20.16 - COMPETENCY EXAM
Pre-Competency Exam
An internship pre-competency exam will be administered during Orientation Week to the Dietetic Internship Program. This competency exam will cover all material that the intern learned from his/her respective DPD program. This exam will be very similar to what you will expect to see when you take the RD exam for Dietetic Registration when you graduate from the internship program.
Suggestions to prepare for the pre-competency exam:
- Reviewing textbooks, notes, other study material from the intern’s DPD program
- Purchasing commercial RD exam study material including:
Purchasing commercial review material is not a requirement for the internship. Many interns choose to purchase commercial review material when they graduate from the internship to prepare for the RD exam. Purchasing the study material earlier in the internship program would be a good investment to help the intern prepare for the pre-competency exam, then continue to use the study material after graduation for the RD exam.
An acceptable passing score for the pre-competency exam is 70% or higher. Obtaining a score lower than 70% will NOT prevent an intern from starting supervised practice rotations. Interns who do not score a 70% or higher will be given an “Internship Boot Camp” assignment that he/she must complete throughout the duration of supervised practice rotations. This assignment will consist of multiple clinical case studies and other assignments to help strengthen the intern’s knowledge to pass the RD exam. Due dates for the “Internship Boot Camp” assignments will be evenly distributed throughout the supervised practice rotations. The Internship Director may also suggest/require the intern purchase a commercial RD exam study material to help strengthen the intern’s knowledge if he/she did not pass the pre-competency exam with a 70% or higher.
Please note: interns that pass the pre-competency exam with a 70% or higher are NOT required to complete the “Internship Boot Camp” assignment, but they are encouraged to complete the assignment as extra study material in preparation for the RD exam.
Final Competency Exam
On class day #3 prior to starting the elective rotation, ALL interns will take a final competency exam, which is similar to the pre-competency exam and the RD exam. In order to pass the internship program, an acceptable score for the final competency exam is 70% or higher. Interns who do not score a 70% or higher on the final competency exam will have an opportunity to re-take a different final competency exam one week later. If an intern does not pass the re-take of the final competency exam, the Dietetic Internship Director will develop a personalized remediation plan with the intern to be accomplished during the elective rotation. The purpose of the remediation plan is to help strengthen his/her knowledge to pass the RD exam. In the event an intern must complete a remediation plan, any cost associated with this will be at the intern’s expense. Once this remediation plan has been completed at a satisfactory level, and all supervised practice hours in the elective rotation and in the internship overall have been completed, a verification statement will be issued to the intern.
The purpose for taking the pre-competency exam and final competency exam is to prepare the intern for RD exam.
