The Arkansas Hearing Instrument Dispenser license, issued by the Arkansas Board of Hearing Instrument Dispensers within the Arkansas Department of Health under Arkansas Code §17-84-101 et seq., rests on a licensing examination taken in a fixed order: the standardized written examination administered by the International Hearing Society first, and the Board’s practical portions — ear mold, audiometric, and law and rules — only after the written portion is passed. The PassProfessor Arkansas Hearing Instrument Dispenser program, described on the companion program page at /arkansas-hearing-instrument-specialist-exam-prep/, prepares candidates for that examination set.
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The credential at a glance
| Item | Verified position |
|---|---|
| Program | Arkansas Hearing Instrument Dispenser (Licensed Hearing Instrument Dispenser), the Arkansas Board of Hearing Instrument Dispensers license for fitting and dispensing hearing instruments in Arkansas |
| Licensing authority | Arkansas Board of Hearing Instrument Dispensers, Arkansas Department of Health; Arkansas Code Title 17, Chapter 84, and Code of Arkansas Rules Title 17, Part 80 |
| Examination | Written portion first — a standardized examination administered by the International Hearing Society (IHS), sat after the Board notifies IHS of eligibility — then the Board’s practical portions (ear mold, audiometric, and law and rules, $25 each under the Board’s fee schedule), given at least once a year following a regular Board meeting |
| Examination subjects | Arkansas Code §17-84-305(b)’s ten areas, from basic physics of sound to tympanometry, as they pertain to the fitting of hearing instruments |
| Passing standard | No numeric pass mark is published in the Arkansas sources verified for this guide; outcomes are notified as pass or fail, and for the written portion the Board may follow the pass or fail recommendations set out by IHS |
| Attempts | Three attempts at the examination as a whole (§17-84-305(d)); interns face the added eighteen-month and complete-the-internship-first rules of 17 CAR §80-107 |
| Administrator note | PassProfessor is independent and is not affiliated with the Arkansas Board of Hearing Instrument Dispensers, the Arkansas Department of Health, or the International Hearing Society |
Arkansas rewards candidates who read the credential as Chapter 84 built it: a Board that controls eligibility at both ends of the examination — it tells the International Hearing Society who may sit the written portion, and it gives the practical portions itself, on its own meeting calendar; a statutory subject list that reads like the occupation’s table of contents; an internship that is not a waiting room but the examination’s first stage, with its own clocks and consequences; and an attempt limit that makes every sitting count. One sequence governs everything: approval, written, practical, license. The candidate who internalises that sequence early plans differently from the candidate who treats the stages as independent events. The guide below takes each verified element in turn.
Reading the verified facts
Every fact in the table above was pinned to Arkansas primary material — Chapter 84 of Title 17, the Board’s rules in the Code of Arkansas Rules, and the Board’s published fee schedule and forms — during this program’s research pass. Three reading rules apply throughout the guide. First, the passing standard is printed only in the form Arkansas publishes it: pass or fail, notified by the Board, with the Board permitted to follow IHS’s pass or fail recommendations for the written portion. No percentage or scaled figure appears in the verified sources, and any such figure quoted by third-party material is not an Arkansas-published figure. Second, the examination’s two stages are never merged: the written portion’s administrator, fees, and notification path belong to IHS and the Board jointly in the way §80-107 describes, and the practical portions belong to the Board alone. Third, the internship is never described as the license: its certificate, its sponsor rules, and its clocks are stated as trainee-tier facts, and the alternative bases in §17-84-304 are stated as alternatives, not as the main route’s decorations.
The route, step by step
Step one — establish the pre-licensure basis. For most applicants that basis is the internship: a one-year employment internship, applied for on the Board’s forms and approved before it begins, served under the direct personal and physical supervision of a sponsor who has held a valid Arkansas hearing instrument dispenser’s license or Arkansas audiology license, continuously and in good standing, for at least three years. The sponsor submits an outline of the intended training program, the Board approves it before any internship certificate issues, and the sponsor carries no more than one intern at a time. Applicants relying on §17-84-304’s other bases — a National Board for Certification in Hearing Instrument Sciences certificate, a license in another state meeting the reciprocity basis, graduation from an American Conference of Audioprosthology program, or an Associate of Applied Science degree in Hearing Healthcare Practitioner or a similar degree from a regionally accredited institution — document that basis instead. Step two — be approved for license by examination, and wait for the Board’s notification to IHS. The Board, not the candidate, opens the written examination: on approval it notifies IHS of the applicant’s eligibility to take or retake the written exam, IHS emails the applicant with scheduling eligibility, and the rule instructs applicants not to contact IHS directly before that notification arrives. The intern reaches this step mid-internship: after the first six months are successfully completed and the sponsor’s written recommendation reaches the Board, the intern may take the written exam. Step three — sit and pass the written portion. The applicant registers with IHS and pays IHS’s examination fee directly to IHS; IHS sends the scores to the Board; the Board sends the pass or fail notification by email and regular mail. A fail is a retake on the same notification path, inside the three-attempt limit. Step four — sit the Board’s practical portions. Eligibility begins at the written pass. The portions are given at least once a year following a regular Board meeting; the completed application must be received through the Board’s Executive Director no later than thirty days before the examination; and the candidate sits the ear mold, audiometric, and law and rules portions at $25 each. Step five — take the license. With the examination passed as a whole, the internship or other §17-84-304 basis complete, and the application, registration, and license fees paid under the Board’s schedule, the Board issues the license. Two failure clocks run beneath the whole route: the non-intern applicant who has not passed every part within one year of the initial application’s approval must reapply for licensure by examination; the intern who has not passed within eighteen months of the internship’s approval — or who has used the three attempts — repeats the internship application and program.
The outline in full
Arkansas Code §17-84-305(b) publishes the examination’s subject matter as a ten-area list, framed as tests of knowledge in those areas as they pertain to the fitting of hearing instruments. The list is stated here in full, because in Arkansas the written and practical stages draw on one list: the written portion reasons across it, and the practical portions perform and apply it.
The knowledge foundations: physics, the hearing mechanism, and the instruments
Basic physics of sound — the acoustics every later area spends: frequency, intensity, and the decibel reasoning that audiograms are written in. The human hearing mechanism, including the science of hearing and the causes and rehabilitation of abnormal hearing and hearing disorders — the anatomy and physiology of the ear, what goes wrong with it, and what rehabilitation can and cannot do, stated at the dispenser’s level: §17-84-305(c) provides the tests shall not include questions requiring a medical or surgical education, so the mechanism is examined for fitting purposes, not diagnostic ones. Structure and function of hearing instruments — what the devices are made of, how they process sound, and what their components do to the signal the wearer receives. These three areas are the written portion’s home ground, and the candidate who treats them as introductory reading discovers that the measurement areas are unintelligible without them: masking is physics plus anatomy, and selection is instrument function applied to a loss.
The measurement areas: audiometry, speech, and masking
Pure tone audiometry, including air conduction testing and bone conduction testing — the threshold craft itself, and the air–bone comparison that classifies a loss. Live voice or recorded voice speech audiometry, including speech reception threshold testing and speech discrimination testing — speech measured both ways, for threshold and for understanding, because a fitting that ignores discrimination promises the wearer clarity the ear cannot deliver. Effective masking — named as its own area, and the list’s most consequential single word may be its adjective: not masking as a ritual but masking that works — applied when crossover threatens the result, at levels that occlude the non-test ear without crossing back, and verified by the plateau. Arkansas’s practical portions examine this family where it lives, in the audiometric portion, and the written portion examines the reasoning behind it; a candidate fluent in only one register is fluent in neither.
The judgement areas: evaluation, selection, impressions, and tympanometry
Recording and evaluation of audiograms and speech audiometry to determine hearing instrument candidacy — the record read as a decision: is this person a candidate, and what does the record require of the fitting? Selection and adaptation of hearing instruments — the fitting judgement itself, matching instrument to loss and adapting it to the wearer. Taking earmold impressions — the performed craft the ear mold portion examines directly: inspection, safe placement, material handling, and a finished impression that reproduces the canal. Tympanometry — middle-ear measurement, the dispenser’s window on the conductive pathway and on the referrals the fitting must not paper over. Around these ten sits the practical stage’s eleventh subject, stated separately in the rules: the law and rules portion tests the applicant’s knowledge of Arkansas Code §17-84-101 et seq. and the Board’s rules — the chapter that creates the Board, defines the practice, sets the internship and examination machinery, and governs the license the candidate is seeking. Arkansas examines its law inside its own practical stage because, in this design, the law is part of the practice being demonstrated, not an appendix to it.
How the passing standard is reported
Arkansas’s standard deserves a slower pass, because its machinery is unusual in a way candidates misread. For the written portion, 17 CAR §80-107(a)(5) provides that the Board may follow the pass or fail recommendations set out by IHS. The written examination is therefore standardised twice over: it is a standardized examination administered by IHS, and the pass/fail line the candidate is judged against may be the one IHS’s own standard-setting recommends, adopted by the Board. What Arkansas does not publish, in any source verified for this guide, is a number — no percentage, no scaled score, no raw cut for the written portion, and none for the practical portions either. The outcomes are binary and official: IHS sends scores to the Board, and the Board sends the applicant a pass or fail notification by email and regular mail. Two consequences follow. First, preparation aimed at a rumoured Arkansas percentage is aimed at an invention; the rational target is the §17-84-305 subject list covered at working depth, plus the law of Chapter 84 known as working law. Second, the attempt limit gives the binary outcome its weight: with three attempts at the examination as a whole under §17-84-305(d), a pass/fail notification is not information to shrug at — for the intern it also triggers the rule that any failed part must wait until the internship is complete before re-examination, so the candidate’s response to a first failure should be a plan, built from the portions and areas failed, rather than an immediate re-booking.
The sittings themselves
The two sittings run on opposite logistics. The written sitting is an appointment the candidate arranges with IHS after eligibility arrives by email — computer-based, scheduled by the candidate, paid to IHS at registration, and fenced by one rule candidates break out of impatience: do not contact IHS directly before the Board’s notification, because eligibility and approval are determined by the Board, and an unapproved registration buys nothing. Keep the Board’s contact file current, because the result returns by email and regular mail alike. The practical sitting is an event on the Board’s calendar: given at least once a year following a regular Board meeting, entered by a completed application received through the Executive Director no later than thirty days before the examination, and priced by portions — $25 each for ear mold, audiometric, and law and rules, with re-examination of a portion charged at that portion’s fee. The calendar consequence deserves emphasis: because the practical follows a Board meeting and recurs at yearly minimum intervals, the date of the next practical sitting is a fact the candidate should obtain as soon as the written portion is passed — ideally before — and the internship’s eighteen-month clock and the applicant’s one-year clock both run whether the candidate knows the date or not.
A study plan built on how this examination is actually put together
Build the plan in the examination’s own order. First, the written portion’s knowledge, without delay — physics of sound, the hearing mechanism and its disorders, hearing instrument structure and function, and the audiometric reasoning of §17-84-305 — because the written pass is the gate to everything else and because the intern’s first eligibility arrives at six months, earlier than most candidates expect to be ready. Second, masking and audiometric craft as performed skills — air and bone thresholds, speech reception and discrimination, and effective masking practised on live subjects under the sponsor’s initials-and-dates regime, which conveniently makes ordinary internship work double as examined rehearsal. Third, the impression craft — earmold impressions taken, inspected, and criticised as the ear mold portion will judge them. Fourth, Arkansas law as a portion in its own right — Chapter 84 and the Board’s rules read as the candidate’s own governing documents: definitions, internship, examinations, fees, discipline. Fifth, timed, attempt-aware practice — because three attempts is a budget, the final preparation phase should include at least one full rehearsal under examination conditions for whichever stage is next, and no sitting should be spent as a reconnaissance exercise. Leave room in the plan for the administrative facts — the thirty-day application deadline, the Board-meeting calendar, the internship and application clocks — reviewed at each stage, because Arkansas voids more candidacies on mechanics than its subject list suggests.
The working method: turning the outline into a performance
Preparation for the Arkansas examination fails most often as an internship problem disguised as a knowledge problem: the candidate works a year in the trade and studies for a different examination than the one the year was building toward. The working method that answers it has four parts. Make the internship generate the evidence. Every audiogram the sponsor initials is a graded artefact: keep a personal log of the masking decisions, impression faults, and evaluation judgements inside that work, filed under §17-84-305’s ten areas, so the year’s practice arrives at the examination already organised by its syllabus. An error log keyed to the statute. Written errors and performed errors in one log, by area — a masking error is a masking error whether it surfaces in a practice paper or on a live subject — reviewed fortnightly, with the log assigning the next fortnight’s work. Law read against the workplace. Chapter 84 studied in the office it governs: where is our calibration record, what does the sponsor sign, what may an intern not do? A portion examined among the practical portions is best learned as practice, not as summary. Attempts treated as capital. No sitting taken to “see what it is like”: each attempt, intern attempts included, is spent only when the log says the relevant areas are ready, because the statute allows three and the internship rules punish a spent attempt with a completed internship before the next.
The errors this examination is built to catch
The Arkansas examination catches a recognisable set. Studying the practical before the written inverts the state’s gate and leaves the candidate performing beautifully for an examination they are not yet eligible to take. Contacting IHS before the Board’s notification misunderstands who controls eligibility, and buys an unapproved registration. Treating the internship as employment rather than as the examination’s first stage — the six-month written eligibility arrives whether the intern has studied or not, and the eighteen-month clock runs from approval, not from readiness. Spending attempts as rehearsals collides with §17-84-305(d): three attempts at the examination as a whole, intern attempts included. Masking by routine — always, never, or by fixed level — fails the statute’s own standard, which names effective masking as the subject. Leaving Arkansas law to the night before concedes a separately priced, separately failed portion of the Board’s own examination. And missing the thirty-day application deadline for a practical sitting that may not recur for a year is the purest administrative failure the route contains.
The credential in one view
The Arkansas credential in one view is a supervised year converted, by a two-stage examination, into licensed independent practice. The Board approves the internship and its sponsor before training begins; the sponsor’s supervision produces, audiogram by initialled audiogram, the practitioner the examination will judge; IHS’s standardized written paper certifies the knowledge, on eligibility the Board alone grants; and the Board’s own portions — the mold, the audiometry, and the law of the occupation itself — certify the craft and the judgement. Every structure around the examination serves the Board’s stated mission, public protection in the purchase of hearing instruments: the one-intern sponsor limit, the calibration inspections, the three-attempt discipline, the annual renewal with its continuing education and equipment verification. The candidate who studies the examination as that single design finds the stages reinforcing each other: the internship explains the practical, the written paper explains the internship’s theory, and the law portion explains both.
After the sitting: the credential and its clocks
The license renews annually, and the renewal application is itself a small audit: verification of current calibration sheets for every piece of equipment used, from every office and mobile unit; twelve hours of Board-approved continuing education units for the renewal period, including one unit of ethics, all pre-approved by the Board and earned inside the renewal year; and the completed renewal postmarked by June 30 to avoid late fees, with the license not valid until the renewal is complete. The dispenser’s regulatory world continues in the same terms the examination used — the Board inspects facilities and requires periodic calibration of audiometric equipment and tympanometers, handles complaints against licensed dispensers, and publishes the list of Arkansas Licensed Hearing Instrument Dispensers against which any purchaser can check a name. In time the licensee inherits the sponsor’s side of the structure: three years in good standing qualifies the dispenser to sponsor an intern, one at a time, under a training outline the Board approves — the examination’s standards, handed on.
Frequently asked questions
Which Arkansas provisions govern the examination?
Arkansas Code §17-84-305 sets the examination’s subjects, its at-least-annual cadence, and the three-attempt limit, and Code of Arkansas Rules 17 CAR §80-107 runs the machinery: IHS eligibility notification, the written-first order, and the internship examination rules. The Board’s powers, including ensuring a qualifying examination at least once a year and furnishing a list of study materials for applicants, sit in §17-84-203.
Why must the written portion be passed before the practical portions?
Because 17 CAR §80-107(b) makes it the eligibility rule: upon passing the written portion, the applicant is eligible to take the practical portions. Before the written pass, the practical portions are not open to the applicant at all.
When can an intern first take the written examination?
After successfully completing the first six months of a valid internship program, once the Board receives the sponsor’s written recommendation. The intern must also work in the same physical location as the sponsor, and every audiogram and purchase order the intern performs must be approved, initialed, and dated by the sponsor.
What changes for an intern who passes the examination mid-internship?
The intern may complete the internship program under the sponsor’s oversight without the sponsor’s direct personal and physical supervision. What does not change is the internship itself: the year is still completed, and the license follows the completed route, not the examination alone.
What happens if an intern fails part of the examination?
The intern must complete the internship program before re-examination, and the attempt counts against the three attempts allowed for the examination as a whole. If the intern has not passed every part within eighteen months of the internship’s approval, or has exhausted the three attempts, the internship application and program must be repeated.
Does Arkansas publish a fee for the written examination?
The rule states that IHS charges a fee for the written examination, paid by the applicant directly to IHS on registration; the verified Arkansas sources do not fix its amount, and this guide does not state one. The Board’s own published fees are the practical portions at $25 each and, in its fee schedule, a $100 application fee.
Is tympanometry really part of a dispenser examination?
Yes — it is the tenth area in §17-84-305(b)’s subject list, examined as it pertains to the fitting of hearing instruments. Arkansas’s renewal machinery underlines the point: current tympanometer calibration is part of the annual renewal verification.
What if I am licensed in another state, or nationally certified?
Section 17-84-304 lists the alternative pre-licensure bases alongside the internship, including a National Board for Certification in Hearing Instrument Sciences certificate and licensure in another state whose requirements support the reciprocity basis, as well as an American Conference of Audioprosthology graduation and the specified Associate of Applied Science degree. The examination requirements themselves are the Board’s to apply to each basis, and applicants should confirm their route with the Board.
How does the Board notify results?
For the written portion, IHS sends the scores to the Board and the Board sends the applicant a pass or fail notification by email and regular mail — one reason the rule directs applicants to maintain updated contact information with the Board.
Is PassProfessor affiliated with the Arkansas Board, the Department of Health, or IHS?
No. PassProfessor is an independent preparation provider. The Board alone licenses and gives the practical portions, and IHS administers the written portion.
When does enrollment open for the PassProfessor program?
The program is in the works and enrollment is not yet open. Leave an email address on this page and PassProfessor will write to you when the program is ready — and only about this program.