How to study for the Certifying Exam

The old Oral Exam rewarded a systematic, linear approach where you role-played as the physician while the examiner pretended to be…everyone else. The Certifying Exam was built to resemble something closer to your actual shift: managing uncertainty, juggling priorities, communicating with upset families or colleagues, performing bedside skills, and adapting when the patient deteriorates or new data arrives. Most emergency physicians feel anxious about this change because it's brand new - of course! At BoardED, we're here to guide you through.

Start with the foundation ABEM provides. Review the case summaries, sample videos, and debrief videos on the ABEM website. The sample videos and debriefs in particular will give you a high-level idea of how the new case types are designed and evaluated.

Next, create deliberate practice patterns using BoardED's CDM cases. Clinical Decision-Making (CDM) cases are designed to assess your medical knowledge and clinical reasoning skills, but do not include role-playing. The examiners will present you with case information and ask you targeted questions about how you would evaluate and manage the patient. They may also ask you general questions about pathophysiology, workup, or management. Anything on the EM Model is fair game.

Prioritization cases are especially challenging. You'll be shown a trackboard with multiple patients and limited data, and asked to manage the whole board. This includes deciding who to see first, delegation of resources, changes in patient status, and the arrival of new patients. Some cases are designed as Mass Casualty Incidents, requiring a structured approach to triage and resource allocation. We've built both case types into BoardED for you to iteratively practice, improve, and perfect your skills with our personalized feedback.

The Communication cases are also brand new: Difficult Conversations, Managing Conflict, Patient-Centered Communications, and Reassessment. The key feature to note is these cases do not assess your medical knowledge, but do require role-playing. These cases are assessing your empathy, communications skills, and adaptability. Within BoardED's cases, you'll practice breaking bad news or negotiating with a resistant consultant using frameworks like SPIKES or AIDET, adapted to your own style. BoardED's cases and feedback will assess your communication and empathy in these OSCE-style scenarios.

For Procedures and Ultrasound, review the official lists published on the ABEM website (Procedures updated April 2025, Ultrasound May 2025). Know your indications, risks, consent, technique, and post-procedural care for each procedure. On the test day, you'll be asked to articulate these knowledge items and perform a procedure on a mannequin. For ultrasound, practice describing probe placement, expected views, and pathology interpretation, even if someone else holds the probe.

The Certifying Exam isn't about knowing more facts. It's about demonstrating you can think clearly, communicate effectively, and lead decisively in simulated chaos. In its webinars, ABEM likes to say, "the best preparation for the Certifying Exam is being a practicing emergency physician." With structured, realistic practice aligned to ABEM's framework, you'll walk into the AIME Center ready to show exactly that.

BoardED delivers exactly this kind of targeted simulation: AI-driven cases built from scratch to help you practice for as many of the modules as we can replicate. Sign up today to see how BoardED helps turn exam anxiety into quiet confidence.