ARRT Sonography is the Sonography certification and registration of the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists (ARRT), earned through ARRT’s primary eligibility pathway by completing an ARRT-verified sonography education program, meeting ARRT’s ethics requirements, and passing one of the longest examinations in medical imaging. The PassProfessor ARRT Sonography program prepares candidates for that examination on ARRT’s published content specifications.
This program is part of the expanding PassProfessor catalog — join the notify list and we’ll email you when enrollment opens.
What this credential certifies
A Registered Technologist in Sonography — written R.T.(S)(ARRT) — has demonstrated the knowledge and cognitive skills underlying the intelligent performance of the tasks typically required of sonographers at entry into the profession: producing diagnostic ultrasound images across the abdomen, obstetrics and gynecology, and superficial structures, on sound physical principles, with safe and effective patient care. ARRT’s Sonography credential program is accredited by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA).
One honest framing belongs at the front of this page. In the United States, most sonographers certify through the American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography (ARDMS) and its specialty credentials. ARRT’s primary-pathway Sonography credential is the smaller route into the profession — a genuine national credential from the registry that anchors the wider imaging professions, but the minority pathway in sonography specifically. Candidates choose it for coherent reasons: a programme built on the ARRT pathway, an employer organised around ARRT credentials, or a career plan spanning ARRT disciplines. What no candidate should do is confuse the two systems: ARRT Sonography is not an ARDMS credential, and this program prepares candidates for ARRT’s examination only. The fence is spelled out in full below.
The examination at a glance
| Item | Verified position |
|---|---|
| Program | ARRT Sonography: certification and registration as a Registered Technologist in Sonography, R.T.(S)(ARRT), through the primary eligibility pathway |
| Certifying body | The American Registry of Radiologic Technologists (ARRT) |
| Examination | 400 items in total: 360 scored items and 40 unscored pilot items. Two test sessions — Procedures, 240 minutes, and Patient Care and Image Production, 150 minutes — with a 30-minute session break; total appointment length 440 minutes (7 hours, 20 minutes) |
| Content specifications | ARRT Examination Content Specifications for Sonography, Board approved January 2023, implementation date January 1, 2024 |
| Eligibility (primary pathway) | Education, ethics and examination: complete an ARRT-verified educational program in Sonography, including its didactic and clinical competency requirements; earn an associate degree or higher from an institution accredited by an agency ARRT recognises; meet ARRT’s ethics requirements. Apply within three years of completing the educational program; once eligible, three years and three attempts to pass |
| Passing standard | ARRT publishes a scaled standard, not a percentage: a total scaled score of 75 (scaled scores run 1 to 99). Sonography adds two section requirements — a section score of 7.5 or greater in Abdominal Procedures, and 7.5 or greater in the combined Obstetrical and Gynecological Procedures sections |
| Application fee (ARRT’s fee, not a PassProfessor price) | $225 for the primary pathway application, per ARRT’s published application fee schedule |
| Credential term | Registration is renewed every year |
| Staying certified | Annual renewal; 24 continuing education credits every two years (biennium), at least 16 of them specific to sonography; and Continuing Qualifications Requirements (CQR) every 10 years for credentials earned on or after January 1, 2011 |
| Administrator note | PassProfessor is independent and is not affiliated with ARRT. ARRT certification and registration is also not a state license; state requirements are separate |
The ARRT–ARDMS fence, stated in full
Sonography is unusual among imaging disciplines in having two national credentialing systems, and candidates routinely merge them. They must not be merged. ARDMS — the American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography — awards specialty credentials including the Registered Diagnostic Medical Sonographer (RDMS), Registered Diagnostic Cardiac Sonographer (RDCS) and Registered Vascular Technologist (RVT), and it is the route most working sonographers in the United States hold. ARDMS also awards the Registered Musculoskeletal Sonographer (RMSKS) credential, a separate program in the PassProfessor catalog and not this program. ARRT Sonography, the subject of this page, is a single-discipline ARRT certification and registration earned through ARRT’s primary pathway and one comprehensive 400-item examination. The two registries’ examinations, outlines, eligibility rules and maintenance regimes are entirely separate; preparation for one is not preparation for the other, and this program makes no claim across the fence.
What the examination covers
ARRT publishes the examination’s structure as scored item counts in its content specifications (implementation date January 1, 2024). The three content categories, with their counts out of 360 scored items, are as follows.
Patient Care — 26 scored items. Patient interactions and management in full: ethical and legal aspects including patients’ rights, confidentiality and ARRT’s Standards of Ethics; interpersonal communication across language, culture, age and impairment; patient education, preparation and instructions; physical assistance, transfer, monitoring and comfort; medical emergencies; infection control and standard precautions; handling of hazardous materials; patient monitoring and safety including ultrasound bioeffects, thermal and mechanical indices and ALARA; sonographer ergonomics; and interventional procedure support.
Image Production — 118 scored items. The physics and instrumentation core of the discipline, in three parts. Basic Principles of Ultrasound (45): transducer construction, operation and types; pulse characteristics, resolution and beam interactions; detection and display of echoes, Doppler in its color, spectral and power forms; bioeffects; and spectral analysis measurements. Image Formation (47): the technical factors for diagnostic quality — power, focal zone, depth, compensation and time gain compensation, gain, frame rate, Doppler angle, gate, wall filter and related controls — plus machine and transducer use and imaging informatics. Evaluation and Selection of Representative Images (26): criteria for diagnostic quality, artefact recognition in gray scale and Doppler, annotation, real-time imaging judgement, and color and spectral analysis interpretation.
Procedures — 216 scored items. The clinical majority of the paper, in five parts. Abdomen (75): the abdominal organs, vasculature and spaces, their anatomy, pathology and sonographic appearances. First Trimester Obstetrics (20). Second and Third Trimester and High Risk Obstetrics (57). Gynecology (32). Superficial Structures and Other Sonographic Procedures (32), including small parts and related examinations. Across the Procedures category, ARRT’s focus of questions runs to anatomy and physiology, pathology and sonographic features, patient positioning and preparation, transducer and technique selection, and the recognition of incidental abnormal findings — a focus ARRT added in the 2024 specifications.
What makes this examination distinct
Scale is the first distinction: at 400 items across two sessions and a seven-hour-twenty-minute appointment, this is a stamina event as much as a knowledge event, and it is delivered in two sessions with a scheduled break. The second distinction is the double passing requirement. A candidate must reach the overall scaled score of 75 and clear 7.5 section scores in both Abdominal Procedures and the combined Obstetrical and Gynecological Procedures — a strong physics performance cannot carry a weak abdomen. The third distinction is structural: unlike the ARDMS route’s separate physics and specialty examinations, ARRT examines physics, image production and all procedure areas in one comprehensive sitting, so breadth must be held simultaneously rather than banked examination by examination.
The companion guide to this page — the ARRT Sonography Exam Guide — sets the content specifications out in full and walks the primary pathway step by step.
The route, in order
The route runs: education first — complete an ARRT-verified educational program in Sonography, demonstrating the didactic competencies of ARRT’s content specifications and the clinical competencies of its Sonography Didactic and Clinical Competency Requirements inside the program, and earn an associate degree or higher, which may be earned before, during or after the program — apply to ARRT within three years of completing the educational program — meet the ethics requirement, complying with ARRT’s Standards of Ethics and disclosing any matters the Rules of Ethics require, with an ethics review preapplication available before applying where a candidate’s history raises a question — then the examination: on approval, ARRT assigns a one-year examination window in the Candidate Status Report; schedule at a Pearson test center; and sit the two sessions inside the appointment. Once eligibility is established, the candidate has three years and three attempts to pass, each attempt on a new application and fee. Passing the examination completes the equation — education plus ethics plus examination — and ARRT certification and registration follows, with official status verifiable in ARRT’s directory.
Staying certified: renewal, biennium CE and CQR
ARRT certification and registration is maintained on three clocks. Annual renewal keeps registration current each year. Continuing education runs on a two-year biennium: 24 Category A or A+ credits, at least 16 of them specific to sonography for R.T.(S) holders. Continuing Qualifications Requirements (CQR) run on a ten-year cycle for credentials earned on or after January 1, 2011: a professional profile, a structured self-assessment, and any prescribed continuing education the assessment identifies. State licensure, where a state licenses sonographers, is a separate obligation ARRT’s credential does not satisfy by itself.
What makes this examination demanding
Endurance and simultaneity make this paper demanding. Four hundred items is roughly double the length of most imaging examinations, and the two-session structure divides the fatigue without dividing the stakes: Procedures, the 216-item clinical core, is examined in a 240-minute session of its own. The deeper difficulty is simultaneity — ultrasound physics at genuine depth (118 Image Production items, 45 of them basic principles) must be held alongside abdominal, obstetric, gynecologic and superficial-structure procedures in a single preparation, because nothing is banked from an earlier sitting. The section-score fences remove the usual strategy of compensating a weak area with a strong one in the two largest clinical territories. And the pathway front-loads the demand: by sitting day the candidate has already completed a full program’s didactic and clinical competencies, so the examination assumes a practising student’s fluency rather than a reader’s knowledge.
What the PassProfessor program will cover
Built on ARRT’s published content specifications. The PassProfessor ARRT Sonography program in our catalog is organised on the three categories of ARRT’s Sonography Examination Content Specifications in their current (January 1, 2024) form, weighted as ARRT weights them — Procedures first in volume, Image Production as the physics spine, Patient Care in full. Every item is written from scratch against primary sources; no item is drawn from ARRT’s examinations or from another provider’s material, and no content is borrowed from ARDMS preparation, which examines a different credential on a different outline.
Stamina and section discipline, trained deliberately. Preparation includes full-length, two-session timed practice in the examination’s own shape, and section-level tracking against the abdomen and obstetrics/gynecology fences — because a candidate can be passing overall and failing this examination, and should know it in practice rather than at the test center.
Independence, stated plainly. PassProfessor is an independent preparation provider, not affiliated with ARRT, and this program is not an ARRT course and not an educational program: it does not satisfy ARRT’s education or clinical competency requirements, which only an ARRT-verified program can provide. Completing it confers no credential and no eligibility; ARRT alone certifies and registers.
Tell me when enrollment opens. The ARRT Sonography program is in the works and enrollment is not yet open. Leave an email address and PassProfessor will write to you when the program is ready — and only about this program. No date is promised, because the program will open when it meets the standard described above, not before.
Frequently asked questions
Who awards the ARRT Sonography credential?
The American Registry of Radiologic Technologists (ARRT). The credential is certification and registration as a Registered Technologist in Sonography, written R.T.(S)(ARRT), and the program is accredited by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA).
Is ARRT Sonography the same as the ARDMS credentials?
No. ARDMS awards the RDMS, RDCS, RVT and RMSKS credentials through its own physics and specialty examinations, and most sonographers in the United States certify through ARDMS. ARRT Sonography is ARRT’s separate, smaller primary-pathway route: one comprehensive ARRT examination after an ARRT-verified educational program. The systems, outlines and maintenance rules do not interchange.
What are the primary pathway requirements?
Three, in ARRT’s formula: education — an ARRT-verified educational program in Sonography with its didactic and clinical competency requirements, plus an associate degree or higher; ethics — compliance with ARRT’s Standards of Ethics; and examination — passing the Sonography examination.
How many questions are on the examination, and how long is the appointment?
400 items: 360 scored and 40 unscored pilot items, in two sessions — Procedures (240 minutes) and Patient Care and Image Production (150 minutes) — with a 30-minute break, inside a 440-minute appointment.
What score passes?
ARRT reports scaled scores from 1 to 99; the published passing standard is a total scaled score of 75 — a scaled score, not 75 percent — plus, for Sonography, section scores of 7.5 or greater in Abdominal Procedures and in the combined Obstetrical and Gynecological Procedures sections.
How much does ARRT charge to apply?
ARRT’s published primary pathway application fee is $225. That is ARRT’s fee; no PassProfessor price is printed on this page because none has been decided for this program.
How many attempts do I get?
Once eligibility is established, three attempts inside three years, each on a new application and fee. Candidates apply within three years of completing their educational program.
Does this PassProfessor program satisfy ARRT’s education requirement?
No. ARRT’s education requirement can only be met through an ARRT-verified educational program, including supervised clinical competencies. This program is examination preparation for candidates in or completing such a program.
How is the credential maintained?
Annual renewal of registration, 24 continuing education credits every two years with at least 16 specific to sonography, and Continuing Qualifications Requirements every ten years for credentials earned on or after January 1, 2011.
Is ARRT certification a state license?
No. ARRT states that its credentials and state licensing are separate; a state may require its own license or use ARRT credentials within its rules, and candidates should check their state’s position.
Is PassProfessor affiliated with ARRT?
No. PassProfessor is an independent preparation provider. ARRT alone certifies and registers technologists.
When does enrollment open?
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.