A scoping review of successful strategies for passing the American Board of Surgery certifying examination

Background: This scoping review identifies existing literature that investigates what factors contribute to success on the American Board of Surgery (ABS) Certifying Exam (CE) to provide practical, evidence-based recommendations.

Methods: A Pubmed search was completed utilizing the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis extension for scoping review (PRISMA-ScR) method.

Results: Of 4368 articles identified, 45 articles met criteria for review. Manuscripts were placed into one of five categories: predictors from medical school, program interventions, modifiable candidate factors, the effect of mock oral exams, and those factors shown not to provide benefit for CE preparation.

Conclusions: A variety of factors have either been shown to provide benefit for or be predictive of CE performance. Acknowledgement of these factors can provide benefit to both surgery residents as well as surgery programs. Despite these findings, research into these factors is generally of low quality, prompting the need for ongoing, high-quality investigations.