The Mississippi Hearing Aid Specialist license, issued by the Mississippi State Board of Health through the Mississippi State Department of Health’s Professional Licensure office under Miss. Code §§73-14-1 et seq., authorizes the holder to engage in the practice of dispensing and fitting hearing aids in Mississippi. The examination behind it has three sections — a written exam, a practical exam, and a separate state law exam — administered quarterly, with the written section gating the other two. The PassProfessor Mississippi Hearing Aid Specialist program, described on the companion program page at /mississippi-hearing-instrument-specialist-exam-prep/, prepares candidates for that examination set.
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The credential at a glance
| Item | Verified position |
|---|---|
| Program | Mississippi Hearing Aid Specialist, the Mississippi State Board of Health license to engage in the practice of dispensing and fitting hearing aids |
| Licensing authority | Mississippi State Board of Health, administered by the Mississippi State Department of Health (Professional Licensure), advised by the Hearing Aid Advisory Council; Miss. Code §§73-14-1 et seq. and 15 Miss. Code R. 19-60-6 |
| Examination | Three sections under 15 Miss. Code R. 19-60-6.4.2 (amended 8/15/2024): a written exam, a practical exam, and a separate state law exam. The written exam must be passed before the candidate can be scheduled for the practical and state law exams. Examinations are administered quarterly, on the third Wednesday of January, April, July, and October |
| Passing standard | No passing score or percentage is printed in this guide, because none is published in the Mississippi statute or rule text verified for it |
| Eligibility | Twenty-one years of age or older, an education equivalent to a four-year course in an accredited high school, passage of the examination approved by the Department, and payment of the required fees (15 Miss. Code R. 19-60-6.4.1; Miss. Code §73-14-17) |
| Route | Qualify → Temporary License and supervised training (minimum ninety-day training period) → written exam → practical exam and state law exam → license |
| Administrator note | PassProfessor is independent and is not affiliated with the Mississippi State Board of Health or the Mississippi State Department of Health |
Mississippi rewards candidates who read the credential as the Board built it: a short, supervised apprenticeship in the form of the Temporary License, followed by an examination in three formally separate sections, on a calendar with only four dates a year. The training document expires against the examination calendar; the written section unlocks the other two; the retest rules preserve partial progress for exactly one further sitting; and Mississippi law is examined on its own, as its own section, because the licensee will practice inside that law every working day. The guide below takes each verified element in turn.
Reading the verified facts
Every fact in the table above was pinned to Mississippi primary material — the licensure chapter itself, Miss. Code §§73-14-1 et seq., and the Department’s hearing aid specialist rules at 15 Miss. Code R. 19-60-6, including the examination rule as amended August 15, 2024 — during this program’s research pass. Three reading rules apply throughout the guide. First, no passing score is printed, because none is published in the sources verified: the statute says the Board shall register each applicant who “satisfactorily passes” the examination, and neither the statute nor the rule states the standard as a score or percentage — so none appears here, and any percentage quoted by third-party material for this examination should be treated as unverified. Second, the written exam is described exactly as Mississippi describes it: the examination is selected by the Board with the advice of the Hearing Aid Advisory Council, and the rule calls its first section the written exam. The official texts verified do not name that written exam as any particular national examination, and this guide does not name it as one. Third, the two documents of the route — the Temporary License and the Hearing Aid Specialist License — are never merged: the first authorizes supervised training and practice on a short, examination-keyed term; the second, and only the second, is the independent credential.
The route, step by step
Step one — qualify, on paper first. Be twenty-one years of age or older and hold an education equivalent to a four-year course in an accredited high school. The licensure rule requires written evidence of the qualifications, in form and content satisfactory to the Department, together with the required fees — the route begins as a documented application, not as informal training. Step two — obtain the Temporary License before any training or practice begins. The rule is blunt: the temporary license must be issued before the individual starts to train or practice as a hearing aid specialist. It is available to an applicant who meets the licensure requirements and has not previously applied to take the approved examination; the supervision agreement must be properly completed and dated, with the rule directing that its beginning date be approximately two weeks prior to the start date. Step three — complete the supervised training, including the minimum ninety-day training period, under the direction of a qualified licensee. The temporary license’s term is built around what comes next: it entitles the holder to practice the fitting and dispensing of hearing aids for a period ending thirty days after the conclusion of the next examination given after that ninety-day period has elapsed. Step four — sit and pass the written exam at a quarterly administration (the third Wednesday of January, April, July, or October). Nothing else can be scheduled until this is done. Step five — sit the practical exam and the state law exam. Their scheduling carries its own thirty-day rule: written exam scores must be received at least thirty days before the quarterly exam date in order to sit for the practical and state law exams at that sitting. Step six — the license. The Board registers the applicant who satisfactorily passes the examination and issues the license, effective until July 1 next following issuance; renewal thereafter is biennial, with the Board’s continuing education evidence requirement attached.
The outline in full
Mississippi’s examination has no single commercial blueprint; it has a rule. Rule 19-60-6.4.2 states the three sections, their order, their retest treatment, and — for the practical — its complete list of proficiency areas, and the statute states the examination’s level and limits. The three sections are stated here in full, in the order a candidate meets them, because in Mississippi the sections interlock: the written paper tests the knowledge the training taught in principle, the practical performs the craft the training practised, and the state law exam governs how all of it may lawfully be done.
The written exam: the Board-selected written examination
The first section is the occupation’s general professional-knowledge paper, taken under two statutory limits that shape its character. The examination is selected by the Board, with the advice of the Hearing Aid Advisory Council — a seven-member advisory body that includes licensed hearing aid specialists — and it may also include an oral examination at the Board’s discretion. Its questions shall not require a medical or surgical education, and its intended level is stated in the statute itself: at a minimum, an individual having a high school education or its equivalent, with appropriate study, training, and supervision under the direction of a qualified hearing aid specialist, should be able to pass. The territory that level describes is the dispenser’s working knowledge: acoustics and the hearing mechanism, audiometric evaluation and the interpretation of its results, hearing aid technology and how instruments are selected against measured loss, fitting and follow-up, and the recognition of the presentations that belong to a physician rather than to a dispenser. Two structural facts matter more than any syllabus summary. The written exam is a gate, not merely a section: it must be passed before the candidate can be scheduled for the practical and state law exams at all. And it is portable only on Mississippi’s terms — written scores from other jurisdictions are considered valid for twelve months from the date of examination, and only if the exam is the same as the one used by this jurisdiction.
The practical exam: six areas of proficiency, performed
The rule names the practical portion’s areas of proficiency in a single list, and the list is the syllabus: ear impression; audiometric evaluation; audiometric interpretation; hearing aid selection, fitting, and follow-up; verification; and hearing aid troubleshooting. Taken in order, they are the dispensing encounter dissected. Ear impression examines the physical craft — inspection before anything enters the ear, safe block placement, material handling, and a finished impression that reproduces the anatomy. Audiometric evaluation examines measurement itself — the procedure, sequence, and recording discipline that produce a trustworthy threshold. Audiometric interpretation examines what the candidate does with the measurement — reading the record the evaluation produced and reasoning from it, which is why the rule lists evaluation and interpretation as separate proficiencies: a candidate can perform a test correctly and still misread it. Hearing aid selection, fitting, and follow-up examines the commercial heart of the credential — matching instrument to loss, fitting it to the wearer, and sustaining the fitting over time. Verification examines proof — the discipline of demonstrating that the fitted instrument performs as intended rather than assuming it. Troubleshooting examines the aftercare craft — diagnosing the instrument fault, the fit fault, and the wearer problem, and putting each right. The retest rule underlines the section’s modular reality: a candidate who fails part of the practical retests each failed subsection only, so the six areas are scored as the distinct proficiencies the rule names them as.
The state law exam: Mississippi law, as its own section
The third section examines the law of the credential itself, separately from professional knowledge and separately from performed skill. Its territory is the framework the licensee will operate inside: Miss. Code §§73-14-1 et seq. — the license requirement and the prohibition on unlicensed practice, the definitions of the practice, the Board’s and the Council’s roles, the qualifications and the temporary-license training structure, renewal and its continuing education condition — together with the Department’s rules at 15 Miss. Code R. 19-60-6. Mississippi’s decision to examine law as a standalone section, rather than as a portion of the written paper, carries a preparation consequence candidates routinely miss: law studied as an afterthought, in the margin of audiometry study, meets an examination that gives it a full section’s weight and a full section’s retest — a candidate who fails the Mississippi law section retakes the entire section at the subsequent examination.
How Mississippi handles results, retests, and the attempt limit — and what is not published
A slower pass over the results mechanics is worthwhile, because Mississippi publishes an unusually complete retest scheme and no pass mark at all, and confusing those two facts misleads preparation in opposite directions. What the rule publishes, in full, is this. An applicant who fails one or more sections of the initial exam retests the failed sections at the subsequent examination, in the manner the rule specifies: the written examination section is retaken entire; the Mississippi law section is retaken entire; the practical examination section requires retesting of each failed subsection only. Applicants are then limited to two attempts — one test and the subsequent retest — to complete the examination successfully; after an unsuccessful retest, the applicant must take the entire examination at the next sitting. What the sources verified do not publish is a passing score: no percentage, scale, or cut score for any section appears in the statute or in rule 19-60-6.4.2, and none is printed in this guide. The honest preparation target is therefore the syllabus itself at working standard — the six practical proficiencies performed fluently, the written territory known at the statute’s stated level, and Mississippi law known as law — rather than any rumoured number.
The sittings themselves
Mississippi’s sittings are fixed points, and the candidate should rehearse the calendar as carefully as the content. The examination is administered quarterly, on the third Wednesday of January, April, July, and October — four opportunities a year, each separated by a full quarter. The written exam is sat first, on its own; the practical and state law exams follow at a sitting for which the written score was received at least thirty days beforehand. That receipt rule deserves its own emphasis: it is the score’s arrival, not the sitting at which it was earned, that the thirty days runs from, so a candidate’s planning unit is not the examination date but the date thirty days before it. The temporary license runs on the same clock from the other direction — its term ends thirty days after the conclusion of the next examination given after the ninety-day training minimum — so training, first sitting, and licensure form one continuous countdown that the candidate, not the Department, is responsible for tracking. Results mechanics beyond the retest scheme — score reporting formats and notification timing — are not stated in the sources verified and are left to the Department’s own communications with its applicants.
A study plan built on how this examination is actually put together
Build the plan backwards from a chosen quarterly date, in the order the route imposes. First, fix the calendar: choose the written-exam quarter, count back the ninety-day training minimum and the temporary-license application that must precede training, and mark the thirty-day written-score receipt deadline for the following quarter’s practical and law sittings — before any content study is scheduled, because in Mississippi the calendar is the constraint everything else fits inside. Second, the written territory — the profession’s shared knowledge at the statute’s stated level, studied against the training the candidate is concurrently completing, so principles attach to supervised practice rather than to prose alone. Third, the practical proficiencies as performances — impressions, evaluation, interpretation, selection and fitting, verification, troubleshooting — rehearsed as the six distinct subsections the retest rule treats them as, so a weakness is located in one named area rather than felt as a general unease. Fourth, Mississippi law as a subject in itself — the licensure chapter and the Department’s rules read as the operating law of the practice the candidate is entering, finished before the law sitting rather than crammed beside it, because the section is retaken entire if failed. Fifth, protect the retest position: the first sitting is also the setup for the second — sections passed are banked for exactly one subsequent examination — so the plan treats the initial attempt as the attempt that matters, not as a reconnaissance.
The working method: turning the outline into a performance
Mississippi preparation fails most often as a sequencing problem disguised as a knowledge problem: the knowledge is attainable at the level the statute states, but the route punishes drift. The working method that answers it has four parts. Train with the examination in view. The ninety-day supervised minimum is the raw material for two of the three sections — every supervised evaluation, impression, and fitting is a rehearsal for a named practical subsection, and should be debriefed against that subsection’s standard while the supervisor’s correction is still fresh. An error log keyed to the sections and subsections. Every missed written item, misread audiogram, flawed impression, and misstated rule of Mississippi law filed under its section — and, inside the practical, under its named area — so that after a month the log, not the candidate’s confidence, assigns the remaining study. Law learned as scenarios. The state law territory applied to situations — a supervision question, a sale, a renewal, an unlicensed-practice boundary — because the section examines the law of a working practice, and because the same law will govern the licensed practice that follows. Calendar discipline as a study skill. Quarterly dates, the thirty-day receipt rule, the temporary license’s expiry, and the two-attempt structure diarised from the first week of training; Mississippi voids more candidacies through its calendar than through any single proficiency.
The errors this examination is built to catch
The Mississippi set catches a recognisable set. Starting to train before the Temporary License issues puts the candidate outside the route from the first day; the rule requires the license before training or practice begins. Treating the three sections as one examination concedes the structure the rule enforces — separate scheduling, separate retests, and a law section with its own full weight. Studying the practical as theory meets a section whose six areas are proficiencies, performed and scored by subsection. Merging evaluation and interpretation — practising the test procedure while neglecting the reading of its results — fails against a rule that lists them as two proficiencies. Leaving Mississippi law to the final week meets a section that is retaken entire if failed. Spending the first attempt casually, on the theory that sections can always be picked up later, collides with the two-attempt limit: after an unsuccessful retest the entire examination is taken again at the next sitting, banked sections and all. And letting the written score’s timing drift — sitting the written exam without regard to the thirty-day receipt rule — defers the practical and law sections by a full quarter even in success.
The credential in one view
The Mississippi Hearing Aid Specialist license in one view is supervised trust, examined three ways. A temporary licensee learns the craft at a qualified licensee’s side for a measured minimum period; the state then tests the learning in the three registers in which it will be used — what the candidate knows, what the candidate can do, and whether the candidate knows the Mississippi law the doing is governed by; and only the candidate who clears all three holds the independent credential. The examination sits at the hinge of that chain and is built in the chain’s own image: the written section certifies the knowledge the training taught, the practical certifies the hands the training trained — area by named area — and the state law exam certifies that the new licensee knows the legal frame the license will operate inside. The candidate who studies the three sections as one event at three registers — principle, performance, and Mississippi law — finds them reinforcing each other: audiometric theory explains interpretation, impression practice explains fitting outcomes, and the law explains why the whole sequence is supervised in the first place.
After the sittings: the license and its clocks
Passing all three sections converts the temporary licensee into a Hearing Aid Specialist: the Board registers the applicant and issues the license, effective until July 1 next following issuance. The working credential then runs on the chapter’s own clocks — biennial renewal, with evidence of the Board’s continuing education requirements presented as the Board determines; the license displayed conspicuously in the office or place of business, as the statute requires; and the supervision duties of the experienced licensee, who in time signs the supervision agreements for the next cohort of temporary licensees and answers for their training as their own supervisor once answered for theirs. The specialist who treats the state law exam’s material as the permanent operating standard of the practice — rather than as a section cleared in a quarter now past — meets renewal, supervision, and audit as formalities inside a framework already understood.
Frequently asked questions
Which Mississippi sources govern this route?
The licensure chapter, Miss. Code §§73-14-1 et seq., for the credential, the qualifications, the Temporary License, and renewal; and the Department’s rules at 15 Miss. Code R. 19-60-6 — above all Rule 19-60-6.4.2 for the examination’s sections, calendar, and retest scheme, Rule 19-60-6.4.1 for the licensure requirements, and Rule 19-60-6.4.4 for temporary licensure. Candidates should read the current rule text, including its August 15, 2024 amendment, before planning a sitting.
Why must the written exam come first in Mississippi?
Because the rule makes it the gate: the written exam must be passed before the candidate can be scheduled for the practical and state law exams, and written scores must additionally be received at least thirty days before a quarterly exam date for the candidate to sit the other two sections at that sitting.
Is there a published Mississippi passing score I should aim at?
No passing score or percentage for any section was published in the statute or rule text verified for this guide, and none is printed here. The statute’s standard is that the applicant “satisfactorily passes” the examination; any percentage quoted by third-party material should be treated as unverified, and candidates should confirm the current position with the Department.
How does the two-attempt limit actually work?
An applicant has the initial test and the subsequent retest to complete the examination. At the retest, only the failed sections are retaken — written and law entire, practical by failed subsection. If the retest does not complete the examination, the applicant must take the entire examination at the next sitting.
Does the examination test medicine or surgery?
No. Both the statute and the rule state that the examinations shall not include questions requiring a medical or surgical education, and the statute fixes the intended level: a person with a high school education or its equivalent, with appropriate study, training, and supervision under a qualified licensee, should be able to pass. Recognizing when a presentation must be referred to a physician remains part of lawful dispensing practice.
Can the Board add an oral examination?
The statute provides that the examination selected by the Board, with the advice of the Council, may also include an oral examination at the Board’s discretion. The current rule structures the examination as its three named sections; candidates should confirm the format for their own sitting with the Department.
I hold a license in another state. What transfers to Mississippi?
Two published provisions apply. Written exam scores from other jurisdictions are considered valid for twelve months from the date of examination if the exam is the same as the one used by this jurisdiction. Separately, the Department may license an applicant who presents satisfactory evidence of having passed an examination before a similar lawfully authorized examining agency or board of another state. Neither provision is automatic; the Department judges the evidence.
What should I do after an unsuccessful first attempt?
Retest the failed sections at the subsequent quarterly examination, rebuilding against the section that failed — practical failures by named subsection, through supervised live rehearsal rather than reading — and protect the attempt limit: the retest is the last sitting at which banked sections survive, so it should be prepared as the decisive one.
How long does the Temporary License last?
It entitles the holder to practice the fitting and dispensing of hearing aids for a period ending thirty days after the conclusion of the next examination given after the minimum ninety-day training period has elapsed. It must be issued before training or practice begins, and it is not renewable into a practice credential — the license itself comes only through passing all three sections.
How is the license renewed?
Biennially, under Miss. Code §73-14-31, with the Board requiring evidence of satisfactory completion of its continuing education requirements. The initial license itself is effective until July 1 next following issuance, under §73-14-23.
Is PassProfessor affiliated with the Mississippi State Board of Health or MSDH?
No. PassProfessor is an independent preparation provider. The Board alone licenses; the Department administers the route and the examination.
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.