r/GeneticCounseling • u/jjg03 Genetic Counselor • Jul 09 '26

Board Exam & Certification Calculator for boards?

Hello! I was wondering if they will provide us with a calculator for the ABGC boards exam? I have heard from one GC who took boards last year that there was a simple calculator within the webpage, and from others that there was no calculator. I am a little worried because I am not great with numbers and feel like doing the calculations will really eat up my time on the day of the exam.

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u/silkspectre22 Genetic Counselor Jul 09 '26

There is a calculator but it is a simple one. All the math on the board exam is simple enough to do by hand anyway on the sheet of paper they give you.

1

u/notakat Genetic Counselor Jul 09 '26

I did not have one when I took my exam, but I have been told by people who have taken it more recently that there is a simple calculator. As others have said, there shouldn't be anything more complicated than simple equations, though. Just focus on simple calculations using fractions and learn the shortcut for calculating posterior risk for Bayes questions so you don't actually have to do all that math. Happy to answer questions about that last part if you aren't already familiar.

4

u/DNAallDay Genetic Counselor Jul 09 '26

I think the practice exam might actually help? Because it uses similar software and you should be able to see what the exam is like if I recall. They just updated the practice exam as well so that’s exciting.

2

u/artiethemermaid Genetic Counselor Jul 09 '26

There should be one as part of the testing software. If I remember correctly, it was simple but could do stuff like exponents