Table Of ContentBOARD CERTIFICATION IN CLINICAL NEUROPSYCHOLOGY
OXFORD WORKSHOP SERIES:
AMERICAN ACADEMY OF CLINICAL
NEUROPSYCHOLOGY
Series Editors
Greg J. Lamberty, Editor-in-Chief
Ida Sue Baron
Richard Kaplan
Sandra Koffl er
Jerry Sweet
Volumes in the Series
Ethical Decision Making in Clinical Neuropsychology
Shane S. Bush
Mild Traumatic Brain Injury and Postconcussion Syndrome:
The New Evidence Base for Diagnosis and Treatment
Michael A. McCrea
Understanding Somatization in the Practice of Clinical Neuropsychology
Greg J. Lamberty
Board Certifi cation in Clinical Neuropsychology:
A Guide to Becoming ABPP/ABCN Certifi ed Without Sacrifi cing Your Sanity
Kira Armstrong, Dean W. Beebe, Robin C. Hilsabeck, and Michael W. Kirkwood
BOARD CERTIFICATION
IN CLINICAL NEUROPSYCHOLOGY
A Guide to Becoming ABPP/ABCN Certifi ed
Without Sacrifi cing Your Sanity
Kira Armstrong, PhD, ABPP/CN
Dean W. Beebe, PhD, ABPP/CN
Robin C. Hilsabeck, PhD, ABPP/CN
Michael W. Kirkwood, PhD, ABPP/CN
■■■
OXFORD WORKSHOP SERIES
1
2008
3
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Board certifi cation in clinical neuropsychology : how to become board
certifi ed without sacrifi cing your sanity / Kira Armstrong . . . [et al.].
p. cm. — (Oxford workshop series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-19-534134-8
1. Clinical neuropsychology—Certifi cation—Study guides. I.
Armstrong, Kira.
RC386.6.N48S74 2008
616.80076—dc22 2008005895
Note: The book presents the views and opinions of the individual authors and does not necessarily
represent the policies and opinions of the American Board of Clinical Neuropsychology.
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
We dedicate this book to our mentors, students, and colleagues
in BRAIN, whose experiences and wisdom form the backbone
of this book. We also thank our families and friends who have
supported us in our personal and professional journeys.
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Prologue
The American Psychological Association (APA) has 148,000 members,
but only 3,000 psychologists are active and board certifi ed through the
American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP). This amounts to roughly
2% of active psychologists having attained specialty board certifi cation. In
contrast, 694,438 physicians in the United States hold board certifi cation
through one of the 24-member boards of the American Board of Medical
Specialties (ABMS).
There are 13 specialty boards that are members of ABPP, one of them being
the American Board of Clinical Neuropsychology (ABCN). As of early 2008,
there were 625 active board-certifi ed specialists in clinical neuropsychology
as compared to the membership of the Division of Clinical Neuropsychology
(Division 40) of APA of roughly 4,000 members. This amounts to roughly
16% of those practicing clinical neuropsychology, a somewhat better pro-
portion than the estimated percentage of practicing psychologists overall.
Nevertheless, this is far below the desired goal of ABCN to have every eligi-
ble practicing clinical neuropsychologist board certifi ed.
In discussing the benefi ts or lack thereof for specialty board certifi cation
in clinical neuropsychology with colleagues and students, it has continu-
ally been my experience that there is a signifi cant lack of understanding of
the rationale, policies, and procedures requisite to obtaining specialty board
certifi cation. For one thing, these policies and procedures have changed sig-
nifi cantly over time since the founding of ABPP in 1947 and ABCN in 1981.
Change is to be expected as an examination process such as that for specialty
certifi cation is a living undertaking, continually being adapted to the needs
of patients and those of the profession. Nevertheless, when outmoded notions
about what board certifi cation means and how it is conducted persist, stu-
dents and independent professionals often feel estranged from a process that
no longer functions in the manner for which misconceptions may be held.
For example, ABPP used to have a requirement that practicing psychologists
had to be fi ve years beyond the attainment of their doctorate to apply for
board certifi cation. Although this requirement was dropped around 1985, it
is amazing how many individuals still hold that this requirement remains.
vii
The best way to address the possibility of persistent incorrect notions or
misconceptions is to make the contemporary examination process for board
certifi cation as clear, transparent, and user friendly as possible. In the Board
Certifi cation in Clinical Neuropsychology, Drs. Armstrong, Beebe, Hilsabeck,
and Kirkwood have done exactly that. The authors are all recently board cer-
tifi ed in clinical neuropsychology and belonged to a group called “Be ready
for ABPP in Neuropsychology (BRAIN)” as candidates. BRAIN became, and
remains, a national resource and study group for candidates for board certi-
fi cation in clinical neuropsychology. Based on their experiences, with ques-
tions, uncertainties, misconceptions, rumors, and ambiguities, the authors
have put together this book to move candidates beyond common pitfalls and
unnecessary distractions in preparing for board examination.
Starting with something as simple as decoding commonly used acro-
nyms, the authors lay out the benefi ts of becoming board certifi ed, the most
important of which is quality assurance of services to the public, and attempt
to address popular myths and misconceptions about the process. It guides
the reader through all necessary steps, beginning with how to complete the
application, how to prepare one’s credentials for review, how to get ready for
the written examination (including how to secure readily available resources
for review), how to prepare the practice sample and how to get ready for
the oral exam. As already mentioned, the authors have been through this
process themselves and they share their group experience and fi rst-hand
knowledge about what steps are the most benefi cial and what activities pro-
vide distraction or lead to misstep along the way.
I commend this fi ne volume to the reader’s attention and trust it will pro-
vide the support and assistance to make candidacy for board certifi cation in
clinical neuropsychology as rewarding an experience as possible and to ren-
der the process user friendly and fl uid. We all continue to aspire to the goal
of having most, if not all, qualifi ed practitioners of clinical neuropsychology
achieve ABPP/ABCN board certifi cation.
Linas A. Bieliauskas
Executive Director
American Board of Clinical Neuropsychology
Ann Arbor, Michigan
viii Prologue
Preface
This book refl ects as much a process as it does a product. In fact, many of the
ideas presented can be traced to 2002, when about a dozen friends decided
to pursue board certifi cation in clinical neuropsychology through the
American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP). They had heard rumors,
some of which persist to this day, about how diffi cult and time consuming
the route to board certifi cation was. So, they decided to approach the task
the same way they made it through graduate school—by joining forces and
dividing the work into smaller, more manageable parts. In the process, they
learned that becoming board certifi ed, though no picnic, was not nearly as
painful as they had been led to believe. They began spreading the word and
inviting friends and colleagues to freely use and add to the resources that
the group had developed. Over time, this peer support group grew impres-
sively larger, and eventually developed its own website and email listserve.
You may now know this group as “BRAIN” (which stands for Be Ready for
ABPP in Neuropsychology).
BRAIN’s increasing membership made it clear that well-trained, board-
eligible neuropsychologists still sought resources to help them through the
certifi cation process. BRAIN eventually became a standing committee of the
American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology (AACN), so that the efforts
of both groups could be combined. At around the same time that BRAIN
was growing and gaining more recognition, AACN and Oxford University
Press were developing the AACN Workshop Series. Consequently, we (the
authors of this book) were asked to draw upon our experiences as part of the
current leadership of BRAIN to write this “how to” book. The hope was that
by doing so we would create a book that could be used by readers such as
you (or your trainees) as a guide to effectively and effi ciently achieve board
certifi cation in clinical neuropsychology through ABPP (without, of course,
sacrifi cing your sanity!).
We cannot take full credit for the material in this book. In the truest
sense, the content stems from a collective wisdom that has developed every
time a peer, colleague, or trainee asked a question or contributed an idea
toward making the preparation process easier or more effi cient. The many
ix
