- What the MHP Part II Exam Actually Tests
- The Nine Domains and Where to Focus Your Time
- Question Formats You'll Face on Test Day
- Registration, Fees, and Exam-Day Mechanics
- Eligibility: What Has to Be True Before You Sit
- A Study Timeline Built Around the Blueprint
- What the Pass Rate Data Actually Tells You
- After You Pass: Recertification
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Standards and Regulations, Structural Shielding, Radiation Oncology, Diagnostic Imaging, and Nuclear Medicine together make up 75% of the Part II blueprint.
- The 2026 Part II fee is $690 by check or $715 through PayPal, for a four-hour ExamSoft-administered exam.
- Pass rates were 44% in 2023, 60% in 2024, and 57% in 2025 - all candidates, not first-attempt-only figures.
- You need a completed MHP Training and Education Form plus endorsements from a board-certified physicist and physician before you can register.
What the MHP Part II Exam Actually Tests
This guide is specifically about the Part II Medical Health Physics specialty examination administered by the American Board of Medical Physics (ABMP) - not the Part I General Medical Physics exam and not the Part III oral board. If you landed here searching for a different credential that shares the "MHP" initials, this isn't it; everything below is built from ABMP's own Part II blueprint and policies.
Part II is a four-hour written exam delivered through ExamSoft on your own compatible computer at a designated testing venue. It is not a broad physics survey - it's a specialty exam that assumes you already understand general medical physics and is checking whether you can apply health physics judgment across nine specific content areas, from shielding design to regulatory compliance to nuclear medicine dosimetry.
For a broader orientation to what the credential covers before diving into domain-level prep, see MHP Certification and What Is MHP Certification?.
The Nine Domains and Where to Focus Your Time
The current online blueprint (booklet revised May 2025) organizes Part II into nine weighted content areas. Five of them - each carrying 15% - account for 75% of the entire exam. That concentration should drive your entire study allocation.
| Domain | Weight |
|---|---|
| Standards and Regulations | 15% |
| Structural Shielding | 15% |
| Radiation Oncology | 15% |
| Diagnostic Imaging | 15% |
| Nuclear Medicine (molecular imaging) | 15% |
| Instrumentation | 10% |
| Laboratory Design | 5% |
| Radiation Biology | 5% |
| Non-ionizing Radiation | 5% |
A full breakdown of subtopics inside each domain is covered in MHP Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 9 Content Areas. Here's how to think about the five heavyweight domains as you build a study plan.
Standards and Regulations
Covers the regulatory framework governing radiation-producing devices and materials in clinical settings - licensing conditions, dose limits, and reporting obligations.
- Know which regulatory bodies govern which modalities and equipment types
- Understand recordkeeping and reporting thresholds, not just numeric limits
Structural Shielding
Tests your ability to design and verify shielding for therapy vaults, imaging suites, and nuclear medicine areas based on workload, use factors, and occupancy.
- Practice full shielding calculations, not just formula recall
- Be comfortable with primary vs. secondary barrier logic for different beam energies
Radiation Oncology
Focuses on the health physics side of therapy: treatment unit safety, quality assurance frameworks, and radiation protection in linear accelerator and brachytherapy environments.
- Distinguish between physicist-level QA duties and health physics oversight duties
- Know brachytherapy source handling and emergency procedures cold
Diagnostic Imaging
Radiation safety and dose management across x-ray, fluoroscopy, and CT - including patient and staff dose optimization principles.
- Understand dose-reduction technique interactions, not isolated facts
- Review fluoroscopy-specific occupational exposure scenarios
Nuclear Medicine (Molecular Imaging)
Radiopharmaceutical handling, dose calibration, waste management, and area monitoring for molecular imaging and therapy procedures.
- Master decay correction and dose calibrator QA scenarios
- Know contamination control and release criteria for patients and waste
The remaining four domains - Instrumentation, Laboratory Design, Radiation Biology, and Non-ionizing Radiation - carry smaller individual weights but still appear throughout the exam in shared-stem questions. Don't skip them entirely; a 5% domain missed completely can still be the difference on a borderline score. For a deeper look at how difficult candidates generally find this balance, see How Hard Is the MHP Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026.
Question Formats You'll Face on Test Day
Part II isn't a single-format multiple-choice exam, which surprises some first-time candidates. The written formats include:
- Single-answer multiple choice - standard best-answer questions
- Matching - pairing terms, values, or scenarios against a shared list
- Choose-all-that-apply - multiple correct options within one item, which penalizes partial guessing
- Type S shared-stem questions - a single clinical or technical scenario feeding several linked questions
Shared-stem items matter for pacing. If you misread the stem's setup, you can lose points across several linked questions in a row. Practicing scenario-based item sets - not just isolated flashcards - is one of the highest-yield things you can do before test day.
Key Takeaway
Because Type S questions cluster points around a single scenario, slow down on stems that describe a facility layout, patient case, or equipment setup - errors there compound across multiple questions.
The passing standard itself is set through a Modified Angoff process, meaning the cut score is determined by expert judgment about item difficulty rather than a fixed round number like 70%. For a full explanation of what that means for your target score, read MHP Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass.
Registration, Fees, and Exam-Day Mechanics
The 2026 Part II fee is $690 by check or $715 through PayPal - the small premium reflects payment processing, not a different exam tier. Budget for this cost as part of your overall preparation timeline; a full cost breakdown including recertification expenses is in MHP Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown.
Exam-day logistics are worth locking down well in advance:
- The exam is delivered through ExamSoft on your own compatible computer, so testing the software installation ahead of time is essential
- Testing happens on-site at a designated venue, not remotely from home
- Allowed materials are limited to nonprogrammable scientific calculators and scratch paper supplied at the venue
- Duration is a fixed four hours, so pacing practice under time pressure matters as much as content review
Scheduling windows and deadlines shift from cycle to cycle - check current dates in MHP Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling before you finalize a study calendar.
Eligibility: What Has to Be True Before You Sit
You can't register for Part II on content readiness alone - ABMP requires a documented eligibility package. At minimum, you need:
- A relevant graduate degree
- Supervised clinical experience, with the required length depending on your degree and residency status
- An endorsement from a board-certified physicist
- An endorsement from a board-certified physician
- A completed MHP Training and Education Form
The usual sequence is Part I credit (or an approved waiver), then Part II, then Part III. Qualified Certified Health Physicists have a separate direct-to-oral pathway that bypasses part of this sequence. Because gathering endorsements and documentation can take longer than expected, start this process well before you plan to study intensively - a delayed application can push your test date regardless of how ready you are academically. Full detail on every requirement lives in MHP Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify.
A Study Timeline Built Around the Blueprint
Generic study techniques only help if they're mapped to what actually carries weight on Part II. Here's a timeline that allocates time proportionally to the blueprint rather than treating all nine domains equally.
Structural Shielding + Standards and Regulations
- Work full shielding calculation problems, not just formula memorization
- Build a regulatory reference sheet organized by modality
Radiation Oncology + Diagnostic Imaging
- Drill therapy QA and safety scenarios with shared-stem practice items
- Review dose-optimization tradeoffs across x-ray, fluoroscopy, and CT
Nuclear Medicine (Molecular Imaging)
- Rebuild dose calibrator QA and decay correction problems from scratch
- Review contamination control and patient release scenarios
Instrumentation, Lab Design, Radiation Biology, Non-ionizing Radiation
- Cover the smaller-weight domains in condensed review sessions
- Don't skip these - they still surface in mixed shared-stem items
Timed Practice and Weak-Spot Review
- Run full four-hour timed practice sessions to build stamina
- Revisit only the domains where practice scores are lowest
Notice the front-loading: the two heaviest single-topic clusters (shielding/regulations and oncology/imaging) get four of six study weeks, matching their combined 60% blueprint weight. This isn't a generic weekly template - it's proportional to Part II specifically. For a condensed reference you can revisit during that final review week, bookmark the MHP Cheat Sheet 2026: One-Page Review of Must-Know Facts, and pair your timed sessions with realistic practice questions on our practice test platform to simulate the shared-stem format before test day.
What the Pass Rate Data Actually Tells You
Official Part II pass rates were 44% in 2023, 60% in 2024, and 57% in 2025, calculated as candidates passing divided by candidates taking that exam sitting - not a first-attempt-only figure. That distinction matters: these numbers include repeat test-takers, so they don't tell you your individual odds on a first attempt, only the overall pass/fail split for each testing cycle.
A detailed year-by-year breakdown and what it might mean for your preparation strategy is available in MHP Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows. If you're weighing whether the credential is worth pursuing given this variability, Is the MHP Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026 and MHP Salary Guide 2026: Complete Earnings Analysis cover the broader career context.
After You Pass: Recertification
Passing Part II isn't the end of the compliance story. Certification renews every five years, and maintaining it requires 125 CE credits, including at least 65 Category 1 credits and no more than 60 Category 2 credits. Building continuing education habits early - rather than scrambling in year four - keeps this manageable alongside a clinical or industry role.
If you're still mapping out how this credential fits into your broader career trajectory, including where employers look for it, see MHP Jobs and MHP Training. And if you're arriving at this guide without full context on the credential itself, start with What Is MHP? and MHP Meaning before returning to the domain-level prep above.
Frequently Asked Questions
This guide focuses specifically on the Part II written Medical Health Physics specialty examination administered through ExamSoft. Part III oral testing follows a different format and preparation approach.
Standards and Regulations, Structural Shielding, Radiation Oncology, Diagnostic Imaging, and Nuclear Medicine each carry 15% and together make up 75% of the blueprint - prioritize these five before the four smaller-weight domains.
Only nonprogrammable scientific calculators are permitted, along with scratch paper supplied at the testing venue.
The usual sequence requires Part I credit or an approved waiver before Part II. Qualified Certified Health Physicists may follow a separate direct-to-oral pathway instead.
ABMP sets the passing standard using a Modified Angoff process, meaning the cut score reflects expert judgment about item difficulty rather than a flat percentage like 70%.