Praxis Audiology exam format and how to prep

The Praxis Audiology exam is a computer-delivered test built and scored by ETS, the Educational Testing Service. It consists of 120 multiple-choice questions, and candidates are given two hours to complete it. There is no separate writing section and no oral component; every question is answered on screen.

Scores are reported on ETS's 100 to 200 scale, and the passing score most state licensing boards and certification bodies require is 162. Because states and certifying bodies adopt ETS score requirements rather than setting their own scoring scale, 162 is the number that shows up almost everywhere the exam is used as a gate, but candidates should always confirm the requirement with their own state board or certifying body rather than assuming it.

ETS organizes the content of the exam into five domains, and every question on the test is written to fit into exactly one of them. In the order ETS presents them, they are foundations, prevention and screening, assessment, intervention, and professional practice and responsibilities.

ETS publishes approximate weights for the five domains in the Study Companion: Foundations of Audiology about 24 questions (20 percent), Prevention and Screening about 12 (10 percent), Assessment about 42 (35 percent), Intervention about 30 (25 percent), and Professional and Ethical Responsibilities about 12 (10 percent). Assessment is the largest block by a wide margin, which lines up with how much of an audiologist's day is diagnostic testing and interpretation, and assessment plus intervention together are about 60 percent of the exam.

Foundations covers the underlying science an audiologist draws on before ever touching a patient: acoustics, anatomy and physiology of the auditory and vestibular systems, and the instrumentation used to measure them. Prevention and screening covers newborn and school hearing screening, occupational and recreational noise exposure, and hearing conservation programs.

Assessment covers the full range of diagnostic testing: pure-tone and speech audiometry, masking, immittance and acoustic reflexes, otoacoustic emissions, auditory evoked potentials, and vestibular testing. Intervention covers what happens once a diagnosis is made: hearing aid selection and verification, cochlear implants, aural rehabilitation, and tinnitus management. Professional practice and responsibilities covers ethics, scope of practice, and the legal and regulatory framework an audiologist practices within.

Because assessment is both the largest domain and the one most students find most technical, allocating a proportionally larger share of study time to it, particularly masking decisions, audiogram interpretation, and immittance and reflex patterns, tends to pay off more than spreading time evenly across all five domains. The other four domains are still worth real preparation time; they are simply not where the largest share of the 120 questions will come from.