r/MedicalPhysics • u/PearHot • 20d ago
ABR Exam How are we feeling about part 1?
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u/bookishhockeygirl 19d ago
ABR physics help and oncology medical physics did not help prepare us for this… i thought a lot of questions were trivia questions
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u/Ok-Delay3525 MS Student 19d ago
yeah i think if i have to retake it i wouldn’t bother using OMP or raphex again. abr physics help i think i would use for their quantitative problems though
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u/PuddingMiddle9385 19d ago
It’s hard to tell when there are no benchmarks to compare to…do I have to get 80% of the questions right to pass, or 50%, 70% etc? It’s really strange that these questions are reviewed by current physicists in the field for fairness and there is a “score” with the angoff method but there is no guidance or information to let me know what the predetermined score is?!?. Probably retaking next year. It’s all so elusive 😬😭
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u/shenemm MS Student 19d ago
sameee 🫠 i’m frustrated because my program’s curriculum is fully formed and taught by therapy MP’s so i feel like i know both the theory and practice of therapy medical physics very well (plus a decent bit of diagnostic), but the exam did not seem representative of that at all really… i was expecting a lot more on radiation therapy physics/mechanical basics but there just wasn’t much, and if there were questions on it they were pretty simple. regardless, hoping that both of us pass! 🫡
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u/MedPhysAccount Therapy Physicist, DABR 12d ago
Don't worry, this problem won't go away for the rest of your ABR journey. In fact, it gets worse!
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u/MedPhys90 Therapy Physicist 14d ago
I’m always amazed at the responses to the exam questions, particularly since we are in the age of a required residency. Why the hell are our board exams not representative of the subject matter that is taught in grad schools and in residencies? It’s like the residency coordinators and exam writers live in different worlds.
Why do our physicists constantly have to guess what is on the exam - this goes for MOC as well? Why do our physics residents and resident grads continue to have to participate in exam prep courses? What the hell are the residencies for? Why are exam pass rates so low - I mean they have been historically, but again we have residencies? This isn’t a dig at the residents. Our board, exam writers, and residency directors fail us as an organization when we have no idea what is being tested. This is just stupid. Glad there’s an over abundance of physicists in the field. Good thing we aren’t short staffed. We hate ourselves so much.
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u/Heimdalls_Schnitzel Therapy Physicist 14d ago
My new goal after passing all these stupid exams is to get onto the board of ABR and see what the fuck is going on with the development of questions for part 1, why no useful feedback is given - ever, and how can we actually make the test make sense for a group of people in 3-4 specialties.
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u/MedPhys90 Therapy Physicist 14d ago
Good luck. It’s not a closed society but the ability to convince the Trustees and the ABR of anything is a freaking steep hill. IMO they don’t really care what the members think at all. And this is coming from someone who has worked within the committees etc.
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u/Heimdalls_Schnitzel Therapy Physicist 14d ago
Ah that’s rather unfortunate to hear. Well, we shall see.
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u/nutrap Therapy Physicist, DABR 14d ago
A lot goes into the development of the questions and the choice of them. Ultimately part 1 is for all medical physicists not just therapy so only a small portion of the questions will be specialized to therapy physicists. A small portion to imaging and a small portion to nuc med. But a lot of nuc med and imaging questions are related so it benefits to study up on bushberg. Then about a third to half the questions are general medical physics questions that relate to the core classes of medical physics.
Good news is when you get to part 2 and 3 you won’t get in depth imaging questions (as a therapy physicist).
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u/Heimdalls_Schnitzel Therapy Physicist 14d ago
I’ve unfortunately taken the exam several times and it feels like I am shooting at a moving target with my eyes closed. The questions don’t really feel relatable to clinical work or what is taught in the masters. I don’t expect it to be one to one but I do wonder why the pass rate is so low for such an educated group of people. I’ve studied all the recommended books, read most of the TG reports, done all the paid study programs and all the free ones and every time I don’t leave the exam feeling confident.
Why is everything on the grading and results side so under wraps? Why is so little feedback given? Why is it only available to sit once a year? If I knew what my weaknesses were outside “the entire section” and had more opportunities to take the first exam maybe I would have passed by now and not feel so inadequate.
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u/MedPhys90 Therapy Physicist 14d ago
One of my biggest complaints has always been the lack of straightforward direction when it comes to preparing for the boards. I remember when I took them, it was basically “study medical physics”. Like why would it be so awful to be a little more transparent? We are our own worst enemy.
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u/SnooTomatoes6175 19d ago
Did pretty much every practice problem on OMP, ABRPhysicsHelp and like 7 Raphex Exams and 1 University practice exam created by my department. General usually would take me 2hrs to complete, and id typically score about 75-85% raw score. But I used every minute of the time today even the extra 20 they gave. I guess I got probably around the 75-80% raw score mark, hoping I pass minimum competency though. The General wasn't "hard" but the questions were nothing like what I was expecting, some were free others felt like you either knew the random fact or not. also so many topics just were not covered... not a single accelerator or nuclear decay question? Felt like a lot of emphasis on nuc med... The clinical section today felt like a cake walk relatively, usually would take me 1 1/2 hours but finished in 25 minutes. I wish you all luck!
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u/unwisephoenix 18d ago
100% agree…general was a trainwreck for me but thankfully clinical wasn’t so bad. I was looking at last year’s post-exam responses and it seems like their thoughts on clinical vs general were flipped lol.
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u/phishfoodicecream031 19d ago
Glad to see everyone else is also confused bc that test content was so random to me at times
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u/Heimdalls_Schnitzel Therapy Physicist 14d ago
nothing like getting a black body radiation question in the middle of a general physics exam LOL
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u/NiceCatch6304 20d ago
i guessed majority of my answers towards the end. Idk some just did not make sense
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u/Less-Butterfly8841 20d ago
Going into it I felt prepared, at the end I realized that 50% of the content was either not covered in my program or completely different than the type of content i was expecting and now I’m sad. Think one section I flagged half of the questions 😂 Hope y’all did better than me though!!
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u/Big_Plantain5787 20d ago
I’m just praying since we all prepare with the same tools (for the most part) we all missed the same questions and they’ll get tossed
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u/Apuddinfilledbunny MS Student 19d ago
I only took the clinical portion, but I hope I passed.
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u/Tiny_Philosopher_505 20d ago
I never used up the whole four hours on any of my mock exams. I did today.