CLB (Clinical Lipid Specialist) Pass Rate, Format & Study Guide

The certifying body does not publicly publish an official pass rate for this exam. Be wary of third-party sites citing a specific number here — treat any pass-rate claim you see elsewhere for this exam as unverified.

ABCL does not publish a retake wait period, attempt limit, or retest fee schedule on its public site — only the standard $1,200 (physician) / $600 (other healthcare professions) application-and-exam fee is stated, plus a $95 seating fee if you cancel within 72 hours of your appointment. Confirm retake-specific terms directly with ABCL before counting on any particular timeline.

ABCL does not publish its scoring methodology (scaled score vs. raw percentage) or a passing threshold on its public FAQ or exam-information pages. Its own FAQ literally poses the question "Is the examination difficult? What is the pass rate?" and answers by pointing candidates to prep courses rather than a number — so both scoring detail and pass rate are confirmed not publicly disclosed, not just unfound.

• Treatment of Dyslipidemia (incl. Guidelines)29%
• Special Populations & Consultative Issues16%
• Genetic Dyslipidemias13%
• Therapeutic Lifestyle Change12%
• CVD Risk Factor Identification & Clinical Significance11%
• Evidence-Based Medicine & Statistics8%
• Classification, Measurement & Metabolism of Lipids8%
• Vascular Biology4%

ABCL's own published content weighting concentrates the ~200-question, 4-hour exam heavily on two areas: Treatment of Dyslipidemia including guidelines (29%) and Special Populations & Consultative Issues (16%) together account for nearly half the exam. Anchor your prep in current lipid-lowering guideline algorithms and special-population management (renal disease, pregnancy, statin intolerance, pediatrics) before spreading remaining time across the six smaller domains, each worth 4-13%.