Virtual Microscopy Practice Examination

NOTE:  Print this page so that you may refer to it while viewing the practice examination.

There are three questions on the American Board of Pathology virtual microscopy practice examination. There is no time limit. You may view the practice examination as many times as you wish. Candidates are expected to be familiar with the practice examination prior to the scheduled examination. At the time of the examination, there will be no instructions given on the use of the virtual microscope, there will be no practice examination using the virtual microscope, and no questions will be answered by the proctors on how to use the system. Please practice until you are comfortable. Your computer monitor should be set to the display properties above. Other settings will work, but this configuration is recommended.

CHANGING OBJECTIVES: You may view the entire slide at 4 magnifications, up to 1.25x. Only a portion of each slide was scanned at high power, i.e., only the green outlined areas are available at 5x, 10x, 20x, 40x. To change objectives, you may either place the mouse cursor over the image, click the right mouse button, and select the desired objective, OR use the mouse wheel to change the objective by moving the wheel up or down. NOTE: The green outlined area must be centered to change to a higher magnification. If the higher objectives are not available, the green outlined area is not centered.

CENTERING THE SLIDE: Place the mouse cursor over the area to center, and click the left mouse button without moving the mouse. The green outlined area must be centered to change to a higher magnification.

MOVING THE SLIDE: Place the mouse cursor over the image, hold the left mouse button down, and drag the slide (click and drag).

MOVING TO ANOTHER QUESTION:
    First (first question and image)
    Back (previous question and image)
    Forward (next question and image)
    Last (last question and image)

CHOOSING AN ANSWER: Place the mouse cursor over the circle, and click the left mouse button.

NOTE: The other choices on the right click window (Set the Pointer, Area Measure Mode, Tape Measure Mode) WILL NOT be used during the examination.

THE INTERNET VERSION MAY BE SLOW:  The amount of time it takes for the image to paint depends on current Internet traffic and the number of users accessing the practice examination (speed is not an issue in the examination center). 'Loading...' will display in the Overlay window while the image paints.

DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL THE VIEWER: You must be an administrator of your computer to install this program. This is the same viewer you will use in the examination center. If you have previously downloaded and installed the viewer, please download the current version in order to use all of the features. Click Here To Download WebSlide Net Viewer ActiveX. It will access the Bacus Laboratories Web site. Click 'WebSlide Net Viewer ActiveX'. Click 'Save' to save the program on your computer. Note the filename and directory where it will be saved and click 'Save.' When the download is complete, click 'Run' to begin the installation. Click 'Install.' Click 'I agree.' When the install is finished, click 'OK.' You may be required to restart your computer.  Click Here To View The Practice Slides

Z-PLANE FOCUS

There is one cytology slide on the Virtual Microscopy exam which uses Z-plane focus to view multiple focal planes on the entire slide. There is a separate on-line demo for the Z-Plane Focus. Click Here To View Z-Plane Focus.

WebSlide Finder is a database with over 1500 slides. The 10th column, Focus, indicates whether or not a slide was scanned with Z-Plane Focus. Click on the word Focus twice in the column header (the first click sorts by No, the second click sorts by Yes). Select a slide where Focus = Yes, and double click. It will open the WebSlide Viewer. Select an area of the slide to view. You must be at 5x or higher. Center the area to view, right click, and choose Focus (this option is only available when a slide was scanned with Z-plane focus). The Focus window will open.

To manually adjust the focus: Click and Drag the mouse up and down inside the window, use the Up & Down arrow keys, or use the mouse scroll wheel. Pressing the 'A' key will start or stop animation through the focal planes. Click on the edge or corners of the focus window to expand the view. The cursor will change to a double-headed arrow when expansion is available.

To view another area of the slide, close the Focus window and select another area.

This page was last modified on May 7, 2008.