EOI EXAM SPECIFICS

The MTCA Certified Exercise Oncology Instructor exam is designed to test potential candidate’s knowledge and comprehension in the areas of exercise oncology. It is intended to measure competency areas that are specific to the field of cancer exercise such as exercise physiology, fitness assessment, prescription and programming, and clinical and medical considerations. The corresponding level of practice being measured is a specialty certification in exercise as it relates to cancer patients.

The EOI exam is administered to candidates who wish to become certified in the specialty of exercise oncology. The exam length is approximately 2 hours with 100 scored questions and 24 unscored questions, all multiple choice. Every 3 years, the Exam Committee will meet to administer new questions and assure that current questions are up to par with the newest knowledge in the respective field.

The standardization of this test will ensure validity and reliability among tests and test takers. Formatting in this way creates consistency across candidates to avoid diminishing validity and reliability.

STANDARDIZED SCORE SCALE

• Candidates’ performance on the entire examination determines the pass-fail decision. Overall performance is reported on a standardized score scale ranging from 200-800 in increments of 1 point. The mean standardized score for first-time takers of this examination is 500 with a standard deviation of 100. For example, a score of 600 is one standard deviation above the mean of first time takers. Candidates with equal ability will achieve the same standardized score.

STANDARD SETTING

• A standard setting was found for the score scale using the Modified Angoff Method. A committee of SMEs rated each question on the exam to independently estimate what proportion of “just sufficiently qualified” test takers will answer the questions correctly. Each question is discussed and averaged within the group, determining the average or standard setting.

WEIGHT OF CONTENT AREAS

• Finally, each content area is weighted proportionally, based on their distributed on the total exam. In other words, some content areas are more important (thus, have more questions) and count more with respect to the overall score than other content areas. On the score report, candidates will receive their overall score, their pass/fail status, as well as a breakdown by each specific content area.