Clinical-year heads up
Your PAEA EOR exams are changing — July 27, 2026
On July 27, 2026, PAEA releases updated versions of six End-of-Rotation (EOR) exams. If you have a rotation exam coming up, here's what actually changes, in plain English — and what to do about it. (Details below are from PAEA's own announcement; always confirm against the official pages linked at the bottom.)
Which six exams are updated
These reflect the blueprint direction PAEA introduced with the Surgery End-of-Rotation and End-of-Curriculum exams. Other EORs are unchanged for now.
What's actually different
A new Professional Practice task area
PAEA is adding a Professional Practice task area to all six updated exams. Each exam's current topic list is the source of truth for exactly what that covers — see the official links below.
Blueprints and topic lists shifted
PAEA notes that content areas were "renamed, removed, or realigned in accordance with current educational standards." The core clinical medicine you study doesn't change — how it's organized and sampled does. Any EOR study guide keyed to the old blueprint may be slightly out of date.
Scoring stays comparable
New scored items were pretested and placed on the same scale, so the new versions aren't "harder" by design. PAEA isn't issuing new conversion tables; programs set benchmarks from exam statistics.
What to do before your next EOR
- Re-download your rotation's current topic list from PAEA — don't study from a screenshot a classmate shared last year.
- Ask your program which blueprint you'll test on. Legacy versions remain available through July 2027, and the decision to switch is each program's call — PAEA recommends a whole cohort test on the same blueprint.
- Don't panic-relearn everything. The medicine is the same; focus your review on your weak systems and the tasks each exam emphasizes.
Official PAEA sources
- PAEA — EOR Blueprints & Topic Lists (current topic list for every exam)
- PAEA — New EOR Exam Versions Available July 27 (the official announcement)
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