- OB-1T is delivered online through myPOCUS, so you start on your own schedule rather than booking a fixed test-center date.
- You must complete both the Clinical Case Assessment and Peer Evaluation within 90 days of purchase.
- After a failed attempt, a 30-day wait applies, and you must apply for a retake within 90 days.
- Two total content-specific attempts are allowed before a 1-year waiting period begins.
There Is No Fixed Test Date: How Scheduling Actually Works
Candidates searching for "OB-1T exam dates 2026" often expect a calendar of testing windows with registration cutoffs, like a proctored test-center exam. That is not how the POCUS Obstetrics/First Trimester Certification works. The credential is administered by the Point-of-Care Ultrasound Certification Academy, part of Inteleos, and delivered online through myPOCUS and its learning management system. There is no published seasonal testing window you must hit.
That shifts the planning question. Instead of asking "when is the exam?", ask "when do I want my 90-day access window to begin, and is everything else ready by then?" The dates that matter are the ones you create: your purchase date, the day your peer evaluators respond, and the day you finish each component.
For the broader picture of what the credential involves, see our overview in OB-1T Certification and the eligibility details in OB-1T Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify.
The Clocks That Actually Matter
Because there is no fixed calendar, the timing rules are all relative: they start counting from an event in your own process. Here are the ones to track.
The 90-Day Completion Window
You must complete both components within 90 days of purchase. This is an access and completion window, not a timed exam sitting. It does not mean you get 90 days of instruction, and it is not a course-hour requirement or a practical-assessment duration. Online assessments can be stopped and resumed, so you are not forced to finish the Clinical Case Assessment in a single block.
The Prior-Experience Lookback
Eligibility requires attesting that you performed and participated in the interpretation of at least 25 obstetrics/first-trimester POCUS cases within the preceding 2 years. That lookback is a rolling window, so if your qualifying cases are close to aging out, that is a reason to buy sooner rather than later. The cases must include a combination of transvaginal and transabdominal scanning; the requirement is not 25 cases of each approach.
The Fundamentals Progression Rule
If you need POCUS Fundamentals, there is a separate timing rule: the issuer's policies require earning your first content-specific certificate within 3 years of Fundamentals, or reapplying for Fundamentals. This is a progression restriction, not a 3-year expiry. Fundamentals itself does not expire. If you hold a qualifying SPI pass from within 5 years or a current qualifying ARDMS/APCA credential, Fundamentals may be waived.
What to Finish Before You Purchase
Since the 90-day clock starts at purchase, the smartest scheduling move is to front-load everything that does not require the clock. Think of the pre-purchase phase as unlimited-time preparation and the post-purchase phase as a sprint.
- Confirm eligibility. You need to be a healthcare professional in good standing and actively practicing in the relevant clinical area.
- Document your 25 cases. Gather logs showing a mix of transvaginal and transabdominal first-trimester scans within the past 2 years.
- Line up at least 2 peer evaluators. They must be healthcare providers with an ultrasound clinical background who know your relevant scanning abilities. Ask them before you buy, not after.
- Resolve Fundamentals. Check whether you need it (USD 125 separately) or qualify for a waiver, so it does not stall you mid-window.
- Review the content outline. The official OB/First Trimester Content Outline lists the five weighted domains and published pathology examples.
For the money side of this checklist, our OB-1T Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown walks through the USD 150 clinical certification fee, the USD 125 Fundamentals fee, and the USD 275 combined figure that applies only when both must be purchased.
Planning Around Two Components
The credential has two parts, and both must be passed. The Clinical Case Assessment consists of 7 simulated clinical cases with multiple-choice and interactive image-hotspot questions. Seven is a case count, not a question count; a fixed current total question count has not been verified in the public sources reviewed, so do not assume a number. The separate Peer Evaluation assesses practical abilities through 7 evenly weighted criteria: Diagnostic Quality, Gain, Depth, Views, Measurement, Pathology, and M-Mode.
The two components run in parallel, which is good news for scheduling. You can take the case assessment at your own pace while your evaluators complete their questionnaires on theirs. The practical approach:
- Send evaluator invitations as early in the window as possible, since you do not control their response time.
- Sit the Clinical Case Assessment while those responses are still arriving, rather than waiting for them.
- Keep a buffer at the end of the window for a slow evaluator, because the 90-day limit applies to both components.
Both the case assessment and the evaluation are covered by a confidentiality and nondisclosure agreement, so you should plan your preparation around the published content outline rather than expecting recalled questions from others. For a sense of how demanding the assessment is, read How Hard Is the OB-1T Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026.
Retake Timing and Waiting Periods
Scheduling matters most if the first attempt does not go as planned, because the retake rules include several distinct time limits that are easy to confuse.
Retake Timeline Rules
These come from the issuer's academy policies:
- 30-day wait follows an unsuccessful attempt before you can try again.
- 90 days to apply for a retake after the failure.
- 2 total attempts on a content-specific assessment before a 1-year waiting period.
- Passed components are retained for the first retake application, so you may not need to redo both.
- A retake application and fee are required; the fee amount was not verified in the public sources reviewed.
The retained-component rule is the most useful scheduling detail here. If you pass the Peer Evaluation but miss the Clinical Case Assessment, your retake effort can focus on the case assessment alone. Use the 30-day wait productively by reviewing which domains were weakest rather than simply re-reading everything.
Be careful not to confuse the 30-day wait with the 1-year waiting period. The 1-year period applies only after two total content-specific attempts. Neither is a score-based rule; the numeric passing mark has not been verified publicly, and you can read more about what is and is not known in OB-1T Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass and OB-1T Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows.
Pacing the 90 Days by Domain Weight
Because the window is short, how you spend it should follow the official weighting of the Clinical Case Assessment. These five weights total 100% for the case assessment only, not for the entire two-component credential.
| Domain | Weight | Scheduling Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Standard POCUS Views | 7% | Quick refresh early; low volume but foundational |
| Anatomical Features | 23% | Early-to-mid window; builds the vocabulary for findings |
| Sonographic Findings | 30% | Mid window; second-largest block |
| Diagnostic Findings | 36% | Largest block; revisit repeatedly through the window |
| OB/First Trimester Pathologies | 4% | Short but distinctive; fold in alongside diagnostics |
Diagnostic Findings (36%) and Sonographic Findings (30%) together make up 66% of the case assessment, so most of your review hours belong there. The 4% weight for the Pathologies domain can mislead you: pathology examples such as ectopic pregnancy, heterotopic pregnancy, molar pregnancy, and ovarian torsion also show up as the clinical substance behind diagnostic and sonographic questions. For a full breakdown, see OB-1T Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 5 Content Areas.
Views and Anatomical Features
- Refresh standard transabdominal and transvaginal views
- Review gestational sac, yolk sac, embryo, and adnexal anatomy
- Send peer evaluator invitations immediately
Sonographic Findings
- Practice recognizing what an image shows and where the key landmark sits
- Work interactive hotspot-style identification
Diagnostic Findings and Pathologies
- Move from "what do I see" to "what does it mean for this patient"
- Keep possible pregnancy failure and definitive pregnancy failure as separate categories
- Distinguish complete from incomplete abortion and early pregnancy from possible pregnancy
Buffer and Completion
- Finish the Clinical Case Assessment if not already done
- Confirm both peer questionnaires are in
- Keep a margin for evaluator delays
This is a sample pacing model, not an issuer requirement. If you have strong daily scanning experience, you might compress it and take the assessment earlier; if you are newer to transvaginal imaging, you might extend the middle blocks. Our OB-1T Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt goes deeper on building your own plan, and the OB-1T Cheat Sheet 2026: One-Page Review of Must-Know Facts is useful for last-week review.
Key Takeaway
Treat the 90-day window as two parallel tracks: your own case-assessment preparation and your evaluators' response time. Start the evaluator track on day one, since it is the one you cannot control.
To test your readiness against first-trimester scenarios before you spend your window, try the OB-1T practice tests and use the results to decide how many weeks of review you actually need before buying.
The 5-Year Renewal Calendar
Once you pass, the next date on your calendar is five years out. Certification is valid for 5 years. Clinical renewal requires an active-practice and good-standing attestation, the relevant knowledge check, and a USD 50 fee. Specialty-only professional-development points do not apply to this individual clinical certification, so do not plan around accumulating them.
Practical advice: set a reminder well ahead of your expiration date, and treat the renewal knowledge check as a prompt to keep your first-trimester skills current rather than something to cram. Our Is the OB-1T Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026 and OB-1T Salary Guide 2026: Complete Earnings Analysis discuss the career value in role-based terms. Note that OB-1T is a retained site identifier, not an awarded post-nominal, and no credential-specific pay increase is promised.
Timing Rules at a Glance
| Rule | Duration | What It Governs |
|---|---|---|
| Completion window | 90 days from purchase | Finishing both the Clinical Case Assessment and Peer Evaluation |
| Case-experience lookback | Preceding 2 years | Eligibility for the 25 first-trimester cases |
| Wait after unsuccessful attempt | 30 days | Earliest point to retry |
| Retake application deadline | 90 days after failure | Window to apply for a retake |
| Waiting period after 2 attempts | 1 year | Delay before further content-specific attempts |
| Fundamentals progression | 3 years | Earn first content-specific certificate or reapply for Fundamentals |
| Certification validity | 5 years | Time until renewal is due |
If you are still orienting yourself to the credential itself, What Is OB-1T? and OB-1T Training cover the foundations, and OB-1T Jobs looks at the clinical roles where first-trimester POCUS skills are used.
Frequently Asked Questions
No fixed calendar of testing windows was identified in the public sources reviewed. The certification is delivered online through myPOCUS, and your timeline is driven by your purchase date and the 90-day completion window. Always confirm current details on the issuer's site.
You must complete both the Clinical Case Assessment and the Peer Evaluation within 90 days of purchase. This is an access and completion window, not a timed sitting, and online assessments can be stopped and resumed.
A 30-day wait follows an unsuccessful attempt. You must apply for a retake within 90 days of the failure, and a retake application and fee are required. A component you already passed is retained for the first retake application.
Policy allows 2 total content-specific assessment attempts before a 1-year waiting period applies. Plan your first attempt carefully so you do not use an attempt on an unprepared sitting.
It is valid for 5 years. Renewal requires an active-practice and good-standing attestation, the relevant knowledge check, and a USD 50 fee. Details are on the issuer's maintenance of certification page.