Impact of One Versus Two Content-Specific Modules on American Board of Family Medicine Certification Examination Scores

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Figure 1.
Density scatterplot of each examinee's actual score using both modules with their better score.
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Figure 2.
Inverse cumulative frequency distributions showing the potential pass rates using examinees' actual 2-module scores, better module scores, and worse module scores. The vertical line represents the current minimum passing standard (380).

Table 1.

Mean Scores and Pass Rates across 3 Conditions and 4 Administrations

Administration	N	Mean (SD) of the Sample			Pass (%)
Administration	N	Worse	Actual	Better	Worse	Actual	Better
April 2014	10,618	499.0 (108.1)^*	507.1 (108.3)	512.6 (109.3)^{^†}	87.3	89.0	89.9
November 2014	4,802	462.9 (109.1)^*	471.9 (109.6)	476.8 (110.6)^{^†}	76.7	79.5	81.1
April 2015	9,605	491.9 (105.4)^*	499.9 (105.8)	505.6 (105.9)^{^†}	85.4	87.1	88.2
November 2015	4,063	446.1 (108.2)^*	454.2 (108.9)	459.0 (109.1)^{^†}	71.3	74.4	76.0
Total	29,088	483.3 (109.2)	491.5 (109.5)	496.9 (109.5)	82.7	84.8	86.0

↵* Statistically significantly lower than the actual condition (P < .000, 2-tailed).
↵† Statistically significantly higher than the actual condition ( P < .000, 2-tailed).
SD, standard deviation.

Table 3.

Counts and Percentages of Examinees Selecting Each Module

Module	April 2014 (n = 10,618)	November 2014 (n = 4,802)	April 2015 (n = 9,605)	November 2015 (n = 4,063)	Total (N = 29,088)
Geriatrics	3,814 (36%)	1,835 (38%)	3,258 (34%)	1,529 (38%)	10,436 (36%)
Emergent/urgent care	1,757 (17%)	1,065 (22%)	1,590 (17%)	899 (22%)	5,311 (18%)
Ambulatory family medicine	8,794 (83%)	3,876 (81%)	7,834 (82%)	3,325 (82%)	23,829 (82%)
Child and adolescent care	768 (7%)	406 (8%)	621 (6%)	347 (9%)	2,142 (7%)
Women's health	2,055 (19%)	977 (20%)	1,948 (20%)	914 (22%)	5,894 (20%)
Maternity Care	2,022 (19%)	612 (13%)	2,056 (21%)	439 (11%)	5,129 (18%)
Hospital medicine	1,286 (12%)	465 (10%)	1,278 (13%)	374 (9%)	3,403 (12%)
Sports medicine	740 (7%)	368 (8%)	625 (7%)	299 (7%)	2,032 (7%)
Total	21,236 (200%)	9,604 (200%)	19,210 (200%)	8,126 (200%)	58,176 (200%)

The percentages are the observed counts of examinees who selected the module divided by the total number of examinees in the study (N = 29,088). Because examinees select 2 modules, the counts sum to 58,176 and the percentages sum to 200%.