Taking the VTNE through on-the-job training

Where on-the-job training counts

The AAVSB candidate handbook names four jurisdictions that accept on-the-job training (OJT) as the route to the VTNE: Alaska, Montana, Utah and Wisconsin. Each state’s own board confirms it:

• Alaska. Two years of on-the-job veterinary technician training under a licensed veterinarian, within the three years before you apply, at least 700 hours a year, and at least one of the years in Alaska (unless you’re already licensed in another state). Alaska Board of Veterinary Examiners
• Montana. At least 4,500 hours of on-the-job training under a veterinarian licensed and residing in Montana, then the VTNE and Montana’s jurisprudence exam (90% to pass). In June 2026 the board proposed changing that line to 4,500 hours of experience equivalent to a licensed technician’s, so read the current version. Montana Board of Veterinary Medicine
• Utah. 6,000 hours of supervised practice as unlicensed assistive personnel under a licensed veterinarian, plus the VTNE. Utah Division of Professional Licensing
• Wisconsin. A two-year experience requirement, shown by affidavits from the licensed veterinarians who supervised you. The board approves your application before you test, and you choose Wisconsin as your jurisdiction when you apply for the exam. Wisconsin Veterinary Examining Board

Two cautions from the AAVSB. A license earned through OJT may not transfer to a state that doesn’t recognise it, and you might have to take the VTNE again through another pathway to work there. And California isn’t on this list: its alternate route needs education as well as experience.

Applying for the exam

1. Download the OJT form for your state from your MyAAVSB portal.
2. Have your supervising veterinarian sign it.
3. Upload it with your VTNE application. AAVSB staff check it against your state’s rules before you can finish applying.

How to prepare

• The exam tests the whole AAVSB content outline, not your clinic’s routine. List the ten domains and be honest about the ones your job never touches. The exam blueprint shows how much each one counts.
• Learn the textbook reason for what your hands already know. Years of practice make the how automatic; the exam often asks the why.
• Get the math methods steady on paper: dosing, fluid rates and dilutions, worked the same way every time.

How VTNE Rounds helps

Without a course, nobody hands you a reading list. Every answer here tells you which book to open.

• 1,000 practice questions across the ten AAVSB domains, weighted like the exam’s content outline.
• Every answer shows the textbook it came from and where to find it.
• The explanations cover why the right answer is right and why the others aren’t.
• Math problems with new numbers every time, so you learn the method, not the answer.
• Built by Ari Kleine, a California RVT with five years in emergency and critical care.

We can’t promise you a pass, and nobody honestly can. We can show you exactly where every answer comes from.