ARRT Radiography Exam Prep
Your test date decides what you study. Radiography exams taken through February 28, 2027 follow ARRT's 2022 content specifications, and exams taken on or after March 1, 2027 follow the new 2027 specifications. Both have 200 scored questions plus 30 unscored pilot questions, but the category weights differ.
| Content category | Testing through Feb. 28, 2027 | Testing Mar. 1, 2027 or later | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Patient Care | 33 | 31 | −2 |
| Safety | 50 | 46 | −4 |
| Image Production | 51 | 51 | 0 |
| Procedures | 66 | 72 | +6 |
| Scored questions | 200 | 200 | — |
Show subcategories
| Subcategory | Through Feb. 28, 2027 | Mar. 1, 2027 or later |
|---|---|---|
| Patient Interactions and Management | 33 | 31 |
| Radiation Physics and Radiobiology | 21 | 21 |
| Radiation Protection | 29 | 25 |
| Image Acquisition and Evaluation | 26 | 26 |
| Equipment Operation and Quality Assurance | 25 | 25 |
| Head, Spine, and Pelvis Procedures | 18 | 20 |
| Thorax and Abdomen Procedures | 20 | 22 |
| Extremity Procedures | 28 | 30 |
Counts are scored questions; the 30 pilot questions are mixed in and not marked. Source: ARRT Radiography Examination Content Specifications, through Feb. 28, 2027 and effective Mar. 1, 2027, p. 1. Print the one for your test date; every topic and plan on this page maps to it.
Starter practice: 25 original questions with explanations
Answer all 25, then use your misses to set your study order. The split (4 Patient Care, 6 Safety, 6 Image Production, 9 Procedures) tracks the exam's weights, and every concept here is on both outlines. Unofficial practice written by Castleport Test Prep, not ARRT questions.
Turn your misses into a study order
Count your correct answers by category:
| Category | Questions | Your correct |
|---|---|---|
| Patient Care | Q4, Q9, Q15, Q23 | __ / 4 |
| Safety | Q2, Q6, Q12, Q17, Q20, Q25 | __ / 6 |
| Image Production | Q3, Q7, Q10, Q14, Q18, Q22 | __ / 6 |
| Procedures | Q1, Q5, Q8, Q11, Q13, Q16, Q19, Q21, Q24 | __ / 9 |
Twenty-five questions can tell you where to start. They can't predict an ARRT score: they're untimed, unscaled, and sample only a few topics per category. One miss in a four-question category is a topic to fix, not a verdict on the whole category.
| What happened | What to do next |
|---|---|
| You missed a question once | Reread the explanation, then say the rule out loud in one sentence |
| You missed two questions on the same topic | Move that topic to the front of tomorrow's session |
| You got it right but guessed, or for the wrong reason | Count it as a miss |
| Most of your misses sit in one category | Give that category the first two or three sessions of your plan |
| You missed a calculation | Do ten more of the same type before moving on |
| You're accurate but slow | Add timed sets at one minute per question |
| You're fast but making careless errors | Name your reason before you lock in each answer |
Pick your study plan
All three plans follow the same order: find your gaps, rebuild the big categories, then practice under time. They're editorial plans built on ARRT's outline, not an official or required study length. Keep your printed outline open while you work; each session names the outline topics to cover. You'll need a separate source of timed practice questions for the later weeks (see choosing other prep materials).
8 weeks (about 75 minutes, five days a week)
| Week | Focus | Sessions | End-of-week check |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Baseline + Patient Care I | (1) Take the 25 questions above; log every miss with the rule you missed. (2) Mark each line of your outline Know / Shaky / Never seen. (3) Ethics and legal: consent types, patient rights, HIPAA, legal doctrines, documentation, manipulation of electronic data. (4) Infection control: chain of infection, asepsis, Standard and transmission-based precautions. (5) Communication, patient education and scheduling, transfers, monitoring, fall prevention. | Redo Q4, Q9, Q23 without looking at the explanations. |
| 2 | Patient Care II + radiation physics | (1) Contrast and pharmacology: contrast types, lab values (BUN, creatinine, eGFR), reactions by severity, extravasation, documentation. (2) Medical emergencies: allergic reactions, cardiac or respiratory arrest, trauma, seizures, diabetic reactions. (3) X-ray production and target interactions. (4) Beam quality and quantity; photoelectric, Compton, and coherent interactions; inverse square law. (5) A timed 20-question mixed set (20 minutes), then review every miss. | Redo Q2, Q15, Q20. |
| 3 | Radiobiology + patient protection | (1) SI units: Gy, Sv, air kerma. (2) Radiosensitivity: LET, relative tissue sensitivity, oxygen effect. (3) Deterministic vs. stochastic effects, embryo/fetus effects, acute radiation syndromes. (4) Lowering patient dose: exposure factors, collimation, filtration, body habitus, pregnancy. (5) Fluoroscopy dose controls: pulsed mode, automatic exposure rate control, last image hold, minimum SSD, cumulative air kerma, dose-area product. | Redo Q6, Q12, Q25. |
| 4 | Personnel protection + exposure math | (1) Time, distance, shielding; protective devices; rules for mobile and fluoroscopy work. (2) Dosimeters, dose limits, records. (3) Math drill: 15% rule, direct square law, inverse square law, grid conversion, magnification (20 problems). (4) The factors-affecting-quality table: receptor exposure, contrast, spatial resolution, distortion. (5) Technique charts and automatic exposure control (AEC): chamber selection, alignment, backup timer. | Redo Q3, Q10, Q17, Q18. |
| 5 | Digital imaging + equipment and QA | (1) Digital image basics: pixel and detector element size, matrix, bit depth, dynamic range, noise, signal-to-noise ratio. (2) Processing and display: histogram, lookup table, window width and level, exposure indicators, image evaluation. (3) Equipment: generators, x-ray tube, digital detectors, grids. (4) Fluoroscopy equipment, monitors, informatics (PACS, DICOM, EMR). (5) Quality control; then a timed 25-question mixed set. | Redo Q7, Q14, Q22. |
| 6 | Procedures: thorax, abdomen, contrast studies, head | (1) Chest, ribs, sternum, soft-tissue neck, clavicle, SC joints. (2) Abdomen positions and decubitus work. (3) GI contrast studies (esophagram, upper GI, small bowel, contrast enema) and surgical cholangiography. (4) GU studies: cystography, cystourethrography, retrograde urography, hysterosalpingography. (5) Skull, facial bones, sinuses, mandible, TMJs, orbits, nasal bones: positioning lines and CR angles. | Redo Q1, Q11, Q16, Q21. |
| 7 | Procedures: extremities, spine, pelvis | (1) Fingers, hand, wrist, forearm, elbow. (2) Humerus, shoulder, scapula, AC joints. (3) Toes, foot, calcaneus, ankle, leg, knee and patella, femur. (4) Cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine; sacrum and coccyx; SI joints; myelography. (5) Pelvis and hip; arthrography. For every projection, know the part position, the CR, and what a correct image shows. | Redo Q5, Q8, Q13, Q19, Q24. |
| 8 | Timed practice + weakest areas | (1) A timed 100-question block (100 minutes); review every miss. (2) Deep review of your weakest category. (3) A second timed 100-question block. (4) Error-log review; check logistics (two valid IDs; arrive 30 minutes early). (5) Light review only, no new material. | Retake the 25 questions; you should be able to explain every answer. |
4 weeks (about 2 hours a day, six days a week)
| Week | Days 1–5 | Day 6 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Day 1: take the 25 questions and mark your outline. Days 2–3: Patient Care (ethics and legal, infection control, contrast, emergencies). Days 4–5: radiation physics and radiobiology. | Timed 50-question mixed set; review every miss. |
| 2 | Days 1–2: patient and personnel protection, fluoroscopy limits, dose limits. Day 3: exposure math (15% rule, direct square, inverse square, grids). Days 4–5: digital imaging, display, equipment, QC. | Timed 50-question mixed set; review. |
| 3 | Day 1: chest and abdomen. Day 2: contrast studies and head. Day 3: upper extremity and shoulder girdle. Day 4: lower extremity. Day 5: spine and pelvis. | Timed 100-question block; review. |
| 4 | Days 1–2: your weakest category. Day 3: timed 100-question block and review. Day 4: second-weakest category. Day 5: error log, formulas, positioning cards. | Light review and logistics only. |
2 weeks (2–3 hours a day)
With two weeks, rebuild the biggest categories first and lean hard on your misses.
| Day | Task |
|---|---|
| 1 | Take the 25 questions; mark your outline Know / Shaky / Never seen |
| 2 | Procedures: extremities and shoulder girdle |
| 3 | Procedures: spine, pelvis, skull, and facial bones |
| 4 | Procedures: chest, abdomen, and contrast studies |
| 5 | Safety: physics, interactions, radiobiology |
| 6 | Safety: patient and personnel protection, fluoroscopy limits, dose limits |
| 7 | Timed 100-question mixed block; review every miss |
| 8 | Image Production: exposure factors, AEC, and the math drill |
| 9 | Image Production: digital imaging, display, equipment, QC |
| 10 | Patient Care: ethics and legal, infection control, contrast, emergencies |
| 11 | Your weakest category from Day 7 |
| 12 | Timed 100-question mixed block; review |
| 13 | Error log, formulas, positioning cards |
| 14 | Light review and logistics; no new material |
If you test before March 1, 2027
You're on the 2022 outline: Safety has 50 scored questions (29 on radiation protection), and Procedures has 66.
- Keep computed radiography (CR) in your digital-imaging sessions. It's on the 2022 outline and gone from the 2027 one.
- Add intravenous urography to your GU studies session.
- Skip topics that only appear in 2027: enteric and orogastric tube placement, line placement with a C-arm, lumbar puncture and epidural injections, joint injection and aspiration, airway foreign body, virtual grids, and informatics security and teleradiology.
- Shift one Procedures session to radiation protection.
If you're retaking
Start with your score report, not page one of your notes.
- Find your two lowest section scores. Section scores run from 0.1 to 9.9; ARRT says an 8.1 can generally be read as a scaled 81 if that section were the whole exam. They come from fewer questions than your total, so treat them as direction, not precision.
- Compare those sections with your own miss log.
- Put those two sections first in whichever plan fits your time.
- Rebuild the concepts before you go back to a question bank you've already used.
- Add timed mixed practice once your concept misses drop.
- If your next exam falls on or after March 1, 2027, compare the 2027 outline with the one you studied before. ARRT's handbook tells retakers to do exactly that.
ARRT allows three attempts within three years, counted from the start of your first exam window; each attempt needs a new application and fee. An attempt taken as a state candidate counts toward the limit if you also apply separately for ARRT certification. See Three Attempts in Three Years.
How to review practice questions without memorizing them
If you've seen a question bank three times, you may remember the answer letter, not the idea. The exam won't reuse your bank's wording, so review for the rule:
- Say why. Explain why your answer was right or wrong before you read the explanation.
- Write the rule. One sentence: "Posterior obliques show the downside lumbar joints."
- Change one detail. Swap RPO for RAO, or 40 inches for 72, and predict whether the answer changes.
- Test it somewhere else. Come back to the concept a few days later through a different question.
Keep an error log with three columns: the question topic, the rule, and why you missed it (didn't know it, misread it, or ran out of time). The "why" column tells you whether you need more content or more careful reading.
What changed on March 1, 2027
The 2027 outline keeps the same four categories and 200 scored questions. ARRT summarized the major content changes in its May 1, 2026 announcement; we compared the two outlines line by line for the last items in each list.
Patient Care (33 → 31)
- Patient scheduling added to patient education.
- IV supplies added to disposal of contaminated materials.
Safety (50 → 46; radiation protection 29 → 25)
- "Morbid obesity" replaced by "body habitus."
- Pregnancy and dose-reduction resources (such as Image Wisely and Image Gently) added to minimizing patient exposure.
- "Image receptors" replaced by "digital detectors."
- Reference updates: SI units now cite NCRP Report No. 184; personnel monitoring cites NCRP Report No. 180 (previously No. 116).
Image Production (51 → 51)
- Image contrast and subject contrast added to the factors-affecting-quality table.
- Virtual grids added; compensating filters removed.
- Security, confidentiality, and teleradiology added to informatics.
- All computed radiography (CR) content removed.
Procedures (66 → 72)
- Lumbar puncture and epidural injections added to myelography.
- Joint injection and aspiration added to arthrography.
- Airway or ingested foreign body, line placement with a C-arm, and nasogastric/orogastric and enteric tube placement added to Thorax and Abdomen.
- Intravenous urography removed.
- The projection list (Attachment A) dropped some less common projections and added more common ones; the positioning-terminology attachment (Attachment B) was removed.
- Clavicle now sits under Thorax rather than Upper Extremities.
The passing standard was also reset. ARRT approved an updated Radiography passing standard for everyone testing on or after March 1, 2027. You still need a scaled 75 to pass, and ARRT says the change isn't meant to make the exam easier or harder. In the standard-setting study, the new standard equaled 130 of 200 correct on the exam form used there; the old standard would have equaled about 129 on that same form. ARRT staff projected a first-time pass rate of about 83%. Those raw numbers belong to one study form, so don't treat 130 as the cut on your exam. Sources: ARRT news, Aug. 27, 2026; Radiography Standard Setting Report, effective March 2027, pp. 4–6.
Older prep materials: a review book or question bank written for the 2022 outline still covers most of the exam, but if you test on or after March 1, 2027, it will over-teach CR, under-weight Procedures, and miss the additions above. Check which outline it says it follows.
What a passing score of 75 means
75 is a scaled score, not 75% correct. ARRT reports total scores from 1 to 99 and adjusts for differences in difficulty between exam forms, so a 75 means the same level of performance on every version. The number of correct answers you need changes from form to form; ARRT's own examples put it around 130 or 131 out of 200 (Exam Scoring).
The latest results. In its 2025 Annual Exam Report, ARRT lists the approximate percent correct needed to pass Radiography as 67%. The first-time pass rate was 85.8% across 14,072 first-time candidates tested in 2025, with an average scaled score of 82.7 (pp. 1–3, 6). Those candidates tested on the 2022 outline under the earlier passing standard.
Section scores run from 0.1 to 9.9. Your total comes from how many questions you got right overall, not from averaging section scores; bigger sections carry more weight. In 2025, first-time Radiography candidates averaged 8.1 to 8.4 across the eight sections.
Want program-level numbers? See our ARRT radiography pass rates by program.
Exam day: format, pacing, and rules
| Item | What ARRT says |
|---|---|
| Questions | 230 total: 200 scored + 30 unscored pilot questions, mixed in and not marked, so treat every question as scored |
| Time | 230 minutes of test time inside a 250-minute appointment, which also covers an 8-minute tutorial, 2 minutes for the nondisclosure agreement, and a 10-minute survey |
| Nondisclosure agreement | Accept it within 2 minutes, or the exam ends and you have to reapply |
| Question formats | Mostly multiple choice with one best answer; some ask you to select more than one answer, put items in order, click a spot on an image, or answer after a short video |
| Moving through | You must answer each question before moving on; you can flag it and come back if time allows |
| Calculator | Don't bring one. The exam has on-screen basic and scientific calculators, and Pearson VUE can give you a basic calculator if you ask |
| Arrival and ID | Arrive at least 30 minutes early with two valid IDs whose names match your Candidate Status Report |
| Application fee | $225 for the primary pathway |
| Exam window | 365 days, shown on your Candidate Status Report |
| Results | A preliminary score at the test center, then your official score report through your ARRT account; ARRT's Verify Credentials page shows passing candidates within about four weeks |
Sources: ARRT 2026 Primary Eligibility Pathway Handbook, pp. 18, 30, 37–44, 52; ARRT Application Fees. ARRT updates the handbook each year; check the current edition before you apply.
Pacing. You get about one minute per question. Running a little faster than that buys time for flagged items. Our suggested checkpoints:
| Time used | Aim to have answered |
|---|---|
| 55 minutes | 60 questions |
| 110 minutes | 120 questions |
| 165 minutes | 180 questions |
| About 210 minutes | All 230, leaving about 20 minutes for flagged questions |
These are our arithmetic (230 questions at about 55 seconds each), not ARRT rules. Practice them in your timed blocks so exam day isn't the first time you watch the clock.
ARRT certification isn't a state license. Some states require a license to work as a radiographer, and an ARRT credential doesn't by itself make you eligible to work in a given state. Many states use ARRT exam results in licensing, so check your state's rules through ARRT's state licensing page.
Choosing other prep materials
ARRT doesn't recommend or endorse any review program, mock registry, or study guide, and it warns candidates about materials that use its name or claim to include ARRT test questions. Sharing or seeking recalled exam questions breaks ARRT's exam-security rules and can lead to sanctions (Handbook, pp. 38, 46–49).
Before you add a question bank, book, or review course, check four things:
- Outline version. Does it say which outline it follows? If you test on or after March 1, 2027, it should be the 2027 outline.
- Explanations. Does every answer explain why the wrong options are wrong?
- Originality. Does it say its questions are original, not "real" or "recalled" ARRT questions?
- Update date. Does it show when it was last revised?
Quick answers
Can I take the exam before I finish my program? You can apply up to 90 days before you complete your program, and you can schedule once your Candidate Status Report arrives. But you have to finish your program and have your degree conferred before you sit for the exam (Handbook, p. 23).
How long should I study? ARRT doesn't publish a recommended study time. Pick the plan above that matches the time you actually have, and let your misses, not the calendar, decide where the extra hours go.
Where are the official study documents? On ARRT's Radiography credential page: the content specifications, task inventory, and competency requirements, each in a version for testing through Feb. 28, 2027 and one for Mar. 1, 2027 or later.
Sources
We checked every exam fact, rule, and figure on this page against these sources on October 27, 2026, and checked each practice question against the reference listed with it. We also recalculated every worked answer. That's source checking, not review by a credentialed radiographer.
ARRT
- Radiography credential page and documents
- Radiography Examination Content Specifications, through Feb. 28, 2027
- Radiography Examination Content Specifications, effective Mar. 1, 2027
- Updated Radiography Documents (May 1, 2026)
- Updated Radiography passing standard (Aug. 27, 2026)
- Radiography Standard Setting Report, effective March 2027
- 2026 Primary Eligibility Pathway Handbook
- Exam Scoring
- Three Attempts in Three Years
- Application Fees
- Annual Exam Report – 2025
- State Licensing
Regulations and clinical guidance: 21 CFR 1020.32; NRC Regulatory Guide 8.13, Rev. 3; CDC 2007 Isolation Guideline, Part III; ACR–NKF consensus on IV contrast (Davenport et al., 2020).
Teaching references: Radiographic Procedures Review and Digital Radiographic Exposure (University of Missouri System open textbooks); Radiopaedia; AAPM TG-116; LII Wex. Each question links the specific page it relies on.
Castleport Test Prep is an independent exam prep publisher and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or approved by The American Registry of Radiologic Technologists (ARRT). Exam and credential names are used only to identify the subject of this resource, and trademarks belong to their respective owners. The practice questions on this page are original and unofficial; they are not ARRT exam questions.