How to Study for the ABIM (American Board of Internal Medicine) Examination

For those who do not know the ABIM (American Board of Internal Medicine) Examination is an examination for those who have graduated from an accredited Internal Medicine Residency Program must take to be Board Certified. If passed, you get the credential of being a "Board-Certified Physician" rather than just a "Physician".

I started studying in fellowship (after July 1st), as prior this I did not have time and did not realize how much time it would take me. I like to create study plans in advance, so I did for this as well, but I did not realize that it will take me longer.

USMLE (United States Medical Licensing Examinations) are "board" examinations for medical students and medical interns to obtain a medical license to practice medicine in residency with a temporary license and then obtain permanent licenses (limited - for those who are in fellowship can pick this as you are still in training but will be able to moonlight in your program with your temporary license or outside your program with a limited permanent medical license versus full/complete - licensed without restrictions) post residency to practice independently. I mention this, because technically these are not board examinations, and they are licensing examinations, even though there is a committee board who manages the administration of these examinations.

The Board Certification Examination are subject based and held by the speciality boards. You can also be considered a "fellow" of a specific group e.g. American College of Physicians to be "F.A.C.P.", which stands for Fellow of A.C.P.;  however, these are still definitely credentials.
Above was just a description to fully understand if you are just starting medical residency or are in medical school.

For those already in their second or third year of residency, here is some advice to study for the ABIM:
- If you are like me who likes to read and use questions to test themselves, I definitely recommend purchasing the full MKSAP complete and start early: read books in rotations of the specific subject e.g. Rheumatology in Rheumatology (ensure to use all the subject material) - if you can start this in intern year, even better (reinforces the material when you see it in practice). I would leave General Medicine 1 and 2 for until after finishing residency. During your third year, start questions, and do questions WEEKLY, so when you finish residency, your MKSAP course is done
- While some people read Harrison's and Bate's (I have them too, and recommend reading them - I have not yet, and I will during fellowship this year to reinforce what I have learned thus far in my medical career), you do not need to for this examination. I do recommend reading it once in your career to be able to gain knowledge
- After graduating, give yourself 1 month (I say this because for USMLE Step 1, I gave myself six months, for USMLE Step 2 I gave myself four months, and for USMLE Step 3 I gave myself two months; luckily, I did Internal Medicine which is bulk of the material in the USMLE examinations and reinforced in residency, so giving myself 1 month to study for this examination should suffice), but this is if you are not in fellowship. I do recommend starting day 1 of your fellowship and studying until 1 day before your examination. During this time, read the General Medicine 1 and 2 books (1 chapter a day). I would also do UWorld during this time. Do 50-60 questions a day to finish about 1 week prior to the examination. 1 week prior to the examination, start your review: read the Boards Basics book from MKSAP and read all of the High-Yield pages in all the books (first page of the subject books). Also, go over all the notes cards and notes you have made so far. Taking the first board examination is daunting, so the harder you study, the more confident you will feel. Throughout residency, I did not study, and looking back I should have. I just learned a great deal on the job and would get exhausted giving my 100% to work. Studying for the boards is a marathon, you have to go slow and then speed it up. During the review week do the other questions include: Core, Extension, Virtual Dx, Quick Q, Bonus. These will keep you going with doing questions and also just help you go over material in a question form. These are very helpful, because they help you with repetition which is important for recognition of material for this examination and in the field of Internal Medicine where patterns help us diagnose 
- Some people watch MedStudy videos, my cousin (who is an attending physician) did send all the subject videos to me, but I did not have the time to review them. If you are an auditory learner, I do recommend them, as I listened to one video, and it helped. I will leave these for studying for re-certification in 10 years
- Some people also do Awesome Review, which I heard is like its name "awesome", but I also would leave these for studying for re-certification in 10 years
- I would share my study schedule with you all, but I do not think it was efficient, and therefore left it out of this post. I do recommend everything else I mentioned above. I would not use too many resources. I do think for the first time around MKSAP and UWorld are suffice. I think Awesome Review and MedStudy would help with re-certification, along with more UWorld Questions. As years go on, you can opt into doing the alternative MOC (Maintaining Of Certification) program to the 10-year board examination, but I have heard to do the re-certification examination at year 10 and then you can do the alternative. I think this is it for my advice.

Also, I do recommend reading General Medicine 1 and 2 in clinic blocks of third year.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach to me on Instagram: @doctorpdg