Failed the CPC Exam? The Retake Policy, Explained (2026 Guide)

The email nobody wants to open

I've sat with more than a few coders on the day their CPC result came back as a fail, and the first thing out of their mouth is almost always the same question: do I have to pay the whole thing again? Sometimes the answer is no. Sometimes it's yes, and it depends entirely on a checkbox they clicked at purchase months earlier. So before you rebuild a study plan, get clear on which bucket you're in — it changes both your budget and your timeline.

Here's the honest framing: a failed CPC attempt is a scheduling and diagnostics problem, not a verdict on whether you can code. The exam is open-book, percentage-scored, and split across two sittings. Most people who fail it fail for reasons they can name once they slow down and look.

What your exam purchase actually bought you

AAPC sells the CPC as a voucher, and the voucher comes in one- and two-attempt flavors. The two-attempt option bundles a retake with the original purchase — that's the whole difference. A single-attempt purchase does not include a free retake.

Purchase option	Price	What's included
Standard, 1 attempt	$425	One sitting only; no retake bundled
Standard, 2 attempts	$499	Original sitting plus one retake
Student, 1 attempt	$400	One sitting only; no retake bundled
Student, 2 attempts	$475	Original sitting plus one retake

Two things people miss. First, an active AAPC membership is required to sit the exam, and membership dues are separate from the exam fee — they're not folded into the numbers above. Second, exam fees are non-refundable and non-transferable. You can't cash out an unused attempt, and you can't hand it to a coworker.

Fee schedules do get updated, so confirm the current dollar figure on AAPC's exam-cost page before you check out. Older AAPC pages and forum threads still float lower prices that predate the current schedule.

The one-year clock on your free retake

This is the rule that costs people real money. AAPC states that you get one free retake for the same exam type as long as it's taken within one year of your original exam date. Not one year from when you found out you failed, not one year from when you feel ready — one year from the date you originally sat.

There's a second one-year window that runs in parallel and confuses people: the exam itself must be taken within one year from the date of purchase. So if you bought a voucher, sat on it for eleven months, then tested and failed, your retake window is already ticking from that test date.

My blunt advice: pick your retake date in the same week you get the result. Even if you move it later, having something on the calendar keeps the deadline from sneaking up while life happens.

How to schedule the retake

Retakes are scheduled from the AAPC Members area — My Events > Examinations. From there you choose your format:

• Online Live Remote Proctored (LRP) — proctored via an external webcam by AAPC's partner, Examity. Note the vendor: it isn't Pearson VUE, Prometric, or PSI, and the technical requirements (including that external webcam) are specific.
• In person at an approved exam site, including AAPC local chapter events.

The current exam is split into two parts, and the parts can be scheduled on the same day at different times or on different days. On a retake, I'd think hard about that choice. If your first attempt fell apart in the back half, splitting the parts across two days is a legitimate strategic change — and it costs you nothing.

What "failing" means when the exam is scored on straight percentage

The CPC doesn't use a scaled score or a moving cut. You need 70% or higher overall — on the 100-question exam, that's at least 70 questions correct. Every question is weighted equally at one point. There's no scaled-score conversion published, and the 70% standard is overall rather than per-section, so you don't have to hit 70% inside each content area to pass. Our breakdown of the CPC passing score goes deeper on that math.

A couple of related unknowns worth stating plainly, because guessing at them wastes your time:

• AAPC does not publish a pretest/unscored (pilot) question count for the CPC exam.
• AAPC does not publish a scored-vs-pretest split either; treat all 100 questions as counting toward the 70% score unless AAPC states otherwise.
• AAPC does not publish an official CPC pass-rate percentage. The figures that circulate on forums — you've probably seen a first-time pass rate quoted somewhere in the seventies — aren't confirmable against an official AAPC source, so don't build your expectations on them.

Practically, this means the gap between a fail and a pass is often a handful of questions. That's encouraging. It also means a scattershot "review everything" retake plan is the wrong tool.

Diagnose the failure before you study anything

Pull out a notebook and answer these honestly.

Did you run out of time?

Each part carries a maximum time limit of 2 hours and 45 minutes, with the two parts totaling roughly 5.5 hours across the full exam. If you were guessing at the end of a part because the clock beat you, your problem is lookup speed, not coding knowledge. The fix is drilling with your books open under a timer until you stop reading full guideline sections mid-question.

Were your books the problem?

The CPC is open-code-book, but only approved manuals are allowed: one CPT (AMA Standard or Professional edition), one ICD-10-CM, and one HCPCS Level II — one of each of the three book types on your desk. Officially published errata update sheets for those manuals are permitted. Nothing else. If your tabs were sparse, unlabeled, or you'd never actually practiced with the exact editions you brought, that's a repeatable, fixable failure.

Which content areas bled points?

The exam spans CPT across all six code sections, plus E/M, Anesthesia, Radiology, Pathology and Laboratory, Medicine, ICD-10-CM diagnosis coding, HCPCS Level II, coding guidelines, medical terminology, anatomy, and compliance and regulatory topics. For current per-area question counts, go to AAPC's official CPC exam content outline — older per-area breakdowns were built on the retired 150-question format and don't map cleanly to the current 100-question exam. Our content-area walkthrough is a good place to organize your review, and the difficulty breakdown covers which areas trip up repeat testers.

Building a retake plan that's different from the first one

The most common retake mistake is repeating the original prep, only louder. Change the shape of it instead.

1. Time-box your lookups. Practice with the books and a timer from day one, not as a final-week add-on. Speed on the CPC is a book skill, not a memory skill.
2. Re-tab from scratch. Strip out tabs you never touched during the exam and rebuild around the sections that actually slowed you down.
3. Work full-length under real conditions. Sit a complete timed run at the same time of day you've scheduled the retake. If you split the two parts across two days, rehearse it that way.
4. Fix rationale gaps, not question counts. Getting an answer right for the wrong reason is a fail waiting to happen. Read why each distractor is wrong, every time.

If you're unsure how much runway to give yourself before you rebook, our study-timeline guide lays out realistic windows — just keep that one-year retake deadline in view while you plan.

Retake edge cases worth knowing

I bought the single-attempt voucher. What now?

You'll need to purchase another exam to sit again. Since the two-attempt option bundles a retake, compare that against buying a second single attempt before you check out. Either way, fees already paid are non-refundable and non-transferable.

Does the free retake have to be the same exam?

Yes — the included retake applies to the same exam type, taken within one year of your original exam date.

Can I switch from in-person to online (or the reverse) for the retake?

Both delivery options exist — Live Remote Proctored through Examity with an external webcam, or an approved in-person exam site. Schedule whichever you choose from the Members area under My Events > Examinations, and check the LRP technical requirements ahead of time if you're switching to online.

If I pass on the retake, do I get the full CPC?

You need an active AAPC membership at the time of application and/or when results are released. There's no hard experience prerequisite to sit, but candidates who pass without documented experience earn the CPC-A (Apprentice) designation; the "A" comes off once the required professional coding experience is verified — generally two years, or a combination of education and coursework.

One last thing

A retake is a second look at a test you now understand far better than you did the first time. You know the room, the proctoring flow, the way the two parts feel, and roughly where your books failed you. That's information most first-time candidates would pay for. Use it, book the date inside your window, and change one real thing about how you prepare.