ABGC Certification Examination (CGC) study guide
CGC · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The CGC credential is a genetic counseling certification mark conferred by the American Board of Genetic Counseling (ABGC) after a candidate passes the ABGC certification exam. ABGC states that the CGC mark may only be used by an individual who holds a valid, current CGC credential, conferred after passing the ABGC certification exam, and that use of the ABGC or CGC acronym requires ABGC's prior, express written permission. The credential is aimed at genetic counselors who have completed ABGC-eligible training and wish to be certified; ABGC publishes separate Eligibility Requirements and a Certification Process, Exam and Fees page, and directs candidates to its Candidate Guide for instructions on completing the application, paying examination fees and scheduling an appointment to test. The exam is multiple choice, and ABGC offers a practice exam described as designed to mimic the real test. Topics on this exam: Genetic Counseling Practice (official content outline not enumerated in source) and Genetic Counseling Knowledge and Skills (official content outline not enumerated in source). The CGC study guide has 2 sections and about 688 words.
01Genetic Counseling Practice
Practice-domain items test judgment, not recall of a single fact. Expect scenarios built around the counseling relationship: informed consent, confidentiality and its limits, nondirectiveness, duty to warn versus the patient's privacy, documentation, billing and insurance disclosures, and coordination with laboratories and specialists.
349 words, about 2 min02Genetic Counseling Knowledge and Skills
This domain rewards fluency across inheritance patterns (autosomal dominant and recessive, X-linked, mitochondrial, imprinting, trinucleotide repeat and anticipation, mosaicism), risk calculation, variant interpretation and classification, and test methodology (karyotype, FISH, microarray, sequencing panels, exome/genome, deletion/duplication analysis, carrier and prenatal screening, noninvasive prenatal testing). You should be able to read a pedigree, apply Bayesian reasoning to carrier risk, and explain positive and negative predictive value, sensitivity, and penetrance in plain language.
339 words, about 2 min