- The ordinary first-attempt fee total is USD 825: USD 125 application, USD 250 practice-sample review, USD 450 oral examination.
- Passing means at least a 2 (adequate) on the 0-4 rubric for each rated competency, then a committee majority vote.
- The process is credentials review, practice-sample review, then an individualized oral examination of about three hours.
- No percentage weights or question counts are published for the 15 competencies, so prepare for all of them.
The Credential at a Glance
Board Certified Specialist in Geropsychology is awarded through the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP). The specialty board that develops the standards and supplies the peer examiners is the American Board of Geropsychology (ABGERO). ABGERO is the specialty board within ABPP, not a second credential, so there is one credential and one examination path. If you want the plain-language background first, start with What Is Geropsychology Board Certification? and come back here for the facts you need to memorize.
This is not a proctored multiple-choice test at a commercial testing center. No separate Pearson VUE, PSI or Prometric appointment is specified. ABPP administers applications and payments, while ABGERO peer examiners evaluate you. Current delivery, according to the specialty board's site, is by teleconference, scheduled on a rolling basis generally 2-6 times yearly. Older ABPP-hosted materials and the procedural manual describe meeting-based and regional-team delivery; the explicit current teleconference notice controls, so confirm scheduling directly before you plan travel or time off. Scheduling details are expanded in Geropsychology Board Certification Exam Dates.
| Item | What to Know |
|---|---|
| Governing body | American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP) |
| Specialty board and examiners | American Board of Geropsychology (ABGERO), peer examiners |
| Format | Credentials review, practice-sample review, individualized oral examination |
| Oral exam length | Approximately three hours overall, including orientation and breaks |
| Delivery | Teleconference, rolling schedule, generally 2-6 times yearly |
| Question count | No standardized count published |
| Passing standard | At least 2 on a 0-4 rubric per rated competency, then majority vote |
| Renewal | Ten-year maintenance of certification (MOC), no re-examination |
Fee Mechanics and the USD 825 Math
ABPP's published fee schedule lists three charges that apply to geropsychology candidates. Regular and senior applicants pay a USD 125 application fee, USD 250 for practice-sample review, and USD 450 for the oral examination. Added together, the ordinary first-attempt total is USD 825. That figure is a calculation from the published line items, so check the ABPP fee page for the current schedule before you pay.
- Early career: the application fee is USD 65 when the doctorate was awarded no more than ten calendar years before the application year.
- Prelicensure early entry: the application fee is USD 25.
- Waivers: published application waivers cover already-certified ABPP specialists and qualifying training directors.
- Written exam fee: the general fee page lists a USD 300 written-examination charge. It does not apply to geropsychology, because there is no written exam in this pathway.
- Member/nonmember pricing: no member versus nonmember split is published.
For a fuller budget view, including time away from clinical work and preparation costs, see Geropsychology Board Certification Certification Cost.
Eligibility Checklist
Eligibility has two layers: ABPP general requirements and geropsychology-specific requirements. Treat both as gates you must clear before the exam process begins. A longer walkthrough is in Geropsychology Board Certification Requirements.
ABPP general requirements
- An acceptable psychology doctorate from a regionally accredited institution.
- Independent doctoral-level licensure in the United States, its territories or Canada.
- For degrees awarded from 2018, APA/CPA program accreditation is required. Earlier degrees may qualify through accreditation, ASPPB/National Register designation or Standards Committee review.
- Internships completed from 2020 normally require APA/CPA accreditation. Initial applications before 2027 with internships completed before 2026 may use APPIC membership or committee review. Pre-2020 internships also have accreditation, APPIC or review routes.
- Internationally educated, trained or licensed applicants are directed to ABPP Central Office.
Geropsychology-specific requirements
- Education: two relevant courses or seminars, or at least 100 approved relevant CE hours, within seven years. The 2024 manual also permits one relevant course plus 50 approved CE hours within seven years and counts a geropsychology dissertation as one course. The shorter live requirements page does not fully reproduce these options, so confirm which applies to you.
- Training: one formal full-time geropsychology training year, or 2,000 supervised geropsychology training hours through accepted formal or informal pathways. These are training hours, not 2,000 supervision hours.
- Postlicensure experience: two full-time-equivalent employment years, including one year of professional services to older adults.
- Supervision/consultation: where applicable, at least one hour weekly with a licensed psychologist whose geropsychology competence ABGERO evaluates.
- Identity: applicants identify professionally as geropsychologists.
The Senior Option
Senior Option eligibility requires at least 15 years of substantial continuous postlicensure specialty activity. The specialty FAQ describes an exemption from the minimum specialty education and supervision requirements, but it does not waive demonstrated competence. Senior candidates must still show competence across the examination competencies, and they must demonstrate competence in at least one additional functional area. Eligible seniors may submit a contribution portfolio in place of the traditional Work Examples. No fixed reference-letter count was verified.
The Three-Part Process
The sequence is successive: credentials review, then practice-sample review, then the oral examination. Each step must be cleared before the next.
1. Credentials review
ABPP verifies your doctorate, licensure, internship and specialty-specific training and experience against the requirements above. Organize transcripts, license verification and training documentation before you apply. The most common delay is a missing document rather than a missing qualification.
2. Practice-sample review
The practice sample contains a Professional Self-Study Statement (PSS) and, for traditional candidates, two Work Examples. Eligible seniors may submit a contribution portfolio instead. Candidates must protect patient confidentiality and obtain appropriate consent for any clinical material. This sample becomes the backbone of the oral examination, so write it with the oral in mind: every claim in your PSS is something an examiner may ask you to defend.
3. The oral examination
The oral examination is individualized and has three stages that review, in order, the PSS, ethical reasoning and the Work Examples. Overall time is approximately three hours. The manual describes stages as both 50-55 minutes and 45-50 minutes, with orientation and breaks, so no exact numeric timer should be assumed. Plan for stamina, not for a stopwatch.
No standardized question count or scored/unscored breakdown is published. The two selected ethics vignettes are not a total exam-item count. Examiners probe your reasoning conversationally, so depth matters more than recall speed.
Key Takeaway
Because the oral stages are built from your own PSS and Work Examples, your practice sample is both your biggest advantage and your biggest exposure. Reread every sentence you submitted and be ready to cite the evidence, ethics and cultural considerations behind it.
The 15 Examination Competencies
The Examination Evaluation Criteria in the procedural manual (printed page 13 and Appendix A) list 15 competencies: seven foundational and eight functional. No percentage weights are published. Fifteen is the number of headings, not 15 equally weighted sections, and no largest weighted domain is established. For a deeper treatment, read Geropsychology Board Certification Exam Domains: Complete Guide to All 15 Content Areas.
Foundational Competencies (Domains 1-7)
- Professionalism: how you conduct yourself and identify as a geropsychologist.
- Reflective Practice/Self-Assessment/Self-Care: honest appraisal of your strengths and limits, especially in work involving loss, dementia and end of life.
- Scientific Knowledge and Methods: grounding practice in aging research and sound methodology.
- Relationships: rapport with older adults, families, caregivers and colleagues.
- Individual and Cultural Diversity: cohort, culture, disability, sexual orientation and socioeconomic context in aging.
- Ethical/Legal Standards: capacity, consent, confidentiality, surrogate decision-making and mandated reporting.
- Interdisciplinary Systems: working with medicine, nursing, social work, long-term care and community services.
Functional Competencies (Domains 8-15)
- Assessment: cognitive, emotional and functional evaluation of older adults.
- Intervention: evidence-informed treatment adapted to age-related and medical context.
- Consultation: advising teams, facilities, families and agencies.
- Teaching: educating learners, staff and the public about aging.
- Advocacy: promoting the interests of older adults at individual and systems levels.
- Supervision and Training: developing other clinicians' geropsychology competence.
- Management and Administration: program leadership, policies and resources.
- Research: producing, evaluating and applying scholarship.
Assessment, Intervention and Consultation are essential specialty functions, so be especially ready to discuss them with concrete cases. Evaluation also reflects your own practice: if your work centers on, say, long-term care consultation, expect the examiners to weigh your strengths there while still checking breadth. The MOC manual adds an Evidence Based Practice competency and five professional-development categories, but those concern renewal and are not part of the initial-examination list above.
How Scoring Works
Each rated competency is scored on a 0-4 rubric. The bar is at least a 2, meaning adequate, on every rated competency. After the examination, the committee deliberates and reaches an overall pass/fail decision by majority vote. Candidates do not separately pass or fail each oral stage, and no percentage cutoff applies.
| Scoring Element | Rule |
|---|---|
| Rating scale | 0-4 competency rubric |
| Minimum per competency | 2 (adequate) |
| Decision method | Committee deliberation, overall majority vote |
| Per-stage pass/fail | Not applied; one overall decision |
| Percentage cutoff | None |
The practical implication is that one weak competency can matter even if the rest are strong, because the standard applies to each rated competency. Aim for no soft spots rather than a few brilliant ones. More detail is in Geropsychology Board Certification Passing Score.
On difficulty and outcomes: a current exact-specialty pass rate is not publicly verified. The specialty board's reports page lists historical reports, but the 2019 and 2018 downloads returned 404 during this review, and 2016-2017 reports were also inaccessible, so no usable current numerator and denominator were established. Treat any quoted pass rate with caution, and see Geropsychology Board Certification Pass Rate and How Hard Is the Geropsychology Board Certification Exam? for context.
Special Conditions and Confidentiality
- Not uniformly open-book: practice-sample materials may be used for the relevant oral work, but outside aids are prohibited during the ethics segment.
- Protect patients: maintain confidentiality and obtain appropriate consent for any case material you submit or discuss.
- Protect the exam: preserve the confidentiality of actual examination vignettes. Never present your own practice prompts as disclosed real examination questions, and do not trade supposed "leaked" content.
- Mentor guidance: ABGERO offers optional mentor guidance through the preparation process, which is worth requesting early.
A Competency-Driven Prep Sequence
Since there are no published weights, sequence your preparation by dependency rather than by percentage. Your PSS and Work Examples come first because everything else is examined through them. A broader plan is in the Geropsychology Board Certification Study Guide.
Build the Practice Sample
- Draft the PSS and select Work Examples that showcase Assessment, Intervention and Consultation.
- Verify consent and de-identification for every case.
Foundational Competencies
- Review Ethical/Legal Standards, Individual and Cultural Diversity and Scientific Knowledge and Methods against your samples.
- Practice articulating Reflective Practice and self-care in your own words.
Functional Competencies
- Prepare examples for Teaching, Advocacy, Supervision and Training, Management and Administration, and Research, even if they are not your main practice area.
- Rehearse cross-disciplinary stories for Interdisciplinary Systems.
Mock Orals
- Run timed practice sessions with a mentor or board-certified colleague, including a no-notes ethics segment.
- Check teleconference technology and quiet space.
For practice questions that mirror the reasoning style of the specialty, use the main practice test site alongside your mock orals. Your preparation also benefits from Geropsychology Board Certification Training resources if you still need to close education gaps.
Keeping the Credential Active
Two obligations run in parallel after you certify. First, annual ABPP attestation and dues: the ABPP directory states a January 1 annual due date with a 15-day grace period before a late fee, and directory listing requires current attestation. The current annual dues amount was not publicly verified; the 2024 manual's USD 185 active and USD 50 retired figures are dated amounts, not confirmed current charges.
Second, ten-year maintenance of certification (MOC). MOC is required for specialists certified on or after 1 January 2015, and earlier specialists may opt in. Submission is in year nine and documents the preceding two years. Requirements include at least 40 specialty professional-development credits, no more than 20 from any one activity category, plus an activities summary and a reflective narrative. These are professional-activity credits, not a flat annual CEU requirement, and MOC involves no re-examination. ABPP states there is no separate MOC participation fee.
Thinking about return on investment? The related guides on whether the certification is worth it, salary considerations and jobs cover the career side. Employers in geriatric settings, long-term care, medical centers and academic programs value the credential as evidence of specialty competence.
Quick-Answer FAQ
The ordinary total is USD 825: USD 125 for the application, USD 250 for practice-sample review and USD 450 for the oral examination. Early-career applicants pay USD 65 for the application when the doctorate was awarded no more than ten calendar years before the application year, and prelicensure early entry is USD 25.
No. The process is a credentials review, a practice-sample review and an individualized oral examination. No standardized question count or scored/unscored breakdown is published, and the USD 300 written-examination fee on the general ABPP fee page does not apply to geropsychology.
You need at least a 2 (adequate) on the 0-4 rubric for each rated competency. The committee then deliberates and decides pass or fail by overall majority vote. There is no percentage cutoff, and you do not pass or fail each oral stage separately.
Practice-sample materials may be used for the relevant oral work, but outside aids are prohibited during the ethics segment. It is not a uniformly open-book examination.
No. Maintenance of certification runs on a ten-year cycle with submission in year nine, at least 40 specialty professional-development credits and a reflective narrative, with no re-examination. Annual ABPP attestation and dues are separate.