How to study smarter and pass the RD exam with confidence

You finished your dietetic internship, and now the time has come to study for the RD exam. While most students would assume that completing the dietetic internship (DI) fully prepares you to pass, when it comes to the credentialing exam, each student enters their study period with different levels of baseline knowledge and must prepare differently. This is because the material from DPD through DI programs vary in quality. 

In this blog:

• Get to know the RD exam
• Take a practice exam
• Study how you study
• Select your study materials
  • Material recommendations:
• Build a RD exam study schedule
  • Set realistic goals and a study timeline
  • Mix up your studying methods
  • Track progress and tweak the study schedule as you go
• Avoid common RD exam study mistakes
  • Time management and study efficiency
  • Building confidence and exam readiness

Get to know the RD exam 

The RD exam is a multiple-choice standardized exam with between 125-145 questions. The testing block is three hours, with the option to apply for accommodations if students have required extra time for exams during school.  

For timing, students should train to receive a maximum of 145 questions. Each exam also has test questions that are not identified from the regular questions, these questions do not impact your score. To pass, a minimum of 125 questions must be answered, and a passing score is 25.  

For some students, this might be the first standardized exam they’ve taken in a long time (or ever!), especially now that the SAT, ACT, and GRE are used less often post-pandemic. Standardized exams require you to select the best answer, and answers may be slightly different from what you were taught in your dietetic internship. 

Understanding the RD exam domains 

The exam topics are organized into four domains. The percentages in the chart above represent the percentage of exam material in each section vs what the breakdown of questions in each exam will be.  

The exam follows a computer adaptive model, which means that every person’s exam will be different. The exam selects future questions based on the types of questions you are getting right or wrong. The more questions you answer incorrectly on a topic, the more it prompts the exam to add more of those types of questions to the exam. Thus, it is important to avoid expecting your exam to follow the same topic breakdown as your classmates.  

RD exam pass rates

Currently, pass rates on the exam for students coming from dietetic internships are 61.5% for first time exam takers, 38.9% for second attempts and 30.6% for the third attempts. Exam rates have been dropping in recent years due to a variety of issues, including limited clinical experience due to COVID, changing learning styles of students, increase in situational style questions, increased test taking anxiety, and dietetic internships not providing their students with adequate RD exam prep support.  

These pass rates do not mean that you cannot pass the exam on the first attempt and do not mean that the exam gets harder every time you take it. A big driver of a drop in pass rates between the first and second attempt is exam burn out and students not changing their studying techniques between attempts. Properly preparing your study plan is the next step to passing the RD Exam. 

Take a practice exam 

For a baseline assessment that you can compare yourself back to, take a practice exam (at least 100 questions from mixed domains) in test-taking conditions during your first week of studying. This will also help you identify trouble areas.  When you review the practice exam, record how many questions you got wrong and write down the topic in which you are getting more than two questions wrong. 

This is going to not only give you a baseline score but also provide you with insights into which topics are your own personal trouble areas. Remember that on your first practice, the goal is for a data point vs a “passing” score, as you have not yet started your studying. 

Study how you study 

Before starting to study the material, it is important to understand your learning style as there is no one best way to study for the RD exam. Like the advice dietitians give patients, even though we know what healthy eating looks like, everyone’s diet looks different.  

The RD exam is different from any final exam; it is important to prepare for this exam in a way that supports review and understanding of the material that, for many students, spans four to six years. During this study assessment phase of your RD exam study planning, ask yourselves these questions: 

1. How have I previously studied for exams? 

2. Do I learn best with auditory, kinesthetic, visual, or mixed learning methods? 

3. What study materials do I currently have or plan to purchase? 

4. What areas do I feel weakest in? 

5. What areas do I feel strongest in? 

6. What are my motivators to pass this exam and become a registered dietitian? 

7. What time of day do I learn best, and when do I have time to study? 

8. Who will my support system be when I am studying? 

Taking a few minutes to answer these questions will help you build your study plan focused on what you need and not how others are studying for the exam. 

Select your study materials 

There are many resources available to study for the RD exam, and the best ones to start with are the materials you already have made (notes, flashcards, study guides, etc.) from taking your DPD courses and the study materials provided by your internship.  

Material recommendations: 

Text-based all topic review 

Most internships will provide you with text-based resources (Jean Inman, All Access Dietetics Pass Class, Sage, or Breeding and Associates). I recommend dividing the book into manageable chunks with the goal of finishing reading the book in the first 3-4 weeks of studying. As you go through the material, take notes and organize your notes into study guides. Be careful not to fall into the trap of overtaking notes.  

There is a lot of material on the exam, and any notes you take should be something that you can use to study from later. The difficulty of getting through each topic will vary based on whether it is a trouble area for you or not.  

As you go through the book, be sure to flag your trouble area topics or create a list so you know which topics to loop back on before starting practice questions. 

RD exam practice questions 

Practice questions are essential, they test if you can apply your knowledge to the exam. Most of the test-based resources will include practice questions, but it’s helpful to have practice questions from at least two sources. That way, you can see the greatest variety of types of practice questions. A great budget friendly supplemental practice question resource is Pocket Prep. There is a free version or a paid version that includes 1,500 questions and three mock exams.  

Supplemental material to cover trouble areas 

If you are not understanding a topic from your text-based resource, it is important to look for an additional resource that will help you master this trouble area. This is when tutoring sessions, recorded courses, or RD exam prep podcasts can be helpful. Students often benefit from hearing the topic explained in a new way. 

Build a RD exam study schedule  

Having a plan is essential, but planning to study for 8 hours a day for a few weeks is not a plan. The most successful students map out when and what they are going to study and keep the schedule realistic for their learning and lifestyle. Quality exam studying is always preferred to quantity of studying. 

Set realistic goals and a study timeline

As mentioned before, this is a schedule for you and should not match what your friend is doing or what your DI director told you to do. Everyone’s timeline is different, and note that studying for more than 6-8 weeks can lead to burnout. It is okay to take a break after the DI, but start to study as soon as possible to avoid forgetting topics covered in the dietetic internship. 

If you do not already have your RD exam scheduled, pick a day around where you plan to take the exam and work backwards to create a weekly calendar with that date as the end point.  

Next, add to the schedule the start time and duration of your studying each day (avoid >6 hours of studying a day). Pick one day with no studying; this helps avoid burning out and allows a buffer day to catch up as needed.  

Mix up your studying methods

With study times set, next block your activities for each day. Most students find success by doing a mix of studying activities (reading, questions, videos, flash cards, explaining topics aloud, tutoring, etc.).  

The activities scheduled will vary depending on which resources are being used. For most students, the easiest schedule is to focus on one domain a week (consider 2 weeks for D2 given that it is 45% of the material) and then leave 1-2 weeks before the exam to review trouble areas and take practice exams.  

Be sure to review the exam outline for a full exam topic list. As you finish each domain, start to add in sets of 50-100 questions from covered domains. 

Track progress and tweak the study schedule as you go

Include at least three practice exams in your schedule. Put one at the start of studying. The second exam should be taken at the end of the general review, and the third should be taken 1-2 weeks before the actual exam. At every exam, you want to see the score increase while also decreasing trouble areas.  

Each exam should be graded and reviewed for trouble areas to identify material that needs to be covered more thoroughly. The “passing” practice exam score will vary by resource. In general, aim for:

• ~75% for Eat Right Prep Exams,  
• ~85-90% Jean Inman Questions  
• ~65% for Pocket Prep Mock Exams (80% for Pocket Prep Questions sets) or >100 questions correct on other practice exams.  

These are scores to aim for on your practice exam taken 1-2 weeks before your exam. 

As you build your RD exam study schedule, you also want to think about how you will keep yourself accountable and work on confidence and test-taking anxiety management. For some students, the study schedule is enough, while others benefit from having study sessions with study buddies, or a tutor, or also sharing their study schedule with their families for added encouragement. 

Avoid common RD exam study mistakes

Before you dive into RD exam studying, consider these common mistakes so you can avoid them. A few small changes in how you study can make a big difference in your results.

Time management and study efficiency

Poor time management is something that many students forget to work on when they are studying. Rushing through questions and taking too long on questions can cause students to fail. I recommend taking timed practice exams and practice question sets to help train for ~1 minute per question.

With this average answer time, students will also have time to take short breaks during the exam, which is ideal for preventing fatigue during the exam. If students notice fatigue with their first practice exam, they should slowly work on increasing practice questions in each set until they are able to complete 145 questions in <3 hours. 

Wasting time making excessive study materials that you will never loop back on is a waste of time. If you are spending more time taking notes and making flashcards each day than learning the material, you are not effectively studying for this exam. Use AI tools for help making study guides and flash cards to save time.  

Getting burned out is one of the main reasons why studying quality decreases as the exam gets closer. Having a realistic study schedule will help with this, but also check in with yourself throughout the process. It’s always better to take a break when you’re unfocused than to push through just for the sake of staying on schedule.

Creating an unrealistic schedule is also a common downfall because it is easy to believe more studying is better. Often, we do not know what study schedule is best until we build one and test it out. Do not be afraid to adjust your schedule as needed throughout the process.

Building confidence and exam readiness

Memorizing all the topics may seem like the right thing to do and may have worked for you on the previous exam. Because of the wide variety of topics that can be asked on the exam, it is impossible to memorize everything. Focusing on building your knowledge, and learning how to apply it, helps you tackle situational questions with more confidence and less test-taking anxiety.

Not challenging yourself by just reading and doing practice questions is not preparing you for the exam. Most of your studying should be active studying, such as working to understand what the practice questions are asking and why you got them wrong, explaining topics aloud and making study guides.  

Never looping back to Domain 1 is a mistake because studying Domain 1 → Domain 2 → Domain 3 → Domain 4 is going to result in low D1 & D2 scores. Plan to include at least 1 week of all domain reviews before your exam.  

The registered dietitian exam is a difficult exam, but with proper studying, support, and confidence, you will be able to add that RD credential behind your name. 

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References: 

CDR Candidate Handbook RD Exam 2025: https://www.cdrnet.org/vault/2459/web//RD%20Handbook%20for%20Candidates%202025.pdf 

Registration Examination For Dietitians Study Outline – 2022-2026: https://admin.cdrnet.org/vault/2459/web/1459973360990/Study%20Outline%202022-2026%20RD%20Final%20EP%20Approved%209%2026%202020.pdf 

Registered Dietitian: Registration Examination for Dietitians First Exam Attempt – Summary by Registration Eligibility Pathway July-December, 2024: ttps://www.cdrnet.org/vault/2459/web//First%20Time%20Pass%20Rate%20July-Dec%202024.pdf