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, and the written section must be passed before either of the other two can be scheduled. The PassProfessor Mississippi Hearing Aid Specialist program prepares candidates for that examination set. The companion exam guide at /mississippi-hearing-instrument-specialist-exam-guide/ works through the same verified facts in greater depth.
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What this credential certifies
A licensed Mississippi Hearing Aid Specialist engages in the practice of dispensing and fitting hearing aids, as Mississippi’s rules define that practice: the evaluation or measurement of the powers or range of human hearing by means of an audiometer, and the consequent selection, adaptation, or sale of hearing aids intended to compensate for hearing loss — including the making of an impression of the ear. The work joins clinical measurement to a physical craft and to continuing care: audiometric evaluation performed accurately and interpreted honestly, an impression that captures the ear safely, a hearing aid selected and fitted against the wearer’s measured hearing, verification that the fitting does what it claims, follow-up that keeps it doing so, and troubleshooting when it does not.
The license is the full, independent credential in its program, and Mississippi law is direct about its necessity: no person shall engage in the sale or practice of dispensing and fitting hearing aids, or hold themselves out as doing so, unless they hold a current license under the chapter. It is not a diagnostic or medical credential. The statute and the examination rule both state that the examinations shall not include questions requiring a medical or surgical education, and the level the rule sets is explicit — an individual with a high school education or its equivalent, with appropriate study, training, and supervision under a qualified licensee, should be able to pass. Physicians are exempt from the chapter, and audiologists are licensed separately under Miss. Code ch. 73-38; neither route is this credential, and this program prepares candidates for this credential alone.
The examination 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 package, because none is published in the Mississippi statute or rule text verified for it — see the omissions note in the guide and the INTERNAL section of this file |
| 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 |
Not the license: the Temporary License that comes first
Mississippi’s trainee tier is the Temporary License under Miss. Code §73-14-27 and 15 Miss. Code R. 19-60-6.4.4, and confusing it with the license itself is the commonest starting error in this state. A temporary license may be granted to an applicant who meets the licensure requirements and has not previously applied to take the approved examination — and it must be issued before the individual starts to train or practice as a hearing aid specialist. Training begun before the temporary license issues is training begun outside the route. The temporary license entitles the holder to practice the fitting and dispensing of hearing aids, under the supervision agreement the rule requires, for a period ending thirty days after the conclusion of the next examination given after the minimum ninety-day training period has elapsed. It is a training document with a built-in examination deadline, not a junior form of independent practice: the Hearing Aid Specialist License itself issues only to the applicant who has passed all three sections of the examination. Preparation aimed at the examination belongs inside the temporary-license window, planned against its ninety-day minimum and its quarterly examination dates from the first week.
What the examination covers
Mississippi examines in three distinct registers, and the rule keeps them formally separate: a candidate passes, fails, and retests by section. A complete preparation addresses each section on its own terms.
The written exam — the Board-selected written examination. The statute provides that the examination is selected by the Board, with the advice of the Hearing Aid Advisory Council, and the rule describes the first section simply as the written exam: the general professional-knowledge paper for the occupation, covering the science of sound and hearing, audiometric evaluation and interpretation, hearing aid technology, selection, and fitting. One discipline governs how this program names it: the official Mississippi texts verified for this package do not name the written exam as any particular national examination, and this package does not name it as one either. It is the Board-selected written examination, exactly as Mississippi’s own rule presents it — and what matters for the candidate is its gatekeeping position: it must be passed before the practical and state law exams can be scheduled at all, and a written score earned in another jurisdiction is considered valid for twelve months from the date of examination only if the exam is the same as the one used by this jurisdiction.
The practical exam — six named areas of proficiency. The rule names the practical portion’s territory in full, and it is a performed examination, not a paper about performance: ear impression; audiometric evaluation; audiometric interpretation; hearing aid selection, fitting, and follow-up; verification; and hearing aid troubleshooting. Read together, the six areas describe one complete dispensing encounter and its aftermath — measure the hearing, interpret what was measured, take the impression, choose and fit the instrument, prove the fitting, follow it up, and repair what goes wrong. A candidate fluent in five areas and unpractised in the sixth is examined on the sixth.
The state law exam — Mississippi law, separately. The third section is a separate state law exam: the candidate’s knowledge of the Mississippi Hearing Aid Specialist licensure law and the rules under it — the framework of Miss. Code §§73-14-1 et seq. and 15 Miss. Code R. 19-60-6 that governs who may dispense, under what supervision, with what duties to the purchaser. It is not folded into the written exam and it is not a formality appended to the practical: the rule lists it as its own section, schedules it only after the written exam is passed, and requires a candidate who fails it to retake the entire section.
What makes this examination demanding
The first demand is the calendar. Mississippi administers the examination quarterly — on the third Wednesday of January, April, July, and October — so a missed sitting is not next week’s problem but next quarter’s, and the temporary license’s own term is keyed to that calendar: it runs to thirty days after the next examination given once the ninety-day training minimum has elapsed. A candidate who drifts through training discovers that the route’s clocks were running from the start.
The second demand is sequence, enforced twice over. The written exam must be passed before the candidate can be scheduled for the practical and state law exams — and, under the 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. Passing the written section late in a cycle can therefore defer the remaining sections by a full quarter even though the candidate has passed.
The third demand is the retest structure, which is generous in one direction and strict in another. A candidate who fails one or more sections retests the failed sections at the subsequent examination: the written and state law sections are retaken entire, while the practical section requires retesting of each failed subsection only. But applicants are limited to two attempts — the 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. Partial progress is real, and it expires.
The route, in order
Step one — qualify. The applicant must be twenty-one years of age or older and hold an education equivalent to a four-year course in an accredited high school, and must submit written evidence of those qualifications, in form and content satisfactory to the Department, together with the required fees. Step two — obtain the Temporary License before training begins, with the supervision agreement properly completed and dated — the rule directs that its beginning date be approximately two weeks prior to the start date — and complete the supervised training, including the minimum ninety-day training period, under a qualified licensee. Step three — sit and pass the written exam at a quarterly administration. Step four — sit the practical exam and the state law exam at a subsequent quarterly sitting for which the written score was received at least thirty days in advance, addressing the practical’s six proficiency areas and Mississippi law as the separate sections they are. Step five — the license: the Board registers each applicant who satisfactorily passes the examination and issues the license, which under Miss. Code §73-14-23 is effective until July 1 next following issuance. An applicant entering from another jurisdiction follows the endorsement logic the texts publish: written scores from other jurisdictions are considered valid for twelve months if the exam is the same as Mississippi’s, and 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.
Staying licensed: the working credential
The Mississippi license is a working credential held under the Board’s continuing oversight. Under Miss. Code §73-14-31, renewal is biennial, and the Board requires the applicant for renewal to present evidence of the satisfactory completion of continuing education requirements as the Board determines them; a licensee who fails to meet the educational requirement is not renewed on the ordinary course, though the statute provides for renewal on presentation of satisfactory evidence of approved educational study and payment of the fees due. The license itself must be kept conspicuously posted in the licensee’s office or place of business. The same chapter that the state law exam tests remains the daily operating standard afterward — the definitions of the practice, the supervision duties owed to temporary licensees, and the purchaser protections the law builds around every sale — which is why this program teaches Mississippi law as working law rather than as examination trivia.
What the PassProfessor program will cover
Built to the Mississippi examination set, section by section. The program is organised on the Department’s three sections as the rule publishes them: the Board-selected written examination’s professional knowledge; the practical examination performed across its six named areas — ear impression, audiometric evaluation, audiometric interpretation, hearing aid selection, fitting, and follow-up, verification, and troubleshooting; and the separate state law exam’s Mississippi licensure law and rules, taught as Mississippi law rather than as generic ethics.
The route, taught as part of the subject. Mississippi candidates lose time to sequence and calendar more than to content: a temporary license applied for after training has informally begun, a ninety-day training minimum finishing just after a quarterly date, a written score arriving inside the thirty-day window and pushing two sections a full quarter. The program teaches the qualify → temporary license → written → practical and law sequence as the rule publishes it, so the candidate’s training, sittings, and deadlines are planned as one timeline against the four annual examination dates.
Independence, stated plainly. PassProfessor is an independent preparation provider, not affiliated with the Mississippi State Board of Health or the Mississippi State Department of Health. This program is not a Department course, confers no temporary or full license, and satisfies no training or supervision requirement; the Board alone licenses, and candidates apply, train, and test through the Department.
Tell me when enrollment opens. The Mississippi Hearing Aid Specialist program is in the works as PassProfessor expands its catalog of health examination preparation, 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 issues the Mississippi Hearing Aid Specialist license?
The Mississippi State Board of Health, administered through the Mississippi State Department of Health’s Professional Licensure office, under Miss. Code §§73-14-1 et seq., advised by the Hearing Aid Advisory Council.
What are the three sections of the Mississippi examination?
A written exam, a practical exam, and a separate state law exam, under 15 Miss. Code R. 19-60-6.4.2. The written exam must be passed before the candidate can be scheduled for the practical and state law exams.
Is the Mississippi written exam a named national examination?
The official Mississippi statute and rule texts do not name the written exam as any particular national examination. The statute provides that the examination is selected by the Board with the advice of the Council, and this program describes it in those terms — as the Board-selected written examination — rather than attaching a name Mississippi’s own texts do not use.
When is the examination given?
Quarterly, on the third Wednesday of January, April, July, and October.
What does the practical exam cover?
Six areas of proficiency named in the rule: ear impression, audiometric evaluation, audiometric interpretation, hearing aid selection, fitting, and follow-up, verification, and hearing aid troubleshooting.
What must I hold before I start training?
A Temporary License. It must be issued before the individual starts to train or practice as a hearing aid specialist, and it carries the holder through a minimum ninety-day training period under a supervision agreement, ending thirty days after the conclusion of the next examination given after that period has elapsed.
What are the basic qualifications for licensure?
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.
What happens if I fail a section?
You retest the failed sections at the subsequent examination: the written and state law sections are retaken entire; in the practical, only each failed subsection is retested. Applicants are limited to two attempts — the test and the subsequent retest — to complete the examination; after an unsuccessful retest, the entire examination must be taken at the next sitting.
I passed a written exam in another state. Does it count in Mississippi?
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. Written scores must also be received at least thirty days before the quarterly exam date for the candidate to sit for the practical and state law exams at that sitting.
What score passes the Mississippi examination?
No passing score or percentage is published in the Mississippi statute or rule text verified for this program, and none is printed here. Candidates should confirm the current standard with the Department rather than rely on any figure quoted by third-party material.
Is PassProfessor affiliated with the Mississippi State Board of Health or MSDH?
No. PassProfessor is an independent preparation provider. The Board alone licenses, and the Department alone administers the examination route.
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.