CHS Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass

Why There's No Published "Passing Score"

If you're searching for a specific number - "you need 72% to pass" or "the cut score is 350" - you won't find it for Certification in Congenital Cardiac Surgery (CHS) through the American Board of Thoracic Surgery (ABTS). ABTS does not publish a fixed percentage-correct threshold for the Part I written examination or a numeric scoring rubric for the Part II oral examination. What it does publish is outcome data: how many candidates sat for each exam and how many passed. That distinction matters more than it might seem, because it changes how you should prepare.

Instead of chasing a mythical cut score, your real target is demonstrated mastery across the 11 content categories that define the exam's scope, combined with the operative judgment the oral examiners are trained to probe. For a full breakdown of those categories, see the CHS Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 11 Content Areas.

The Two-Part Structure and Why Sequence Matters

CHS certification is built as a sequential gate, not a single test day. You must pass the Part I written examination before ABTS will allow you to schedule Part II, the in-person oral examination. This sequencing has direct implications for how you should think about "passing":

• Part I (written): Administered at Pearson Professional Testing Centers, multiple-choice format.
• Part II (oral): In-person case-based examination, held in Dallas, scheduled only after written success is confirmed.

Because the oral exam is gated behind the written result, there's no way to "make up" a weak written performance with a strong oral showing, or vice versa. Each part has to stand on its own. If you want a broader sense of how demanding this two-stage structure is relative to other subspecialty boards, the How Hard Is the CHS Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026 article goes deeper into that comparison.

The Three-Answer-Option Format Change

Starting in 2025, the CHS written multiple-choice questions use three answer options instead of a longer list. On the surface this sounds like it should make guessing easier, but in practice it usually means the distractors are tighter and more clinically plausible - the exam relies less on obviously wrong "throwaway" choices and more on discriminating between answers that are each defensible in isolation.

Practically, this changes how you should drill:

• Stop practicing with four- or five-option question banks built for other boards and expect a one-to-one transfer - the discrimination skill required is different.
• Spend more time articulating why the two incorrect options are wrong, not just identifying the right one.
• Time-box your practice questions aggressively; fewer options can create a false sense of speed that doesn't hold up under exam conditions.

For question-style practice built specifically around this three-option format and the CHS domain list, our practice test platform is designed to mirror the current administration rather than a generic surgery board style.

The 11 Content Categories You're Scored Against

The ABTS 2025 Booklet of Information lists 11 content categories that define the scope of Part I. These are treated as unweighted coverage areas - ABTS does not publish a breakdown of how many questions come from each category, so you can't safely assume any domain is "worth less" than another.

Because these categories are unweighted, the safest preparation posture treats all 11 as equally likely to appear. A domain-by-domain walkthrough with more clinical detail is available in the CHS Exam Domains 2026 guide, and a condensed version for last-week review lives in the CHS Cheat Sheet 2026.

What the 2025 Pass/Fail Numbers Suggest

ABTS reported 7 passes among 8 written examinees and 4 passes among 4 oral examinees in 2025. These are extremely small cohorts, and a single candidate's result can swing the ratio significantly - so treat this as directional context, not a statistical guarantee about your own odds.

What this data does not tell you is a passing score, a percentile rank, or a difficulty trend over multiple years. For a fuller discussion of how to interpret small-cohort certification statistics responsibly, see the CHS Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows article.

Fees, Timing, and Deadlines That Affect Readiness

Passing isn't only about content - it's about arriving at test day with your logistics locked down so preparation time isn't lost to administrative scrambling. Initial CHS certification costs total $4,900 before travel or study materials: a $650 application fee, $1,750 for the written examination, and $2,500 for the oral examination. A full cost breakdown, including what's and isn't included, is covered in the CHS Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown.

Timing is equally important because of the sequential gate described above. The 2026 written window runs December 7-11, 2026, with the corresponding oral examination held June 4-5, 2027 in Dallas. That roughly six-month gap between written success and the oral exam is a planning asset - use it deliberately rather than losing momentum. For the full testing calendar and registration deadlines, see CHS Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling.

Eligibility You Must Clear Before You're Scored at All

None of the scoring discussion above matters if you haven't cleared eligibility first. ABTS requires current primary ABTS certification, unrestricted medical licensure, qualifying thoracic and congenital cardiac surgery training, verified operative experience, and program endorsement before you can even register.

Fellows who began training on or after July 1, 2023 face a specific bar: two consecutive years in one ACGME-accredited program and at least 150 major congenital cases, with a minimum of 50 in the first year. This case-volume requirement is worth mapping against your own logbook well before you plan to register - it's a hard prerequisite, not a soft guideline. Full detail on every eligibility path is in the CHS Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify guide.

Building a Prep Timeline Around the Domains

Generic study techniques - spaced repetition, timed blocks, active recall - only help if they're mapped onto the actual CHS content categories rather than applied as a one-size-fits-all template. Below is one way to sequence a multi-month runway toward the December written window, weighting the domains that tend to require the most integrated reasoning (conotruncal anomalies, univentricular pathways, and perioperative management) toward the middle of your plan, once foundational anatomy is solid.

For a more detailed week-by-week study framework, including how to layer oral-exam case rehearsal into the same timeline, see the CHS Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt. To practice under conditions that reflect the current three-option format across all 11 domains, our full-length practice tests are structured around this exact sequencing.

Weighing the Investment Against the Outcome

Because there's no published cut score, some candidates ask whether the time and the $4,900 in initial fees are justified relative to career impact. That's a fair question, and it depends heavily on your practice setting and career goals - factors explored in the Is the CHS Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026 article and the CHS Salary Guide 2026: Complete Earnings Analysis. What's not in question is the mechanics: pass Part I, then Part II, sequentially, with no shortcut around either gate.

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