Diagnostic Radiology Examination Description
An outline of the subject areas covered on the certification examination is included to help candidates prepare for the exam. Candidates should review this outline carefully and focus study on the areas listed. Candidates should be aware that the outline reflects the responses to practice-analysis questionnaires and enables codification of the examination for subsequent analysis of the results. Each question is linked to a specific area of the outline. No question is meant to be obscure or tricky. The percentage of questions in an area conveys the relative importance of each area of the examination. The information in the outline is meant to serve as a study aid only and not as a guarantee of success in taking the certification examination.
Diagnostic Radiology Classification System
Subject Area # of Questions on Exam
1 Ultrasound 17
2 Breast Imaging 17
3 Thoracic Imaging 17
4 Genitourinary Tract Imaging 17
5 Basic Knowledge of Physics 16
6 Gastrointestinal Studies (Contrast and Non-Contrast) 17
7 Angiography/Interventional Radiology 16
8 Anatomy 16
9 Neuroradiology 17
10 Musculoskeletal Imaging 17
11 Nuclear Medicine 16
12 Pediatrics 17
Diagnostic Radiology Examination Study References
You may wish to use the study materials to prepare for the written certification or recertification examinations. The Examinations Committee uses these references to create questions for the examinations.
Description of the Oral Examination in Diagnostic Radiology
The Oral Certification Examination in Diagnostic Radiology is an opportunity for the Board to examine your approach to addressing a variety of cases, similar to what a physician in Diagnostic Radiology would be engaged in a real-world setting. Although each of the cases you will be presented is based on a true situation, the actual examination is a series of simulated situations. As such, you will need to speak clearly, probe for information, and be cognizant of time constraints that are placed on your diagnosing each case. Similarly, you may ask the examiner to repeat information that you did not hear clearly. Be certain that you understand what is being asked of you before responding.
The examination consists of six categories, each with three to five cases. To pass in a category, an examinee must pass at least three cases. To pass the examination, the examinee must pass all six categories.
The examination consists of cases in the following six categories:
•Gastro-Enterology
•Genito-Urinary
•Neuro-Radiology (head and neck)
•Osteology
•Chest and Cardiovascular
•Mammography
Each of the cases presented within a category will include studies performed in one or more of the following modalities, appropriate to the diagnostic evaluation:
•CAT Scan
•MRI
•Ultra Sound
•Nuclear Medicine
•Special Procedures (such as hystero-salpingogram, myelogram, sialogram, etc.)
Each of the six sections is limited to one-half hour. Each case is limited to approximately 10 minutes. If you have not completed the diagnosis for a case within ten minutes, the examiner will indicate that you need to move on to the next case. An examinee needs to pass at least three cases in a section to pass that section. Examiners will not indicate whether you have passed a case or not. No comments made by the examiner should be interpreted by the examinee as implying that he or she has either passed or failed a case. Candidates, even if already passing three cases within a section, will be presented with additional cases within the thirty-minute maximum for the section.
The passing score for each case has been established prior to its administration. Board Diplomates in Diagnostic Radiology, with the guidance of a psychometrician, have estimated the expected minimal performance to each of areas within each case in which the examiners are scoring the examinee. These minimal performance expectations are combined to obtain the minimum expected score on a case. A person who meets or exceeds the minimal expected case score passes the case. A candidate’s score on any one case is completely independent of his or her score on any other case.
Candidates should plan to arrive one-half hour before the scheduled beginning of the examination and expect to be in the examination room for three hours. For this examination you will be given pencils and paper to use during the course of the examination. Also, you will not be permitted to bring into the examination room books, electronic devices, backpacks, or parcels. The only thing you will absolutely need to bring is a government-issued photo ID card such as a Driver’s License or Passport for examination check-in.
Drinking water will be available in the room. A restroom break is permissible, but only between sections of the test.
ABPS will provide reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities, provided the disabilities are documented and the accommodations requested are applicable to the disabilities. Requests for special accommodations should be made to ABPS at least two months in advance of the examination. ABPS will forward specific instructions for the documentation that will be needed from the examinee or the evaluator of the examinee’s disability. Any requests for special accommodations less than one month before the examination will not be honored since there will not be sufficient time to review the documentation and arrange for the special accommodations.
All ABPS examinations are administered only in English. Responses from Candidates to examination questions must be in English for the candidate to be eligible to receive credit towards his or her examination score.
The results of the examinee’s performance on the Oral Examination are mailed within 75 days of the examination. A careful review of the scoring and analyses of the results are conducted after the examination and before issuing reports, to verify the accuracy and validity of the results.
Candidates who fail to pass as many as two of the sections, may test during the next administration in only the sections not yet passed. Candidates who fail to pass more than two sections are required to address all six sections again. At the current time, an examinee is permitted no more than three attempts to pass the oral examination.
Should you have any questions, please call the AAPS Executive Offices at 813-433-2277.
