CSCP Retake Policy 2026: 14 Days and a Much Smaller Bill
The retake costs less than a third of the first attempt. What catches people is the exam credit quietly expiring while they decide.
- No limitAttempts / year
- NoneLifetime cap
- 14 daysWait between
- $400Retake fee
- 300 of 350Pass mark
Table of Contents
The rules, exactly
CSCP has the friendliest retake economics in this series by a distance. The first attempt is $1,450 for members with the certification upgrade, or $2,015 without - and a retake is $400 or $500. There is no attempt cap and no lifetime limit. The wait is a flat fourteen full days, with ASCM noting there are no exceptions. What ends people's money is not the policy on attempts, it is the authorisation to test quietly expiring while they think about it.
| Rule | What ASCM says |
|---|---|
| Attempts allowed | No published cap, per year or lifetime. Each sitting simply consumes an authorisation to test. |
| Waiting period | Fourteen full days from your last attempt; you may test on the fifteenth day. ASCM states there are no exceptions. |
| Retake fee | $400 for members with the certification upgrade, $500 otherwise - against $1,450 and $2,015 for a first attempt. |
| Second Chance exam | Certification bundles include a free retake, issued as a 180-day authorisation, but only if you sat and failed inside the bundle's eligibility period. A no-show does not qualify. |
| Exam credit expiry | A standalone authorisation expires six months after purchase; one bought in a bundle lasts twelve. If it expires unused the fee is forfeited - no extensions, no refunds, no transfers. |
| What happens if it lapses | You cannot revive it. ASCM will let you buy a new exam at the retake price rather than the first-attempt price, which softens the blow. |
| Rescheduling | $45 and non-refundable, plus $10 if you do it by phone. Test-centre appointments must be changed at least 48 hours out. |
How many goes you actually get
No wall and only a short gap - but every box on this track needs its own authorisation to test, and each one has an expiry date attached.
- Attempt 1$1,450 / $2,015
- 14 days
- Attempt 2$400 / $500
- 14 days
- Attempt 3$400 / $500
- 14 days
- Attempt 4$400 / $500
- No capon lifetime attempts
No attempt cap. Fourteen full days between sittings, and each sitting consumes an authorisation that expires if unused.
What your score report is telling you
CSCP is scored on a scaled range of 200 to 350 with 300 to pass, equated across forms so the raw number of correct answers needed shifts with difficulty. The score report breaks performance down by content section.
- Supply chains, demand and forecastingAdequate
- Global supply chain networksMixed
- Sourcing products and servicesWeak
- Internal operations and inventoryWeak
- Logistics, relationships and riskMixed
Because scoring is scaled and equated, there is no fixed percentage to aim at - ASCM's own worked example shows the same scaled 300 arising from different raw scores on different forms. ASCM also does not publish the exact form the per-section breakdown takes, so read the ordering rather than assuming numeric sub-scores.
What to change before the next attempt
Fourteen days is short, and with a $400 retake sitting there the temptation is to rebook straight away. The section breakdown is worth a day of study planning before you do, because this is a broad exam and untargeted revision across eight modules is how the second attempt becomes the third.
Change this
- Rank the eight content modules by the section breakdown and spend the fourteen days on the bottom two.
- Practise questions rather than reread the content manual - the exam is applied and the manual is long.
- Sit a full 150-question run under the three-and-a-half-hour clock at least once before you rebook.
- Check your authorisation's expiry date before you schedule, not after - it is the constraint most likely to cost you money.
Do not change this
- Your ASCM membership and certification upgrade - the difference between $400 and $500 on every retake.
- The learning system you already have, if your bundle included one; its access runs for a year.
- Your familiarity with the delivery mode, test centre or remote.
- The modules the report showed as adequate, as maintenance rather than restudy.
What a retake really costs
This is the largest first-attempt-to-retake gap in the series, and it changes how you should think about a failure here.
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| First attempt | $1,450 for members with the certification upgrade, $2,015 otherwise |
| Retake | $400 with the upgrade, $500 otherwise |
| Bundle with a free retake | $2,620 for members, $3,650 otherwise |
| Membership plus certification upgrade | $199 |
| Reschedule or cancel | $45, plus $10 by phone |
| Expired authorisation | Fee forfeited; a replacement is sold at the retake price |
The $199 upgrade pays for itself immediately: it saves $565 on the first attempt and $100 on every retake. If you are reading this after a failure and are not upgraded, do that arithmetic before you buy the retake.
The rules with no exceptions
Do not get caught by these
- Fourteen full days, no exceptions. You may test on the fifteenth day and not before.
- An expired authorisation is money gone. ASCM states these cannot be extended, refunded or transferred.
- The free Second Chance retake needs a genuine failure. A no-show or an absence does not qualify for it.
- Schedule at least a week before expiry, because seat availability can leave you unable to sit in time.
- External factors are not appealable. Technical problems, equipment faults and personal circumstances will not adjust a score.
Between the deep discount and the absence of any cap, CSCP is the exam in this series where a second attempt is least painful financially. The discipline it demands is calendar discipline: buy the retake, note the expiry, and book the seat inside it. The candidates who lose money on this exam almost never lose it to the exam itself.
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 CSCP bank.
App StoreGoogle PlayFree practice testCSCP exam pageFAQ
How long do you have to wait to retake the CSCP exam?
Fourteen full days from your last attempt - you may test on the fifteenth day. ASCM states there are no exceptions to this policy, and the day of the exam does not count toward the fourteen.
How much does a CSCP retake cost?
$400 for ASCM members with the certification upgrade and $500 for everyone else, against $1,450 and $2,015 for a first attempt. It is the deepest retake discount of any exam in this series.
Is there a limit on CSCP attempts?
No cap is published, per year or for life. Each sitting simply requires a valid authorisation to test, so the practical limits are the fourteen-day wait and the expiry date on your exam credit.
What is the CSCP passing score?
300 on a scaled range of 200 to 350. Scores are equated across forms, so the raw number of correct answers needed varies with difficulty and there is no fixed percentage to aim at. The exam is 150 questions - 130 scored plus 20 unscored - in three and a half hours.
Sources
Every rule on this page comes from ASCM, not from a coaching site:
- https://www.ascm.org/globalassets/ascm_website_assets/docs/apics-exam-handbook.pdf
- https://www.ascm.org/learning-development/certifications-credentials/faqs/
- https://www.ascm.org/learning-development/certifications-credentials/exam-details/
- https://www.ascm.org/learning-development/certifications-credentials/cscp/
Checked September 6, 2026. Retake policies and fees change without much notice — confirm with ASCM before you rebook.