i just took my boards last week and i was wondering if anyone knew the scoring system breakdown and statistics. i shut off at 90 questions and i realize 20 of these are research questions--so all in all how many do you have to get right to pass!!

additionally in response to mm and the sweat book i felt they were a wonderful consolidation of crucial concepts that i was surely tested on. thanx valley!

happy holidays

Every question has a different point value that is unknown to the test taker. Therefore, there is no way to know. A scaled score of 450 is required.

Let's back up just a bit- there is not a specific number of questions you have to get right. The exam is based on Item Response Theory- in a nutshell questions that are too easy or too hard do not give an accurate picture of a candidate's true ability level. SO the exam starts off with a midlevel difficulty question and based on your response (correct or incorrect) it moves to the next difficulty level(higher or lower). Based on your responses and the difficulty level of the questions the computer makes the estimate of ability. If your ability level + or - the Standard Error of Measurement is either clearly above or clearly below the cut point at 90 questions the test will shut off. THe last testing period had about an 11-12% failure rate so the odds are in your favor that if the test cut off at 90 you probably passed. Good Luck and Welcome to a wonderful profession:welcome:

Thank you for your insight in to the exam, especially the 11-12% failure rate. I felt like I was familiar or more with a majority of the scenarios I was presented with. Time to WAIT PATIENTLY for the results--Jeff