The purpose of this report is to present data on first-time taker performance on the Neurology and Child Neurology Certification Examinations administered by the ABPN and to examine the relationship between program size and pass rate.

The ACGME program requirements for both specialties include:  a first-time taker pass rate higher than the bottom fifth percentile of programs in that specialty or an 80 percent pass rate.

Numbers of first-time takers and passes by program were obtained from the ABPN data base for 2017-2020.

For neurology programs (n = 145):  mean number of first-time takers = 20.6 (S.D. = 10.6); mean number of passes = 18.2 (S.D. = 10.4); mean first-time taker pass rate = .86 (S.D. = .13).  113 programs (77.9%) had a pass rate of 80% or greater. Six programs had pass rates of <60%, putting them in the bottom 4.1 percentile.

For child neurology programs (n = 73):  mean number of first-time takers = 6.7 (S.D. = 4.1); mean number of passes = 5.7 (S.D. = 3.9); mean first-time taker pass rate = .84 (S.D. = .17).  50 programs (68.5%) had a pass rate of 80% or greater.  Six programs had pass rates of <60%, putting them in the bottom 8.2 percentile.

The correlation with number of total attempts and pass rate was significant for neurology (r = .293; p = .01; n = 145) but not for child neurology (r = .136; NS; n = 73).

The first-time taker pass rates on the certification examinations were high.  Program size accounted for a small amount of variation in the neurology pass rate (r² = .086).  About six programs in each specialty did not meet the first ACGME criterion.  The second criterion was achieved by a majority of the programs.