How the CHST exam is built, scored and retaken

The board's current web pages and fee sheet give the time and nothing else about length. The last candidate guide that spelled out the format, from 2018, describes a closed-book, multiple-choice exam with four options per question and a form of 200 questions. We treat those as the expected format until the board restates them, and the table marks them that way.

That guide also puts a share of every form, 10–15%, outside the score: experimental items that are tried out on candidates. A stretch of unfamiliar items may be tryouts, but there is no way to tell, so answer them as carefully as the rest.

The board does not put a number on it at all; a panel of people who already hold the credential decides where the line falls.

If you see a fixed number of right answers quoted as the cut, we found no document from the board behind it, and the board's own fee sheet warns that passing scores may be revised without telling candidates first. Plan to know the material, not to hit a number.

In the board's 2023–24 reporting year, 61.8% of candidates passed; the table gives the counts behind it. The figure is a share of people, not an average score, and it says nothing about how close the others came.

Use it as a reason to plan for the whole blueprint. The hazard domain is the widest of the four, and the study guide maps its full scope.

The official result shows up on screen when you submit. After a fail, a second try needs a fresh exam purchase (the board calls it an exam authorization) and a new booking at least 6 weeks after the last attempt. There is no stated cap on attempts, but every attempt has to fit inside your eligibility year, and the retake price is in the table.

That year is the real constraint. A late first attempt leaves little room for a second one, so book early enough that a retake still fits.