- Why the CD Exam Has No Fixed Test Calendar
- The Dates That Actually Matter
- Eligibility Approval Comes Before Any Scheduling
- The October 16, 2026 Virtual Workshop
- How the Ten-Day Online Exam Window Works
- Fees by Route: Initial, Renewal and Exam-Only
- The Five-Year Clock: Renewal Timing and Extensions
- Sequencing Your Preparation Around the Workshop
- What Is Not Publicly Confirmed
- Frequently Asked Questions
- The Course Director exam is an online, open-book test with saved progress and a ten-day completion window, not a fixed-seat sitting.
- CAOHC's virtual CD workshop is scheduled for October 16, 2026, and costs $500 separately from the exam.
- Your credential documentation and verification letters must be approved before ordinary registration opens for you.
- You get two attempts within the window at an 80% passing score; failing both means repeating the workshop and exam.
Why the CD Exam Has No Fixed Test Calendar
If you are searching for a list of national testing days for the Course Director credential, the first thing to understand is that the format does not work that way. Course Director (CD) is the instructor qualification issued by the Council for Accreditation in Occupational Hearing Conservation (CAOHC), the body that approves occupational hearing conservation (OHC) courses and the professionals who teach them. The examination is delivered online through the CAOHC Learning Center, and it is built around a saved-progress, open-book model rather than a single proctored sitting on a published date.
That changes what "exam dates" means. For most certifications, the key question is which Saturday in which testing window you can claim. For the CD credential, the key questions are different: When is the workshop you must pair with the exam? When does your eligibility approval clear? Once your exam opens, when does your ten-day window close? And, for current holders, how far away is your five-year expiration?
This guide walks through each of those date-driven checkpoints so you can plan around them. If you want the broader picture of how the credential is structured, start with What Is CD Certification? and then return here for the scheduling mechanics.
The Dates That Actually Matter
Instead of a conventional testing calendar, the CD pathway runs on a handful of anchored dates and rolling deadlines. Here is the summary view:
| Checkpoint | What it is | Timing |
|---|---|---|
| Virtual CD workshop | Eight-hour training session offered by CAOHC | October 16, 2026 |
| Eligibility approval | Credential documentation and supervisor/CD verification letters reviewed | Must be approved before ordinary registration |
| Online exam window | Open-book exam with saved progress | Ten days to complete, two attempts |
| Certification validity | Length of the credential once earned | Five years |
| Extension request | Discretionary renewal extension, up to six months | Request at least 30 days before expiration |
Notice that most of these are relative deadlines, not calendar dates. The exception is the October 16, 2026 workshop, which is the one fixed event candidates need to plan around. Everything else flows from when your paperwork clears and when you choose to begin the exam.
Eligibility Approval Comes Before Any Scheduling
The most common scheduling mistake is treating registration as the first step. For Course Director, it is closer to the last administrative step. CAOHC requires your eligibility to be reviewed and approved before ordinary registration, which means the real start of your timeline is the day you begin assembling documents.
The eligibility package includes several components:
- A qualifying current professional license or certification. Current web eligibility includes physician assistants, but the November 2025 policy manual lists qualifying professions differently, so confirm your specific credential with CAOHC rather than assuming.
- 1,000 relevant hours within five years, spanning at least three specified activities.
- A complete supervised in-person or hybrid OHC course, completed as adjunct faculty or practicum assistant.
- Credential documentation and verification letters from your supervisor or a Course Director, approved before ordinary registration.
The supervised course requirement is the piece most likely to stretch your timeline. You cannot compress it: you need to be placed in a real OHC course, complete it, and then obtain the verification letters. If you are still working toward that step, your realistic exam date is set by when that course ends, not by when you feel ready to test. Our full breakdown in CD Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify covers each element in more detail.
The October 16, 2026 Virtual Workshop
The one calendar-fixed event in the 2026 cycle is the virtual Course Director workshop on October 16, 2026. It is an eight-hour training session, and that eight hours describes instruction time, not an exam length. This distinction matters because it is easy to misread the "eight-hour" figure as the duration of the test itself. It is not: the examination is an online, open-book assessment with a ten-day completion window.
The workshop is priced separately at $500. Combined with the initial exam fee, the total for a first-time candidate comes to $700. For a candidate taking the renewal route that pairs the workshop with a renewal exam, the combined total is $650. For a full pricing comparison across routes, see CD Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown.
The workshop content follows five published CAOHC Course Director curriculum areas. These are issuer-course preparation topics rather than an official weighted blueprint:
Developing OHC certification and recertification course curricula
How an approved OHC course is structured, built and maintained for both initial certification and recertification audiences.
Course Director procedures before, during and after OHC courses
The administrative and supervisory responsibilities that bracket every course you direct, from preparation through post-course follow-up.
Effective teaching techniques and hearing-conservation training resources
Instructional methods and the materials available to support adult learners in hearing-conservation training.
Federal regulatory changes affecting OHC courses
Keeping course content aligned with evolving regulatory expectations that shape what hearing-conservation courses must cover.
Scientific and technical advances in hearing-conservation instruction
Incorporating current science and technology developments into how OHC courses are taught.
For a deeper treatment of how these five areas map to preparation, read CD Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 5 Content Areas. Keep in mind that the official examination-domain count and weights have not been publicly verified, so treat these as the workshop's curriculum structure rather than a scoring blueprint.
How the Ten-Day Online Exam Window Works
The CD exam's time structure is unusual compared to proctored credentials. It is delivered online, it is open-book, your progress is saved as you work, and you have ten days to complete it. That ten-day window is the clock you need to manage.
What the window gives you
Because progress saves, you are not forced to finish in one sitting. You can work through the exam across multiple sessions inside the ten days. This removes the pressure of a single high-stakes block, but it also removes the excuse of a bad day: the window is generous, and it still has a hard end.
Two attempts, one window
You receive two attempts within the window, and the passing score is 80%. If you fail both attempts, you do not simply wait and retake. You must repeat both the workshop and the exam. That consequence makes the timing of your first attempt more important than it looks. Starting the exam when you have a clear ten-day stretch, rather than squeezing it between travel or heavy work weeks, protects you from burning an attempt on a distracted effort. For the scoring details, see CD Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass.
CAOHC has not publicly verified the number of questions, the scored versus unscored split, or the exact item types, and the pass rate is not publicly disclosed. Anyone quoting precise figures for those should be treated with caution; the CD pass rate discussion explains what can and cannot be said.
Fees by Route: Initial, Renewal and Exam-Only
Scheduling and fees are linked, because the route you take determines both what you must attend and what you pay. The CAOHC-published exam fees are $200 for the initial exam and $150 for the renewal exam. The workshop is $500 on top of whichever exam applies.
| Route | Components | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Initial certification | $500 workshop + $200 initial exam | $700 |
| Renewal with workshop | $500 workshop + $150 renewal exam | $650 |
| Eligible exam-only renewal | $150 renewal exam, no workshop | $150 |
The $700 and $650 totals are calculated sums of the published components rather than separately advertised package prices. CAOHC does not publish a member versus non-member fee distinction, so no discount tier should be assumed. If you are weighing whether these costs are justified for your career path, Is the CD Certification Worth It? works through the return on that investment.
The Five-Year Clock: Renewal Timing and Extensions
Once earned, the Course Director credential is valid for five years. That makes renewal the long-range date that every current holder should have on a calendar from the day they pass. Renewal can happen in two ways: the workshop-plus-exam route, or an exam-only route for those who qualify.
Qualifying for exam-only renewal
The exam-only route requires you to meet at least two of the following four criteria:
- Ten qualifying OHC courses directed
- Two years of CAOHC committee or task-force service
- Ten relevant continuing-education contact hours
- One approved CD workshop taught
A frequent misunderstanding is that ten CE hours is a universal renewal quota. It is not. Ten CE hours is only one of four options, and you need at least two of the four. A director who has directed ten courses and taught an approved workshop qualifies without logging any CE hours at all. Track which criteria you are accumulating across the five years so renewal does not become a scramble.
Extensions and their limits
CAOHC may grant extensions of up to six months, but they are discretionary, not automatic. The request must be made at least 30 days before your expiration date. Failed exams do not qualify as grounds for an extension, so you cannot use the extension mechanism to rescue a missed renewal attempt. Also note that renewing your Course Director status is separate from any Certified Occupational Hearing Conservationist (COHC) renewal; the two do not move together.
Key Takeaway
Put your 30-day extension-request cutoff on your calendar when you earn the credential, not when expiration approaches. The practical renewal deadline is the extension deadline, because it is the last point at which you still have options.
Sequencing Your Preparation Around the Workshop
Because the October 16, 2026 workshop is the fixed anchor, the cleanest approach is to work backward from it and then forward to your ten-day exam window. The sequence below is tied to the five CD curriculum areas rather than generic study habits. It assumes your eligibility has already been approved.
Regulatory and scientific currency
- Review federal regulatory changes affecting OHC courses, since this area shifts over time and benefits from fresh reading.
- Skim recent developments in hearing-conservation instruction so workshop discussion builds on familiar ground.
Curriculum and procedures
- Focus attention on curriculum development and Course Director procedures, the two areas most tied to your day-to-day duties.
- Take notes organized by the five curriculum areas so your open-book reference is easy to navigate later.
Reference-driven completion
- Choose a ten-day stretch with real availability and begin early in the window.
- Use your workshop notes as an index, then confirm answers against official CAOHC materials.
For a fuller approach to preparation, see the CD Study Guide 2026, and keep the CD Cheat Sheet handy for quick fact review. To test your recall before attempting the real exam, you can try the practice questions at the main CD practice test site.
What Is Not Publicly Confirmed
A trustworthy dates guide should be clear about its limits. Several details that candidates often ask about are not verified in the public sources reviewed. Rather than guess, plan around these unknowns:
- The delivery vendor. The exam runs through the CAOHC Learning Center, but an outside testing vendor has not been verified.
- Proctoring and testing rules. Calculator policy, whether the exam is adaptive, and any CD-specific remote-proctoring requirements are unverified.
- Exam composition. The question count, scored/unscored split and item types are not publicly confirmed.
- Additional workshop dates. This article documents the October 16, 2026 session; confirm directly with CAOHC whether other sessions are offered.
The CAOHC policy manual in force was revised in November 2025, and the sources reviewed for this article were checked on September 29, 2026. Policies and dates can change, so always verify against the CAOHC Course Director workshop course description before committing money or travel. If you are still orienting yourself to the credential, CD Certification and CD Training offer useful background, and CD Jobs covers where the qualification applies in practice.
Frequently Asked Questions
The virtual CD workshop reviewed for this article is scheduled for October 16, 2026, and costs $500. It is an eight-hour training session. Confirm with CAOHC whether additional sessions exist, since only this date was verified.
No. The eight hours refers to the workshop's training time. The exam itself is an online, open-book assessment with saved progress and a ten-day completion window.
You get two attempts within the ten-day window, and you need 80% to pass. If both attempts are unsuccessful, you must repeat both the workshop and the exam.
No. Your credential documentation and supervisor or Course Director verification letters must be approved before ordinary registration. Plan your timeline around that approval, not around the exam itself.
Certification is valid for five years. CAOHC may grant discretionary extensions of up to six months, but you must request one at least 30 days before expiration, and failed exams do not qualify for an extension.