The Surgical Critical Care Boards
How to Prepare for the Surgical Critical Care Boards
Table of Contents
Format
The American Board of Surgery (ABS) awards board certification in Surgical Critical Care (SCC) after completing a SCC fellowship and successfully passing the SCC Certifying Exam, also known as the boards.
Time Frame
- Application Opens: In the Spring
- Application Deadline: Around June-July
- Testing Date: Once Per Year Around September
Exam Format
- Approximately 200 Multiple-Choice Questions
- Given Over 5-Hours
- Administered in Three 90-Minute Session with Optional 10-Minute Breaks Between
- Cannot Revisit Questions from Previous Sessions
- Testing is Done in Certified Testing Centers
- Results are Posted 4-8 Weeks After the Exam
From the Time of Application Approval, You Have Five Chances within Five Years to Pass the Certifying Exam
General Thoughts
You have been practicing the format of standardized exams in multiple-choice format your entire life. You have taken in-training exams every year and most of you have successfully passed your primary surgical board exams. At this point, you know how to study. One factor that makes preparing for the Surgical Critical Care Boards more difficult is the lack of dedicated formal review material available. We will, however, review what is available and guide you through best-practices in preparing you to pass your board exam.
Timing
- Take the Exam as Soon as You Can After Graduation While the Information from Fellowship is the Freshest in Your Mind
- Do Not Push It Off – Not All Subjects May Be Relevant to Your Individual Practice and the Longer You Delay, the More Difficult it Will Be
- Integrate Studying into Year-Round Practice
- Start a Dedicated Study Period 2-3 Months in Advance of At Least a Few Hours of Focused Review Every Day
- Consider Taking a Week Vacation Immediately Prior to the Exam for the Most Intensive Review
General Studying vs Board Review
Throughout fellowship you will use textbooks, read through review articles, and keep yourself updated on the most recently published literature. This dedication will help separate you as one of the most knowledgeable and skilled surgical critical care physicians in practice. However, not all of that work will be directly relevant to the board examination. By the nature of being a multiple-choice style exam, there are limitations to the content and types of questions that can be asked. When specifically preparing for your board examinations, it is best to use board-dedicated review material. Some of the latest innovations and hot topics may appear but are typically minimal. Content is generally focused on the commonly accepted understanding and the well-established management of pathology.
The O.R. Strategy
Year-Round:
- Largely Concentrate on Your Clinical Duties and Learn from Pathology as You See it in Practice
- Read Through The SCC Board Review Book at Least Once-Twice
- Complete the Weekly Decker Medicine Curriculum (If Offered by Your Program)
- Complete the MCCKAP and Surgical Supplement
- *Only If Offered by Your Program – We Did Not Find the MCCKAP Exams to Be Helpful Enough to Recommend Purchasing Yourself
Dedicated Study Period (1-2 Months):
- Read Through The SCC Board Review Book and Use it to Supplement as You Attempt Practice Questions
- Complete a Minimum of 1,000 Practice Questions (We Recommend the Moore, et al Book)
- Options if You Have Extra Time and are Looking for Additional Questions:
- Repeat the Moore, et al Book a Second Time
- Do Additional Questions from the Decker Medicine Question Bank
- Try the Sonny, et al Book
The Trauma ICU (TraumaICU.org)
- A Spin-Off Program of The Operative Review of Surgery Dedicated Specifically to Trauma & Surgical Critical Care
- Hundreds of Bullet-Point Articles on Relevant Topics to Allow Rapid Review
- Reviews are More In-Depth if Further Reading is Desired
- All Content is Openly Available at No Cost
- Despite Our Obvious Bias, We Believe This Program Offers the Most High-Yield, Efficient, and Effective Review Articles to Help Prepare You for Boards
The Surgical Critical Care Board Review Book
Second edition (2026) now available on Amazon!
- THE Surgical Critical Care Board Review Book
- The Only SCC Review Book Covering Topics in Bullet Point Format to Allow Rapid and Effective Studying
- The Most Efficient and Up-To-Date SCC Board Review Resource Available
Recipient of both the 2023 ACGME and 2024 SCCPDS awards for innovation in education, the author knows how to create high-yield content and is passionate about teaching.
The second edition is updated with new images, diagrams, and more content. It was edited by former fellows preparing for the exam themselves to ensure that the content is the most accurate and up-to-date.
Practice Question Banks
One factor that makes preparing for the Surgical Critical Care Boards more difficult is the lack of dedicated formal review material available.
Practice Tests
Multidisciplinary Critical Care Knowledge Assessment Program (MCCKAP)
- A 200 Multiple Choice Question In-Training Examination Offered in Early April by the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM)
- Many Programs Give it as the Required In-Training Exam (Similar to ABSITE)
- Aimed at Medical ICU Topics with a Significant Percentage of the Content Being Outside the Scope of Surgical Critical Care
MCCKAP: Surgical Supplement
- A 100 Multiple Choice Question Exam Offered by SCCM
- Similar to MCCKAP but Directed More Toward Surgical Critical Care Topics
- The Exam Itself is Newer and Less Established
Review Books
Moore F, Rhee PM, Rodriguez CJ. Surgical Critical Care and Emergency Surgery: Clinical Questions and Answers, 3rd Edition. Wiley-Blackwell, 2024.
- A Textbook Containing Almost 1,000 Practice Questions
- The Best Resource for Practice Questions Available
- Questions are Well Written and Perhaps the Most Relevant to Surgical Critical Care
- Broken Down into Two Sections: Surgical Critical Care and Emergency Surgery – With a Few Topics in the Second Half Being Less Relevant to the Exam Itself
Sonny A, Bittner EA, Horvath RJ, Berg SM. Critical Care Medicine Review. Wolters Kluwer, 2019.
- A Textbook Containing 1,000 Practice Questions
- Dedicated Primarily to Medical ICU Topics with a Significant Percentage of Content Being Outside the Scope of Surgical Critical Care
- Does Have Some Good Material if Looking for Additional Practice but Should Not Be the Primary Resource Used
Electronic Review Resources
Decker Medicine
- An Online Learning Platform Comprised of Weekly Review Subjects and an Accompanying Question Bank
- Similar to SCORE’s This Week in Surgery (TWIS) That Most General Surgery Residents are Familiar With
- The Most Common Educational Platform Offered by Many, if Not the Majority of, SCC Programs
- Generally Considered the Best Electronic Resource for Practice Questions
Osler
- A 2-Day Virtual Seminar Consisting of Didactic Lectures and Some Dedicated Question and Answer Sessions
- Can Virtually Interact with Faculty During the Course and Then Later Rewatch the Recordings
StatPearls
- Offers a Surgical Critical Care Question Bank with Over 1,000 Questions
- Questions are Based on Over 800 Review Articles that are Deemed “Related” to the Surgical Critical Care Certifying Exam
- Content is Written for the Article Topic by Authors with Various Levels of Training – Not Specifically Written for Surgical Critical Care
The Pass Machine
- An Online Bank with Over 1,000 Practice Questions
- Extra 29+ Hours of Prerecorded Lectures Available for Additional Cost
- Dedicated Primarily to Medical ICU Topics with a Significant Percentage of the Content Being Outside the Scope of Surgical Critical Care
Pass Rates
We will review the format, available resources, and provide guidance in how to best prepare so that you can enter with confidence and succeed.