[Updated for 2025] This Year's MOCA-Peds Learning Objectives

Key Points

1. The ABP releases a new content outline each year for their MOCA-Peds testing option.

2. The 2025 MOCA-Peds content outline for General Pediatrics contains 45 learning objectives and 2 featured readings.

3. The learning objectives selected are meant to reflect the breadth of knowledge required for practice.

4. Featured readings are pulled from peer-reviewed journal articles and guidelines. They are seen as important material for every certified pediatrician to read. Questions about each will begin appearing in Q2. 

Each year the MOCA-Peds exam content outline is updated to cover new learning objectives and featured readings. Throughout the exam year, you'll receive one unique question for each of the learning objectives within the content outline. The learning objectives are meant to reflect the breadth of knowledge required for practice and fall under a variety of categories.

MedStudy focuses on the General Pediatrics section of the exam, and every year develop a new QuickREF, the perfect sidekick for your open-book assessment. The 2025 learning objectives and featured readings have been released by the ABP, so you can start preparing now. Here's what you should brush up on before opening up your Quarter 1 questions. 

What will be covered on the MOCA-Peds this year?

MOCA-Peds questions are based on 45 learning objectives, which are drawn from the ABP content outline used for the 10-year proctored exam. As soon as Quarter 2 of your MOCA-Peds, you could start to see questions on peer-reviewed journal articles or guidelines, which the ABP calls featured readings. 

The ABP recommends that participating pediatricians review the learning objectives and featured readings prior to starting MOCA-Peds each year. This gives you time to brush up on topics you don't see frequently in your practice and time to read over any new material. Keep in mind, the exam is both timed and open-book. Having a grasp of the material ahead of beginning your questions will allow you more time to check your answers in the five-minute window you get for each question.

What are MOCA-Peds Questions like? 

For each question—whether it's related to a learning objective or featured reading—you'll see a clinical vignette followed by a multiple-choice question. After each question, you'll rate your level of confidence and question relevance. Each quarter MOCA-Peds participants received up to 20 questions. You will have 5 minutes to answer each one.

PRO TIP: Pay attention to the questions that you rated confidently but answered incorrectly. There is an increased likelihood of seeing those questions again in future quarters. 

2025 MOCA-Peds Learning Objectives

Brush up on these MOCA-Peds learning objectives before you start your questions, and you'll be on your way to breezing through the assessment! We've included some videos from our YouTube channel that can kick-start your review. For a full review of each learning objective and featured reading, check out QuickREF for MOCA-Peds.

1. Counsel parents on routine neonatal medications and immunizations.
2. Distinguish between cardiac and non-cardiac causes of chest pain and evaluate appropriately.
3. Evaluate and manage a patient with eye redness. 
4. Evaluate and manage a patient with supraventricular tachycardia.
5. Evaluate and manage a patient with thermal burns.
6. Identify the child at risk for caregiver-fabricated illness and evaluate appropriately.
7. Know the differential diagnosis and evaluation of emesis in an infant.
8. Know the differential diagnosis of wheezing.
9. Manage a child with primary enuresis.
10. Manage different types of shock.
11. Plan the evaluation of a child with hypertension.
12. Provide anticipatory guidance regarding safety and injury prevention for adolescents.
13. Recognize and apply ethical principles regarding minors as decision-makers.
14. Recognize and manage postpartum depression.
15. Recognize findings that would suggest an immunodeficiency and plan the initial evaluation.
16. Recognize situations in which various immunizations may be contraindicated and manage patients appropriately.
17. Recognize various inheritance patterns.
18. Recognize, evaluate, and manage both normal and atypical development of a 9- to 12-month-old infant (social, emotional, language, gross motor, and fine motor).
19. Recognize, evaluate, and manage health issues in an infant born to a mother with a substance use disorder.
20. Recognize, evaluate, and manage opioid use disorder.
21. Understand and provide guidance to patients regarding methods of contraception.
22. Understand cultural and other factors that may affect medication adherence.
23. Understand how to develop a quality improvement project in clinical practice.
24. Understand return to activity criteria following an illness and advise patients appropriately.
25. Understand screening, evaluation, and management of suicide risk.
26. Understand the clinical manifestations, diagnosis, and management of atopic dermatitis.
27. Understand the clinical presentation and evaluation of a patient with systemic lupus erythematosus.
28. Understand the diagnosis and management of influenza.
29. Understand the differential diagnosis and evaluation of a neck mass.
30. Understand the differential diagnosis and evaluation of a patient with short stature.
31. Understand the differential diagnosis and evaluation of jaundice beyond the neonatal period.
32. Understand the differential diagnosis, evaluation, and management of a child with persistent rhinitis.
33. Understand the differential diagnosis, evaluation, and management of a patient with failure to thrive.
34. Understand the differential diagnosis, evaluation, and management of anemia.
35. Understand the differential diagnosis, evaluation, and management of fever without a source in children 3 to 36 months of age.
36. Understand the differential diagnosis, evaluation, and management of hair loss.
37. Understand the differential diagnosis, evaluation, and management of primary amenorrhea.
38. Understand the differential diagnosis, evaluation, and management of proteinuria.
39. Understand the differential diagnosis, evaluation and management of stridor.
40. Understand the differential diagnosis, evaluation, and management of vaginal discharge in an adolescent.
41. Understand the evaluation and management of lower extremity anomalies in a young child (e.g., in-toeing, bowing, metatarsus adductus).
42. Understand the management of a patient with hydrocephalus/ventriculoperitoneal shunt.
43. Understand the Presentation, evaluation, and management of different types of headaches.
44. Understand, evaluate, and manage a patient with possible tick-borne illness.
45. Understand, evaluate, and manage issues with both breast-feeding and formula feeding in infants. 

2025 MOCA-Peds Featured Readings 

These are the 2025 MOCA-Peds featured readings for General Pediatrics. 

1. Banerji A, Solensky R, Phillips EJ, Khan DA. Drug Allergy Practice Parameter Updates to Incorporate Into Your Clinical Practice. J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract. 2023 Feb;11(2):356-368.e5. doi: 10.1016/j.jaip.2022.12.002. Epub 2022 Dec 20. Review. PubMed PMID: 36563781.
   https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36563781/
2. Reynolds RV, Yeung H, Cheng CE, Cook-Bolden F, Desai SR, Druby K, Freeman EE, Keri JE, Stein Gold LF, Tan JKL, Tollefson MM, Weiss JS, Wu PA, Zaenglein AL, Han JM, Barbieri JS. Guidelines of Care for the Management of Acne Vulgaris. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2024 Jan 30;. doi: 10.1016/j.jaad.2023.12.017. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 38300170.
   https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38300170/
3. The American Psychiatric Association Practice Guideline For The Treatment Of Patients With Eating Disorders, Fourth Edition.
   https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/book/10.1176/appi.books.9780890424865 
    

Note: Learning objectives and featured readings listed are for the 2025 MOCA-Peds Learning Objectives for General Pediatrics, via the ABP website on 8/20/24.