For The Boards
Written by an IM-trained physician, For The Boards prioritizes testable concepts for the ITE and ABIM. Designed for use throughout residency alongside your question banks.
Collect lessons from the wards, conference, and question banks in one printed guide. For The Boards is organized by presenting symptom, with room for notes you can return to at review time.
Review scenarios organized by the clues in a question stem. Labeled lines—Dx, Next, Contrast, and Trap—connect the diagnosis and next step with the distinctions that help you reason through similar presentations.
After reviewing an explanation, find the related presentation and add what you want to remember. Keep the useful distinction or next step beside the concept it belongs to, ready for your next review.
Use the margins for mnemonics, reminders, and lessons from the wards. As you work through residency, build a familiar review book that reflects what you’ve learned and what you want to revisit.
This book gets revised. Report a correction or email suggested additions to Slaton@ForTheBoards.com — if we use yours, you’re credited in the next edition and we donate $5 to Doctors Without Borders.
See how each scenario connects presenting symptoms to a diagnosis, the next step, key distinctions, and common exam traps.
Twelve specialty chapters connect presenting symptoms with diagnoses, treatments, and next steps. Three reference chapters bring together rules, quick-reference tables, and guideline sources for your review.
Chest pain triage and ACS, ECG pattern boundaries, heart failure, arrhythmias and anticoagulation, valve disease, syncope
PFT patterns, asthma and COPD, ILD and sarcoidosis, pleural disease, nodules and lung cancer, sepsis, shock, and ARDS
Hematuria and proteinuria, sodium and potassium, acid–base and RTA, glomerular disease, AKI and dialysis, stones and CKD
Dysphagia and GERD, pancreatitis and biliary emergencies, IBD and chronic diarrhea, colorectal cancer screening, liver enzyme patterns, cirrhosis and GI bleeding
Endocarditis and bacteremia, CNS infections, pneumonia, tick-borne and travel infections, TB and fungi, HIV and STIs
Diabetes, DKA, and HHS; thyroid disease; pituitary and adrenal disease; calcium and bone; hypoglycemia
Anemias and hemolysis, leukemias and lymphomas, plasma cell disorders, bleeding and reversal, thrombocytopenia and TTP, VTE and thrombophilia
Cancer prevention and inherited risk, solid tumors for the internist, oncologic emergencies, treatment complications, survivorship
Crystal and septic arthritis, RA and DMARD safety, spondyloarthropathies, lupus and Sjögren, scleroderma and myositis, vasculitis
Stroke and TIA, headache, seizures, dementia and delirium, movement and demyelinating disease, neuromuscular disorders
Psychiatry, toxicology and substance use, geriatrics, prevention and vaccines, biostatistics, ethics and palliative care
Women’s health and pregnancy, urology, eye, ENT, allergy and immunology, dermatology
400+ one-line rules, organized by specialty, for the last pass before the exam.
Drug toxicities, exam signs, screening, vaccines, antidotes, and high-yield thresholds.
130+ guidelines cited by chapter, so you can check the source.
Full-color paperback · 8.5 × 11 inches · Approximately 200 pages · Room for your notes
Start in intern year so your notes span all of residency, and keep it beside your question bank through the ABIM exam.
Page through once so you know where each presentation lives.
When you learn something on the wards or in conference, write it next to the matching presentation.
When a question-bank question catches you, put the lesson in the margin: the clue, the next step, the trap.
By then it holds the review and your own notes, in a book you already know.
Buy a copy yourself, or equip your whole program.
One printed book, ~200 pages, yours to annotate.
Shipping and tax added at checkout · printed to order
per resident
For programs buying copies for their residents.
Printed to order · arrives in 2–3 weeks
Use your question bank for practice and detailed explanations, then find the related presentation in For The Boards and add the lesson you want to revisit. The book gives you a concise place to review those connections; it contains no practice questions or images. Look through the samples to see whether the format fits how you study.
Internal medicine residents, from intern year through the ABIM exam. It’s built to sit beside a question bank, and starting early means your notes cover all of residency.
Yes. It is designed for internal medicine residents studying for the ITE and ABIM. Use it throughout the year alongside your question bank to review presentations and add notes from the questions you work through.
A book you’ve written in becomes a reference you know page by page, and it keeps your review off yet another screen. There is no digital version.
Each copy is printed when you order it. Shipping, tax, and estimated delivery dates are shown at Lulu checkout. If your exam is coming up, order early enough to leave time to make the book your own.
Not at this time. Orders ship to U.S. addresses only.
Each copy is printed to order from the current edition: 2026.08, released in August 2026. Guideline sources are cited by chapter, and confirmed corrections are listed on the errata page.
Yes. Program orders are $50 per resident for 5 or more copies, shipping included. We accept purchase orders, offer Net-30 invoicing, take ACH payments, and provide a W-9 on request.
If your program reimburses study materials, submit your order confirmation email. If you need a separate receipt, or your program needs an invoice instead, email Slaton@ForTheBoards.com.
All sales are final, so please look through the free samples first. If your copy arrives damaged or defective, contact us within 14 days of delivery and we’ll replace it.
No. For The Boards is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the American Board of Internal Medicine.