CHS Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling

2026 CHS Exam Dates at a Glance

If you're pursuing the American Board of Thoracic Surgery's Certification in Congenital Cardiac Surgery, often shortened to CHS on the board's own site, the calendar matters just as much as the content. Unlike open-enrollment assessments, this credential runs on fixed annual windows for both the written and oral components, and missing a deadline can push your certification timeline back an entire year.

For 2026, the two dates every candidate needs on their calendar are straightforward:

• Part I Written Examination: December 7-11, 2026, administered at Pearson Professional Testing Centers
• Part II Oral Examination: June 4-5, 2027, in Dallas

These two dates are linked. You cannot sit the oral exam without first passing the written exam, so the December 2026 window functions as the gateway to the June 2027 oral session. This guide walks through what each window means logistically, how the fee structure lines up with the timeline, and how to plan your preparation so you're not scrambling in the final weeks before testing opens.

The Part I Written Window: December 7-11, 2026

The written examination is a multiple-choice test covering the same content ground reflected in the 11 domains published in the ABTS Booklet of Information. As of 2025, questions use a three-option answer format rather than the traditional four or five options, which changes how you should approach elimination strategy and guessing on questions where you're not fully certain. For a full breakdown of what each domain actually tests, see the CHS Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 11 Content Areas.

The written window itself spans five days, December 7 through 11, 2026, but individual candidates are assigned a specific seat time within that window rather than choosing freely across all five days. That means your actual appointment could fall on the first day or the last, depending on availability at your chosen Pearson center and how early you complete registration.

Because there's no published weighting across domains, treating each as equally testable is the safer planning assumption. That's a key reason candidates often underestimate how hard the exam actually is to prepare for broadly rather than deeply in a narrow area - a topic covered in depth in How Hard Is the CHS Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026.

The Part II Oral Exam: June 4-5, 2027 in Dallas

Passing the written exam is the prerequisite, not the finish line. The oral examination is a separate, in-person assessment held over two days, June 4-5, 2027, in Dallas. This format is case-based rather than multiple-choice, meaning you'll be presented with clinical scenarios and expected to talk through decision-making, operative planning, and management reasoning in real time with examiners.

Because the oral exam sits roughly six months after the written window closes, candidates who pass in December 2026 have a defined preparation runway heading into June 2027. That gap is useful, but it's not unlimited - case-based oral prep benefits from sustained review rather than a last-month cram, particularly across domains like Conotruncal Anomalies and Anomalies of Atrioventricular Connection, Univentricular Heart, and Atrial/Visceral Situs, where operative decision trees are complex.

Registration Timeline and Fee Deadlines

The full initial certification pathway carries a total cost of $4,900, broken into three distinct payments tied to different stages of the process:

Note that these figures exclude travel, lodging, and any preparation resources you invest in separately. For a full accounting of what candidates actually spend across the entire pathway, review CHS Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown.

Because the application fee is paid before you're confirmed eligible for a specific written window, it's worth starting the paperwork well ahead of the December testing dates. Program endorsement, operative case verification, and documentation review all take time, and delays here can push you out of the 2026 window entirely and into the following year's cycle.

Confirming Eligibility Before You Schedule

You can't schedule a written exam date until your eligibility is confirmed, and eligibility itself has several moving parts. Initial eligibility requires current primary ABTS certification, unrestricted medical licensure, qualifying thoracic and congenital cardiac surgery training, verified operative experience, and formal program endorsement.

Training requirements tightened for newer fellows. Anyone starting fellowship on or after July 1, 2023 needs two consecutive years in a single ACGME-accredited program, plus at least 150 major congenital cases overall, with a minimum of 50 of those cases completed in the first year. If you're still confirming whether your training pathway satisfies these thresholds, the detailed breakdown in CHS Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify walks through each qualifying pathway.

Practically speaking, this means the "exam date" conversation actually starts much earlier - during fellowship case logging and program endorsement - not when you sit down to pick a Pearson center. Candidates who wait until a few months before the December window to confirm their case counts and endorsement status risk finding gaps too late to fix in time.

Pearson Testing Center Logistics

Part I is administered at Pearson Professional Testing Centers, which operate on a network model rather than a single fixed location. Once your written registration is confirmed, you'll select from available centers and appointment slots within the December 7-11, 2026 window. A few practical points worth building into your planning:

• Center availability during a five-day window can fill quickly, especially near major metro areas - registering early gives you more flexibility on date and location.
• Because the exam uses a three-option multiple-choice format introduced in 2025, pacing at the testing center may feel different than exams you've taken with four- or five-option questions - plan a brief mental adjustment rather than assuming identical pacing.
• Standard Pearson identification and check-in procedures apply, so confirm requirements on the current ABTS and Pearson pages before your appointment date rather than relying on memory from prior standardized exams.

Building a Study Calendar Around the December Window

With a fixed date rather than rolling registration, your preparation calendar can work backward from December 7, 2026 with real precision. A useful approach is to allocate dedicated review blocks to each of the 11 domains in the weeks leading up to the window, rotating through higher-complexity domains more than once.

This is one workable structure, not the only one - the point is to schedule review sessions against your December 7-11 target date rather than studying without a defined finish line. A more comprehensive week-by-week plan, including how to layer practice questions on top of domain review, is available in the CHS Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt. You can also work through domain-specific practice questions on our practice test platform to gauge readiness before locking in your final review weeks.

After the Written Exam: What Happens Before Dallas

Once the December 2026 written window closes, ABTS reports results before the June 2027 oral session. Given the small cohort sizes reported for 2025 - 7 passes among 8 written examinees and 4 passes among 4 oral examinees - it's worth interpreting any pass-rate discussion cautiously rather than drawing broad conclusions from a handful of candidates. For more context on how these numbers should and shouldn't inform your prep strategy, see CHS Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows and CHS Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass.

Between written results and the June oral exam in Dallas, candidates typically shift preparation mode entirely - from recall-based multiple-choice review to verbal case reasoning. If you haven't already reviewed how case presentations are typically structured during Part II, building that familiarity early in the six-month gap reduces pressure as June approaches.

It's also worth revisiting why you're pursuing this credential in the first place during this window - whether that's access to specific surgical roles, program requirements, or long-term practice goals. That broader context is explored in Is the CHS Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026 and CHS Salary Guide 2026: Complete Earnings Analysis, alongside a look at where certified surgeons typically practice in CHS Jobs.

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