10 exam-style questions with answers and explanations, straight from our 1,030-question bank. Tap an answer to check yourself. When you're ready, take the scored version in the free practice test.
The F-ABMDI exam has 240 questions and runs 5 hours 30 minutes.
These 10 free F-ABMDI questions are organized by exam domain, so you can see how each part of the Board Certification (Advanced) - Fellow of the American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators blueprint is tested. Reveal the answer and explanation under each question.
Two scalp wounds overlie a single projectile track through the skull. The right bony defect has internal beveling, and the left has external beveling. The left scalp wound is smaller and has an abrasion collar; that side of the head was pressed against a firm headrest. Taken together, the findings support which interpretation?
Correct answer: B - Right-to-left passage; the left scalp wound is a shored exit.
At a reported death scene, an investigator trained and authorized in basic life support finds a pulse and very slow breathing. EMS is en route. After naloxone and rescue breathing, spontaneous breaths remain shallow and the person does not awaken. A companion reports fentanyl mixed with xylazine. What is the immediate priority?
Correct answer: C - Continue assisted ventilation and reassess respiratory effort.
Video of an explosion shows a roof panel torn free and driven into a stationary person. Its initial impact produces the fatal blunt chest injury. The body then travels several metres with the panel, without another injury-producing impact. A draft report classifies the chest injury as tertiary because the body was displaced. Which classification should replace that entry?
Correct answer: D - Secondary, because the fatal impact came from blast-driven debris.
Security video shows a dog biting a man's calf, followed by profuse bleeding and collapse. The recording ends, and the body is recovered two days later after continued animal access. The pathologist attributes fatal hemorrhage to the calf injury. Tissue surrounding animal-associated facial defects is decomposed and has little visible hemorrhage. The investigator's report should distinguish the two findings by stating that:
Correct answer: A - The calf trauma was fatal; the timing of the facial damage remains unresolved.
The wound-care record of a nursing-home resident, written two days before death, describes a sacral pressure injury with visible adipose and undermining. No fascia, muscle, tendon, ligament, cartilage, or bone was exposed or directly palpable. No slough or eschar obscured its depth. Select the NPIAP classification supported by that assessment.
Correct answer: A - Stage 3 pressure injury
During an observed handoff, a trainee overlooks mismatched case numbers on a specimen tube and its submission form. Original records establish that the tube is correctly labeled and the form is wrong. A traceable correction resolves the submission problem. The trainee can recite the procedure and has demonstrated competence in other assigned duties. To reassess readiness for independent handoffs, what should the mentor require?
Correct answer: D - An observed handoff that includes the omitted identifier check.
A hospital declines to send records requested by a medical examiner for an active death investigation because the decedent's daughter refuses authorization. The privacy officer cites HIPAA as the barrier. Which response correctly describes what HIPAA permits?
Correct answer: B - The records may be disclosed for the examiner's authorized death-investigation duties.
A housemate places the decedent alive at 22:00 because she heard his familiar voice say 'Good night' through a closed bedroom door. A correctly timed security recording corroborates the words, but she did not see him. A speaker in the room can play recordings of his voice. Before accepting 22:00 as the last-known-alive time, the interviewer should ask:
Correct answer: B - What interaction, if any, did you have with him then?
A person admitted after collapsing at home never regains consciousness and dies six hours later. Admission blood was drawn before therapeutic fentanyl was first administered. That sample was negative on a routine morphine-targeted opiate immunoassay, and a suitable aliquot remains. Fentanyl is confirmed in postmortem femoral blood. Which additional test best addresses whether fentanyl was already present before the therapeutic dose?
Correct answer: C - Test the retained pretreatment blood specifically for fentanyl.
Remains may belong to either of two missing maternal half sisters whose mitochondrial DNA sequences cannot distinguish them. Dental comparison with one sister's authenticated records shows several distinctive concordances. A tooth absent from the remains was extracted after her last radiograph, and the socket healing is consistent with that treatment history. The jurisdiction accepts identification by one definitive primary method. What should the identification team recommend?
Correct answer: A - Accept the dental comparison as sufficient for identification.
The full bank has 1,020 more F-ABMDI questions with explanations.
Continue in the free practice test →
View plans