The Written Registered Forester Exam is the standard exam administered to applicants. It contains 100 written questions (no true/false or multiple-choice questions). The exam is all day with a morning exam period from 8:30 to 11:30 AM and the afternoon exam period is from 1:00 to 4:00 PM. There are 50 questions on the morning exam which must be turned in before lunch and 50 questions in the afternoon.

The exam is “open book” meaning that you can bring and use printed material to the exam. The exam site will provide some written resources that are useful for many parts of the exam. You cannot use your phones, tablets, or computers which if brought to the exam site will be secured by the exam proctor. You can use a battery powered handheld scientific calculator. You will be required to show your math calculations on the exam to demonstrate that you understand the mathematical procedure to solve problems. Cheating on the exam will disqualify you from pursuing your license.

The exam largely focuses on applied and practical forestry concepts that an Alabama Registered Forester might provide professional advice or competent professional services to the public and private landowners.

There is an oral exam that can be requested and approved at the Board’s discretion but is normally considered for foresters with over ten years of experience.  The oral exam utilizes questions from the written exam question bank. It is a shorter version exam but is not “open book”.

The “Exam Study Guide” on this website provides the exam subjects, publication and website sources and other helpful information to prepare for the exam. Since the written exam is “open book”, you may bring books or legally  printed internet information that you find helpful. The exam site will have several of the study guide cited publications on hand for your use.

Be aware that you have an average of 3.6 minutes time per question on the written exam, so study and source preparation is extremely valuable. A strategy to deal with limited time is to answer all of the questions you know you can answer quickly and go back to the ones which take more time.

Once per quarter in January, April, July and October.  See the written exam dates listed on the website.

After your application is reviewed and examination approved by the Board, the next available exam may be scheduled. Students in Alabama’s SAF accredited professional forestry programs may be allowed by their universities to take the exam on campus during their Senior year by completing a student exam application.

About four weeks. The exam takes a couple of weeks to grade and be approved by the Board at its scheduled meeting following the exam. You will be notified in writing within about two weeks after the Board meeting of your exam results. You may request your results after the Board meeting via email if you would like.