Jump to start of content

ABIM's call center wait times may be longer than usual Expand/Collapse the ABIM alert.

Due to high volume, ABIM call center wait times may be longer than usual. You may also contact us via email at request@abim.org. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Breadcrumb trail:

Internal Medicine Maintenance of Certification Assessments

Internal Medicine MOC Exam Content

Blueprint for the Internal Medicine MOC Exams

ABIM periodically updates the Internal Medicine MOC exam blueprints—the exam content outline—to ensure the exam reflects what internists find most important.

  • As part of this review, invitations are sent to internists and hospitalists holding valid certification in the field.
  • A sample of practicing general internists and hospitalists are asked to rate the frequency of blueprint topics in their practice and the importance of individual tasks (e.g., diagnosis, patient care) within these topics.
  • These ratings, along with patient visit data from national surveys, inform adjustments to the distribution of medical content areas.
  • The blueprint shows which topics were rated low-frequency and reports the importance ratings for all topics and tasks in the blueprint.
  • The blueprint also describes how ABIM is using the ratings to update the MOC exam by emphasizing high-importance content and limiting low-frequency topics.

Assessment Content

In 2024 ABIM will launch an inpatient version of the Internal Medicine MOC assessment for the Longitudinal Knowledge Assessment (LKA®) and traditional, 10-year MOC exam. 

The Internal Medicine assessment features questions from across the breadth of the internal medicine discipline, including both inpatient and outpatient settings. The Internal Medicine: Inpatient assessment features questions from the internal medicine discipline geared toward hospitalists, with a focus on the inpatient setting.

Not sure which assessment is right for you? Please review the two blueprint charts.

For full blueprint details, please review the MOC assessment blueprints for Internal Medicine (pdf) and Internal Medicine: Inpatient (pdf).

Assessment Administration

Multiple editions, or “forms,” of the exam are used, and they may differ in question order and content. Some questions require the interpretation of illustrative materials such as electrocardiograms, radiographs and photomicrographs (e.g., blood films, Gram stains, urine sediments).

Assessment Development

A complete description of the process used to develop ABIM exams is available in How Exams Are Developed. Topics include:

  • Question Development Process
  • Pretesting
  • Test Assembly and Administration
  • Standard Setting, and more

Question Format

The exam consists of single best answer questions only. This type of question consists of a brief statement, case history, graph or picture followed by a question and list of possible options. You must choose the one answer that is better than the others; note that other options may be partially correct. Familiarizing yourself with the question format in advance may help you work more effectively. Take the tutorial.

Copyright and Examination Non-Disclosure Policy

All ABIM materials are protected by the federal Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 101, et seq. Access to all such materials, as further detailed below, is strictly conditioned upon agreement to abide by ABIM's rights under the Copyright Act and to maintain examination confidentiality.

ABIM assessments are confidential, in addition to being protected by federal copyright and trade secret laws. Candidates and diplomates who undertake assessments agree that they will not copy, reproduce, adapt, disclose or transmit assessments, in whole or in part, before or after taking an assessment, by any means now known or hereafter invented. They further agree that they will not reconstruct assessment content from memory, by dictation, or by any other means or otherwise discuss assessment content with others. Candidates and Diplomates further acknowledge that disclosure or any other use of ABIM assessment content constitutes professional misconduct and may expose them to criminal as well as civil liability, and may also result in ABIM's imposition of penalties against them, including but not limited to, invalidation of assessment results, exclusion from future assessments, suspension or revocation of Board Certification and other sanctions.

With respect to ABIM's Maintenance of Certification (MOC) products, including its medical knowledge modules and ABIM PIMs Practice Improvement Modules®, candidates agree that they will not copy, reproduce or make any adaptations of such materials in any manner; and will not assist someone else in the infringement or misuse of these or any other ABIM-copyrighted works.