AOBOS Certification Exams
** IMPORTANT NOTICE **
The 2024 Winter Cycle Clinical Examination application has closed early due to reaching maximum testing capacity. The 2024 Summer Cycle Clinical application will open on Nov. 1, 2023, at midnight central time.
The Board is aware of the inconvenience this presents for candidates attempting to examine. The clinical exam requires two board-certified and trained examiners to be assigned to each candidate which limits the total number of candidates that can be tested each cycle. The pandemic caused an abrupt halt to in-person examinations at the candidate site. A new virtual process was created and implemented; this took time and created testing delays. Candidates who planned to test during that time are now combined with candidates who are on the current timeline. This is causing exam cohorts to fill quickly and applications to close early.
- All candidates who were or became board eligible in 2020 have been granted an additional year of eligibility due to the pandemic. Instead of six years of eligibility, those candidates now have seven years. For example, if you completed your residency on June 30, 2019, you are board eligible until Dec. 31, 2026.
- While clinical exam applications are closing early, the Board has modified the Clinical Surgical Log requirement to allow your most recent cases to be up to nine months before submitting your application rather than the standard six months. This will allow those candidates who do not get into a given cohort the ability to use the same surgical log they had prepared for the next application.
The following list includes scheduled AOBOS Written, Clinical and OCC examinations. Select an item to view additional information and log in to apply, submit documentation or make a payment. If no exams are listed, please check back soon or contact AOBOS to find out when future exams will be offered.