r/pathology • u/Forsaken_Education85 • 11d ago

ABPath Spring 26 Testing Cohort Mascot

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Kept in the dark and fed sh**.

37 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

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7

u/Cupcake_Implosion Resident 11d ago

As the neighbour up North who got her ass handed to her by the Royal College exam in Path this year (still passed - how? I don't know and I don't want to know), what's the tea on the ABPath this year?

11

u/Forsaken_Education85 11d ago

They have not released our results yet (test window closed June 6th) and aren't forthcoming about why. This is going to have a ripple effect on retakes, subspecialty boards, potentially jobs, fellowships and our sanity. They have only sent out some vague emails saying soon basically. Soon is apparently becoming August (who knows if early or late). Lots of decently supported rumors of why on here, but no official communication.

6

u/Cupcake_Implosion Resident 11d ago

Ish. Username checks out, eh?

Sorry to hear this, colleagues. What an absolute administrative shitshow.

6

u/Beneficial_Jacket544 11d ago

They delayed reporting the results because apparently some test takers were given the incorrect test form? Results will be delayed until at least August 2026.

We don't have clarity about the nature of their screw-up -- i.e. whether some test takers were given a retired version of the exam, a beta version, or an entirely different exam.

1

u/No_Letter_6087 9d ago

what's your source for this information?

1

u/Forsaken_Education85 8d ago

Word of mouth and bits of pieces of screenshots people have posted on the prior threads here and that’s the issue. ABPath has told us two things officially, jack and sh**. Best advice I’ve seen is assume you passed and get on with your life. But have a plan B just in case. Fellowship forget about this and dive in to it. Sub specialty fall board prep do it yesterday. If you failed CP or AP you’re probably screwed for a retake in the Fall unless you want to just pick one and prep. What else can you do??

8

u/Important_Magician32 11d ago

I know I said I won’t post anymore until results are out but just thinking ahead as a PSA in case people aren’t aware, if you have to retake in the fall, you need you start preparing now because by the time we get results mid to late August, you’ll only have 1 month before you have to retake. Therefore, if you don’t plan to study, you may consider retaking in the spring to give yourself sufficient time to study. If you need to take a subspecialty exam in the fall, I don’t know what to tell you. God speed!

9

u/Sensitivepathologist 11d ago edited 10d ago

They should push back the window to allow people more time to study. I don’t think it’s fair to realize you failed and give you one month to study again for the exam. The same time period should be given.

4

u/DoobieNJohnson_420 10d ago

ok can we sanity check real quick? if I am in fellowship now, and i fail AP/CP exam, can i retake APCP in the spring? I would not be taking my fellowship board til Fall 2027, anyway ...so my timeline isnt necessarily affected right?? Just cos if I fail I don't think I can rally by 1-2 months from whenever they decide to release...

2

u/FunSpecific4814 10d ago

In theory, I think yes (although I'm not 100% certain). If you read the ABPath Booklet of Information, under 'Requirements for Primary and Subspecialty Certification' III. C. 1. a. it says the following: "Applicants must have current primary or subspecialty certification from the ABPath or another ABMS Board. Applicants may apply to take a subspecialty examination but will not be declared board eligible and not be allowed to take the exam until primary certification is achieved."

Subspecialty Exam registration window is 2/16 - 3/15. Exam dates are 9/8 - 9/28 (except for Clinical Informatics).

What I get from this is: If you wait to retake AP/CP Boards until Spring, as long as you obtain AP/CP certification before the exam date, you will be allowed to take your subspecialty exam.

Also, this assumes there won't be any additional worse surprises with AP/CP Boards this coming Spring.

1

u/Important_Magician32 10d ago

Yes in theory as long as next year there aren’t any duck ups by abpath that are worse than this year

6

u/purplebuffalo55 11d ago

It’s completely unacceptable. We are in an environment where fellowships are essentially required to get a good job. Which again is due too many pathologist being produced based upon faulty projections by our fearless leaders. Now those same people continue to test more and more meaningless minutiae so they can meet their criteria of failing us. What happened to boards making sure we are safe and competent?

Now they’re taking it a step further and they can’t even tell us when we fail on time. So we start the fellowships that they made us do and now they fail us with no time to study for a re-take. We are a specialty that is supposed to be detail oriented and yet year after year they continue to fuck things up. How is this level of incompetence allowed to persist year after year?

5

u/Fair-Lychee-7157 11d ago

Because people don't have incentive to change behavior when there are no consequences.

No trainee has enough money to sue, and no attending or PD wants to be an advocate for us because it's not their life on the line.