The Certified Dietary Manager (CDM) exam consists of 160 multiple-choice questions, with 140 of them being scored and 20 unscored pretest items. You have three hours to complete the computer-based exam. These questions are job-related and often present professional situations where a dietary manager needs to make a decision or solve a problem.
The exam covers five key content domains:
* Nutrition (approximately 20% of the exam): This section covers various aspects of nutrition data and education, including fundamentals of nutrition, gathering and applying nutritional data, managing diet plans, and providing nutrition education.
* Foodservice (approximately 22% of the exam): Questions in this domain relate to food preparation, recipes, menu planning, food production, distribution, and quality improvement procedures.
* Sanitation and Safety (approximately 24% of the exam): This domain focuses on identifying and enforcing federal, state, and local laws and regulations, developing cleaning procedures, evaluating equipment maintenance, inspecting for sanitary conditions, educating employees on safety and sanitation (including OSHA regulations), and protecting food using HACCP guidelines.
* Business Operations (approximately 17% of the exam): This section includes managing budgets, costs, purchasing processes, revenue-generating services, and implementing cost-effective policies.
* Personnel and Communication (approximately 17% of the exam): This domain covers aspects of staff management, supervision, training, performance management, and effective communication strategies with staff, clients, and other stakeholders.
A passing score historically requires answering about 70% of the scored items correctly.