ABPS Hospital Medicine

Inpatient clinical decision-making across general internal medicine and perioperative care, critical care, cardiology, pulmonary, infectious disease, neurology, nephrology and electrolytes, endocrinology, gastroenterology, and quality and safety. Expect scenario-style questions asking for the next best step, the most likely diagnosis, or the safest management choice rather than isolated trivia.

The American Board of Physician Specialties publishes the current exam length, question count, and timing in its candidate handbook and on its website. Those figures are revised periodically, so check the official ABPS site for the authoritative numbers before you build a study schedule around them.

The passing standard is set by the board and published in its official materials. It is not a figure you should take from a prep course or a forum post. Confirm the current passing score, scoring method, and any reporting timeline directly with ABPS.

It is narrower but deeper in the hospital domain. You will not be tested on outpatient chronic disease management in the same detail, but critical care, perioperative risk, and systems safety carry real weight. Hospitalists who have not reviewed critical care physiology or ventilator basics in a while often find those areas the hardest.

Retake eligibility, waiting periods, and any fee implications are set by ABPS policy and can change. Review the current retake rules on the official site before you sit the exam, and if you do need to retake, use the score report to identify weak domains rather than repeating the same broad review.

Most working hospitalists do well with two to four months of steady preparation. Start with your two weakest domains, then cycle through the rest in shorter blocks, keeping critical care and cardiology in frequent short sessions because they reward repetition. Finish with mixed-topic practice so you are switching domains under time pressure.

Over-reviewing familiar general medicine and neglecting critical care, acid-base, and perioperative risk; reading without doing questions; and misreading stems that ask for the next step rather than the diagnosis. Another frequent problem is running out of time because they deliberate too long on single-best-answer items.

No. It is a separate certification focused on hospital practice and is not a substitute for ABIM or other primary board certification. Check with ABPS and with your employer or credentialing office about how this certification is recognized in your setting before committing to the process.

Only with the American Board of Physician Specialties. Eligibility requirements, application fees, testing windows, and test delivery options are published by the board and updated over time. This page is an independent study resource and is not affiliated with ABPS, so treat the board's site as the single source of truth.