Family Practice Certification

Family Practice Certification: An Overview

Your Family Practice Certification will be one of the toughest exams of your life, as your years of preparation for a career as a family physician culminate in this comprehensive test of your skills and knowledge. Far more difficult than other tests, such as the MCAT, you might have taken along your career path, the FPC is considered by some testing experts to be one of the five most difficult tests in any field. There are some who would quibble at this assertion, but there is no denying that passing the FPC will be one of the hardest things you will ever do.

The Family Practice Certification exam is an exhaustive exam that lasts all day. It consists of five different sections, and there are three optional breaks available during the day. (Test takers are strongly advised to take advantage of each break offered. Even though you may feel terrific and think you do not need the break, you will likely wish you had taken it before the next section is completed. Do not try to be a superman; you will likely perform better by taking advantage of all the break times.) All questions are multiple choice, and the subject matter can cover any aspect of family medicine practices and procedures. Many of the questions will focus on diagnosing, managing, and preventing illness in patients. Two of the sections will be modules chosen by the test taker on the day of the exam, such as Sports Medicine, Geriatrics, Women's Health, Maternity Care, Ambulatory Family Medicine, Emergent/Urgent Care, etc.

Should a test taker fail the test during the main testing window of July and August, he or she is eligible to apply to take the test again during December, so long as all current requirements for Family Practice Certification are still met. People taking the test for a second time will also need to pay all testing fees in full for the new test session. Bear in mind that passing rates for people taking the Family Practice Certification exam a second time are very low. Ideally, one should make good use of a FPC prep guide in order to pass the exam the first time. Anyone who fails the first attempt should think very seriously about postponing a second try until the next July and August testing window, instead of retrying in December. This will give him or her time for a much more thorough review.

Family Practice Exam: Can a Seminar Help You Pass?

If you are going to be taking the Family Practice Exam in the near future, you are no doubt looking for the best way to improve your chances of making a passing grade on the exam. The FPC is one of the most difficult tests out there and lasts all day, covering the entire gamut of family medicine. Most aspiring family physicians realize that they are probably going to need to make use of some sort of study and review aids in order to pass this rigorous and exhaustive exam. In order to meet the demand, there are a growing number of options on the market promising to help you pass, including very expensive seminars. Are Family Practice Exam seminars worth the investment?

According to the American Board of Family Medicine, the answer is that, generally speaking, seminars are not worth the high prices they charge. Many people might be surprised by this answer because it is typical to think that the more something costs, the more valuable it is. However, according to the ABFM, seminars do not raise test scores significantly. That is because these seminars are not really the ideal way of studying for such a rigorous test as the Family Practice Exam. While attending a seminar, a person is mostly listening. This works well in a classroom setting where the learning process occurs over a period of months, combined with hours of study away from the classroom. Seminars cannot replicate a real teaching experience, and consequently are not the best way of prepping for the exam. In effect, many of them are just high priced, last minute cramming sessions, which rarely work.

Instead, the ABFM (and many education experts as well) say the best way to prepare for the exam is by systematic study and review well in advance of the test. The agency advises using inexpensive study guides and flash cards as one of the best ways to pass the Family Practice Exam. This simple approach may seem counterintuitive in our high tech age, but there is a reason the ABFM recommends study guides and flash cards: they work. You do not have to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on a Family Practice Exam seminar. You will improve your chances of passing the exam and save a lot of money by using study guides and flash cards.

Family Practice Test: Can You Pass?

If the Family Practice Test is looming in your future, there are some sobering statistics you should be aware of before sitting down for the test. First, take a look at the passing rates of all the people who attempt the exam for the first time. A shockingly high number of people fail the test. For the most recent year of stats available, less than 87 percent applicants passed during the summer session. This means that nearly one in seven people failed the most important test of their life after years of studying to become a family doctor. Stats from the winter session were even worse. Only 79.7 percent of test takers passed, which means that one in five failed.

The bad news does not stop there. Those unfortunate souls who fail the Family Practice Test are allowed to retake it at a later date, provided they pay the expensive exam fee and meet all other requirements. It would seem logical that those who failed the first time would spend months studying to improve their performance, but that is the exact opposite of what oftentimes happens. Of the 2,526 people who retook the Family Practice Test after failing, only 48.6 percent, less than half, achieved a passing score. Yet another sobering statistic is the recertification rate. Family physicians are required to get recertified on a regular basis. During the most recent exam for which figures are available, only 81.6 percent of over 10,000 family physicians earned a passing grade.

These numbers may be hard to believe, but they come from the website of the American Board of Family Medicine, which administers the exam. These statistics should certainly give anyone who is planning on taking the FPT reason for concern. The exam is one of the most difficult tests in the world, and even after years of medical study (or even medical practice), about one in five will fail the test. The ABFM is concerned about these high failure rates, and they make several recommendations to help aspiring doctors get a passing grade. Instead of last minute cramming, it is best to use inexpensive study guides and flash cards to prepare for the Family Practice Test in order to make sure you will not be one of the 20 percent who fail.