The article discusses the issues of choosing a profession for students with disabilities, the special role of professional tryouts in the process of forming career-oriented competence and professional self-determination of students with disabilities (in particular, mental retardation) is emphasized and justified. The novelty of the presented material lies in a comprehensive approach to looping full professional sampling, in terms of training, implementation of psychological and pedagogical support, fixation and analysis of results of operations, their use in the process of building individual trade routes. The detailed algorithm for organizing and conducting professional tryouts includes recommendations on the choice of diagnostic methods, forms of recording the results of professional tryouts, options for developing individual professional routes, principles for selecting professional educational organizations for obtaining professional education after the end of the 9th grade, program and methodological documents necessary for organizing professional tryout cycles. The effectiveness of the proposed methodology for organizing professional tryouts for students with disabilities is confirmed by the data of the survey of students of school № 663 in St. Petersburg.