The CBSPD Certification Programs

There are five levels of certification that the CBSPD offers; Technician, Flexible Endoscope Reprocessor, Ambulatory Surgery Technician, Surgical Instrument Specialist, and Management. The examinations for each level are given 4 times per year. Exams inside the U.S. (along with select international sites) are given on computer. Some exams given outside the U.S. are still in paper/pencil format. For exact exam dates, please click here. The examinations are offered at test sites throughout the U.S. and internationally. There are now over 1,100 test sites throughout the U.S. and Canada to choose from. Special test sites can be established at any healthcare facility outside the U.S for the paper/pencil exams.

Upon successful completion of the examination, your certification remains valid for five years. No other organization offers this length of certification...and re-certification is very simple!

The cost to take our Technician, Ambulatory Surgery Technician, Surgical Instrument Specialist, and Flexible Endoscope Reprocessor exams is $128 U.S. dollars. For the Management exam, the cost is $153 U.S. dollars. To view individual requirements to take the exams, please see our certification exam pages at the top of this webpage. For more details, please download a recent Candidate Bulletin for your exam from our Certification Exams page.

Re-certification can be accomplished through re-examination or a combination of work experience and continuing education. For a review of re-certification requirements, please see our Continuing Education page.

EXAMINATION SCORING AND REPORTING - The passing SCALED score is 70. An "official" Pass/Fail will be given at the completion of the computerized exam for those testing in the U.S. The examination is designed to be a minimum competency test and is not intended to distinguish scores achieved above the passing point. THEREFORE, NO NUMERIC SCORES WILL BE REPORTED FOR PASSING CANDIDATES. This policy has been established as a safeguard against misuse of the examination scores of passing candidates. Failing candidates will receive notice of their score, and a diagnostic report showing subject areas of weakness. For those candidates that are testing internationally, your results will be mailed to you within 8 weeks. For security reasons, final results will not be given over the telephone or email by the testing agency or the CBSPD.

From a technical perspective: CBSPD administers standardized tests. Standardized tests most of the time exists in more than one edition. Those different versions of the test are called "forms of the test".

All forms of a test are supposed to measure the same knowledge and skills. Each of the forms is constructed with a different set of questions. When tests are being constructed, test developers try to write questions that have the same difficulty across different forms. Those forms are not always equal in difficulty and some forms end up being harder than others.

If the questions in one form are harder than the questions on another form, then "raw-scores" on those two forms won't indicate the same thing. Number Correct and Percent Correct are "raw-scores". The simplest way to compute a student score is by counting the number of questions answered correctly. The raw-scores on the two different forms won't indicate the same level of the knowledge or skill the test is intended to measure. The scores won't be comparable and to treat them as if they were comparable would be misleading for the score users and unfair to the test-takers who took the form with the harder questions.

If the number of questions correct "raw-score" is different from form to form, you might want to convert that number to a different scale. Score users need to be able to compare scores of the test-takers who took different forms of the test. Therefore, testing agencies need to report scores that are comparable across different forms of the test. We need to make a given score indicate the same level of knowledge or skill, no matter which form of the test the test-taker took. "Scaled scores" are the solution to the problem and are adjusted to compensate for differences in the difficulty of the questions. The easier the questions, the more questions you have to answer correctly to get a particular scaled score.

Each form of the test has its own "Raw-to-Scale conversion", a formula or table that gives the scale corresponding to each possible raw score. CBSPD report scores on a 70 raw to scale score. A scale score of 70 or above will be reported as Pass, whereas a scale score below 70 will be reported as Fail.

IF A CANDIDATE RECEIVES THEIR FINAL RESULT AND HAVE FOUND THAT THEY FAILED THE EXAM, THEY MUST REGISTER AGAIN AND PAY THE ENTIRE EXAM FEE AND RE-TAKE THE ENTIRE EXAM. CANDIDATES ARE NOT PERMITTED TO RE-TEST ON THE PARTS THEY GOT WRONG ON THEIR ORIGINAL EXAM.

CANDIDATES MAY APPLY FOR AND TAKE THE EXAMINATION AS OFTEN AS THEY WISH, JUST NOT MORE THAN ONCE IN THE SAME EXAM WINDOW. A NEW APPLICATION FORM (WHICH INCLUDES EMPLOYMENT VERIFICATION) AND FEE MUST BE SUBMITTED EACH TIME THE EXAM IS TAKEN.

CHALLENGES TO SCORING RESULTS WITH COMPUTER-BASED TESTING: Any CBSPD examinee who wishes to have their score re-checked must send a letter requesting a re-scoring of their exam with: Full Name; last 4 digits of Social Security Number; exam name and date; along with a $20 re-scoring fee to: CBSPD, Inc., 1392 US Hwy 22, Suite #1, Lebanon, New Jersey 08833. This process involves printing out the exam responses and scoring them by hand. A written report will be mailed to the examinee. Payment must be made payable to the CBSPD in the form of a money order/cashier's check. NO PERSONAL CHECKS WILL BE ACCEPTED. All requests for re-scoring must be made within 45 days of the exam date.

For candidates outside the U.S. who are taking paper pencil exams, you can still request to have your examination hand scored. The request for hand scoring should be made IN WRITING TO: CBSPD, Inc., 1392 US Hwy 22, Suite #1, Lebanon, New Jersey 08833, USA. Please include your name, and examination date at the top of your letter. Payment must be made in the form of a money order or hospital check to CBSPD, IN THE AMOUNT OF $50 USD. All requests for hand scoring must be submitted within 45 days of the examination date.