicts of interest to declare.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
PRISMA-Scr (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis extension for Scoping Review) diagram outlining literature search.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Kendrick D.E., Chen X., Jones A.T., Clark M., Fan Z., Bandeh-Ahmadi H., et al. Is initial board certification associated with better early career surgical outcomes? Ann Surg. 2021;274:220–226. doi: 10.1097/SLA.0000000000004709. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kopp J.P., Ibáñez B., Jones A.T., Pei X., Young A., Arnhart K., et al. Association between American Board of Surgery initial certification and risk of receiving severe disciplinary actions against medical licenses. JAMA Surg. 2020;155 doi: 10.1001/jamasurg.2020.0093. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Biester T.W., Rubright J.D., Jones A.T., Malangoni M.A. Does success on the American Board of Surgery General Surgery Qualifying Examination Guarantee Certifying Examination Success? J Surg Educ. 2012;69:731–734. doi: 10.1016/j.jsurg.2012.03.008. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Nguyen J., Liu A., McKenney M., Elkbuli A. Predictive factors of first time pass rate on the American Board of Surgery certification in general surgery exams: a systematic review. J Surg Educ. 2021;78:1676–1691. doi: 10.1016/j.jsurg.2021.01.020. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Shellito J.L., Osland J.S., Helmer S.D., Chang F.C. American Board of Surgery examinations: can we identify surgery residency applicants and residents who will pass the examinations on the first attempt? Am J Surg. 2010;199:216–222. doi: 10.1016/j.amjsurg.2009.03.006. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources