MD Chiro Juris common mistakes
MD Chiro Juris · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Treating the Maryland Board of Chiropractic Examiners' scope rules as interchangeable with another state's, and answering scope questions from general chiropractic knowledge instead of COMAR 10.43.
Most candidates were trained or licensed elsewhere and study from national review material, so they default to a generic scope model rather than Maryland-specific statutory text.
What to do instead
Build a one-page scope map drawn only from COMAR Title 10.43 and the Maryland Chiropractic Act, listing each authorized activity (adjustment, adjunctive procedures, physiotherapy, dry needling) with its citation and any supervision or certification condition attached.
Confusing the dry needling authorization with the physiotherapy (PT) privilege, assuming one credential covers the other or that either is automatically part of the license.
Dry needling and physiotherapy privileges are separate add-on authorizations with their own training and application requirements, and candidates lump all 'extra' modalities into one bucket.
What to do instead
Create a comparison table with columns for required education hours, application route, renewal obligation, and supervision limits, and fill each row from the regulation text; recite the table until the two credentials never merge in your mind.
Answering renewal questions with a single remembered cycle length while ignoring the separate deadlines for license renewal, continuing education completion, and CE reporting.
Candidates memorize one number (the renewal period) and apply it to every date-based question, because the CE attestation and the license expiration are learned together and blur.
What to do instead
Draw a timeline for one full renewal cycle showing the license expiration date, the CE completion window, the reporting or audit deadline, and any late fee trigger, then answer every date question by locating it on that timeline.
Counting any continuing education course toward the requirement without checking whether the topic category and provider type are accepted under COMAR.
Candidates treat CE as a simple hour count and overlook categorical minimums, such as ethics, record keeping, or specific clinical subject requirements, and restrictions on online or self-study hours.
What to do instead
Keep a CE ledger with columns for date, hours, category, provider, and citation, and pre-classify each course against the regulation before counting it; practice with hypothetical transcripts and decide which hours are creditable.
Selecting 'refer to another provider' as the answer for every borderline clinical scenario, or conversely choosing to treat everything, without applying the statutory boundaries of chiropractic practice.
Candidates either overcorrect toward defensive referral or overconfidence in scope, because they have not internalized where the chiropractic statute ends and where medical, podiatric, or other licensed practice begins.
What to do instead
Work through scenario questions by naming the specific statutory limit being tested (for example, a condition outside the chiropractic scope or a modality requiring additional authorization) before choosing an option, and write the citation next to each answer.
Handling record-retention and documentation questions from habit or office policy rather than from the specific retention period and required content elements in the regulations.
Practicing chiropractors follow their employer's or EHR vendor's defaults, which may not match Maryland requirements, and candidates assume documentation standards are uniform across states.
What to do instead
Memorize the retention period and the minimum content elements (patient identification, dates of service, findings, diagnosis, treatment rendered, informed consent) as a checklist, and test yourself by auditing a sample note against that checklist.
Treating all disciplinary outcomes as equivalent, failing to distinguish reprimand, probation, suspension, revocation, and civil penalty, or missing which violations carry mandatory action.
Candidates study the list of grounds for discipline but skim the sanctions section, so they recognize prohibited conduct yet cannot match it to the authorized penalty.
What to do instead
Build a two-column sheet pairing each category of violation with the range of sanctions the Board may impose, and practice questions by first identifying the violation type, then the sanction range, before reading the answer choices.
Overlooking the ethics provisions on advertising, patient solicitation, fee splitting, and dual relationships, and answering ethics items from personal moral intuition.
Ethics questions feel obvious, so candidates skip the regulation text and rely on common sense, missing Maryland-specific prohibitions and the mandatory reporting duties.
What to do instead
Read the code of ethics provisions line by line and convert each into a one-sentence rule with a concrete example of a violation and a compliant alternative; drill the paired examples rather than the abstract principle.
Ignoring the administrative mechanics of licensure, such as application documentation, examination and jurisprudence requirements, background checks, and the effect of lapsed or inactive status.
Candidates focus on clinical scope because it feels more substantive, treating licensure process questions as low-yield trivia to be guessed.
What to do instead
Outline the licensure pathway as a numbered sequence from application through issuance, note every document and exam required at each step, and separately note the consequences of practicing on a lapsed or inactive license.
Misreading question stems that ask for the exception, the least appropriate action, or the first step required, and choosing the most familiar true statement instead.
Under time pressure, candidates pattern-match to a recognized concept and stop reading, so negatively worded items and 'first action' items pull them to the wrong option.
What to do instead
Adopt a fixed routine: underline the operative word in the stem, restate the question in your own words before looking at options, and eliminate choices by citation rather than by familiarity; practice with mixed-polarity question sets.