Orthopedic Surgery Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling

The 2026 Testing Window

If you're planning your year around Certification in Orthopedic Surgery, the single most important scheduling fact is this: the American Osteopathic Board of Orthopedic Surgery (AOBOS) administers the Part I Written Exam once annually, during the second week of May. There is no fall administration and no rolling testing window for initial certification candidates. Miss the application cycle, and you wait another full year for your next shot at the written exam.

This narrow window changes how you should think about preparation. Unlike certifications with multiple testing periods per year, AOBOS candidates get one attempt, one week, and a hard stop on when registration closes. That reality should drive everything from when you start your Orthopedic Surgery study guide plan to when you request time off for a private testing room.

Application Timeline and Deadlines

The AOBOS application cycle for the Part I Written Exam follows a predictable annual rhythm:

• October: Applications open for the following May's written exam.
• First business day of March: First application deadline.
• First business day of April: Final application deadline (later than the first, typically with additional requirements or fees attached).
• Second week of May: Written exam administration.

Practically speaking, this gives candidates roughly five to six months between application opening and the exam itself, but only about five months between opening and the final registration cutoff. Candidates who wait until the final deadline in April compress their remaining prep time to just a few weeks before the May test date.

Because these dates shift slightly year to year based on the calendar (the "first business day" of a given month isn't always the same numeric date), always confirm the exact 2026 dates directly with AOBOS before finalizing travel, work schedules, or study leave. Build your internal planning around the pattern described here, not a fixed calendar date.

Registration Fees and Payment Mechanics

The Part I Written Exam fee is $1,000 (USD). First-time AOAO resident members can request a $500 coupon discount, which cuts the written exam fee to $500. This discount is specific to first-time resident members applying for the written exam - it does not apply to repeat test-takers or to the separate Clinical Exam.

The Clinical Exam is a distinct component of full certification, priced at $2,250, with a $250 late fee if you miss its first deadline. These are separate from Part I written exam fees and follow their own application timeline later in the certification process - don't conflate the two when budgeting.

For a full breakdown of every fee, coupon eligibility rule, and how the numbers stack up across the certification pathway, see the Orthopedic Surgery Certification Cost breakdown.

Exam Day Format and Remote Proctoring

The Part I Written Exam consists of 250 multiple-choice questions divided into three sections, each 120 minutes long. That's six hours of active testing, plus two optional 15-minute breaks, bringing total seat time to six hours and 30 minutes if you take both breaks.

AOBOS administers the exam via remote proctoring under AOA MonitorEDU/PARADIGM arrangements. Before exam day, you'll need to confirm several logistics - these aren't optional checkboxes, they're pass/fail gatekeepers for whether you can even start your session:

• A private, quiet testing room free of interruptions
• A compatible computer and a separate mobile device for monitoring
• The required secure browser installed and tested in advance
• Completed technical checks before the scheduled start time

On the content side, the platform provides an online calculator, a scratch pad, and laboratory values during the exam, and AOBOS permits physical whiteboards as well. Knowing these tools are available ahead of time lets you practice using them rather than discovering them mid-exam.

Confirm Eligibility Before You Schedule

Before you commit to the October application window, verify you actually meet Part I eligibility. AOBOS requires either graduation from an ACGME-accredited orthopedic surgery residency or current PGY-4/PGY-5 status. PGY-4 applicants specifically need program-director approval attached to their application - this isn't automatic, so start that conversation early in the fall, well before the March deadline.

Candidates must also satisfy the board's application and ethics requirements. If any part of your eligibility picture is unclear - residency accreditation status, PGY approval paperwork, or ethics documentation - resolve it before October, not during the application window itself. For the full eligibility breakdown, see Orthopedic Surgery Requirements: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify.

Domain Weighting and How It Should Shape Your Timeline

Once your application and testing logistics are locked in, your remaining calendar time should map directly to how the exam is actually weighted. The ten Part I domains carry official percentage ranges that AOBOS publishes and that should not be treated as equal:

For the complete percentage table and a topic-by-topic breakdown of what each domain actually tests, see the Orthopedic Surgery Exam Domains Guide covering all 10 content areas.

Building a Study Calendar Around the May Window

Working backward from a fixed second-week-of-May exam date, most candidates have somewhere in the neighborhood of several months of usable prep time once residency and clinical duties are factored in. Rather than a generic weekly template, anchor your calendar to the domain weights above.

Simple spaced-repetition review of high-yield facts across all ten domains in the final weeks tends to outperform last-minute cramming of any single domain, since the 250-question format samples broadly rather than concentrating on any one area. For a deeper walkthrough of pacing strategy across the full prep cycle, see the Orthopedic Surgery Study Guide for passing on your first attempt, and pair it with realistic timed sections on our practice test platform to get comfortable with the six-hour format before exam day.

After the Written Exam: Clinical Exam and OCC

Passing the Part I Written Exam requires a scaled score of 500 on a 200-800 range - a threshold, not a percentage of questions answered correctly. If you're unsure exactly how that scaled score translates to exam performance, the Orthopedic Surgery Passing Score guide walks through exactly what's needed to clear the bar.

Passing the written exam is not the end of the certification path. Full certification also requires the separate Clinical Exam, which involves surgical-practice documentation and an oral defense of selected cases, followed by AOA approval. That exam runs on its own timeline and fee schedule - $2,250 with a $250 late fee - distinct from everything covered here for the written exam.

Once certified, Osteopathic Continuous Certification (OCC) requirements begin, including active licensure, CME, longitudinal assessment, and quality-improvement attestation. For the 2025-2027 cycle, time-limited and participating OCC diplomates need 60 CME credits, including 15 Category 1-A credits. Longitudinal assessment (which replaced the traditional ten-year high-stakes exam in 2021) costs $230 annually, consists of 15 untimed, open-book, article-based questions drawn from three of the nine assessment areas, and requires an 80% passing score, with a second attempt available before the end-of-July deadline. Annual assessment availability runs May-July, and newly certified diplomates get one full calendar year before participation is required. Note that these nine renewal-assessment areas are distinct from the ten initial written-exam domains covered above - don't study them interchangeably.

If you're weighing whether the full certification pathway - written exam through OCC - is worth the time and cost investment relative to career outcomes, see Is the Orthopedic Surgery Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis. And for context on how this credential fits into hiring conversations, the Orthopedic Surgery Jobs overview is a useful companion read.

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