Written Exam

Eligibility

To review the eligibility requirements for subspecialty certification in addiction medicine please review the committee policies.

Requirements

The following documents and fees must be collected and approved by the conjoint committee as part of the candidate’s application before approval to sit for the initial certification exam is given.

Exam Fees

An exam fee of $2,000 must be submitted with your completed application. No application will be considered complete until all fees have been paid.

An additional non-refundable late fee of $650 must be submitted with application based on published submission deadlines. Late fees are typically applied 45 days before the testing window. Check important dates for current schedule.

Cancellations must be submitted in writing and a cancellation processing fee will be assessed. Please review the cancellation policy.

Exam Content Outline

The Addiction Medicine Certification Exam has 200 items and has been broken into two sections. After section one, you will be given the option to take a 15-minute break. This break does not count against testing time. You do not have to take the break if you do not want to. You must return within 15 minutes. Once you have completed a section, you will not be able to return to the questions in the previous section.

The exam structure is as follows:

• Non-disclosure agreement – 2 minutes
• Tutorial – 10 minutes
• Section 1 – 100 items, 135 minutes
• Break – 15 minutes
• Section 2 – 100 items, 135 minutes
• Survey – 3 minutes
• Total exam length = 300 minutes

View a full breakdown of content domains and their subdomains.

Exam Scoring

Scoring Criteria

AOA reports candidates’ certification results using standardized scaled scores. Scaled scores are more valid and reliable compared to raw scores and make scores comparable across different forms of the exam. The AOA reports scores on a 200 to 800-point scale with a scaled score of 500 or higher required to pass.

• A scaled score of 500 represents the minimum level of knowledge and skill necessary to pass the exam as established by AOA Certifying Boards.
• The highest possible scaled score is 800.
• The lowest possible scaled score is 200.
• Overall scores are based on the total number of items answered correctly, regardless of content area.

Results by Content Area

• When possible, a breakdown of exam scores by content area is provided to help you identify your areas of strength and areas that may need more development.
• The number of items for each content area indicates the relative amount of test questions on the exam for that content area.
• Content area scores are not weighted to calculate your overall score; each content area is scored separately after the overall analysis is complete.

Exam Failure

Candidates who do not pass the initial certification examination may apply for reexamination at the next available administration for as long as the candidate’s eligibility remains active.