THE 1971 PRETEST OF THE AMERICAN BOARD OF PEDIATRICS

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Abstract
In July 1971 the American Board of Pediatrics decided to offer pediatric residency program directors an opportunity to pretest individuals entering their training programs by making available to them an examination prepared by the American Board of Pediatrics. The 1971 written certifying examination was selected to serve as the pretest. This was a 500-item, multiple-choice question examination. Ninety-two pediatric residency programs participated. From these programs, 584 individuals were examined: 528 of these were first core year trainees. The mean standard score for the first core year trainees was 217 or about 1.4 standard deviations below the minimal pass level on the written certifying examination. This is nearby 3 standard deviations below the mean for the peer reference group which is defined as American and Canadian medical school graduates who are taking the written certifying examination of the American Board of Pediatrics for the first time and who have just completed their two core years of residency training. Fifteen percent of the first core year group scored 350 or better and, therefore, performed well enough to have passed the written certifying examination of the American Board of Pediatrics before beginning any formal training.

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