After failing my first attempt in February, I just got my results back and I finally passed the ABMDI certification exam. Honestly wasn't sure I was going to make it — medicolegal death investigation is such a niche field and finding quality study materials felt impossible at first. I work full-time as a deputy coroner so carving out study time was brutal.
What turned things around for me was getting serious about using an ABMDI practice test to figure out where my weak spots were. I was strong on death scene documentation and pretty solid on decomposition stages, but my knowledge of medicolegal jurisdiction and the coroner vs. medical examiner system differences was embarrassingly thin. Once I identified that, I could focus my energy instead of just re-reading the same chapters over and over.
Anyone else here studying for the ABMDI right now? Happy to share my full study guide breakdown and the rough timeline I followed — took me about 11 weeks of serious prep the second time around. Feel free to ask anything.