Week 7.5 of the APPLIED Exam will proceed

Guided by the results of a recent survey sent to candidates and examiners scheduled to participate in Weeks 7.5-9 of the APPLIED Exam, we are proceeding with the administration of Week 7.5 (July 18-19) at our Assessment Center in Raleigh, N.C., with risk-mitigating operational modifications.

We appreciate the significance of this exam and its impact on our candidates’ professional advancement and are balancing this with maintaining the integrity of the exam and the safety of everyone involved in its administration.

Risk-mitigating operational modifications to the APPLIED Exam include:

• Temperature checks at registration
• We will conduct contact tracing, noting every person that every candidate/examiner comes in contact with during the exam administration so that if we learn that someone tests COVID-19 positive, we can inform others in the exam administration process who encountered the person.
• Face masks will be required; candidates may bring their own, but the ABA will also provide them
• Extended daily administration schedules to operate at 50% of candidate capacity to exercise social distancing on shuttles, on elevators and in exam rooms
• Due to the decreased capacity, we cannot accommodate all registered candidates, but do not expect this to be an issue given the recent survey results. We will contact impacted candidates immediately if we cannot schedule them for an exam.
• Candidate wrist bands will be replaced with name tags
• Examiners and candidates will not shake hands during the SOE
• Candidates will wear additional, ABA-provided PPE for the application of ultrasonography OSCE station

Here’s what you need to know:

• Candidates and examiners are NOT required to attend 2020 APPLIED exam weeks. If you need to cancel your exam, please notify us in writing as soon as possible by emailing APPLIEDexam@theaba.org. Your cancellation fee will be waived.
• It still may be necessary to cancel Week 7.5 of the APPLIED Exam depending upon national or local pandemic conditions. We will notify candidates and examiners immediately if anything changes.
• Week 7.5 will serve as a pilot for our 2020-2021 examinations. If the pilot is not a viable exam model or future waves of COVID-19 preclude us from conducting face-to-face exams in 2021, we will consider the virtual administration of both the Standardized Oral Examination (SOE) and the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) as a temporary option.
• Our intention is to assess all candidates whose APPLIED Exams were cancelled due to COVID-19 by the end of 2021.