Correlation of American Board of Surgery In-Training Exam Metrics in a Post-Percentile Reporting Era
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Department
General Surgery
Position/Job Title
PGY-5 Resident
Description
Background: The American Board of Surgery In-Training Exam (ABSITE) is an annual exam for all surgical residents that functions as a formative assessment to guide learning. Historically, it has been used as summative tool to guide program directors to identify struggling learners at risk of failing the American Board of Surgery (ABS Qualifying Examination. Failure of the Qualifying Exam has been associated with ABSITE scores below the 30th percentile. Starting in 2025, the ABSITE score reports will eliminate percentile rankings by program year, providing only percent correct and a scaled standard score. This study aims to develop and validate predictive targets for standard scores and percent correct to effectively identify residents at risk of scoring below the 30th percentile. Methods: Retrospective data were collected from a community based general surgery program in Michigan between 2012 and 2024. The program year, percentile, percent correct, and standard score were collected to correlate those metrics with future board passage rate. Linear regression analysis was used to determine standard score and percent correct targets for each program year. Target scores were compared to predict performance below the 30th percentile for each program year. Results: 148 tests taken by 42 residents were included in the analysis. Standard score targets were set at 350, 445, 210, 535, 545 for program year 1 through 5, respectively. These standard score targets had an overall sensitivity of 0.87 and specificity of 0.93. Percent correct targets were set at 55%, 64%, 70%, 72%, 73% for program year 1 through 5, respectively. These percent correct targets had an overall sensitivity of 0.87 and specificity of 0.99. Conclusions: The predicted targets for standard score and percent correct were effective in identifying resident performance under the 30th percentile, an evidence-based cutoff for identifying struggling learners. Further investigation is needed to validate these results.
Publication Date
4-15-2025
Keywords
Henry Ford Jackson Hospital Research Symposium, general surgery
Recommended Citation
Arscott, Tyler and Pfeifer, Christopher, "Correlation of American Board of Surgery In-Training Exam Metrics in a Post-Percentile Reporting Era" (2025). 2025 Henry Ford Jackson Hospital Research Symposium. 5.
https://scholarlycommons.henryford.com/hfjhrs2025/5
