SPI Required?
Application Window
08/04/2026 - 10/13/2026
Exam Fee
$725 USD
Exam Window
10/27/2026 - 11/19/2026
The Musculoskeletal (MSK) exam will test your knowledge of muscles, joints, tendons, ligaments, and soft tissues.
Overview
Support your patients’ strength: focus on musculoskeletal imaging with MSK.
The exam assesses the knowledge, skills, and abilities that every musculoskeletal specialist needs. MSK equips physicians and advanced care providers across physical therapy, pediatrics, critical care, orthopedics, radiology, rheumatology, and sports medicine.
Topics and Anatomy
- Reliable diagnosis
- Performing invasive procedures
- General sonographic protocols
- Integration of data
- Treatment and emerging technologies
- Physics and instrumentation
- General anatomy, physiology, and focused pathologies
- Bone pathologies
- Muscle pathologies
- Tendon pathologies
- Ligament pathologies
- Nerve pathologies
- Soft tissue pathologies
MSK is the qualified specialty exam for RMSK certification.
Practice Analysis
Quality exams start with a single purpose: reflect real-world care. We routinely evaluate and update the MSK exam to ensure that it captures the requirements of today’s practice.
Question format & scoring
The MSK exam covers approximately 195 questions over 4 hours.
- Multiple choice
- Hotspot questions: answer questions about individual images by marking directly on them
- Watch ARDMS Presents: How to Answer a Hotspot Question.
Scoring
You will receive your score report at the test center after completing your exam, and it will also be available in your Pearson account. Your results will be posted to your Inteleos portal within one week.
- Pass/fail score
- Point scale 300 to 700 (555 or better passes; not percentage or curve-based)
If you do not pass, you must wait until the next administration to retake the MSK exam.
Statistics
APCA exams assess the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to practice each specialty. Student pass rates vary.
Note: Both physicians and sonographers took the MSK exam from 2012-2014. Beginning in 2015, the MSK exam exclusively serves physicians and advanced care providers.
| 2023 First-time takers: 88% Overall: 87% |
2022 First-time takers: 75% Overall: 73% |
2021 First-time takers: 67% Overall: 64% |
| 2020 First-time takers: 70% Overall: 67% |
2019 First-time takers: 61% Overall: 59% |
2018 First-time takers: 62% Overall: 58% |
| 2017 First-time takers: 57% Overall: 50% |
2016 First-time takers: 58% Overall: 60% |
2015 First-time takers: 66% Overall: 63% |
| 2014 First-time takers: 93% Overall: 93% |
2013 First-time takers: 92% Overall: 90% |
2012 First-time takers: 97% Overall: 97% |
Content outline and practice test
Explore exam details in these MSK study guides.
Associated Certifications
The MSK exam is a qualifying specialty exam for RMSK certification.
RMSK®
Registered in Musculoskeletal
Are you a sonographer?
Visit ARDMS to get started with RMSKS certification, the equivalent to MSK for a sonographer’s practice.
Get Ready to Apply
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Applications open in August.
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Post Exam
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