How to Use Your Internal Medicine ITE Score Report

As an internal medicine resident, your In-Training Examination (ITE) score report is a valuable resource that can help you assess your progress and identify areas for improvement. This annual exam, administered by the American College of Physicians, is designed to test your knowledge and skills in various areas of internal medicine.

But how exactly can you use your ITE score report to enhance your training and prepare for the Internal Medicine initial certification exam? Here are some tips from the Blueprint team on how to make the most of this important tool.

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What is the internal medicine ITE?

The reason you take the internal medicine ITE each year of residency is that your ITE score reports play an important role in keeping you on track to pass the boards and learn important residency educational objectives.

Here’s a list of the core content areas on the exam: 

• Allergy and immunology
• Cardiovascular disease
• Dermatology
• Endocrinology, diabetes, metabolism
• Gastroenterology
• Geriatric syndromes
• Hematology
• Infectious disease
• Medical oncology
• Miscellaneous
• Obstetrics and gynecology
• Ophthalmology
• Otolaryngology and dental medicine
• Nephrology and urology
• Neurology
• Psychiatry
• Pulmonary disease
• Rheumatology and orthopedics

The ITE exam is typically given in mid August to early September each year, with score reports being released 4-6 weeks after closure of the exam window.

You can use your ITE score reports to see how you’re doing, what your strengths are, and what you need to do to improve. These reports can help you improve each year of residency and provide you with a roadmap to becoming board-certified!

Now that we’ve highlighted the importance of ITE score reports, let’s begin by answering a very basic question: what, exactly, is in your ITE score report? This will lay the foundation for how to make good use of your results, improve your performance each year of residency, and set yourself up for success on your boards.

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What’s included in my ITE score report? 

Your ITE score reports have a lot of useful information, which can help you achieve both short and long-term goals. In the short term, they tell you how you did, so you can improve for your next ITE exam. In the long run, the reports prepare you for your ultimate goal: passing the boards and mastering important learning objectives for residency! 

The report can be obtained from your program director. Your total score reflects the actual percentage of questions answered correctly, and you will also receive a breakdown of the percentage of questions answered correctly in each content area. 

Score reports also contain a percentile rank compared to other test-takers at the same PGY level for the total test and for each content area. A list of educational objectives answered incorrectly is also included. There is no set passing score for the ITE exam. 

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How can I use my ITE score report during each year of residency? 

Now, let’s get to the heart of the matter. How do you interpret the data in your ITE score reports during each year of residency? Let’s break it down year by year:

Intern Year

Your approach to your ITE scores may vary from year to year. In your intern year, you shouldn’t expect to get a perfect score on the ITE. Otherwise, what would you be learning for the next three years of residency?

Your intern year ITE is a way to establish a baseline assessment of your knowledge as you enter residency and to measure yourself in an objective way against your peers. A percentile rank near 50% indicates that your score is in the middle of the distribution for interns taking the test nationally. 

When score reports are released (typically in October of each year), you will typically be only a third of the way through your intern year so will benefit from expanding your knowledge base broadly across all content areas. Additionally, you can review the breakdown of questions answered incorrectly in each content area to determine if there are specific areas to dedicate extra attention to. 

The Blueprint/Rosh Review Internal Medicine Resident Qbank can help! This resource contains 2,000 high-yield questions with detailed explanations and illustrations. Questions align with topics on the ABIM Initial Certification Exam blueprint, which is the same blueprint that the American College of Physicians models the ITE exam after.

Mapping out a study plan to complete questions in the 18 content areas over the three years of residency will keep you on track and ensure a strong start to learning core residency content.

PGY-2

As a second year resident, you should be thinking about how the ITE exam can assess growth in your knowledge base over the past year. As such, you can compare your PGY-2 ITE percentage score to your intern year percentage score for the total test, as well as by content area. 

The percentile rank will this time reflect your performance against other PGY-2s taking the exam, so it may be helpful to see if your percentile rank is stable or improved from intern year. Also, it’s important to drill down to understand what content areas and educational objectives you need the most help with, review those areas, and take notes that you can study later.

For example, if you find that hematology and gastroenterology were the content areas you missed the most questions in, you can focus your study accordingly on these areas. The Blueprint/Rosh Review IM Resident Qbank enables easy selection of questions by content area. 

There is not a clear recommendation for how much improvement to expect in your ITE score between the intern and PGY-2 years, but it may help to check in with your program director for additional suggestions if your percentage score has not improved from your intern year or if your percentile rank decreases.

PGY-3

When evaluating your third year ITE scores, it is important to again look for trends in improvement in your ITE scores over the years and at your scores in the different content areas. Based on your third year ITE performance, you should review your study plan and adjust it to highlight content areas requiring more focus. 

As the initial certification exam approaches, it is important to carve out dedicated study time. One helpful feature of the Blueprint/Rosh Review Resident Qbank is the ability to flag questions for later review and to identify questions that were previously answered incorrectly for additional study. 

As you get closer to the date of your initial certification exam, which is often taken in August after completing residency, consider taking the Blueprint/Rosh Review Mock IM Certification Exam, a 240-question resource that simulates the initial certification exam experience and further solidifies learning on high-yield concepts. (You can find this in the Boost Box within your Rosh Review dashboard!)

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Final Thoughts

If at any point in this process, you feel like you need more guidance or individualized tutoring/mentoring when it comes to utilizing your ITE score reports, please reach out to Blueprint’s ABIM specialized tutors. We have multiple advanced boards tutors available to help guide you through the process of learning in residency, planning your fellowship and career path, and succeeding on the boards. We are here for you, so please don’t hesitate to reach out! 

Looking to give your ITE prep a boost? Check out the Blueprint/Rosh Review Internal Medicine Resident Qbank to get an edge on exam day!

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Rosh Review is a board review company providing Qbanks that boost your confidence for your boards and beyond. Gain access to board-style practice questions, detailed explanations, beautiful medical images, and more with a Rosh Review free trial to the Qbank of your choice!