CCDS Pass Rate, Format & Study Guide

ACDIS's own certification FAQ states approximately 77% of first-time examinees pass the CCDS exam. No specific year/testing-period is cited on the page — it reads as a standing, currently-published figure rather than a dated cohort statistic.

If you fail, ACDIS requires a 90-day wait from your failed exam date before retesting, and discounts the retake fee to $150 — but only for your first retake; any attempt after that reverts to the full $280 (member) / $380 (non-member) fee. ACDIS's own materials don't state a hard cap on total attempts, but each retake requires going back through the registration process.

CCDS scoring is a fixed raw-count cut score, not a scaled or percentage score: you need 88 correct out of the 120 scored questions (the other 20 of the 140 total are unscored pretest items) to pass. Questions are also split by cognitive level rather than just topic — roughly 40% recall, 40% application, and 20% analysis — so passing requires more than memorized definitions.

Because 60% of the 120 scored questions test application or analysis rather than recall, drilling flashcard-style facts alone won't get you to the 88-correct passing line — practice working through real physician-query and MEAT-criteria scenarios where you have to apply documentation guidelines, not just recite them. With 140 questions total and no published time-per-section breakdown, run at least one full practice set under realistic time pressure so the unscored pretest items (which look identical to scored ones) don't throw off your pacing on exam day.