An Analysis of the Most Commonly Tested Topics and Their Taxonomy From Recent Self-Assessment Examinations

The purpose of this study is to determine the most commonly tested topics and the question taxonomy of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Self-Assessment Examinations (SAE) from 2009 through 2014.

All SAEs were analyzed from 2009 through 2014. The SAEs were separated by subject and the questions of each SAE were analyzed for topic, taxonomic classification, and question type.

A total of 2107 questions were reviewed from 10 different subjects. In all, 6 of the 9 subjects had roughly 1/3 of their questions composed of the 3 most commonly tested topics. Each subject had at least 1 trauma-related question within its top 5 most commonly tested topics. Almost half (47%) of all questions were of taxonomy 1 classification and 29% were taxonomy 3. The Basic Science SAEs had the greatest percentage of taxonomy 1 questions of any subject (83%) whereas Trauma contained the highest percentage of taxonomy 3 questions (47%).

Certain topics within each subject are consistently tested more often than other topics. In general, the 3 most commonly tested topics comprise about one-third of total questions and orthopedic surgeons should be very familiar with these topics in order to best prepare for standardized examinations.