Certified Radiology Equipment Specialist CRES
Every lesson in CRES Academy
Self-paced Certified Radiology Equipment Specialist (CRES) exam prep with adaptive training and practice exams.
The exam
| Exam | AAMI / ACI Certified Radiology Equipment Specialist |
|---|---|
| Code | CRES |
| Questions | Up to 165 |
| Time | 180 minutes |
| Passing | ACI reports CRES results as pass or fail and publishes no cut score. This course's official-format test uses 70%, the same bar as our CBET course. |
| Lessons | 60 lessons across 10 units, about 9.9 hours of reading |
Exam domains
| Domain | Weight | Lessons |
|---|---|---|
| Anatomy and Physiology | 7% | 4 |
| Public Safety in the Healthcare Facility | 8% | 9 |
| Fundamentals of Electricity and Electronics | 10% | 6 |
| Healthcare Technology and Function | 25% | 19 |
| Healthcare Technology Problem Solving | 25% | 10 |
| Healthcare Information Technology | 25% | 12 |
How the course works
- Cheat sheet. Everything the exam expects you to recall cold, printable.
- Starter test. A few questions per exam domain, with a confidence rating on each.
- Your tutorial. Lessons chosen from what you missed or guessed, each with a checkpoint and a deeper explanation.
- Practice tests and retraining. 50 questions, weighted like the real exam. Every miss is explained and feeds back into your lessons.
- 3 of your last 5 at 80%. That unlocks one full-length test on the real exam's clock: 165 questions in 180 minutes, at its real passing score of 70%. Pass it once and you are ready to book.
Every lesson
The first 15 lessons are open to read here. Every lesson, with its checkpoint, is free inside the course.
Unit 1: Anatomy, Positioning, and Medical Language
The organs and systems the image shows, the planes and positions radiographers speak in, and the words on a requisition.
- Body Organization, Planes, Habitus, and Positional Terminology 9 min
- Chest, Abdomen, and Pelvis on the Image: Heart, Lungs, Liver, GI and Urinary Tracts 10 min
- Skeleton, Spine, Skull, and Joints, with the Brain, Nervous, and Endocrine Systems 10 min
- Positioning by Exam: Projections, Topographical Landmarks, and Reading the Requisition 10 min
Unit 2: Radiation, Magnetic, and Facility Safety
How imaging hurts people and equipment, and the rules and numbers that keep dose low.
- Electrical and Mechanical Safety in the Imaging Suite, Patient Transfer and Moving 10 min
- How Radiation Harms: Ionization, Dose Quantities and Units, Occupational and Public Limits 11 min
- Time, Distance, Shielding, the Inverse Square Law, and ALARA in Practice 10 min
- Protective Apparel, Barriers, and Shields, and How They Are Tested 9 min
- The MRI Environment and Electromagnetic Interference: Zones, Projectiles, Quench, RF Heating 10 min
Unit 3: Regulation, Accreditation, and the CMMS
Who regulates imaging, what each one asks for, and how the CMMS proves it.
- Who Regulates Imaging: FDA and 21 CFR 1020, State Radiation Control, and CMS 10 min
- Mammography under MQSA and ACR Accreditation 10 min
- The Joint Commission, OSHA, ANSI/AAMI Standards, and the Radiation Safety Committee 10 min
- The CMMS: Service History, Recalls, and Compliance and Performance Reports 9 min
Unit 4: Electricity, Electronics, and Imaging Power
The circuit theory, components, and facility power an imaging generator depends on.
- Voltage, Current, Resistance, and Power: Ohm's Law, Series and Parallel 10 min
- Components in a Circuit: Passive, Active, Rectifiers, and Reading the Schematic 10 min
- Electromagnetism, Induction, Transformers, and the Electromagnetic Spectrum in the course
- Facility Power: 3-Phase, 480 VAC, Panels, and the Imaging Room's Dedicated Feed in the course
- UPS, Line Conditioning, and Internal System Power Distribution in the course
- Battery-Powered Systems: Ultrasound Carts and Portable X-ray in the course
Unit 5: X-ray Production, Tubes, and Generators
How the tube makes x-rays, what the generator controls, and how technique shapes the beam.
- X-ray Production: Cathode, Anode, Focal Spot, Bremsstrahlung and Characteristic Radiation in the course
- The Tube: Housing, Rotating Anode, Line-Focus Principle, Dual Focus, Heat Units, Cooling, Failure in the course
- Generators: kVp, mA, Time, mAs, Rectification and Waveform, High-Voltage Transformers, Timers in the course
- Automatic Exposure Control, Technique Charts, and the Exposure Factors in the course
- Collimation, Filtration, Grids, and Air Gap: Controlling the Beam and Scatter in the course
- Tables, Bucky, Tube Stands, and the Mechanical System in the course
Unit 6: Image Receptors, Fluoroscopy, Mammography, and CT
How the image is captured and processed, and the systems built around the receptor.
- From Film-Screen to CR to DR: Receptor Types, Screens, and Processors in the course
- Digital Detector Electronics, Calibration, Defective Pixel Maps, and Image Processing in the course
- Fluoroscopy: Image Intensifiers, Flat Panels, Dose Rate Control, and Digital Subtraction in the course
- Mobile C-arms, the Interventional Suite, and Angiography in the course
- Mammography Systems: Tube, Compression, AEC, and Tomosynthesis in the course
- CT at Recognition Depth: Gantry, Slip Ring, Detector Array, Tube Cooling, Reconstruction in the course
Unit 7: Ultrasound, Nuclear Medicine, and MRI
The non-x-ray modalities at the depth the exam names them: what each system is, what it is made of, and what you service.
- Ultrasound Physics and Probes: Frequency, Attenuation, Resolution, Probe Types and Failure Modes in the course
- Ultrasound Systems: Beamformer, Modes, Doppler, Probe Testing and High-Level Disinfection in the course
- Gamma Cameras, Nuclear Medicine, PET, and Hybrid Systems at Recognition Depth in the course
- MRI at Recognition Depth: Magnet, Gradients, RF Coils, Cryogens, and What the Technician Services in the course
Unit 8: PM, QC, and Test Equipment
What an imaging preventive maintenance visit must do, the quality control tests by modality, and the instruments that measure the beam.
- What an Imaging PM Requires, and QC by Modality in the course
- Measuring the Beam: kVp Meters, Dosimeters, Ion Chambers, Dose Area Product, HVL, Timer Checks in the course
- The Safety Analyzer and Voltmeter in the Imaging Suite, and Documenting PM and QC for the Surveyor in the course
Unit 9: Troubleshooting Imaging Systems
The method, the priorities, the resources, and the faults of every imaging system the exam names.
- The Method: Symptom, History, Isolate, Verify; Device Error Versus Use Error in the course
- Prioritizing Imaging Repairs by Risk, Downtime, and Regulatory Exposure in the course
- Using the Resources: Schematics, Service Manuals, Diagnostic Software, and Error Logs in the course
- Power and Generator Faults: No Exposure, Interlocks, High-Voltage Failures, Tube Arcing in the course
- Tube and Image Quality Faults: Heat, Focal-Spot Blur, Artifacts, Grid Errors, Motion in the course
- Mechanical Faults: Tables, Stands, Locks, Collimator, and Detector Positioning in the course
- Digital Receptor and Fluoroscopy Faults: Dead Pixels, Calibration, Intensifier and Panel Failures in the course
- Mammography and Ultrasound Faults: Compression, AEC, Probe Failures, Doppler, Disinfection Damage in the course
- Portable and C-arm Faults: Batteries, Chargers, Brakes, and Cables in the course
- Communicating with Radiology Staff and the Manufacturer: Training, Escalation, the Service Report in the course
Unit 10: Imaging Informatics and Networks
The imaging network from the wall jack to the archive, and how to secure and troubleshoot it.
- Networking Fundamentals for the Imaging Network: IP, Subnets, Switches, VLANs in the course
- Wired and Wireless Hardware: Cabling, NICs, Access Points, Cable Tracers in the course
- Computer Hardware and Software for Imaging Systems: Workstations, Storage, Backups, Virtualization in the course
- PACS: The Archive, Workstations, and the Image Lifecycle in the course
- DICOM: Objects, Services, Modality Worklist, and DICOM Echo in the course
- RIS, HL7, the EMR, and the Order-to-Report Path in the course
- Application Interdependence: Worklist, MPPS, Dose Reporting, and What Breaks Downstream in the course
- Imaging Network Security: HIPAA, Access Control, Patching, Encryption, Device Cybersecurity in the course
- Compliance Evidence: Risk Assessment, MDS2, Vendor Remote Access, What a Survey Wants in the course
- Troubleshooting the Imaging Network: PING, Traceroute, Cable Tracers, Switch Ports, DNS in the course
- Troubleshooting PACS and DICOM: Association Failures, Missing Worklist, Images Not Arriving in the course
- Monitors, Display Calibration, and Workstation Troubleshooting in the course
On exam day
- 165 questions in 3 hours, closed book, with an on-screen calculator and notepad. That is over a minute per question; do not rush the math items.
- Some questions are unscored trial items. A question that seems to be from nowhere may be one of them; answer it and move on.
- Read for the qualifier: FIRST, MOST likely, BEST. In problem-solving items the first step is usually the patient, then the simplest cause, then the accessory.
- Know the numbers cold: dose limits, the inverse square law, mAs and the 15 percent rule, heat units, fluoroscopy limits, the leakage limits and their standards.
- Eligibility is checked when you apply: the technician pathway plus at least 40 percent of your work in radiology over the last two years. Apply early; the windows are May 1 to 15 and November 1 to 15.
- Two forms of ID, arrive early, sleep the night before.