ABIM Blog (12/31/24)

The American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) has made some changes to the Longitudinal Knowledge Assessment (LKA). Starting in 2025, the time limit for answering LKA questions will increase from 4 minutes per question to 5 minutes. The 25% increase in time is based on feedback from physicians. In the 2023 year-end survey, two-thirds of the respondents said they were satisfied with the 4-minute limit, while 11% were neutral and 22% were dissatisfied. Most of the questions in the LKA took less than 4 minutes to answer, according to data, with the average per question coming in at just under 2 minutes. A survey sent to 5,400 physicians in August-September 2024 found that most common concern, cited by 42% of respondents, was that having only 4 minutes "limits the amount I can learn while answering questions." Based on a list of possible updates to the LKA, the respondents most often selected adding an additional minute per question. ABIM says it decided to increase the time allowed per question "to provide a more satisfying and less stressful experience for physicians while continuing to maintain the validity and security of the assessment." Another change to the LKA is that physicians will now receive immediate feedback for all questions, and questions found to be unacceptable during the key validation process will be removed from both the respondent's score and their LKA question history. Feedback about the LKA continues to be positive overall, ABIM reports, with 75% of physicians saying they would recommend it to a colleague. The convenience of the exam and the immediate feedback with references and rationales after answering questions have also been praised. ABIM notes that since the LKA launched in 2022, physicians have opted for it four to one over the long-form, 10-year Maintenance of Certification exam.

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