CERTIFICATION EXAM - SPECIFIC INFORMATION
Purpose of the Certification Exam
The NCCAA administers the Certification Exam to assess entry-level cognitive and deductive skills of the anesthesiologist assistant.
Exam Format
The certification examination contains 180 items divided into two (2) blocks of 90 items, with 110 minutes to complete each block. The examination will be administered in the following format:
- Pre-test tutorial: 10 - 15 minutes
- Examination: 235 minutes – two (2) 110-minute blocks of 90 items each, with an optional break time of a maximum of 15 minutes to be taken between the first and second examination blocks only.
- Post-test survey: 10 - 15 minutes
The items are multiple choice in nature. The items are presented one at a time on a computer screen. Each item may be viewed as long as the candidate desires. The candidate may go back to a previous item within the current exam block once an answer choice has been recorded. The candidate may change the answer for a previously answered item within the current exam block; a candidate may not re-enter an exam block once completed and submitted.
Exam construction is centered on the concept that the best items have demonstrated acceptable performance. Items not utilized before have unknown performance characteristics. Therefore, it is necessary to pretest items and evaluate their performance. There are 30 such items on the Certification Exam. These items appear throughout the examination. Items surviving the rigorous evaluation process are retained for use on future examinations. The pretest items are not used in the calculation of the score for the examination.
The NCCAA Board of Directors appoints a group of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to serve on the Certification Examination Subcommittee. This subcommittee meets annually to draft and review test items for inclusion within the approved item bank. Performance statistics for items are regularly monitored and reviewed for revision, removal, or continued use by the NCCAA.
Exam Administration Site
The NCCAA contracts with PSI to administer the Certification Exam at test centers located throughout the United States, with multiple sites in major metropolitan areas. PSI is a global leader in exam development and administration, whose solutions deliver a science-based approach to testing across sectors, including certification, education, and licensure.
Exam Content
The NCCAA retains responsibility for the examination content outline and test specifications. Additionally, the NCCAA maintains an item bank of approved exam items and sets the passing score for all exams.
The content for the Certification Exam is validated through a profession-wide national survey professional job analysis (JA) most recently performed in 2021 with expected analysis to occur every 6-8 years. The JA ensures the Certification Exam reflects the knowledge of an entry-level anesthesiologist assistant. Content validation is achieved by linking the JA data with knowledge and skill statements. To complete the process, the items are drafted to meet the examination content outline derived from the JA. The JA is essential to the validation that the Certification Exam is directly job-related, a fair assessment of entry-level knowledge, and legally defensible.
The following examination content outline, developed from responses to the 2021 JA, is provided to assist candidates in preparing for the Certification Exam. The exam content outline is only a guide suggesting topics and subject areas used to generate and categorize examination items. The exam content outline is not all-inclusive, as some elements apply to more than one subject area. Therefore, candidates must validate their knowledge of a subject and must also be able to integrate this knowledge across the spectrum of anesthesia practice to successfully pass the certification exam.
The NCCAA reserves the exclusive right to determine certification examination content, to classify examination items, and to establish the percentage of exam items from each of the related subject areas. For candidate preparation purposes, the approximate percentages of items in each of the six (6) major content areas are provided in the Exam Content Outline.
