Home: Boards of Certification: Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery: Examination Description

EXAMINATION DESCRIPTION

An outline of the subject areas covered on the certification examination is included to help candidates prepare for the exam. Candidates should review this outline carefully and focus study on the areas listed. Candidates should be aware that the outline reflects the responses to practice-analysis questionnaires and enables codification of the examination for subsequent analysis of the results. Each question is linked to a specific area of the outline. No question is meant to be obscure or tricky. The percentage of questions in an area conveys the relative importance of each area of the examination. The information in the outline is meant to serve as a study aid only and not as a guarantee of success in taking the certification examination.

Plastic/Reconstructive Surgery Classification System

Plastic/Reconstructive Surgery Examination Study References

You may wish to use the study materials to prepare for the written certification or recertification examinations. The Examinations Committee uses these references to create questions for the examinations.

Download Study References

Description of the Oral Examination in Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery

The Oral Certification Examination in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery is an opportunity for the Board to examine your approach to addressing a variety of cases, similar to what a physician in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery would be engaged in a real-world setting. Although each of the cases which you will be presented is based on a true situation, the actual examination is a series of simulated situations. As such, you will need to speak clearly, probe for information, and be cognizant of time constraints that are placed on your handling each case. Similarly, you may ask the examiner to repeat information that you did not hear clearly. Be certain that you understand what is being asked of you before responding.

The examination consists of five case studies. For each case study a threshold score has been established. The threshold score represents the minimum passing score that is expected of a practicing physician in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. The threshold score for each case has been established prior to its administration. Board Diplomates in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, with the guidance of a psychometrician, have estimated the expected minimal performance for each area within each case. These minimal performance expectations are combined to obtain the minimum expected score on a case

For each case, an examinee is provided a brief description of the case (hypothetical patient). For each case, an examinee is scored in several areas. These following areas are typically included with the approximate proportion of the total scores indicated as a percent:

• History of the patient (10% - 15%)—The examinee is expected to probe for the history of the patient (e.g., onset/course/location/associated symptoms; allergies; medications, PMH;; social/family history; surgical history; psychological history)



• Physical examination (5%)—The examinee is expected to request information about specific aspects of the patient’s physical condition (e.g., neck, chest, heart, back, neurological, skin, abdomen, and other areas applicable to the case)



• Requested laboratory tests (5%)—The examinee will order appropriate laboratory tests; the examinee will be provided the laboratory results.



• Management of the patient (55% - 65%)—The examinee will indicate what is to be done and provide a detailed description of the procedure (e.g., position of incisions, implants, anesthesia) and describe the post-operative management.



• Disposition/Diagnosis/Pathophysiology (15% - 25%)—The examinee may be presented with follow-up conditions of the patient, including complications—to which the examinee will be asked to recommend appropriate actions; or the examinee may be asked to describe possible complications/outcomes and appropriate corrective actions.

A candidate’s score on any one case is completely independent of his or her score on any other case. In order to pass the examination, a candidate must pass at least three of the cases. Additionally, in order to pass the examination, an examinee must minimally make a total score (sum of the scores from all five cases) that equals or exceeds the sum of the threshold scores for the five studies. Therefore, it is possible that an examinee may score less than the threshold score for one or two cases, but still pass the examination, provided he or she scores well on the remainder of the cases to offset the lower scores. Each case contains approximately the same number of possible points. Therefore, the cases are approximately equally weighted in the overall calculation of examinee’s total score.

The five cases presented will address a variety of situations. No two cases will address exactly the same topic. Topics presented to the examinee may include:

• General Plastic and Reconstructive Surgical Principles
• Head and Neck Surgery
• Skin and Adnexa, including Burns
• Upper Extremities
• Microsurgery
• Breast Surgery
• Trunk and Lower Extremities
• Genitalia Surgery
• Cosmetic Surgery

Each of the five cases is limited to approximately 20 minutes. If you have not completed the diagnosis for a case within twenty minutes, the examiner will indicate that you need to move on to the next case. Examinees who do not finish a case within the 20 minutes will be credited with only the points earned on the portions of the case that have been appropriately addressed, and will not be eligible for any points associated with areas not addressed by the examinee. Examiners will not indicate whether you have passed a case or not. No comments made by the examiner should be interpreted by the examinee as implying that he or she has either passed or failed a case.

Examinees should plan to arrive one-half hour before the scheduled beginning of the examination and expect to be in the examination room for two hours. For this examination you will be given pencils and paper to use during the course of the examination. Also, you will not be permitted to bring into the examination room books, electronic devices, backpacks, or parcels. The only thing you will absolutely need to bring is a government-issued photo ID card such as a Driver’s License or Passport for examination check-in.

Drinking water will be available in the room. A restroom break is permissible, but only between cases.

AAPS will provide reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities, provided the disabilities are documented and the accommodations requested are applicable to the disabilities. Requests for special accommodations should be made to AAPS at least two months in advance of the examination. AAPS will forward specific instructions for the documentation that will be needed from the examinee or the evaluator of the examinee’s disability. Any requests for special accommodations less than one month before the examination will not be honored since there will not be sufficient time to review the documentation and arrange for the special accommodations.

All AAPS examinations are administered only in English. Responses from examinees to examination questions must be in English for the candidate to be eligible to receive credit towards his or her examination score.

The results of the examinee’s performance on the Oral Examination are mailed within 75 days of the examination. A careful review of the scoring and analyses of the results are conducted after the examination and before issuing reports, to verify the accuracy and validity of the results.

Examinees who fail to pass an Oral Examination have the opportunity to take an examination consisting of five different cases at the next scheduled administration. At the current time, an examinee is permitted no more than three attempts to pass the Oral Examination.

Should you have any questions, please call the AAPS Executive Offices at 770-939-8555.