Purpose of the Exam
The American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) and ABEM offer subspecialty certification in Pediatric Emergency Medicine. The ABP is responsible for developing and administering the certification examination. The ABEM oversees the credentialing process and handles all result notifications for its candidates. Similarly, the ABP manages credentialing and communicates examination results directly to its candidates. This streamlined approach ensures that each board efficiently supports its own candidates throughout the certification journey. The PEM board exam serves several important purposes:
1. Certification: It's the primary means of certifying physicians as specialists in pediatric emergency medicine. Passing this exam demonstrates that a doctor has the knowledge and skills necessary to practice in this specialized field.
2. Quality assurance: The exam helps ensure that physicians practicing pediatric emergency medicine meet a standardized level of competence, which contributes to maintaining high-quality patient care.
3. Knowledge assessment: It comprehensively evaluates a physician's understanding of various aspects of pediatric emergency medicine, including diagnosis, treatment, and management of acute illnesses and injuries in children.
4. Continuous learning: Preparing for the exam encourages physicians to stay updated on the latest developments, research, and best practices in the field.
5. Professional advancement: Achieving board certification in PEM can lead to career advancement opportunities and may be required for certain positions or privileges in hospitals and healthcare systems.
6. Public trust: Board certification helps build public confidence in the expertise of pediatric emergency physicians.
Exam Day Schedule
Question Styles
Assessment questions: these are the "boards style questions". Assessment questions are designed determine your knowledge level, not really teach or remediate. They normally consist of (a) the correct answer, (b) two or more distractors that you'd guess at if you were vaguely familiar with the topic, and (c) one or more distractors that you'd guess if you were completely unfamiliar with the topic.
Teaching questions: these are the more in-depth case study questions, or complex questions that require thought. Teaching questions are designed to remediate and drive long term retention of material. Challenger uses both (and you can select the types you want to use for your tests).
If you're going to do an assessment of your knowledge level, work through it in short exams over topics, not in marathon sessions. If you've missed questions in the topics, then switch to completing all the questions in a topic, or mix the exams up into assessment and teaching questions.
Exam Features
The American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) Pediatric Emergency Medicine (PEM) exam typically lasts around 6 to 7 hours. This includes time for instructions, a tutorial, and scheduled breaks. The actual testing time is usually about 4.5 hours, divided into two sessions with a break in between.
The Pediatric Emergency Medicine MOC Examination is a four-hour, computer-based, multiple choice question examination, consisting of approximately 200 questions. The exam is delivered in two timed sections, with each section two hours in length. There are no scheduled breaks during the examination, but candidates may take breaks. However, the examination clock will continue to run.
Content Specifications
Although the field of pediatric emergency medicine is continually evolving, the main content domains and subdomains within this outline should be viewed as broad categories of knowledge that are likely to remain relatively stable over time. However, the detailed knowledge within these areas is likely to change as the field advances. Because exam questions may assess a PEM subspecialist’s knowledge of specific elements within a content domain or subdomain, it is crucial for test takers to ensure their knowledge is current and up to date. As you prepare for your exams, remember that while the core content remains stable, the specifics are ever-changing. It's up to you to stay informed with the latest developments in the field.
The primary medical content categories of the blueprint are shown below, with the percentage assigned to each for a typical exam:
Exam Breakdown
