- The Credential at a Glance
- Exam Format and Scoring Numbers
- The Eight Reporting Categories and Their Weights
- Eligibility Rules to Memorize
- Fees, Attempts, and Deadlines
- Test-Day Rules That Trip People Up
- Keeping the Credential After You Pass
- Mapping the Cheat Sheet to Your Calendar
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Session 1 has 200 scored selected-response questions in four hours; Session 2 has at least 30 scored case-study items in two hours.
- Passing is a scaled score of 75 on a 1-99 scale, not 75% correct.
- Case Study carries 25% of the exam; Abdominal Section is the largest procedural category at 16%.
- Initial fee is USD 225, reapplication USD 200, annual renewal USD 65; three attempts are allowed within three years.
The Credential at a Glance
The Registered Radiologist Assistant credential, styled R.R.A., is issued by the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists (ARRT). It is an advanced-practice credential built on top of an existing Radiography credential, which means everyone sitting for the exam is already a registered radiographer. If you need a primer on the title itself, start with What Is RRA? or the shorter What Does RRA Stand For?. This cheat sheet assumes you know the role and want the numbers, rules, and priorities on one scannable page.
Exams are delivered at Pearson test centers. The content comes from the Registered Radiologist Assistant Examination Content Specifications, implemented January 1, 2023, and the whole-exam weights are published in the ARRT Annual Exam Report for 2025. Administration rules come from the 2026 Registered Radiologist Assistant Handbook. Those three documents are the authoritative sources behind every figure below.
Exam Format and Scoring Numbers
The exam is split into two sessions, and the sessions behave differently. Know both before you book your appointment.
| Feature | Session 1 | Session 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Content | Selected-response questions | Case-study questions |
| Scored items | 200 | At least 30 |
| Pilot (unscored) items | 30 | Variable allocation |
| Time allowed | Four hours | Two hours |
| Scoring | Objective | Objective |
Total testing time is six hours. The full appointment runs 410 minutes once you include the break and non-testing activities such as check-in and tutorial. The 2026 handbook table shows 30+ scored and 20+ pilot items for Session 2 and labels the overall exam as approximately 280 questions. Because the pilot allocation varies, treat any exact grand total as approximate. An older content-specification description mentions a fixed number of unscored case items, but the current handbook language is the one to plan around.
How points are distributed
Selected response contributes 75% of points and case study contributes 25%. That split matters for study planning: the case-study section is shorter in time but disproportionately valuable per question. Since January 2023, case-study responses are objectively scored. The older essay-style format is gone, so you are not writing narrative answers.
What a passing score actually means
You need a scaled score of 75 on a 1-99 scale. This is not 75% correct. Scaling adjusts for form difficulty, so two candidates can answer different numbers of items correctly and both land at 75. For a deeper walkthrough, see RRA Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass.
The Eight Reporting Categories and Their Weights
The eight weights below are the directly published whole-exam reporting categories from the ARRT Annual Exam Report. They are not eight top-level headings in the 2023 content specification, so do not be surprised if the specification document is organized differently.
| Category | Weight |
|---|---|
| Patient Management | 14% |
| Pharmacology | 7% |
| Patient Safety, Radiation Protection, and Equipment Operation | 11% |
| Abdominal Section | 16% |
| Thoracic Section | 9% |
| Musculoskeletal and Endocrine Sections | 9% |
| Neurological, Vascular, and Lymphatic Sections | 9% |
| Case Study | 25% |
Case Study is the largest separately reported weighted category. Among the procedural sections, Abdominal Section is the largest at 16%. A full breakdown of what each area covers lives in RRA Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 8 Content Areas.
The content specification view
The 2023 specification organizes the selected-response objectives differently, under three parent headings with scored-item counts:
- Patient Care: 56 scored items
- Safety: 28 scored items
- Procedures: 116 scored items
These are item counts within Session 1, not whole-exam percentage weights. Procedures is the largest selected-response parent category. Do not try to reconcile these counts with the eight percentages above by arithmetic; they describe the same exam through two different lenses.
Where the points concentrate
Combine the two views and a pattern emerges.
- Procedures dominates Session 1, so anatomy-and-procedure fluency pays the most there.
- Case Study at 25% rewards integrated reasoning across all sections, not isolated recall.
- Abdominal Section at 16% is the single biggest procedural block.
- Pharmacology at 7% is the smallest category but is a common source of avoidable misses because it is easy to under-study.
Eligibility Rules to Memorize
Eligibility is where candidates most often get tripped up, because the rules changed over time and the dates matter. The full treatment is in RRA Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify. Here is the compressed version.
Standard route
- Current ARRT Radiography certification and registration
- Completion of a recognized Radiologist Assistant program
- Applicable graduate-degree and clinical-experience requirements
- A clinical portfolio
- Current ACLS certification
- Compliance with ARRT ethics requirements
Date-dependent requirements
| Program completion | Degree requirement | Experience requirement |
|---|---|---|
| On or after January 1, 2023 | Master's or doctoral degree | See below |
| On or after January 1, 2025 | Master's or doctoral degree | Two years of full-time patient-care-related medical-imaging experience after Radiography credentials; cannot be earned concurrently with RA-program activities |
| Before 2025 (published exception) | Per applicable exception | One year, with concurrent experience permitted |
Earlier degree exceptions exist but are separate from the current graduate-degree route. If you completed your program before 2023, check the applicable exception rather than assuming the current rule applies to you. Ordinary eligibility, including degree completion, must be established within three years of completing the professional program.
Fees, Attempts, and Deadlines
| Item | Amount or rule |
|---|---|
| Initial application/examination fee | USD 225 |
| Reapplication fee | USD 200 |
| Annual renewal | USD 65 |
| Attempts allowed | Three within three years |
No member versus nonmember exam differential is listed. The ordinary annual renewal fee covers your ARRT credentials as a whole rather than charging separately for each discipline. For the broader financial picture beyond ARRT fees, including prep costs and the return side of the equation, read RRA Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown and Is the RRA Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026.
Testing windows
ARRT announced an additional October 2026 administration. The next published window after October 14, 2026 is January 13-16, 2027, with an application postmark deadline of November 11, 2026. Dates can change, so confirm against the ARRT exam-dates page before you commit. Our RRA Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling article tracks the scheduling details.
Test-Day Rules That Trip People Up
- No personal reference materials. Nothing from home helps you at the testing station.
- No personal calculator. An approved calculator is supplied on screen, so practice with a basic on-screen calculator beforehand, especially for pharmacology dosing and radiation-related arithmetic.
- Session 1 is locked once Session 2 begins. You cannot go back and change an answer. Use your remaining Session 1 time to flag and revisit questions before you submit.
- Pace the two sessions separately. Four hours for 200 scored questions plus pilot items is generous but not unlimited; the two-hour case-study session demands sustained reading and reasoning.
- Pilot items look real. You cannot tell which questions are unscored, so give every item full effort.
Key Takeaway
Because Session 1 locks, build the habit of marking uncertain items and doing a deliberate review pass in the final stretch of Session 1. Rehearse this in full-length practice so the transition to case studies feels routine rather than abrupt.
Keeping the Credential After You Pass
Earning the R.R.A. is the start of a maintenance cycle, and lapses in your supporting credentials can put the whole thing at risk.
- Annual renewal is normally due by the end of your birth month.
- Supporting Radiography credentials must be maintained. The R.R.A. depends on them.
- Biennial continuing education is 50 credits. Within that total, at least 25 must be Category A+ and at least 35 must be RRA-relevant.
- The requirements overlap. The 25 and 35 are not additive on top of the 50; a single qualifying credit can count toward more than one requirement.
- Continuing Qualifications Requirements (CQR) run on a ten-year cycle for all RRA credentials.
If you are weighing where the credential can take you, RRA Jobs covers employers and roles, and the RRA Salary Guide 2026 covers earnings context.
Mapping the Cheat Sheet to Your Calendar
Generic study advice is plentiful; the more useful move is to let the exam weights decide your sequencing. The sketch below is one way to do that. For a fuller plan, see the RRA Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt.
Abdominal Section first
- Largest procedural category at 16%, so it earns the earliest and longest block.
- Pair anatomy review with procedure-based questions.
Patient Management and Pharmacology
- Patient Management is 14%; Pharmacology is only 7% but punishes neglect.
- Drill dosing calculations on an on-screen calculator.
Thoracic, Musculoskeletal and Endocrine, Neurological, Vascular, and Lymphatic
- Three 9% categories that reward steady, even coverage.
- Safety, Radiation Protection, and Equipment Operation (11%) fits here as review.
Case Study integration and full-length simulation
- Case Study is 25% of points, so finish by practicing integrated reasoning across sections.
- Take at least one timed two-session simulation to rehearse the Session 1 lock.
Before you commit to a timeline, calibrate your expectations with How Hard Is the RRA Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026 and RRA Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows. For context, the calendar-2025 first-time pass rate was 75.0% among 24 first-time candidates. That is a small cohort, so treat the figure as a data point rather than a prediction. Note that 37 total administrations that year is not the first-time cohort size.
Frequently Asked Questions
Session 1 has 200 scored selected-response questions plus 30 pilot questions. Session 2 has at least 30 scored case-study questions plus a variable pilot allocation. The handbook labels the overall total approximately 280, but the pilot portion varies, so treat that number as approximate.
No. Passing is a scaled score of 75 on a 1-99 scale. Scaling accounts for differences between exam forms, so it does not equal 75% of questions answered correctly.
Case Study is the largest separately reported category at 25%. Among the procedural sections, Abdominal Section is the largest at 16%. Selected response overall contributes 75% of points and case study 25%.
Three attempts are allowed within three years. The initial application and examination fee is USD 225, and reapplication costs USD 200.
No. Session 1 cannot be reopened once Session 2 begins, so complete your review of flagged items before you finish Session 1.
That is the full one-page picture: the format, the weights, the eligibility dates, the money, and the rules of the testing room. Bookmark this page, then put the numbers to work with timed questions on the RRA Exam Prep practice test so the facts turn into points on exam day.