Pass the CST — or get every dollar back. Guaranteed.

The full Fast Track Study System — every practice question, every flashcard deck, full-length mock exams, narrated audio, Miles the AI tutor, and the entire study guide, every chapter readable and highlightable. The cheat sheet — the highest-yield facts as a PDF — is in the study portal on every pass, with instant access to download it. Every pass opens all of it, backed by the SurePass Guarantee.

Score 85%+ on one full-length mock, sit the real exam, and if you don't pass we refund what you paid. That bar is deliberately higher than the exam's own pass mark, and it is higher than most of our other exams carry — we set it from how this question bank itself measures, and we would rather tell you the number up front than at claim time. On Lifetime, clear two mocks with your readiness meter at "Getting close" or above and we also pay up to $340 toward your retake fee. You file the claim in your study portal with your official score report.

Four scored full-length sittings, each a brand-new 175-question paper built to all eight published subcategories and timed to the real four hours. Practice questions and timed practice are unlimited and never use one. Each paper is the delivered 175 questions, not the scored 150, because that is the exam you actually sit.

Most people want the 30-Day: you usually test soon after your program ends, and a month is the shape of that run. Sitting within a week, the 7-Day is built for exactly that. Lifetime is worth it if your test date is not set yet, or if you want it still there in four years — certification renews on continuing education or by sitting the exam again, and the second route is the one people put off.

$230 if you are an AST member and $340 if you are not, paid to NBSTSA. A retake is that same amount again: NBSTSA states that candidates "are required to pay the total testing fee (processing and examination) each time to test", and there is no discounted re-sit. You may take it three times in one calendar year and no more, and your authorization to test lasts six months. That is why our Lifetime tier covers up to $340 toward your retake fee if you qualify and don't pass — we pay what your receipt actually says, up to the ceiling.

175 multiple-choice questions in a four-hour session, of which 150 are scored and 25 are unscored pretest items scattered at random. Eight subcategories under three content areas: Perioperative Care is 64.7% of the scored exam — Intraoperative Procedures alone is 45.3% — then Basic Science at 20% and Ancillary Duties at 15.3%. Breaks are allowed but they do not extend your time, and you cannot go back to a question after one.

98 correct out of the 150 scored questions, effective 1 January 2024. NBSTSA sets that number with a panel of practicing technologists and a psychometrician and reviews it only once every four or five years, at the end of a job-analysis cycle. It works out at roughly 65% of the scored items, which is why our mocks — where every one of the 175 questions counts — are scored against 66%. The guarantee asks for more than that, and it says so on its own.

NBSTSA sells two, Form A and Form B, at $40 each, and its own page says they "do not contain live exam questions". They come from the body that writes the exam, which is worth something ours cannot claim, and they are two fixed papers with no study material around them. NBSTSA is also plain that it "does not endorse or recommend any specific study materials, classes, books, or apps — including its own", and that nothing it sells guarantees a passing score. Both things can be true: take theirs as a rehearsal, and use a system to get ready for it.

You need to have graduated from an accredited surgical technology program, or from a military training program in surgical technology. Once NBSTSA approves your application it issues an Authorization To Test that is good for six months, and if you test on campus before graduating, your results are held until your school confirms you finished. Check NBSTSA's current eligibility rules before you apply.

Your account stays; the paid features stop. Your notes, highlights and flashcard history are all still there if you come back, and Lifetime never expires.

Every item is written to NBSTSA's published content outline, weighted subcategory by subcategory, with four options and a rationale on each, and every key was recomputed from the question itself before the explanation was read. What we will not do is claim a number we have not measured. We run an audit that checks whether a question can be answered without knowing the material, we publish the result either way, and on this bank it did not come back clean — so no page here says that it did. It is also why the guarantee's bar on this exam is set higher than on most of the others.

Yes. Change the date and the Game Plan rebuilds around the new one — it works backwards from your date, so a move forward compresses it and a move back spreads it out. Nothing is lost.

Yes to both. Add it to your home screen and it behaves like an app. Your due flashcards and a set of practice questions download automatically, so you can revise with no signal. The whole study guide downloads too, narrated audio included; scored mocks and the tutor still need a connection.

Yes, separately from the pass guarantee: 24 hours on the 7-Day Pass, 48 hours on the 30-Day Pass, or 72 hours on Lifetime, measured from your purchase (or from your upgrade, if you upgraded) — no questions asked, as long as you haven't sat your exam yet. EEA and UK buyers also keep their 14-day statutory right. The SurePass Guarantee is the other promise — that one is about your exam result, not about changing your mind.

Because we honor them. Every guarantee is a real financial commitment we may genuinely pay out, so a limited number opens for this exam each day. The allocation resets at midnight in your own time zone, and the counter shows how many of today's are still open.