What Score Do You Need to Pass the CSCS Exam?

By Marc Ferrer · Founder, Engram Kinetics · Published October 2026

The passing score and the pass rate get mixed up all the time. They answer different questions, and confusing them leads to poor study decisions.

Passing score and pass rate

The passing score is a standard. NSCA says a committee of experts sets it by judging every question on the exam through a criterion-referenced standard-setting procedure. Your result is compared with that standard, not with other candidates. There is no curve.

The pass rate is an outcome: the share of candidates who reached the standard in a given year. For 2025, NSCA reports 9,650 CSCS candidates, domestic and international, and 50% of them passed both sections. By section, 71% passed Scientific Foundations and 55% passed Practical/Applied. The report doesn’t say how many of these candidates were on a first attempt.

You’ll also come across 41%. That’s the 2024 figure, still shown on NSCA’s CSCS exam page, for more than 6,200 candidates who sat both sections. The 2025 report doesn’t say whether all 9,650 sat both sections, or how many were retaking, so compare the two with care.

What “scaled” means

You get two types of score after the exam, raw and scaled. The raw score is the number of questions you answered correctly. The scaled score is derived from it statistically, runs from 1 to 100, and decides the result.

NSCA uses scaled scores because it runs several versions of each exam. Each new version replaces some questions in every content area, so one version can turn out slightly easier or harder than another. A procedure called equating adjusts for this. The handbook’s example: a scaled 75 earned in 2013 is worth the same as a scaled 75 earned in 2015, although the questions were different.

So no fixed number of correct answers equals a pass. NSCA states that your raw score can’t be related directly to your scaled score, because the raw score that corresponds to 70 changes with the questions. The score report also breaks your results down by domain, and NSCA asks candidates to read that breakdown with caution, since it rests on limited information compared with the whole exam.

This is where a common plan goes wrong. A candidate reads “70 to pass,” scores 72% on a practice test, and books the exam. The plan treats 70 as a percentage, and it treats a practice-test percentage as if it sat on NSCA’s scale. Neither is true. A practice score can show a trend, section by section. It can’t tell you that you’ve cleared the bar.

Two sections, two results

Scientific Foundations has 95 questions in 1.5 hours, 80 of them scored. Practical/Applied has 125 questions in 2.5 hours, 110 of them scored. The section includes 30 to 40 video or image items. In each section, 15 unscored pretest questions are spread among the others.

Each section is passed or failed on its own, so the section rates tell you more than the combined one. In 2025, 71% of candidates passed Scientific Foundations and 55% passed Practical/Applied. The second section also leans harder on judgment. Under the content outline in force since July 1, 2025, 36 of its 110 scored questions are classified at the analysis level, against 12 of 80 in Scientific Foundations.

If you fail one section

You don’t start over. The NSCA handbook says a candidate who fails one of the two sections retakes only that section, within one year of the initial exam date. The CSCS exam page adds that you must pass both sections, and meet every other eligibility requirement, within one year of that initial date.

The general retake policy applies. You wait at least 30 days after your last attempt before you can register again, and retakes aren’t discounted. For the CSCS, one section costs $250 for NSCA members and $385 for non-members. Both sections cost $340 and $475. After a third consecutive attempt, and after every attempt that follows it, you wait a year from your last test date before trying again.

Sources

• NSCA, Exam Scoring: raw and scaled scores, standard setting, equating.
• NSCA, Certification Handbook, effective July 1, 2026: CSCS sections, exam scoring, retake policy.
• NSCA, CSCS Exam Description: format, domains, the one-year rule, 2024 pass rates.
• NSCA, CSCS Job Task Analysis Summary 2025: cognitive levels by domain, effective July 1, 2025.
• NSCA, Certification Exams: A Year in Review: 2025 candidates and pass rates.
• NSCA, CSCS certification page: requirements and fees.

FAQ

Is a 70 on the CSCS the same as 70% correct?

No. 70 is a scaled score on a 1 to 100 scale. NSCA says scaled scoring is not a percentage score, and the number of correct answers that corresponds to 70 varies from one exam version to another.

Do you have to pass both CSCS sections at the same sitting?

No. First-time candidates take both sections, but each one is passed or failed separately. If you fail one, you retake only that section, and both must be passed within one year of your first exam date.

What is the CSCS pass rate?

In 2025, NSCA gave the CSCS to 9,650 candidates, and 50% passed both sections. The section rates were 71% for Scientific Foundations and 55% for Practical/Applied. NSCA doesn’t say how many of these candidates were on a first attempt.

Disclosure: Marc Ferrer is the founder of Engram Kinetics, an independent exam-prep platform. Engram Kinetics is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by ACSM, NSCA or CSEP. Scoring rules, fees and pass rates come from nsca.com and the NSCA Certification Handbook (effective July 1, 2026), as checked in October 2026. Confirm them on nsca.com before you register.

NSCA and CSCS are registered trademarks of the National Strength and Conditioning Association.