In person in Raleigh
The final certification step is administered at ABEM’s AIME Center rather than through the retired virtual Oral Exam platform.
Current ABEM Certifying Exam preparation
Emergency Medicine boards, rebuilt for the current exam.
Prepare for the in-person ABEM Certifying Exam with voice-first Clinical Care Cases, multi-patient prioritization, procedures, ultrasound, reassessment, difficult conversations, conflict, and structured feedback.
10
Cases
4
Clinical care
6
OSCE stations
Current public format
The old Oral Exam retired. The present exam is broader, physical, and in person.
ABEM replaced the former virtual Oral Exam with a 10-case Certifying Exam. The new design combines clinical reasoning with procedures, ultrasound, reassessment, patient-centered communication, difficult conversations, and conflict management.
Official ABEM exam sourceTwo station families
Four Clinical Care Cases test decision-making and prioritization; six Communication & Procedure Cases test visible skills and interactions.
Hard station clocks
Clinical Care Cases run 15 minutes each. Communication and Procedure Cases run 10 minutes each, with structured transitions and a fixed break.
Criterion referenced
ABEM states that the examination is measured against defined criteria rather than curved against other candidates.
Current ABEM architecture
The modern exam tests clinical command, physical skills, and difficult communication.
This is not the retired virtual oral examination. Preparation must move between spoken resuscitation, multi-patient prioritization, hands-on procedures, ultrasound acquisition, reassessment, and standardized-patient interaction.
Read the current exam guide04
Exam component
Clinical Care Cases
Two Clinical Decision-Making cases and two Prioritization cases. Each station gives 15 minutes to assess, stabilize, reason aloud, reassess, and complete a disposition or priority plan.
06
Exam component
Communication & Procedure Cases
Six 10-minute OSCE-style stations cover a procedure, ultrasound, patient-centered communication, reassessment, a difficult conversation, and conflict management.
½ day
Exam component
One integrated performance block
The published schedules combine orientations, transitions, a fixed 30-minute break, and all 10 cases into a half-day in-person session at ABEM’s AIME Center.
Emergency Medicine does not use candidate-submitted personal cases in the public Certifying Exam format. SurgiTest therefore emphasizes original, standardized cases across every published case type rather than Personal Case Uploads.
The ten-case blueprint
Eight content areas. Ten distinct performances. No weak station can be ignored.
The strongest preparation plan treats each content area as an observable skill, then integrates those skills under the pace and fatigue of a complete half-day simulation.
2 × 15 min
Clinical Decision-Making
Evaluate, stabilize, treat, reassess, and disposition an undifferentiated patient.
2 × 15 min
Prioritization
Manage simultaneous patients, interruptions, delegation, and changing acuity.
1 × 10 min
Procedure
Prepare, perform, troubleshoot, confirm success, and plan post-procedure care.
1 × 10 min
Ultrasound
Explain, acquire, optimize, interpret, and integrate point-of-care ultrasound.
1 × 10 min
Patient-Centered Communication
Build rapport, exchange information, and support shared decisions.
1 × 10 min
Reassessment
Recognize new information, revise the problem, and change management.
1 × 10 min
Difficult Conversations
Disclose sensitive information, respond to emotion, and close clearly.
1 × 10 min
Managing Conflict
Understand positions, identify shared interests, and negotiate a safe plan.
Exam demand → practice behavior
Every product capability is tied to something the current exam can observe.
Emergency Medicine preparation should not stop at reading cases. The candidate must speak, prioritize, perform, acquire images, reassess, and communicate while the clock keeps moving.
Think aloud while stabilizing
Voice-first clinical cases
State immediate actions, differential, testing, interpretation, treatment, reassessment, disposition, and rationale without losing the unstable patient.
Manage multiple patients
Dynamic prioritization
Practice triage, delegation, interruptions, new arrivals, changing acuity, and repeated reprioritization across a crowded emergency department.
Perform under observation
Procedure and ultrasound rehearsal
Rehearse setup, patient explanation, technical sequence, image acquisition, troubleshooting, confirmation, and post-procedure management.
Respond when the case changes
Progressive deterioration
Receive new vital signs, images, consultant input, treatment response, and complications that require a visible change in plan.
Communicate through emotion
Standardized-patient style prompts
Practice rapport, plain-language explanation, difficult disclosure, conflict negotiation, shared understanding, and a clean close.
Repair observable behavior
Structured educational feedback
Review safety, reasoning, prioritization, technique, ultrasound, communication, reassessment, pacing, and closure without pretending to calculate an official ABEM score.
The emergency-performance arc
Practice what the examiner, actor, simulator, and patient can actually observe.
The current exam rewards more than a correct diagnosis. It makes prioritization, technique, reassessment, communication, and closure visible under a hard clock.
01 · Recognize
Name the life threat, stabilize first, and make urgency audible.
Begin with airway, breathing, circulation, disability, exposure, immediate monitoring, and the first intervention. The examiner should never have to infer what you are doing for the sick patient now.
Acuity
Immediate action
Help early
02 · Prioritize
Hold the entire emergency department in working memory without losing the sickest patient.
State the hierarchy, delegate specific tasks, use available personnel and resources, identify what can wait, and explicitly reprioritize when a new patient or result changes the room.
Hierarchy
Delegation
Reprioritize
03 · Perform
Turn knowledge into visible procedure and ultrasound behavior.
Explain the indication, prepare the patient and equipment, execute the critical sequence, recognize failure, troubleshoot safely, confirm success, and state post-procedure care.
Setup
Technique
Confirmation
04 · Communicate
Stay clinically precise when emotion, uncertainty, or conflict enters the room.
Build rapport, establish understanding, explain in plain language, respond to emotion, identify shared interests, negotiate a safe plan, and close with a clear next step.
Rapport
Clarity
Closure
Complete Emergency Medicine library
Ten guides. One current path from blueprint to exam-day execution.
Each guide is independently indexable, mobile-first, source-aware, and written to answer a distinct candidate question without reproducing secure exam content.
A deliberate 12-week arc
Progress from exam map to a stable, complete half-day performance.
The plan layers clinical reasoning, prioritization, procedures, ultrasound, communication, fatigue resistance, and current exam logistics instead of treating every case like the retired Oral Exam.
Open the complete study plan1
Weeks 1–3
Build the exam map
Learn the current 10-case structure, create a repeatable answer architecture, and establish baselines across all eight content areas.
2
Weeks 4–6
Make skills observable
Pair spoken clinical reasoning with procedure setup, ultrasound acquisition, standardized-patient communication, and explicit reassessment.
3
Weeks 7–9
Stress-test pace and rescue
Run timed station blocks with interruptions, deterioration, failed procedures, emotionally difficult encounters, and conflict.
4
Weeks 10–12
Simulate the half day
Complete full 10-station mocks, repair recurring defects, verify travel and candidate instructions, then taper without adding new frameworks.
Observable answer signals
Sound and act like the emergency physician who sees the room, treats the threat, and closes the loop.
State the immediate life threat and first stabilization action before expanding the differential.
In prioritization cases, rank patients explicitly, delegate by name or role, and say what new information would change the order.
For procedures, cover indication, contraindication, consent, monitoring, equipment, sequence, complications, confirmation, and aftercare.
For ultrasound, explain the examination, choose the probe, position correctly, optimize the image, interpret it, and integrate the result.
Reassess after every consequential intervention and change the plan when new information appears.
In communication stations, respond to emotion, check understanding, preserve professionalism, and close with a concrete next step.
Candidate questions
Clear answers for the exam that replaced the Emergency Medicine Oral Boards.
Public ABEM facts remain separate from SurgiTest educational recommendations, feedback, and original practice scenarios.
Is the current ABEM final certification exam still the Emergency Medicine Oral Exam?
No. ABEM retired the former virtual Oral Exam after 2025. Beginning in 2026, the final certification step is the in-person ABEM Certifying Exam at the AIME Center in Raleigh, North Carolina.
How many cases are on the current ABEM Certifying Exam?
ABEM states that candidates complete 10 cases in a half-day session: four Clinical Care Cases and six Communication & Procedure Cases spanning eight content areas.
Does Emergency Medicine require a personal case list or Personal Case Uploads?
The public ABEM Certifying Exam format uses standardized simulated cases, not a candidate-submitted personal case list. SurgiTest therefore emphasizes original catalog cases, procedures, ultrasound, communication, prioritization, and reassessment rather than personal-case uploads for this specialty.
Does ABEM publish a numeric candidate-facing cut score?
ABEM describes the examination as criterion referenced and not graded on a curve. It publishes case-type scoring criteria, but it does not publish a simple candidate-facing numerical cut score that SurgiTest can reproduce or predict.
Does SurgiTest reproduce actual ABEM exam cases or guarantee certification?
No. SurgiTest uses original educational scenarios and public exam information. It does not reproduce secure examination content, calculate an official ABEM result, claim Board endorsement, or guarantee certification.
Ten cases. One integrated performance.
Stabilize. Prioritize. Perform. Reassess. Communicate.
SurgiTest is an independent educational platform. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by ABEM, does not reproduce secure examination content, does not calculate an official result, and does not guarantee certification.
Emergency Medicine practice uses original standardized educational cases. The public ABEM Certifying Exam does not require candidate-submitted personal cases.