Know the ABP board requirements early! Eligibility criteria can be found on the ABP website: general subspecialty and pediatric infectious diseases requirements. Pediatric infectious diseases board exam is only offered every other year (November of odd years). It is a good idea to do the yearly in-training exams as these give you a good feel for the test. Doing the monthly questions on PREP-ID offered by the AAP and taking board review courses such as the PREP offered every other year in Chicago may be a good idea as well.
Briefly, to be able to sit for the board, you need to:
- Fill the application on the ABP website between February and April of the year the exam is offered, at www.abp.org. This will include general information, your Scholarly activity and committee members, licensure information (active license required to apply), and payment of a little less than $3000 (changes from year to year). Late applications will cost you more money! Dates and fees are generally listed by the ABP few months in advance.
- Your scholarly activity materials must be submitted by your subspecialty program director at the end of your training. These include
- A personal statement where you describe your work, your learning process and your achievements. Per ABP, it should be “several pages in length and comment on the fellow’s intended career path upon entering fellowship and reasons for choosing a specific area of scholarly activity. It should describe the scholarly activity and the fellow’s role in each aspect of the activity, as well as any preparation beyond the core fellowship curriculum needed to ensure successful completion of the project. The personal statement should describe how the scholarly activity furthers the fellow’s career development plan, and should reflect upon the educational value of the pursuit of the project.”
- Your work product: “projects in which the fellows develop hypotheses or in projects of substantive scholarly exploration and analysis requiring critical thinking. Specifically, abstracts, book chapters, and review articles would NOT be expected to meet the requirement for Scholarly Activity. Examples of acceptable work products per the ABP are:
- A peer-reviewed publication in which a fellow played a substantial role
- An in-depth manuscript describing a completed project
- A thesis or dissertation written in connection with the pursuit of an advanced degree
- An extramural grant application that has either been accepted or favorably reviewed
- A progress report for projects of exceptional complexity, such as a multi-year clinical trial
- Your signature and the signatures of your program director and members of your SOC on your work product
- Once these are accepted, you will receive an acceptance notice from the ABP and will be able to schedule the test in the Prometric website.
- Remember the test is computerized, offered one day every other year, 4.5 hours long, and divided into two sections. Make sure you review the Prometric policies before getting ready to sit for your exam.
