Am J Psychiatry 1981; 138:340-344
Copyright © 1981 by American Psychiatric Association
Examination success and opinions on American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology certification
SK Quick and CB Robinowitz
Psychiatrists who completed residency between 1967 and 1978 completed
questionnaires about their experiences with the American Board of
Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN). Although the 1,160 respondents were
basically positive about the ABPN, performance on the Board examinations
was strongly related to their degree of satisfaction with the examination
process. The opinions of psychiatrists who had not sought certification
mirrored those of respondents who had failed the exams. The oral
examination was uniformly seen as stressful, but respondents also wanted
the Board to provide more clear criteria for the judgment of competence as
well as detailed feedback on performance. Women and foreign medical
graduates were less apt to be certified than male psychiatrists who had
graduated from United States medical schools, and psychiatrists engaged in
research, education, and/or administration tended to be more successful at
passing the Board examination than were clinicians.
