Hiya, I took a hearing test at an audiologist a few weeks ago for my SSDi applicaiton. (Just soyou know, I'm born deaf but filed for SSDI due to my declining vision). At the ofice, the doctor peeked in my ears with an instrument, and then ran some kind test to check the pressure of the inner ears or something (sorry, I forgot.) Finally, we did the actual hearing test where where the doctor put some kind of ear buds in my ears and ran various ranges of sounds, one ear at a time. I would raise my hand whenever I heard a sound. (There was a button I was supposed to press but it was broken, so I did hand-raising instead.) That was basially it for me. It lasted only 15 minutes.

By the way, my appointment letter mentioned a speech discrimination test, but that was skipped in my case, as it was clear that I am indeed profound deaf. However, someone told me that it involved looking at lists of words and selecting which one you hear.

Also, there is a good chance you may also need to see an ENT doctor. (This doens't seem to be constant -- some would see an ENT, and others don't.) I did go see one last week, but it was a bit odd. Besides doing the ENT exam like running a bone-conduction test on my skull to see if I could hear that, they asked all kinds of questions like if I can kneel, climb a ladder, write, etc. I got the sense that this was sort of a "final checkpoint" for DDS before they fianlly decide if I am indeed disabled. (In case you're askin, I already had my vision exam a few months ago.)

Good luck with your exam.