Examination success and opinions on American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology certification

Psychiatrists who completed residency between 1967 and 1978 completed questionnaires about their experiences with the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN). Although the 1,160 respondents were basically positive about the ABPN, performance on the Board examinations was strongly related to their degree of satisfaction with the examination process. The opinions of psychiatrists who had not sought certification mirrored those of respondents who had failed the exams. The oral examination was uniformly seen as stressful, but respondents also wanted the Board to provide more clear criteria for the judgment of competence as well as detailed feedback on performance. Women and foreign medical graduates were less apt to be certified than male psychiatrists who had graduated from United States medical schools, and psychiatrists engaged in research, education, and/or administration tended to be more successful at passing the Board examination than were clinicians.