First attempt I scored a 68% and needed a 74% to pass. Honestly I underestimated the microbiology section and the chemical disinfection compatibility questions. I'd been working as an endoscopy tech for three years and figured hands-on experience would carry me, but the exam has a lot of regulatory and standards-based content that you don't pick up just from doing the job.
Second time around I gave myself eight weeks and did about 90 minutes a day. I leaned hard on IAHCSMM materials and drilled practice questions every single day. The CER Test prep questions online were actually close to real exam difficulty and helped me figure out where I was losing points.
The biggest gaps for me were high-level disinfection vs. sterilization distinctions and the specific MRC and AER cleaning cycle steps. If you know those cold you're probably looking at a passing score. I ended up with an 81% on my second attempt.
Anyone else find the reprocessing documentation questions harder than expected? There were probably 15–20 questions around traceability and record-keeping that I wasn't prepared for the first time around.
I failed twice before passing. The third attempt I basically rewrote the SGNA guidelines from memory every morning which sounds extreme but it worked. Final score was 79%. The exam is way more standards-heavy than clinical experience alone prepares you for.
That traceability section caught me off guard too. I've been a sterile processing tech for six years and still found those questions weirdly specific. Ended up scoring a 76% which was good enough but I definitely left points on the table there.
The documentation and traceability questions make up a bigger chunk than the official content outline suggests. Focus on ANSI/AAMI standards for those — that's where most of the answer justifications come from.
Eight weeks at 90 min a day sounds about right for a second attempt. I passed first time in six weeks but I'd just come out of a formal reprocessing training course so the fundamentals were fresh. The chemical compatibility charts are worth memorizing — at least five questions on my exam were straight from those tables.