The ARRT® Radiography exam checks whether you can practice safely at entry level. ARRT reports an 85.8% first-time pass rate for 2025, from 14,072 candidates. Most people pass, and about 1 in 7 don’t, so it pays to study with a plan.
This plan has three parts: learn what the registry exam covers, study in proportion to it, and practice under exam conditions. Your exam date decides which outline you study.
What does the ARRT Radiography exam cover?
The exam has 200 scored questions plus 30 unscored pilot questions. Pilot questions aren’t labelled, so treat every question as if it counts. ARRT’s 2026 handbook lists 230 minutes of test time for Radiography, inside a 250-minute appointment, which is about one minute a question. Our paid simulator is 200 questions on the same 230-minute clock, so it gives more time per question than the real exam.
The scored questions fall into 4 sections and 8 categories. The split changes on March 1, 2027.
Patient Care -2
Safety -4
Image Production same
Procedures +6
Each exam has 200 scored questions. Source: ARRT Radiography Content Specifications 2022 and 2027.
| Category | Through Feb 28, 2027 | From Mar 1, 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| Patient Care | 33 | 31 |
| Patient Interactions and Management | 33 | 31 |
| Safety | 50 | 46 |
| Radiation Physics and Radiobiology | 21 | 21 |
| Radiation Protection | 29 | 25 |
| Image Production | 51 | 51 |
| Image Acquisition and Evaluation | 26 | 26 |
| Equipment Operation and QA | 25 | 25 |
| Procedures | 66 | 72 |
| Head, Spine and Pelvis | 18 | 20 |
| Thorax and Abdomen | 20 | 22 |
| Extremity | 28 | 30 |
If you test on or after March 1, 2027, study to the 2027 outline. The clavicle moves to Thorax, bone age moves into Upper Extremities, and IVU/IVP leaves GU studies while retrograde urography stays. The 2022 outline names CR and the plate reader. The 2027 outline drops those, but its QC section still lists plate calibration and plate uniformity. See the full list of 2027 changes.
What score do you need to pass the ARRT?
A total scaled score of 75, on a scale of 1 to 99, passes. ARRT says: “A score of 75 doesn’t mean you correctly answered 75% of the test items.” Scaling adjusts for differences in difficulty between exam forms. ARRT’s 2025 report puts the Radiography figure at about 67% correct.
The passing standard updates on March 1, 2027. It applies to everyone testing on or after that date. ARRT’s Board approved a standard equal to 130 of 200 items on the form used in its study. The current standard works out to about 129 on that same form. ARRT staff expect a first-time pass rate around 83%, against a current operational pass rate of 84%, and ARRT says the purpose “is not to increase or decrease pass rates”.
Current standard
129 of 200
on the form ARRT studied
84%
current operational pass rate
From March 1, 2027
130 of 200
on that same form
83%
expected by ARRT staff
The raw number differs from form to form, so 130 is not a target for your exam. The report doesn't call the 84% a first-time rate, and it differs from the 85.8% first-time rate in ARRT's 2025 report. Source: ARRT Standard Setting Report, Radiography, effective March 2027.
The raw number varies by form, so nobody can tell you that you need exactly 130. Neither ARRT document says whether the scaled passing score stays 75 after the change, so check your handbook.
What is a good 60-day ARRT study plan?
This plan assumes about 1 to 2 hours a day. It follows the exam’s weights, and the timing is our judgment. It leans on two methods that a major research review rated highly: testing yourself and spacing your study over time. Those are why it asks for many short sessions and so many questions.
Our suggested schedule, built from the ARRT content weights. It is not an ARRT recommendation.
Week 1: Baseline. Read the ARRT content outline for your test date and take a baseline test. Don’t worry about the score. You only want to see where your first month should go. Not sure which section is weakest? Try the free practice test for a quick first signal.
Weeks 2 to 5: One section a week. Start with Procedures, then Image Production, Safety and Patient Care. Move your weakest section to an earlier week if your baseline says so. For each one, read the chapters and lessons, then answer 50 to 80 questions on that section.
Weeks 6 and 7: Mixed drills. Do about 100 questions a day across all 8 categories. After each miss, read the rationale and write one line you could apply to a new question. Go back to any chapter where you keep missing questions. Some free practice questions are a good way to start this phase.
Week 8: Timed mocks. Take a timed 200-question mock in one sitting, review every wrong answer and every lucky guess, and fix what it shows. Take another a few days later.
Days 57 to 60: Taper. Light review only, with no new material. Keep your normal sleep schedule.
How high should your mock scores be? As our judgment, aim for 75% correct or better on two timed mocks in a row, with no section far behind. That’s a cushion above the roughly 67% in ARRT’s 2025 report. No mock can predict your ARRT score, including ours, and our simulator’s 66% benchmark is a floor, not a readiness target. If you’re not there on day 55, move your exam date if you can.
What should you study first for the ARRT?
These are our picks for where to start, not a list of what will appear. We found no ARRT figure for how often it tests any single fact, and its FAQ says the content outline “includes all of the areas your exam will cover.”
Patient Care
- Patient identification and valid consent. Commonly taught conditions: consent is voluntary, the patient can understand it, and they’ve been told the risks. A parent or legal guardian signs for a minor.
- Negligence: Ehrlich and Coakes describe a professional’s duty to give reasonable care, and malpractice as professional negligence that is the proximate cause of injury or harm to a patient.
- ARRT Rules 21 and 22. Rule 21 covers reporting a violation to ARRT. Rule 22 covers reporting an error to your supervisor, whether or not the patient was hurt.
- Infection control: Standard Precautions plus Contact, Droplet and Airborne precautions.
- Iodinated contrast reactions: mild, moderate and severe, and the response to each.
- Oxygen devices: nasal cannula, simple mask, nonrebreathing mask and Venturi mask.
Safety
- Occupational dose limit: 50 mSv (5 rem) a year, whole body.
- Declared pregnant worker: 5 mSv (0.5 rem) to the embryo or fetus for the whole pregnancy. A limit of 0.5 mSv in any month is also commonly taught, and it’s in Sherer, though the NRC rule itself doesn’t set a monthly number.
- Photon interactions: photoelectric gives the image its contrast and adds to patient dose. Compton scatter causes fog. Bushong says scatter off the patient during fluoroscopy is the source of most of the occupational exposure radiographers receive, and that the hazard is less severe during radiography.
- Inverse square law: double the distance, one-fourth the intensity.
- Units and scope: the 2027 outline says SI units are the primary units on the exam. Both outlines list ALARA only under personnel protection, and note that protecting patients is still your job.
Image Production
- The 15% rule: raising kVp by 15% roughly doubles receptor exposure, the same as doubling mAs. Older books call receptor exposure density. See kVp vs mAs for worked examples.
- Distance and mAs: how mAs must change when SID changes.
- Grid conversion factors, from the Average column of Bushong’s Bucky factor table: no grid 1, 5:1 is 2, 8:1 is 4, 12:1 is 5, 16:1 is 6. The table’s values shift with kVp.
- Digital imaging: know DR first, especially if you test after March 1, 2027.
Procedures
- Routine skull and facial projections: Caldwell, AP axial (Towne), SMV and, for facial bones and sinuses, Waters, with their baselines. The sinus SMV leaves ARRT’s list on March 1, 2027, while the skull SMV stays.
- Cranial lines: OML, IOML and GML.
- Open-mouth odontoid for C1, C2 and the dens.
- The Scottie dog: the lumbar oblique, and spondylolysis at the neck of the dog.
- PA chest: 183 cm (72 in) SID, with at least 10 posterior ribs above the diaphragm on good inspiration. Also learn which AEC cells to use.
What can you spend less time on?
This is our judgment. Nothing in the outline is safe to ignore, so this is about order, not skipping.
- Rare projection variants, until the routine ones feel automatic.
- The history of ARRT. It isn’t a content category.
- Long derivations. Know how to use a formula. You don’t need to prove it.
- Xeroradiography. It isn’t in either outline.
- CR detail, if you test on or after March 1, 2027. The 2027 outline drops the named CR topics, but its QC section still lists plate calibration and plate uniformity.
What mistakes should you avoid?
Reading without testing. Reading feels productive, but the research favors answering questions. Spend most of the second half of your plan on questions.
Skipping rationales. After each question, check why the answer was right, even if you got it right by luck.
Cramming in the last week. Spaced study beats a late burst, so protect your sleep in the final days and stop adding new material.
Treating Patient Care as the soft section. Patient Interactions and Management is the largest single category, with 33 questions now and 31 from March 1, 2027.
Skipping timed mocks. A full sitting tires you in a way that a 50-question set doesn’t. Find that out before exam day. Remember that most questions are multiple-choice with one best answer, but some ask you to select several answers, sort a list, select an image or watch a short video clip.
What happens after the exam?
You’ll see a preliminary score at the end. ARRT says: “The score isn’t final, and it doesn’t confirm whether you’ve passed the exam.” Official results reach your ARRT account within about 10 business days, and ARRT emails you when they’re ready.
If you don’t pass, it isn’t the end of your career. You get three attempts within three years, starting from the first day of your initial exam window. After a first or second attempt, you click Reapply on your ARRT dashboard. Our retake plan covers the rules, how to read your section scores and how to rebuild your study plan.
What should you do today?
Find your likely test date and check which outline applies. Take the free practice test. Then put the milestones from this plan on your calendar.
Sign up free for 3 full chapters (Skull, Elbow and Shoulder, Urinary), 50 questions and 1 200-question timed mock, with no card. All three chapters are in Procedures, so the free chapters won’t cover the other sections, and the free mock shows each answer as you go. For the whole plan, paid plans add all 28 chapters, 2,500+ questions with a written rationale for each, and drills by category. Plans are Monthly $39 (renews monthly until you cancel), a 90-Day Pass at $99 once that never renews, or Annual at $199 a year (about $16.58 a month) that renews until you cancel. Paid plans open soon, so you can’t buy one today.