If you’re reading this, chances are you’re seriously considering (or already committed to) pursuing your Oncology Specialist Certification.
But what most PTs don’t realize is that the specialization process is a marathon, not a sprint. And this marathon doesn’t finish when you take the exam. Let me explain:
In this episode, I’m going to walk you through what the year ahead looks like — so you can make a realistic specialization preparation plan that fits your life and doesn’t run you into the ground.
Let’s get into it.
Phase 1: Summer = Application Season
The first phase of the specialization process is the application. If you didn’t know, you have to apply to sit for the oncology specialty certification exam. And your application has to be accepted for you to even schedule your exam!
To apply for the oncology specialty certification exam, you must meet certain criteria, including:
- Holding a “current permanent/unrestricted license to practice physical therapy in the United States or any of its possessions or territories”
- Pay the application & exam fees
- Submit evidence of either 2,000 hours of direct patient care in your specialty area OR successful completion of an ABPTRFE-accredited residency in your specialty area
If you meet these criteria (plus any other relevant requirements which you can find in the ABPTS Candidate Guide), congrats! You can apply to sit for the specialty certification exam.
Your oncology application is due by either July 1, 2025 (early bird application deadline) or by September 30, 2025 (final application deadline). That includes your case report.
Now these aren’t just dates – they will shape your entire timeline for your specialization journey. Let me explain:
If you aim for the July 1 deadline:
You’ll have your case report DONE by early summer, which frees up your fall for studying.
This also means that you’ll probably get your application approved earlier, which means more time to mentally and logistically prepare for the actual exam.
This is the ideal deadline if you have:
- A packed mid-late summer
- Big life events (like a wedding, new job, or school term starting)
- Or if you just want breathing room during the summer before you starting studying
Specialization tip: This timeline is also great for people who know they procrastinate if given the opportunity.
If you aim for the September 30 deadline:
You’ll have more summer time to work on your case report. Absolutely no shame in this.
But know that you’ll need to go into study mode almost immediately after submitting.
Specialization tip: This is best for someone who doesn’t mind intensity and can compartmentalize well.
The bottom line on deadlines:
These aren’t just deadlines — they’re strategic levers in how you protect your time, your energy, and your sanity.
It doesn’t really matter which deadline you choose. But once you select a deadline, STICK WITH IT.
And of course — regardless of your deadline, if you need help getting that case report done, Case Report Writing Workshop is your step-by-step support system to make it manageable (and not your full-time job).
As part of your application, you must submit a case report that demonstrates your specialty practice in oncology.
Your case report is your biggest task right now. Your case report is the most time-intensive part of your application, especially if you are writing without support.
I encourage you to have your case report written at least 2 weeks ahead of your selected deadline. This will allow you time to have others read your case report & provide feedback, that you can then implement into your case report before you submit it.
And if you want support getting that case report finished without burning out, that’s exactly what we cover inside Case Report Writing Workshop. Link’s in the show notes.
Phase 1.5: Application Accepted
This isn’t a true phase, but a transition from Phase 1 to Phase 2. At some point, you are going to hear back from ABPTS on whether your application was accepted or not.
If your application is accepted, no corrections needed: congrats, it’s time to move forward!
If your application is not accepted: review the feedback ABPTS provides, implement these changes, and resubmit.
Once your application is accepted, you need to create your study schedule (with regards to your life calendar, of course) and gather necessary study materials.
Phase 2: Fall = Exam Prep Starts
Why start studying in the fall? Because winter will disappear with holidays and work/life busyness. Also, fall is a natural back to business vibe (school starts, people get back from vacation, etc).
Your focus during fall should be to:
- Follow your study calendar
- Study your resources effectively
- Join a study group or accountability system
For oncology, November 30, 2025 is the deadline by which you must pay your exam fee. This is separate from the application fee you pay when you submit your application.
Specialization tip: Frontload your studying so you’re not panic-studying over New Year’s.
Phase 3: Winter = Finalize & Review
For many of us, the winter season brings lots of holidays, parties, events, and the like. These lovely life happenings can make studying harder — plan for this now.
For example, you should plan for your holiday season to be lighter on the study-front. For example, schedule lighter study weeks around the holidays you & your family celebrate.
In fact, you may prefer to break winter into two sub-phases: pre-New Year’s and post-New Year’s, which is what I did.
When I studied for my exam, I studied until late November, paused briefly for Thanksgiving time activities, studied for a few more weeks, then did basically no studying from mid-December until after New Year’s Day.
After New Year’s Day, I threw myself back into studying, with a special focus on reviewing and applying my knowledge, NOT learning new stuff.
Specialization tip: At some point in your exam prep, you need to shift from learning new material to solidifying your knowledge & ability to apply your knowledge. This should happen before or right around New Year’s because your focus from January until your exam should be to review, fill gaps, & practice exam scenarios.
How to schedule your exam appointment:
From the ABPTS Candidate Guide:
“Test takers may book their appointment in mid-December 2025. They will receive an email from the specialist certification program staff with instructions. They may also schedule their appointment by logging into their ABPTS application portal; upon logging in, test takers will be able to select, “Manage Exam Appointments.” By making this selection, they will be redirected to the PSI booking platform where they may select the test center location, date and time that are available.”
Phase 4: The Exam Window
The 2026 ABPTS Application window is from February 25 – March 18, 2026.
Like with the application deadlines we discussed earlier in this episode, you can choose your exam date (depending on availability of your specific testing site).
An earlier exam date is great if you want less time to psych yourself out. However, this option can mean less time to study before the big day.
A later exam date is great if you want more prep time. Be careful to not burn yourself out before your actual exam.
Specialization tip: Don’t study the day before. Plan a rest/reset day.
Phase 5: The Wait + Reflection Season
After you take your exam, you will likely wait until June 2026 to receive your results.
So what do you do in the meantime?
- Celebrate the process (seriously!)
- Reflect on what you’ve learned and keep applying it into your practice!
- Think about what’s next — mentorship, leadership, teaching
How to Plan YOUR Specialization Journey
Schedule your specialization journey phases around your life, not the other way around.
There will always be time for more writing, more studying. But you must schedule your writing and studying time around vacations, holidays, work deadlines, family events, and whatever else you have happening in your amazing, wonderful life. Because you are a human first.
Additionally, you are going to need breaks from studying so you don’t burn out. The whole purpose behind the specialization process is to transform you into the best possible OncoPT. You cannot do this if you are burnt out.
As you plan your specialization journey, give yourself space and grace. This is a huge undertaking that demands a lot of time, energy, and focus.
Just like you wouldn’t try to sprint a marathon, you cannot sprint this process. Pacing yourself is what will get you across the finish line.
But I need more help with my case report!
If you’re trying to write your case report while juggling work and life — Case Report Writing Workshop is your next step.
Case Report Writing Workshop is our signature program designed to help you write a high-quality oncology case report that meets the rigorous standards of ABPTS.
You could write your case report on your own. But chances are, you’ll probably end up stressed, frustrated, & cursing yourself as you cram to meet the deadline.
And this is a big waste of your very valuable time & energy.
If you’re ready to crush your case report (& be done with it!) enroll in TheOncoPT Case Report Writing Workshop today!
You can save your seat at TheOncoPT.com/workshop today.
Stay tuned for next week’s episode, in which we will be diving into how to finish your case report without turning it into your full-time job. Don’t miss it.
Want to watch the episode instead?
Watch this week’s episode of TheOncoPT Podcast on our YouTube channel!
Transcript
Elise Cantu (00:19)
Hey, Onco PT and welcome back to this episode of the Onco PT podcast. My name’s Elise, I am your host and I’m so excited that you’re joining me today. Because if you are listening to this podcast episode, if you are watching this, chances are that you are seriously considering or maybe have already committed to the process of pursuing your oncology specialist certification. You know that this is the time of year for it. You know that we are super big.
proponents, are advocates for that here at the OncoPT because we know the transformation that it leads PTs down to become the best possible version of OncoPTs they can be for their oncology patients. But what most PTs don’t realize is that the specialization process is, it’s a marathon. And when I say marathon, like obviously it’s not a sprint. I don’t even know that marathon totally encapsulates just how.
arduous this process can be. I like to think of it sometimes as like a super ultra marathon 100 mile. I don’t know if you’ve heard of like that the hell hundred miles or something like that, something I personally will never be doing, but those super ultra intense, crazy outdoor hundreds to gosh knows how many miles that people run to push their bodies.
to the ultimate limit, amazing. Love that for them. Love that journey for you if that’s the journey you’re on. I personally will not be participating in that. But I bring this up as a really great visual for, this is a year long process that you are embarking on if and when you choose to pursue your specialization process. And that isn’t really talked about in this context. It’s kind of…
said underneath or like in between the lines of like, okay, here’s when you start the deadlines, you know, here’s when you need to have stuff submitted and then you’ll take your exam and then eventually you’ll get results. But I don’t know that we really have this concept of it is a year long marathon that you are running my friend. And like any marathon, you don’t sprint it. You have to pace yourself. You have to know where the starting line is. You have to know where the finish line is. And you have to know generally along the way, there are going to be some stops.
Maybe there’s some water tables for you. Maybe you need to pop off trail for a bit and go to the bathroom. Whatever that is, we have to know what the course is. And we have to have a plan in order to complete that full race and not burn out before we get there, not get lost along the way. These days, if you run a marathon, I’m sure that’s not an issue. But again, you get the gist here. You get what we’re talking about, why we’re talking about this.
All this to say, most PTs don’t realize that the specialization process is a marathon. It’s not a sprint. It’s not just the exam part, right? There’s a lot more that goes into this. And in this episode, I am going to walk you through the process, the year long process of what it looks like when you choose to pursue your specialty certification exam so that you can make a realistic specialization preparation plan that fits into your life.
and doesn’t run you into the ground. Let’s get into it.
Now listen, if you’re in case report writing workshop, none of this information is gonna be new for you today. You already know this. You’ve got your deadline set, you have your case mapped out, and your writing plan is locked in at this point. And if you, my friend, are listening to this today and you are not yet in the workshop, Onco PT, what are you doing? Why are you trying to wing a whole case report by yourself on top of…
working a still full-time job or nearly full-time job, and also living your life and all the other things that you have to do as part of being a human. You deserve better, and Case Report Writing Workshop is going to give you that better. Case Report Writing Workshop is our signature program that gives you the structure, the shortcuts, and the support to make writing your case report manageable and even kind of fun if you’re into that sort of thing.
So go ahead and save your seat today in case report writing workshop at TheOncoPT.com/framework and I’ll see you inside. All right, now here’s how we’re gonna break this map down this year long journey ahead. I’ve got a couple phases I’m gonna walk you through and this is how I really recommend that you look at the upcoming year because if you look at it as this is one big year, we’re gonna miss some deets and we’re not gonna get focused in on some of the important, ⁓ well, frankly,
information you need to know to make this plan a success for you. So we’re going to start here with phase one. We are actively in phase one and that is summer, one of my favorite seasons because summer is application season for specialty certification. So as you may have guessed, the first phase of the specialization journey is you have to apply. You have to submit your application. If you didn’t know,
you do have to submit an application to sit for the oncology specialty certification exam. You cannot roll up on the day of and say, I thought I would take this exam. That’s not how that works. And your application does not only have to be submitted, it does have to be accepted in order for you to then proceed forward with your specialization journey. And I say this because this is not an
an application, excuse me, that you can just kind of throw some bits and bobs together and then fingers crossed it’ll be fine. And then you can just show up for the exam. The application process is designed to make sure that you’re ready for this exam, that you have the experience that you need, that you’re not going to walk into an opportunity where you’re not going to be set up for success. So that’s why they have the whole application to begin with, to even apply. Like you have to meet certain criteria.
So number one criteria, and this is pulled directly from the ABPTS candidate guide that they just published earlier in May, the brand new 2026 version, you have to have a current permanent or unrestricted license to practice physical therapy in the United States or any of its possessions or territories. Okay, if you’ve got that, check, love it. You have to pay the application and then the examination fees, check, and then you have to submit evidence of either one of these two things, okay?
Number one, 2000 hours of direct patient care in your specialty area or evidence that you completed an ABPTRFE accredited residency in that specialty area. So for example, if you completed a neuro residency that
is not going to qualify for the oncology exam, right? That doesn’t necessarily count. That doesn’t necessarily cross over. There’s a little crossover. Don’t get me wrong. But that is likely not going to suffice that kind of ⁓ requirement that you need, that criteria that says you have experience and a significant amount of experience in your particular specialty area. And of course, because this is the Onco PT podcast, we’re talking about oncology. That’s right.
Now, once you meet these criteria plus any other relevant criteria, I would highly encourage you. I have actually the candidate guide linked in today’s show notes so that you can easily find that information. Look over that candidate guide. It is so useful. It has tons of necessary information. ABPTS does a pretty good job of laying out what the heck you need to know in preparation to undergo this process. So.
Once you meet those criteria and any others in the candidate guide, you’re good to go. You can go ahead and fill out that application and actually submit it. Now your application for oncology is due one of two deadlines. This is kind of a pick your own adventure situation. Your oncology application is due by either July 1st, 2025. That is the early bird application deadline or
by September 30th, which is the absolute last minute, last chance deadline. Now your oncology application for the specialty certification process includes a case report. I hope this is not news, but if it’s not, I don’t want you to get freaked out, okay? This is something again, I talked about this way back, I did an episode with Dr. Tori Crook who is a onco PT, she’s also a bird certified clinical specialist.
And we kind of talked about specialization as fight club. Nobody talks about fight club and you’re really not supposed to talk about fight club. Now, specialization, we should talk about it, but I don’t know that we really break it down so that the average PT knows about this, especially if you didn’t work at an institution where you were exposed to a lot of clinical specialists, you may not know this information, which is exactly why we cover it here on the Onco PT podcast. So your application,
Do either July 1st or September 30th, 2025. Must include your oncology case report. Now these dates, we’ll talk about the case report here shortly. These dates are not just dates to put on your calendar, right? Make a Google meet event or what have you. These are going to shape your entire timeline for your specialization journey. Here, let me explain what this means. If you aim for that July 1st early bird
deadline. This means that you need to have your case report finished by early summer. As in you have a few weeks from today when this episode comes out to when you need to actually have that finished and submitted as part of your application. And this is awesome because this frees up the rest of your summer to do whatever the heck you want. And it’s going to free up that first part of fall.
to actually start studying for your exam, which you do have to do at a later point, okay? This probably means, again, if you are submitting for that July 1st deadline, that you are probably going to get your application approved earlier. They typically do this, at least what they’ve led us to understand as part of the candidate guide, ABPTS grades those case reports and applications as they come in. So the earlier you submit, the earlier you are probably going to get it back.
This means that you are going to have more time to mentally and logistically prepare for the actual exam and studying for the actual exam. Now, the July 1st deadline is ideal for you if you know that you have a packed mid to late summer, right? You know you have stuff going on and you’re just not going to have time for the case report. Great. If you have big life events coming up ⁓ in the
some like later summer or in the fall. Maybe you’re getting married. Maybe you’re a part of somebody’s wedding. Maybe you have a new job. Maybe you have other, you know, life transitions like you’re starting school or you have kiddos who are starting school. That transition season tends to be really crazy, really busy. And it’s really hard if you’re in that situation to also cram a case report into all of that. Last thing here.
This is the ideal deadline for you if you just want some breathing room during the summer between when you submit your application and before you actually start studying. If you know that you procrastinate if given the opportunity, this may also be a good case report for you if your deadline, excuse me, if you’re trying to avoid procrastinating on your case report. Now,
I do appreciate that ABPTS has two deadlines. So that way, if you miss the first one or that first one is just not gonna work for you, guess what? This is where that September 30th deadline can come in really big handy here. So if you are aiming for that September 30th deadline instead, you will have more time to work on your case report.
And you you could, I guess, work on your case report the whole summer. I wouldn’t recommend that because we like summer and we want you to enjoy your summer over here at the Onco PT. But there is no shame in this. If you know that you need that extra time or the front part of your summer is really, you know, heavy with stuff to do, this is probably a better option for you. But just know if you do, you will need to go into study mode almost immediately after you submit.
So just have this in mind. If you are a person who doesn’t mind the intensity and the rush and can compartmentalize things as far as like, okay, this is application case report time, hard stop, this is now studying time and just move right into that, awesome, amazing. The bottom line on deadlines is that there is no one right deadline. They have two for a reason, okay?
These are not just deadlines. These are strategic levers or levers in how you can kind of access and harness your time, but also protect your time, your energy and your sanity during this very intense process that you are going through. It doesn’t matter which deadline you choose, just as long as you pick your deadline and stick to it. There’s nothing worse than if you kind of have a soft deadline of
you know, I’m thinking about I’m going to submit my case report here and then you don’t actually do it. That is telling your brain already, even if you don’t mean to. It’s not actually a big deal if you get this case report done on time.
That is the worst attitude when it comes to writing your case report. Don’t do this. And of course, regardless of which deadline that you pick, if you need help getting that case report done, Case Report Workshop is here for you. It is your step-by-step support system to make writing your case report manageable and not your full-time job as we go through this summer. Now, as I’ve mentioned multiple times, when you submit your application, again, we’re still in phase one, summer.
You do have to submit a case report that demonstrates your specialty practice in oncology. This needs to be your biggest focus right now. If you are listening to this, you know, in June, 2025 or in June in the future, as this episode comes out, you need to get your case report done. This needs to be your biggest focus. I guarantee you the rest of the application is not going to take you that long. It’s kind of demographic information on you. You know that you really don’t.
you need to focus on that case report because this is by and large going to take the most amount of time, especially if you are writing that case report without any kind of support. I encourage you to have your case report written at least two weeks ahead of your selected deadline. So what I mean by this, if you are going for that July 1st deadline, your case report needs to be done two weeks before then. Same thing for September 30th. The reason
We recommend this here at the Onco PT is because this is going to allow you to have time for others to read and review your case report and provide feedback so that you can ultimately make your case report as strong as possible before you submit it back to ABPTS. So these are like friends, colleagues, trusted other people who can read and provide meaningful feedback, et cetera.
you really need to have time for them. Again, the readers, these are colleagues, friends, et cetera, to sit with and read your case report and to come up with meaningful feedback and then have time for you to read that feedback, absorb it, and then implement it into your case report as you see fit. That’s not a process we want to rush. So that’s why we recommend the two weeks ahead of time when it comes to those, ⁓ the reviewing. And again, if you want support,
on getting your case report finished without burning out case report writing workshop, you can sign up today at thealcopt.com slash workshop. So now that we’re going to skip ahead, okay, we’ve made it through phase one. This next phase is kind of a cheat phase, but I had to include it in here. This is phase 1.5, is application accepted. At some point you are going to submit your application and ideally it is going to come back from AB PTS and they say stamp. That’s my stamp noise. Check.
You are good to go, your application has been accepted. You are now able to eventually get your exam scheduled. Hooray, awesome, we love that. If you get your application back and you don’t need any requirements, excuse me, any corrections, any adjustments, great, it’s time to move forward into studying. Now, if you get your application back, let’s say that your case report needed some corrections.
or some updates and modifications, ABPTS is going to give you specific feedback on what needs to be done. I bring this up all the time. You’ve probably heard this before. My case report, I had to go back and remove all of the ampersands in my writing because I write with ampersands. That’s the and sign on your keyboard. I also had to…
redefine every abbreviation I used in every single section of the case report. So those were two errors that I needed to ⁓ fix in my case report. And then I resubmitted it. They came back and said, yep, good, looks good, proceed. And then I was able to move on. So just be aware. We have to have your application accepted by ABPTS and they will let you know.
Okay, when that is to be done and then you can actually move forward with the study. Once your application is accepted, you can then and we would recommend creating your study schedule with in regards to your life schedule, right? Like you have a life outside of studying, even though this is a big thing you’re doing, you still have a life, you’re still a human. And so we need to make sure that we’re accounting for that. And then
Also during this transition phase, you need to gather your study materials. Maybe that means ordering textbooks, tracking down articles, ⁓ looking into the CPGs, for example, whatever that is. This transition phase between submitting application and then actual exam prep, this is the time to do that. Because our next phase is phase two, and this is the fall. So in the fall,
At this point, you have your ⁓ application acceptance in hand. It is now time to start studying for your exam. Now, why do we recommend starting to study in the fall versus maybe a little closer to the exam time? If you are like many people here in the United States, winter is a big time for holidays. And it means a lot of stuff goes with that holiday celebration time, which is lovely. We love a good holiday.
but that also means that it significantly detracts from the amount of time that you can devote to studying in the winter time. So that’s why we start studying in the fall. So fall is also a very natural kind of back to business vibes. We think about, we go back to school in the fall, people are coming back from vacations, just kind of getting into the groove from the, know, hopefully very leisurely, loverly,
lovely summer you had back into the kind of business, get back to business in the fall. Your focus during the fall season should be to implement and follow the study calendar you created previously that we talked about in phase 1.5. Study your resources effectively. And we would also encourage joining a study group or an accountability system like a partner to keep you on track.
when the studying gets hard. It’s not if it’s when. We talk about this and you know it’s not if it’s when you’ll treat someone with cancer. Same thing for when the studying gets hard. Now still kind of during this fall time period there’s an important date that you need to be aware of. For oncology, November 30th is the deadline by which you must pay your exam fee. So when you submit your application originally over the summer there’s an application p… excuse me…
fee you have to pay. Once that’s accepted, later in the fall, in order to be able to schedule your exam, you do have to pay for that exam fee. What we would really encourage, again, during this fall phase here at the Onco PT, front load your studying in the fall so that you’re not panic studying over the holidays, like especially into New Year’s. Now, phase three is winter.
And this is where you should be finalizing your studying, your knowledge, and really reviewing information. We’re not putting a whole lot of new information into your brain. Like I mentioned previously, for many of us, winter holidays, and there’s parties, there’s events, there’s all kinds of cool things that happen in the wintertime around these holidays. And these make studying more challenging. Less time, less focus.
your attention’s being pulled in a dozen different places. So plan for it now in the summertime as we’re getting into fall, plan for this natural fluctuation in your ability to focus and study. It’s just gonna make things a lot easier in the long run if you already have this in mind. So for example, and again, this is very dependent on you and your family and how you celebrate and what you do when you celebrate, you should plan for a
lighter studying holiday season. For example, lighter study weeks around the holidays that you and your family celebrate. I actually did kind of a winter like pre-New Year’s and then post-New Year’s. For me, because we celebrate Christmas, we usually do quite a bit of traveling to either or both. Sometimes my family, my husband’s family.
There’s a lot happening around Christmas time for us in the Encopiti household. And I knew I was not gonna get a whole lot of studying done. There was just no way. So what I did is I took December pretty, pretty light. ⁓ I took a little bit of time off around Thanksgiving. I studied for a little bit. And then once kind of mid December hit, I basically said, I’m not looking at this stuff again until after New Year’s.
Now your schedule might look different, that’s totally up to you. But be realistic with your studying because there is nothing worse than you getting so down on yourself and shaming yourself for taking a break, for enjoying holiday time with your family and not hitting the books every single day. Okay, that’s not what we want. We are all about
work-life integration here at the Onco PT. And so when we plan ahead for these things, it makes it a lot easier to implement our study plan and to stick with it all the way up until it’s time for the exam. Now, one last little specialization tip that I’ll provide for this phase three of winter, at some point in your exam preparation, you need to shift from learning new material to
solidifying your knowledge and your ability to apply that knowledge in clinical cases. This needs to happen before or right around New Year’s at the absolute latest because your focus starting in January all the way to your exam should be reviewing, filling gaps and practicing exam scenarios so that you can take your knowledge and apply it. When it comes time to schedule your exam,
This usually happens around mid December in the candidate guide that actually say test takers may book their appointment in mid December 2025. They will receive an email from the specialist certification program staff with instructions. They may also schedule their appointment by logging on, logging into their ABPTS application portal. Upon logging in, test takers will be able to select manage exam appointments, and then they’ll be directed to the site where you can actually do that.
So know that that is going to take place in mid December, 2025. I would be starting to check your email like more diligently for this specifically, maybe starting like early December and then just keeping an eye on it. You definitely don’t wanna miss this. you, after all this hard work that you’re putting in, I would hate for you to miss the opportunity to actually.
schedule your exam to demonstrate your specialty practice. So please be aware of that. That also this very important date needs to be on your calendar as well. Which this leads us now into phase four, which is the exam window. Now the exam window for 2026 is from February 25th to March 18th, 2026.
Every year they seem to shift the dates a little bit, so we’ve got the end of February to mid-March. Like with the application deadlines that we discussed earlier in this episode, you can choose your exam date. And with an asterisk here, this depends on the availability of your specific testing site. For example, so I live in Fort Worth, Texas. When I went to actually schedule my exam, there’s…
I mean, there’s a few different testing sites around DFW. We’re pretty blessed in that capacity. The normal testing site that I used previously, like to take my licensure exam when I first became a BT, like a hundred years ago, was actually not administering the specialty certification exam. So I had to drive to Dallas for my exam. Just be aware. This may not be an issue for you, but this was my experience. So I had to…
drive a little further to get to this specific testing site. And I had to schedule around, of course, that testing site’s availability. I ended up picking a really, really early testing date because I wanted to get it over with. Some people wanted to that I’ve, coached through this process. They have waited until the absolute last like day possible to take the exam. It doesn’t
matter from a grading standpoint of when you take your exam. It really doesn’t. Because what happens is once that testing window finishes is when that test will then get sent off and they’ll start doing all kinds of, you know, they’ll grade it of course, but they go through like, I imagine data analytics of, know, like how many people got this question wrong? Is this a good question? Is this a bad question? All the adjusting that happens after
We’re not really concerned about that. But all this to say it doesn’t matter where ⁓ like where in that window you choose to take your exam. It’s all about how does it match up with you your preferences and your your schedule frankly an earlier exam date might be great for you if you want less time to psych yourself out, which is exactly what I did. However, the trade-off is you may not have as much time.
before the exam to study because of this. So on the flip side, a later exam date might be good if you want as much time as possible leading up to your exam to kind of last minute prep. However, it’s really important to not burn yourself out leading up to that exam date. Whichever date you choose to take your exam. I really encourage you, don’t study the day before. Give yourself a little bit of a break, like a rest.
or a reset day where you can kind of chill out before you go into this very high stress environment where you are putting your brain to the test. So with this in mind, eventually you’re gonna finish the exam and we get into the weight and reflection season. This is phase five, this is the last one. After you take your exam, either sometime between February, I think I said 25th to March 18th, 2026, sometime between then, you are going to have to wait.
until the end of June, 2026 to receive your exam results. That’s just how it is. That’s how it’s been. I expect it will be very much the same this year. So what do you do in this very long time between when you take your exam and when you receive your exam results? Number one, most important, you need to celebrate completely serious. Like I’m dead serious here. If you’re watching the video, you can see it. This
is so crucial. You have put so much work and so much time and energy into this process. You need to acknowledge it and you need to have others acknowledge that with you. Maybe that’s you’re gonna go away on a little trip. Maybe you and your significant other are gonna go out for you know a nice dinner or ice cream or maybe you’re gonna take a nice little staycation with your dog or whatever that is. You need to march.
this momentous achievement that you prepared for this exam and took a seven hour exam on oncology physical therapy. Period. If you need more stuff to do in this waiting reflection phase, here’s a couple other things that you can do. But remember, number one is most important. You can reflect on what you’ve learned.
and then how to keep applying that into your practice. So again, you can be the best version of OncoPT that you can be for your patients with cancer. You can also start thinking about what’s next, right? If you’re like many of the OncoPTs listening today, you’re a very driven person. You’re always looking for ways to improve yourself and improve your patient care. Well, here’s a great opportunity for you. You can start thinking about, you know, whether or not you pass, seriously.
you can start to think about what comes next for me in my career. Am I going to move into mentoring other on copetes? Am I going to get into leadership positions? Am I going to start teaching this information? Am I going to submit for the cancer rehab community conference in the future? Just throwing that out there. That’s it. Being a specialist isn’t required, but what a great opportunity to take that knowledge you’ve learned.
so much about and actually implement it and help others implement it into their own practice. I mean, come on. So this is the big recap of what a year preparing to specialize looks like. Most of your time is really spent preparing. You are preparing your exam, you’re preparing your case report, and then eventually you’re going to prepare for the exam. Then you take the exam and then you wait.
fingers crossed when June comes around June 2026. This is a marathon, as I’ve mentioned previously, but it’s not an impossible marathon. This is a very doable process that you can do. I believe you can. I believe in you because you have stayed up to this point of the podcast episode. You’re invested in this because you are invested in yourself.
You’re invested in your patients, your community, and making cancer rehab available and accessible, and frankly, the best it can be for all in your community.
Isn’t that awesome? Isn’t that really, really cool? You are dedicated to making cancer rehab, oncology, physical therapy, the best it can possibly be for your community.
And a great way to do that is through specialization. So now that we’ve talked about, you know, what is this process? Let’s recap on just a few ways that you can start to plan out your own specialization journey. So first tip here is to schedule specialization around your life and not the other way around. Remember you are first and foremost a human and like our good friend of the podcast, Dr. Adam Matichek says all the time,
Meet the human in front of you as a human or something. He says it much more eloquently, but remember you cannot show up for your patients if you aren’t first taking care of yourself. You can’t take care of yourself if you are burned out through the specialization journey. Plan specialization around you in your life. Don’t do it the other way around. There will always be more time for writing, studying, et cetera. There will not always be time for some of the really cool things that you get to do in your life.
or that you’re choosing to do in your life. So make sure that you are planning those first and then specialization prep goes around those life events. ⁓ Additionally, you are going to need breaks in your studying. I don’t care who I’m talking to right now. I’m talking to you. I’m serious. You are going to need breaks in this specialization preparation process so that you don’t burn out.
The whole purpose behind the specialization process is to become, to transform into the best on copete possible. You can’t do that if you’re burnt out. Simply put, as you plan your specialization journey, you need to give yourself grace and space. This is a huge undertaking that demands a lot of time and energy and focus. And just like you would not try to sprint a marathon,
especially one of those, I think it’s a hotter than hell. I think that’s what it’s called. Like hotter than hell, hundred mile marathon, blah, blah, blah, whatever that is. You would not try to sprint that, okay? You pace yourself. And just like you would not sprint one of those, you are not going to sprint this process and make it across the finish line. Pacing yourself and planning appropriately is what is going to get you across the finish line of specialization.
So if you are listening to this in real time and you are in phase one, which is the application season, which is some of the most like exciting, fun, anticipatory seasons. If you are in phase one and you are trying to write your case report while juggling work and life and all the other things that come with it, Case Report Writing Workshop is your next step.
Case Report Writing Workshop is our signature program designed to help you write a high quality oncology case report that meets the rigorous standards of ABPTS. You could write your case report on your own. Absolutely. It’s been done. It will continue to be done. But chances are you will most likely end up stressed, frustrated, and cursing yourself as you cram to meet the deadline. Period.
And this is a really big waste of your very precious valuable time and energy. If you are ready to crush your case report and be done with it, enroll in the case report writing workshop today. You can save your seat at TheOncoPT.com/framework. And I cannot wait to see you inside.
Now stay tuned for next week’s episode in which we will be diving more into the specialization journey specifically on how to finish your case report without turning it into your full-time job. And I can’t wait to see you there. But until next time, this is Elise with the Onco PT. And remember, you are exactly the physical therapist that your patients with cancer need. So let’s get to work.