The Complete 5-Minute Guide to The Internal Medicine ITE
Key points
- The Internal Medicine In-Training Exam (ITE) is a web-based exam that all Internal Medicine residents take in the fall. The Internal Medicine ITE is modeled after the ABIM board exam, and it’s meant to assess how you’re progressing through your residency training.
- The IM-ITE is designed to evaluate your knowledge and clinical decision-making skills in internal medicine. The exam covers a wide range of subspecialties as well as Internal Medicine.
- The Internal Medicine ITE is approximately 300 questions long. Most questions are case-based, requiring you to apply your knowledge and clinical reasoning skills to real-life patient scenarios. The IM ITE is modeled after the blueprint for the ABIM Internal Medicine Certification Exam.
- Your score is determined by the number of questions you answered correctly (and there’s no penalty for guessing), so you should not skip any questions. Your score is reported as a percentage of total questions answered.
- The total length of testing time is 9 hours, with 7 of those hours allotted for actually answering questions. There are several 10-minute breaks and one 60-minute lunch break.
Updated 05/1/2023
In Training Exam Internal Medicine
The Internal Medicine In-Training Exam (ITE) is a web-based exam modeled after the ABIM board exam. It is designed to evaluate Internal Medicine residents' knowledge and clinical decision-making skills. Residency programs use ITE exam results to gauge residents' progress through their training and preparedness for boards.
What is the Internal Medicine ITE exam?
The Internal Medicine In-Training Exam (ITE) is a web-based exam that all Internal Medicine residents take in the fall. The Internal Medicine ITE exam is modeled after the ABIM board exam, and it’s meant to assess how you’re progressing through your residency training. The exam creates an opportunity for self-assessment, gives your program the opportunity to see how you’re growing year-over-year, and allows both you and your program to identify areas where you require more training.
The ITE is designed to evaluate your knowledge and clinical decision-making skills in internal medicine. The exam covers a wide range of subspecialties as well as Internal Medicine, including:
- General internal medicine
- Cardiology
- Pulmonary and critical care medicine
- Gastroenterology
- Nephrology
- Hematology and oncology
- Infectious diseases
- Endocrinology
- Rheumatology
- Neurology
- Geriatrics
- Allergy and immunology
- Emergency medicine
- Women's health
- Palliative care
- Preventive medicine and public health
- Medical ethics and professionalism
- Biostatistics and epidemiology
How do I register for the IM ITE?
Registration for the ITE is handled through your residency program. The program coordinator or program director will provide you with the necessary information and deadlines for registration. Registration for the Internal Medicine ITE exam opens in early May, and it costs $130 to register for this exam.
When is the IM ITE?
The 2023 exam will be administered from Thursday, August 17, 2023 – Wednesday, September 6, 2023 (excluding labor day: Monday, September 4, 2023).
How many questions are on the IM ITE Exam?
The Internal Medicine ITE is approximately 300 questions long. Most questions are case-based, requiring you to apply your knowledge and clinical reasoning skills to real-life patient scenarios.
The IM ITE exam is modeled after the blueprint for the ABIM Internal Medicine Certification Exam. However, the ITE has a separate blueprint that breaks down the percentage of topics on the exam. It covers multiple specialties, as well as General Internal Medicine.
Your score is determined by the number of questions you answered correctly (and there’s no penalty for guessing), so you should not skip any questions. Your score is reported as a percentage of total questions answered.
How long is the IM ITE exam?
The total length of testing time is 9 hours, with 7 of those hours allotted for actually answering questions. There are several 10-minute breaks and one 60-minute lunch break. That means you have a little under a minute and a half to evaluate and answer each question.
How should I prepare for the IM ITE?
Since the IM ITE is meant to assess your progress through your residency training, you're not supposed to study (hint: cram) for it. And if you're studying effectively throughout your residency, you won't feel the need to cram for it. Any topic from the ABIM exam blueprint is fair game for the ITE, so the studying you're doing throughout your training and to prep for boards should suffice for you to take the ITE. Here's what preparing for your ITE exam should look like.
When are Internal Medicine ITE results released?
Your results will be sent to your program about 5 weeks after the exam window. It will show the number of questions you answered correctly, the educational objectives of the questions you missed, and your rank in the national percentile of residents in the same program year.
Programs will receive a report that shows the percent of questions correct for each examinee as well as each examinee's percentile rank. Residents will also receive a report listing the educational objectives of questions they answered incorrectly.
Once you get your results back, here’s how to use your ITE score to adjust your board prep plan.
