Requirement 4: Year 10 Non-Proctored Recertification Examination

The ABPTS Maintenance of Specialist Certification (MOSC) is a model for certification that focuses on continuing competence of the physical therapist specialist.

This page covers MOSC Requirement 4: Year 10 Non-Proctored Recertification Examination.

Recertification Exam

MOSC Recertification Exam Overview Presentation

During year 10 of the certification cycle, you must to take a recertification examination, comprising 100 multiple choice items. The exam is specialty-specific, assesses your cognitive expertise in the specialty area, and reflects contemporary specialist practice.

The goal of the exam, and maintenance program generally, is to facilitate continued competence, and designed to educate and enrich the clinician’s expertise in the specialty practice area.

Each specialty recertification exam blueprint will be consistent to include the following 3 general categories:

Knowledge Areas
Professional Roles, Responsibilities and Values
Patient/Client Management

Prerequisite

You must successfully complete Requirements 1-3 before sitting for the recertification exam. If you fail to receive a passing score after the first attempt, you are permitted to sit for the exam one additional time. You will maintain your certification during this one-year grace period.

What You Need To Know About the Examination

The examination is a non-proctored examination.
Specialists are permitted to use external resources and reference materials. Click on your specialty below for the MOSC examination content outline and list of suggested references from each ABPTS specialty council:

The examination is comprised of 100 multiple choice items. Specialists are provided questions in four blocks with 25 questions per session block. There will be no video items included.
Specialists will be given up to 12 minutes to complete each item on the exam.
Specialists are given up to eight months to complete the exam, and may move through the exam at their own pace. However, once a question has been answered a specialist may not return to that question.
Specialists will be granted the opportunity to request that provisions be made to account for "life-events” that might impede an examinee's ability to complete any portion of the exam cycle in the 10th or 11th years.