American Board of Radiology Core Resources

The American Board of Radiology (ABR) Core experience blog I posted in July 2015 makes up about 25% of my blog traffic, so I decided to put together selected online resources that I found helpful.

Update: August 28, 2026

I wrote this page in 2015 and last revised it in 2018. The resource list below is unchanged from what I wrote then, apart from links I have repointed where a resource moved. The exam itself, however, has changed substantially, and some of what I originally wrote no longer applies.

• The Core Exam is remote now, and permanently. It moved out of the Tucson and Chicago testing centers in February 2021, and the ABR has said remote delivery continues indefinitely.
• It runs three days, not two. Roughly 5.5 hours a day, offered twice a year, in late May or June and in November.
• There is no conditioning. Scoring is a single overall pass or fail. If you do not pass, you repeat the entire three-day exam.
• There is no separate physics exam. Physics is distributed throughout the Core Exam.
• RISE became RISC in 2024. Radioisotope safety is now embedded in the exam and no longer separately scored. The ABR stopped putting Authorized User eligibility on certificates after December 31, 2023; verification now goes through the NRC directly.
• The Certifying Exam is becoming a remote oral exam. Residents finishing training in June 2027 will take a new remote DR Oral Exam in early 2028: seven 25-minute videoconference sessions across abdominal, breast, cardiothoracic, MSK, neuro, nuclear, and pediatric radiology, with an optional pilot on September 24 and 25, 2027.
• The free sample questions are no longer public. They unlock inside myABR only after you register and complete the Exam Readiness Check. This is the change most people notice first.

A few of the resources below have also changed: RadPhex is gone, hudasphysics.com is no longer maintained, the 100 Nuclear Medicine Cases page still loads but has not been updated since 2018, and the Radiology Physics 300 app has been removed from the App Store. Qevlar now lives under IMAIOS, and The Core is in its 2nd edition (2021). Current ABR details are on the Core Exam page and the DR Remote Oral Exam Guide.

Everything from here down is the page as I originally wrote it.

Summary Blog American Board of Radiology Core Exam: My Perspective

Question Banks

• Question banks for ABR Core Exam: Blog summarizes the resources I'm aware of.
• ABR Practice Exam Questions: These are very representative of the exam! Highly recommend.
• General Q Banks
• Webinars: Face The Core (Live; recorded are also available)
• Qevlar General 2100 questions (anytime). Highly recommend.
• RadPrimer 7000 questions (anytime). Highly recommend.
• Nuclear Medicine:
• 100 Nuclear Medicine Cases Webinar (May). Helpful.
• Qevlar Nuclear Medicine 300 questions (anytime). Helpful
• Physics:
• ABR Medical Physics Sample Questions.
• RadPhex. Very good questions if you can get a hold of the old copies.
• Huda book and online. I did the book and it was excellent.

Literature:

• RadioGraphics Core Exam Index

Online Lectures

• Quality and Safety: Review from Stanford on YouTube
• RSNA/AAPM Physics Modules: These are good starting point.

Live In-Person Lectures (Board Reviews)

• General:
• UCSF
• Duke
• UCSD
• ARRS Case Base Review at the Annual Meeting
• Physics:
• Huda
• Core Physics Review (Live + Online)
• UC Davis Physics Review

Apps:

• Radiology Physics 300 App: iOS

Study Strategy.

Check my summary blog for details. In general:

• I love flashcards. I cut up printing paper into 1/16 (keep folding it), hole punch one corner and keep them in 1 inch rings. I write and draw all facts, images, etc and review them everyday.
• I study subjects at random, rather than by subject to avoid over / under emphasizing the last 3 months leading up to the boards
• if you're a 3rd year resident, and I had to do it again, I would go through The Core book (there is a pdf version) and make flashcards of each chapter and review the flashcards regularly. The Core has 90-95% that you need to know for the exam, but presented in an easy-to-read fashion. The last three months, I would do the 10,000 MCQ, do the Huda physics, do Face The Core session, UCSF videos and study my flashcards.
• Take breaks!
• Do something to help you focus. I started meditating and still do now. But, I presume you could also exercise, do yoga, etc.

Did you know? I don't accept money or free gifts for my blog posts. Like you, everything I reviewed in the blog, I paid for myself. This helps to ensure objective, independent review of the material presented here.