Interpretation of the American Board of Family Practice In-training Examination

The American Board of Family Practice (ABFP) In-training Examination (ITE) is the most frequently used method of evaluation among accredited family practice programs. Despite its common use, there are still misunderstandings regarding the proper interpretation of the ABFP ITE results. The ABFP ITE is a norm-referenced test that allows for comparison of a resident's performance relative to other residents in the same year of training; it does not measure absolute performance. There is a paucity of evidence supporting the validity of the ABFP ITE. The eight specialty areas and clinical set problems lack sufficient reliability to be interpreted per individual resident. The composite score of the ABFP ITE has sufficient reliability to be used as part of a formal and comprehensive evaluation system. Group comparisons using the 10 ABFP ITE measures are appropriate.