BC-A Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling

2026 BC-A Testing Timeline at a Glance

The Board Certified Audiologist (BC-A) credential is issued by the American Board of Audiology (ABA), part of the American Academy of Audiology, through the new General Audiology Board Certification (GABC) exam. 2026 marks the inaugural beta administration of this exam, so the calendar is unusually compressed and unusually important: miss a window and you wait for the next cycle. Before diving into study strategy on the BC-A Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt, it helps to lock the dates below into your calendar first.

Application Window: July 1 - September 15, 2026

The application period is your first checkpoint, and it is separate from exam registration. During this window, candidates submit transcripts, documentation of their master's or doctoral degree in audiology from a regionally accredited institution, proof of an active audiology license (or applicable international authorization), evidence of current audiology-related employment, and documentation supporting whichever experience pathway applies. Ethics requirements must also be attested to at this stage.

If you're unsure whether you meet the underlying eligibility criteria, review the detailed breakdown in BC-A Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify before the window opens on July 1. Application review takes time, and because this is the first cycle of a brand-new exam, ABA has not yet demonstrated how quickly incomplete applications can be corrected and resubmitted - so treat September 15 as a hard stop, not a target.

Exam Registration Window: August 4 - October 13, 2026

Once your application is accepted, a separate registration step opens for the exam itself. The registration window (August 4-October 13, 2026) overlaps with the tail end of the application period, which means candidates who apply early can register early - a meaningful advantage if you want more runway to prepare between registration and the November testing window.

Registration is where you select your exam slot within the eventual testing window and where the examination fee is collected (separate from the application fee - details in the fees section below). Because this exam is delivered through Prolydian with Proctor360 live remote proctoring, registration also typically confirms the technical requirements you'll need on test day.

The Beta Testing Window: November 6-16, 2026

Unlike some certification exams that run on continuous or monthly testing, the 2026 GABC beta exam is confined to a single 11-day window: November 6 through November 16, 2026. Every registered candidate sits for the exam somewhere within that span. There is no indication yet of multiple beta cycles later in the year, so this window functionally is the 2026 opportunity to earn the BC-A credential.

What Happens on Test Day

The GABC exam is a four-hour, closed-book test with no calculator permitted, delivered remotely through the Prolydian testing platform with Proctor360 live remote proctoring. Candidates need a webcam, a microphone, and a single monitor set up in a quiet, private space. Because the proctoring is live, unscheduled breaks are not permitted unless you have an approved accommodation on file - so if you anticipate needing a break, that request has to be handled well before your test date, not on the day itself.

The exam itself contains 225 multiple-choice and multiple-response items. After the testing window closes, ABA's psychometric review process identifies 150 items that count toward your score; the remaining 75 are field-test items that do not affect your result. You won't know during the exam which items are scored and which aren't, so the practical implication is simple: treat every one of the 225 items as if it counts. Passing determinations are made using a modified Angoff process rather than a simple fixed cut score, which is one reason candidates researching BC-A Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass won't find a single static number - the passing standard is set through expert judgment applied to this specific item pool.

For a deeper look at how difficult candidates are finding this new exam format relative to other audiology credentials, see How Hard Is the BC-A Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026.

Fees Tied to the Beta Cycle

Fees for this beta cycle are split into an application fee and a separate examination fee, and they differ depending on Academy membership status:

Because the application fee is charged during the July 1-September 15 window and the exam fee is tied to registration between August 4 and October 13, budgeting for both in advance avoids a scramble later. A full cost breakdown, including how these beta fees compare to what future cycles may look like, is available in BC-A Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown.

Eligibility, Experience Pathways, and Timing

Eligibility for the BC-A exam isn't just about holding a degree - it's about documenting full-time, paid, licensed, post-degree experience, and the required length depends on your pathway:

• Doctoral applicants: five years of qualifying experience
• Current ABAC holders: three years of qualifying experience
• Master's-level applicants: seven years of qualifying experience

Because these experience thresholds vary so widely, candidates near a threshold should calculate their exact qualifying date well before the July application window opens - not after. If you're three months short of the five-year doctoral mark in July 2026, for example, that's a decision point about whether to wait for a later cycle. The full eligibility checklist, including transcripts, licensure documentation, and ethics attestations, is covered in BC-A Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify.

Matching the Domains to Your Study Calendar

Once your application and registration dates are locked in, the real work is mapping your remaining weeks against the six content domains defined in the 2026 GABC Candidate Handbook, Edition 1. The handbook's page 19 summary table lists weights totaling 100%, though the detailed table and web outline show a differing figure for Domain 1 - an unresolved discrepancy in the official source that's worth knowing about, but shouldn't distract from the two domains that dominate the exam regardless of which version you check:

The remaining four domains - Physiologic Basis of Auditory Function and Hearing Disorders (15%), Diagnosis of Patients with Auditory Disorders (16%), Additional Considerations in Diagnostic and Interventional Audiologic Care (9%), and Professional and Practice Management Issues (5%) - round out the blueprint. For a full breakdown of what each domain actually tests and how to weight your review accordingly, see BC-A Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 6 Content Areas.

Building a Study Schedule Around the Deadlines

With a fixed application window, a fixed registration window, and an 11-day testing window, your prep calendar should be reverse-engineered from November 6, 2026 rather than built forward from "whenever I feel ready." A practical way to allocate the weeks between registering (as early as August 4) and testing is to weight your time proportionally to domain weight, front-loading the two heaviest domains first while they're freshest going into test day.

Whatever schedule you build, treat the last two weeks before your November testing slot as review-only, not new-content time - the exam's Proctor360-monitored, closed-book, no-calculator conditions leave little room for on-the-fly figuring out.

After the Exam: Results, Validity, and CE

Because this is a beta administration, ABA expects to release results within roughly 12 weeks of the testing window closing - plan for a wait into early 2027 rather than an immediate score. Once earned, the BC-A credential is valid for five years. Edition 1 of the handbook anticipates a continuing-education requirement of 20 hours per year, totaling 100 hours across the five-year cycle, along with ethics, licensure, and fee obligations, though the detailed maintenance requirements are scheduled for publication on October 1, 2026 - after the application window opens but before testing begins, so check back before you finalize long-term renewal planning.

For context on how the credential fits into a broader career strategy - including who tends to hire for it and whether the investment of time and fees pays off - see Is the BC-A Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026 and BC-A Salary Guide 2026: Complete Earnings Analysis. If you're still deciding whether to sit for this inaugural cycle at all, reviewing early data trends in BC-A Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows alongside a condensed reference like the BC-A Cheat Sheet 2026: One-Page Review of Must-Know Facts can help you gauge readiness before committing to the July application window.

Whichever stage you're at, running timed practice sets on the practice test platform before your registration closes on October 13 is one of the few ways to simulate the Prolydian testing experience ahead of the real thing.

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