All examinations given by the American Board of Pathology are multiple-choice, computerized examinations given at the ABP examination center in Tampa, Florida. The examinations do not require any special computer skills or experience. A practice session is held before the certification examination begins. It is important that candidates read and understand all material sent in advance by the ABP and that candidates for anatomic pathology go through the practice examination in virtual microscopy that is available on the ABP Web site.
Contents
Anatomic Pathology
Clinical Pathology
Anatomic Pathology
The anatomic pathology examination is a one-day examination consisting of
written and practical sections. The practical section is composed of a
microscopic portion (traditional and virtual) and an image section. A candidate
must pass both the written and the practical portions in the same administration in order to pass the
examination. All questions are multiple-choice and are in the one-best-answer
format.
Approximately 70% of the total examination is devoted to questions related to
pathology of specific organ systems or multi-system disease. The remaining 30%
deals with general pathology and laboratory management. General pathology topics
include cellular injury, inflammation and repair, physical and chemical injury,
congenital and genetic diseases, neoplasia, circulatory disturbances, molecular
pathology, and infections. The number of questions related to a particular
system or to a topic in general pathology is roughly correlated with the
frequency with which the general pathologist receives specimens or encounters
diseases in these areas. Questions related to any topic may be placed in the
setting of any area of anatomic pathology of adults and children including
surgical pathology, cytology, autopsy, or forensic pathology. The examination
also includes questions on hematopathology and molecular pathology. Laboratory management questions may
be related to quality assurance, safety, billing, inspection and accreditation
processes, federal regulations, personnel issues, costs of running a laboratory,
informatics, etc.
The written examination may include certain types of visual aids provided either
on the computer screen or in a separate booklet. These may include electron
micrographs, karyotypes, pedigrees, etc. Images used on the practical
examination include gross specimens, histopathologic specimens, cytopathology
smears including liquid-based preparations, fine-needle aspirates, cell blocks,
etc. A variety of histochemical and immunochemical stains may be used as well as
molecular pathology preparations.
Clinical Pathology
The clinical pathology examination is a one-day examination composed of written
and practical sections. The practical section has two parts. One part is
primarily image questions, whereas the second part contains questions with
graphs, charts, karyotypes, pedigrees, red cell panels, formulas, and other
problem-solving exercises. A candidate must pass both the written and the
practical portions in the same administration in order to pass the examination.
All questions are multiple-choice and are in the one-best-answer format.
The subject content of the clinical pathology examination includes blood
banking/transfusion medicine, chemical pathology, immunopathology, hematology,
medical microbiology and parasitology, medical microscopy, cytogenetics,
molecular pathology, and laboratory management. Questions related to laboratory
management, medical microscopy, and cytogenetics make up 15-20% of the total
examination. The remainder of the examination is roughly equally divided between
blood banking/transfusion medicine, chemical pathology, hematology, and medical
microbiology. Questions on molecular pathology may be included in any content
area of the examination. Questions from all content areas are found on both
written and practical portions of the examination.
Individual topics included in the subject content areas of the clinical
pathology examination include, but are not limited to: