1.3 Scoring, Retakes, Fees, and Credential Maintenance

Scoring, Retakes, Fees, and Credential Maintenance

Quick Answer: Pass/fail is the total scaled score. 75 on a 1–99 scale passes; 75 is not a percent. Section scores run 0.1–9.9 and are diagnostic only. The 2025 Annual Exam Report lists a Mammography first-attempt pass rate of 87.9% and an approximate percent correct to pass of 66—still not the scaled 75. You get three attempts in three years from the initial window start. Reapplication is $200. After three fails or three years, repeat structured education and clinicals (clinicals in the two years immediately before the new application). Annual renewal is $65. R.T. biennial continuing education (CE) is 24 credits. A scoring appeal is $25.

Scoring is where otherwise well-prepared candidates invent private math. They average section scores, treat 75 as 75%, or treat the Annual Exam Report’s 66 as a promise that 76 of 115 will pass every form. ARRT’s published scoring rules are simpler than that folklore, and they are stricter about what happens after a fail.

How the total scaled score is built

ARRT first counts how many scored items you answered correctly. Pilots are excluded. That raw count is converted to a scaled score from 1 to 99. A 75 or higher passes. ARRT uses scaling because several forms of the exam exist at once and are not identical in difficulty. On a slightly easier form you may need a few more correct answers to reach 75; on a slightly harder form you may need a few fewer. The scaled 75 is intended to represent the same standard.

ARRT’s public scoring examples for a 200-item exam (131 versus 130 correct depending on form difficulty) are illustrations of the method, not Mammography’s cut. Mammography has 115 scored items, so its raw cut is a different number and is not published as a guaranteed item count for your form. The Board of Trustees sets the passing standard after a standard-setting panel. You will not be told the raw cut at the tutorial screen.

A preliminary scaled score prints at Pearson VUE. Official results typically post to your ARRT account in about 10 business days. If information is incomplete or fees are unpaid, ARRT may delay results (up to six months) or cancel them. A canceled score is not a pass you can later activate.

Section scores are diagnostic only

The score report also lists section scaled scores from 0.1 to 9.9 in tenths (for example, 8.1). ARRT presents them on a different scale because each section is a subset of items and is less reliable than the total. A section 8.1 is roughly comparable to a total scaled 81 if that section had been the whole exam. It is not a second passing hurdle.

Mammography is not Sonography. Sonography requires a total 75 and 7.5 in Abdomen and in Obstetrics/Gynecology. Mammography pass/fail is the total 75 only.

Do not average Patient Care, Image Production, and Procedures section scores and expect the mean to equal the total. Sections have different item counts. Procedures (65 scored items) influences the total more than Patient Care (20). Use section scores to aim a retake: a weak Procedures number is a positioning-and-pathology problem, not a reason to reread only patient-communication notes.

What the 2025 Annual Exam Report does—and does not—tell you

ARRT’s 2025 Annual Exam Report Mammography section lists a first-attempt pass rate of 87.9%. That is a cohort statistic, not your probability. It also lists an approximate percent correct to pass of 66. Read that line as a historical translation of recent forms, not as a new official passing rule and not as “66 = scaled 75.”

Why the two numbers can both be true: scaling maps a form-specific raw cut onto 75. If recent Mammography forms needed about 66% of scored items correct to hit that standard, the report can print 66 while the candidate-facing passing score remains scaled 75. The report’s topic-count table may still reflect the pre-September 2025 blueprint (the 14/33/26/42 split taught in the next section). Do not let a statistics PDF override the current content specifications.

ARRT does not publish a live dashboard of this week’s raw cut. If you need a number ARRT has not printed for your form, the honest statement is that ARRT does not publish it.

Three attempts in three years

You may make three attempts within three years to pass. The three-year clock starts on the starting date of your initial ARRT exam window, not on the day you first failed and not on your structured-education completion date. After three unsuccessful attempts or three years—whichever comes first—eligibility ends.

If you sit the exam as a state licensing candidate, that sitting counts toward ARRT’s three-attempt limit if you also apply for ARRT certification. Passing as a state candidate does not make you ARRT-certified.

After a first or second unsuccessful attempt, reapplication is $200 for postprimary (the same dollar figure ARRT lists for primary reapplication). That is not another $225 first-time application.

After the limit: repeat education and clinicals

For the postprimary pathway, regained eligibility requires repeating structured education and clinical experience. All clinicals must be performed within the two years that immediately precede the new application. You cannot recycle the old 75 mammograms, old QC participations, or old EQUIP consult. Primary-pathway candidates regain eligibility by completing an educational program; that route is not the Mammography postprimary reset.

Plan retakes inside the original three-year window when you can. Repeating 16 hours plus a full clinical worksheet is far more expensive in time than one focused restudy of weak sections.

Fees, renewal, CE, and appeals

Keep ARRT’s cash register separate from FDA’s.

Annual renewal is $65 regardless of the number of ARRT credentials held. Adding (M) beside (R) does not double the renewal invoice. R.T.s complete 24 approved CE credits each biennium, also regardless of credential count. Sonography has an extra discipline-specific CE wrinkle; Mammography does not replace the 24 with a smaller (M)-only number inside ARRT rules.

MQSA continuing education and continuing experience for mammography personnel remain FDA rules. ARRT CE and MQSA CE can overlap in subject matter, but completing one report does not automatically complete the other.

ARRT says scoring-calculation errors are extremely unlikely. For $25, within the handbook’s time limit, you may request a review of scoring accuracy. An appeal is not a rescore of clinical judgment on image items and not a fourth attempt.

If you pass, ARRT mails a welcome packet after official results post, including the certificate and maintenance guidance. Listing the credential follows ARRT’s format: R.T.(R)(M)(ARRT)—periods after R.T., no spaces inside the parentheses, (ARRT) at the end.