CCMA Retake Policy 2026: Three Goes, Then One a Year
Your score report will say some domains were Near the passing standard. NHA is explicit that this does not mean your performance there was satisfactory.
- 3Attempts / year
- 1/yr after 3Lifetime cap
- 30 daysWait between
- Full priceRetake fee
- 390 of 500Pass mark
Table of Contents
The rules, exactly
NHA gives you three attempts, each at least 30 days apart, and after the third every further failure carries a full year's wait. Every attempt is charged at full price - there is no retake discount. The part worth reading carefully is the score report, because it does not give you numbers per domain. It gives you three words, and one of them is routinely misread.
| Rule | What NHA says |
|---|---|
| Attempts | Three, with a minimum of 30 days between each. After the third, every further attempt requires a one-year wait. |
| Waiting period | 30 days between attempts one, two and three; one year for each attempt after that. |
| Retake fee | Full price every time. NHA states you must re-register and pay the full examination price for each retake attempt. |
| What the fee actually is | NHA does not publish a per-candidate price - most schools bundle the exam into tuition and are invoiced directly, so check with your programme rather than a third-party figure. |
| Rescheduling | You may move an exam date without repaying within six months of the original date. Miss that or cancel inside 24 hours and the fee is forfeited. |
| Reapplication | Log in as a returning candidate, schedule and pay. No new coursework and no eligibility re-verification. |
| Deadlines that void a pass | Pre-externship candidates have 90 days to complete the externship, employer-training candidates 180. Miss it and NHA voids the score and you retake. |
How many goes you actually get
Three boxes at 30-day intervals, then a hard slowdown. Unlike most exams here there is no lifetime cap - but from the fourth attempt onward you get one sitting a year, which is a cap in everything but name.
- Attempt 1Full price
- 30 days
- Attempt 2Full price
- 30 days
- Attempt 3Full price
- 3lifetime cap
Three attempts 30 days apart, then one per year indefinitely. Every attempt is charged at full price.
What your score report is telling you
CCMA is scored on a scaled range of 200 to 500 with 390 to pass, weighted so that the standard holds across exam forms. The domain feedback is banded rather than numeric, and NHA attaches four warnings to it that are worth more than the bands themselves.
- Patient careBelow
- PhlebotomyNear
- EKG and cardiovascularBelow
- Infection controlAbove
- Administrative assistingNear
NHA's four cautions, in order of how often they are ignored. Near does not mean satisfactory. The bands are ranges, so they do not tell you whether you were at the top or bottom of one. They cannot be added up to explain the overall result. And a band earned on one form does not predict the next, because the retake will not be the same exam.
What to change before the next attempt
NHA's own retake advice is unusually specific and worth following literally: study the Below and Near areas hardest, but do not abandon the Above areas. Because the retake is a different form, an Above band is not a guarantee - it is a lower priority.
Change this
- Rank your domains from the report and work Below first, Near second, Above last - but do not skip Above entirely.
- Treat Near as a fail. NHA says explicitly that it does not indicate satisfactory performance, and candidates who read it as 'almost there' repeat the same result.
- Use the 30 days on the two or three weakest domains rather than on a full review of the blueprint.
- Practise across the full domain mix in one sitting, because the banding cannot tell you whether pace was the problem.
Do not change this
- Your training record and eligibility - a retake does not re-open them.
- Any externship progress, and watch its own deadline, because that clock can void a pass independently of the exam.
- The testing modality you used, whether at your institution or a test centre.
- The domains banded Above, as maintenance rather than as study.
What a retake really costs
Full price for every attempt makes this the most expensive failure pattern in the series relative to the exam's cost, and the price is unusually hard to pin down.
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Each attempt | Full price, re-registered and repaid |
| Published price | NHA does not publish one per candidate - schools are usually invoiced directly |
| Reschedule | Free within six months of the original date |
| Cancel inside 24 hours or no-show | Fee forfeited; re-register and repurchase |
| Rescore request | Within 60 days of the exam date; NHA may charge a fee |
Because most candidates never see the invoice, it is worth asking your programme what a retake will cost you personally before you book one. The answer varies by school and is not something NHA publishes.
The rules with no exceptions
Do not get caught by these
- Thirty days minimum between the first three attempts, then a full year for each one after.
- Full price every time. There is no retake discount of any kind.
- Near is not a pass-adjacent result. NHA states plainly it does not indicate satisfactory performance in that area.
- The externship clock can void a passing score - 90 days pre-externship, 180 for employer training.
- Provisional certifications expire at twelve months and cannot be renewed. If yours lapses you retake the exam.
The banding system is the thing to get right here. It is deliberately coarse, it warns you against over-reading it, and it will not tell you how close you came. What it does do reliably is rank your domains - so treat the report as an ordering of where to spend the next thirty days, and treat every Near as a Below until proven otherwise.
The gap between attempts is question volume
Candidates who pass on a retake are almost always the ones who answered a lot more unfamiliar questions, not the ones who reread the same book. Start free, then $5.99 unlocks the full CCMA bank.
App StoreGoogle PlayFree practice testCCMA exam pageFAQ
How many times can you retake the CCMA exam?
Three attempts with a minimum of 30 days between each. After the third attempt, every further attempt requires a one-year wait. There is no absolute lifetime cap, but from the fourth attempt onward you are limited to one sitting a year.
Is there a discounted CCMA retake fee?
No. NHA requires you to re-register and pay the full examination price for each retake attempt. NHA does not publish a per-candidate price because most schools bundle the exam into tuition and are invoiced directly, so ask your programme what a retake will cost you.
What does Near the passing standard mean on an NHA score report?
Not what most candidates assume. NHA states explicitly that Near does not indicate your performance in that content area was satisfactory. The bands are ranges and cannot be added up to explain the overall result, and a band earned on one form does not predict the next.
What is the CCMA passing score?
A scaled score of 390 on a range of 200 to 500. The scaling weights questions by difficulty so that 390 represents the same standard whichever form you sit.
Sources
Every rule on this page comes from NHA, not from a coaching site:
- https://www.nhanow.com/docs/default-source/test-plans/candidate_handbook.pdf
- https://www.nhanow.com/certifications/clinical-medical-assistant
- https://knowledge.nhanow.com/who-covers-the-cost-of-the-exams
Checked September 6, 2026. Retake policies and fees change without much notice — confirm with NHA before you rebook.