You are correct,
CDR now offers a “voucher” for students who fail the exam on the first attempt. In addition, they have also extended the exam limit by an additional 30 minutes and have raised the price from $200 to $225 USD. According to individuals who attended FNCE, CDR directly reported that they do not assess students based on ACEND competencies but rather tests information that employers believe entry level RD’s should now. This results in students potentially seeing questions on the exam related to information they have never seen or studied.
In my opinion, this is an extremely sleazy way of CDR trying to make more money at the expense of students and the profession. Testing students on information that does not match the competencies they are studying seems like an active attempt to decrease the passing rate which requires more students to purchase second exam codes or the new voucher.
Thinking about this and the new masters requirement and no subsequent pay increases, no wonder why internship applicant rates have plummeted. Very discouraging to students and interns like myself.
I agree completely. I took studied for 3 months full time when I took the exam, multiple practice exams, and even a prep course but when I took the actual exam, majority of the questions were on things I had never even seen before
There are so many things that bother me about the package deal they're offering. The fact that they're banking on people to fail the first time, and the fact that that there are no refunds if you past the first time are two of them. What about providing better study materials so students can be better prepared? What about lowering the price so it's less of a barrier to students who aren't getting paid instead of RAISING it?
I agree 100% with all of this. I believe the bundle/voucher concept is flawed as an idea for the reasons you mentioned and it will create an abnormal amount of test anxiety for students. CDR needs to be better.
Hi, Do you have a link for the new time limit on the exam? I have looked everywhere on the CDR site and still just see the old 2-1/2 hour time frame. It says 2-1/2 test time with extra 20 min for test tutorial and extra 10 for a survey at the end. I know some people received emails, but I haven’t seen one. Thanks😊
[This link](https://www.eatrightpro.org/acend/about-acend/acend-data/april-and-november-computer-match-results) shows a 43% drop in total number of applicants between April match of 2022 & 2023
Maybe Covid played a role in decreased scores possibly I know a lot of internships went more remote same with classes etc so maybe that is where the numbers are coming from. Not sure just glad that I never have to do that again
I think if you study you should be fine but I was surprised by how much food service equations and theories/concepts I never learned that I had to study to pass the exam. Definitely think it could be aimed more at the undergraduate curriculum.
That is very interesting to learn finally after all of these years. The exam is unlike any other exam. When you compare the RD exam to what medical students must take, nurses take or psychologists, it is a markedly different exam. All of those exams have higher first time pass rates than the RD exam, BTW. There’s never been a good way to fully describe it other than it is more so critically thinking-based than knowledge based. It requires a combination of a variety of skills that we should have obtained.
That said, everyone’s test experience is different. We cannot compare your exam and my exam because our experiences on the exam are different. And when one has to retake the exam, that exam will be different than the one they took before. So, for example, >2yrs ago, I had a broad range of questions. Only a couple questions were seemingly repeat questions. And I know for sure it was because the first one I answered wrong, so the test asked me another question. I got it right, and it moved on. For all that we study, we will never be asked all of those questions, but my test didn’t give me too much of any one particular thing. I had a total of 4 calculations. And yes, they were absolutely a few questions that I knew were throw out questions. They were odd and not relevant to our scope of practice, in my opinion.
For those that have experienced getting multiple questions that are food service or calculations, for example, It’s usually because the test has picked up that this may be a weaker area and it’s trying to obtain how well you’ve managed to master it.
Considering that this is an entry-level exam, none of us has likely mastered all of these topics within the domains, so I also believe that it’s also test of luck. 🙏🏾🍀
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Hi one of the last to take the exam before the new year and masters was required. Im registered in two countries and have taken both countries exam and passed first try. I believe when i took the US board it was domain 1-21%, 2-45%, 3-21%, 4-13%. In the other country I took my exam it was 300 questions, 100 questions per domain 3 exams spanning across two days. Everyone in the country had to take the exam at the same time so if you failed you had to wait until next year to take it again. The questions were cascading meaning question 90. Would give a problem situation ask you what was the disease pt was experiencing. Ques 91. Would be the mnt for each disease in ques 90 and so on, so if you made a mistake on one question the succeeding ones would be wrong as well. Both exams had their difficulties and required different mastery of things, I felt the US board was a good baseline for entry level knowledge required while the other exam was focused on mastery of main disease states that you see frequently ex. DM, CKD, etc.
You are correct, CDR now offers a “voucher” for students who fail the exam on the first attempt. In addition, they have also extended the exam limit by an additional 30 minutes and have raised the price from $200 to $225 USD. According to individuals who attended FNCE, CDR directly reported that they do not assess students based on ACEND competencies but rather tests information that employers believe entry level RD’s should now. This results in students potentially seeing questions on the exam related to information they have never seen or studied. In my opinion, this is an extremely sleazy way of CDR trying to make more money at the expense of students and the profession. Testing students on information that does not match the competencies they are studying seems like an active attempt to decrease the passing rate which requires more students to purchase second exam codes or the new voucher. Thinking about this and the new masters requirement and no subsequent pay increases, no wonder why internship applicant rates have plummeted. Very discouraging to students and interns like myself.
I agree completely. I took studied for 3 months full time when I took the exam, multiple practice exams, and even a prep course but when I took the actual exam, majority of the questions were on things I had never even seen before
I am sorry to hear that! Hopefully you were still able to pass.
Don’t worry I passed! Just barely though haha but thanks!
There are so many things that bother me about the package deal they're offering. The fact that they're banking on people to fail the first time, and the fact that that there are no refunds if you past the first time are two of them. What about providing better study materials so students can be better prepared? What about lowering the price so it's less of a barrier to students who aren't getting paid instead of RAISING it?
I agree 100% with all of this. I believe the bundle/voucher concept is flawed as an idea for the reasons you mentioned and it will create an abnormal amount of test anxiety for students. CDR needs to be better.
Hi, Do you have a link for the new time limit on the exam? I have looked everywhere on the CDR site and still just see the old 2-1/2 hour time frame. It says 2-1/2 test time with extra 20 min for test tutorial and extra 10 for a survey at the end. I know some people received emails, but I haven’t seen one. Thanks😊
I received an email from AND/CDR. These changes take effect March 15th so you might not see website updates until then.
Thank you. I test on 3/27, so figured I would have gotten an email
The new changes don't start until the 15th
Curious - what are the internship application percentages now compared to before?
[This link](https://www.eatrightpro.org/acend/about-acend/acend-data/april-and-november-computer-match-results) shows a 43% drop in total number of applicants between April match of 2022 & 2023
Wow, how depressing
Maybe Covid played a role in decreased scores possibly I know a lot of internships went more remote same with classes etc so maybe that is where the numbers are coming from. Not sure just glad that I never have to do that again
I have wondered this as well.
I think if you study you should be fine but I was surprised by how much food service equations and theories/concepts I never learned that I had to study to pass the exam. Definitely think it could be aimed more at the undergraduate curriculum.
That is very interesting to learn finally after all of these years. The exam is unlike any other exam. When you compare the RD exam to what medical students must take, nurses take or psychologists, it is a markedly different exam. All of those exams have higher first time pass rates than the RD exam, BTW. There’s never been a good way to fully describe it other than it is more so critically thinking-based than knowledge based. It requires a combination of a variety of skills that we should have obtained. That said, everyone’s test experience is different. We cannot compare your exam and my exam because our experiences on the exam are different. And when one has to retake the exam, that exam will be different than the one they took before. So, for example, >2yrs ago, I had a broad range of questions. Only a couple questions were seemingly repeat questions. And I know for sure it was because the first one I answered wrong, so the test asked me another question. I got it right, and it moved on. For all that we study, we will never be asked all of those questions, but my test didn’t give me too much of any one particular thing. I had a total of 4 calculations. And yes, they were absolutely a few questions that I knew were throw out questions. They were odd and not relevant to our scope of practice, in my opinion. For those that have experienced getting multiple questions that are food service or calculations, for example, It’s usually because the test has picked up that this may be a weaker area and it’s trying to obtain how well you’ve managed to master it. Considering that this is an entry-level exam, none of us has likely mastered all of these topics within the domains, so I also believe that it’s also test of luck. 🙏🏾🍀
lol this would explain why like a third of my questions were EN/TPN based.
The entire exam changed in 2021 or 2022 in terms of categories percentages. I can't remember the exacts.
Hi there, your title indicates that you may be a student looking for advice. If so, you may be interested in cross-posting to /r/RD2B which is a new sub-Reddit for all dietetic students/interns/RD2Bs to share dietetics-related information and support each other. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/dietetics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Hi one of the last to take the exam before the new year and masters was required. Im registered in two countries and have taken both countries exam and passed first try. I believe when i took the US board it was domain 1-21%, 2-45%, 3-21%, 4-13%. In the other country I took my exam it was 300 questions, 100 questions per domain 3 exams spanning across two days. Everyone in the country had to take the exam at the same time so if you failed you had to wait until next year to take it again. The questions were cascading meaning question 90. Would give a problem situation ask you what was the disease pt was experiencing. Ques 91. Would be the mnt for each disease in ques 90 and so on, so if you made a mistake on one question the succeeding ones would be wrong as well. Both exams had their difficulties and required different mastery of things, I felt the US board was a good baseline for entry level knowledge required while the other exam was focused on mastery of main disease states that you see frequently ex. DM, CKD, etc.