Initial Certification for Medical Physics

Content Guides

Last verified on March 18, 2024
The Part 3 Oral Exam is designed to test your knowledge and fitness to practice applied medical physics in the specified specialty(ies). You will be examined by five physics examiners, each of whom will ask one question from each of the five physics categories of the exam.  

Content Guides

The content of all ABR exams is determined by a panel of experts who select the items based on content guides that the ABR publishes. The content guides are assembled using guidance from medical physics organizations. The content guides are general documents, and individual exam items may not appear to be exactly congruent with the content listed in the guide. In addition, since there is only a limited number of items on any exam, selected items will only be a sample from the larger domain of the content guide.
To understand how exam questions are written and learn more about different types of exam questions, please see the ABR Item Writers’ Guide. For a look at the extensive QA process that each question goes through, please see the Illustrated Life Cycle of an ABR Exam Item.  

Medical Physics Oral Exam Categories

The categories below are used for the Part 3 Oral Exam in medical physics. The category descriptions are general descriptions of the content of each category. In any particular exam, the material from the categories is sampled. Additional material related to the categories may be included as the field evolves. These categories are used in all oral exams, for both first-time candidates and candidates who have previously taken the oral exam.
Diagnostic Medical Physics (DMP)
Nuclear Medical Physics (NMP)
Therapeutic Medical Physics (TMP)  

Oral Exam Reenactment Videos

Oral exam reenactments have been created to provide guidance to candidates as to how cases are presented and scored. You can view the videos at the following links:
Diagnostic Medical Physics (DMP)
Nuclear Medical Physics (NMP)
Therapeutic Medical Physics (TMP)  

Conditioned Exams

Candidates who conditioned the oral exams will continue to be examined in the category in which they were conditioned. You can find this information on your myABR cognitive expertise page. If you have questions, please email information@theabr.org or call 520-790-2900.  

SI Units

In recent years, the ABR has transitioned to the use of SI units for the computer-based and oral exams. However, a small number of questions continue to use non-SI units, where those units are customarily used in clinics.