RCIS exam: format, scoring, cost and test day

The exam at a glance

Thirteen lines cover the format, the clock, the score and the paperwork. Each row links to the CCI page it was read from; the fee and the pass rate carry the month they were checked, because those two change.

The content behind the form follows the content outline used for exams from July 1, 2024. To find out whether you can sit the exam at all, see the three eligibility pathways (RCIS235, RCIS4 and RCIS5).

What the five domains test

CCI splits the 150 scored questions across five content domains. It publishes a percentage per domain and nothing finer, so the item counts below are plain arithmetic on those percentages, not a leaked form.

Every task is written from the seat of the tech or nurse at the table. A question rarely asks what the physician should decide; it asks what you notice, calculate or prepare next.

How the scaled score works

You pass with a scaled score of 650. That number sits on a scale CCI sets through a standard-setting study; it is not a count of right answers and not a percent correct. The number of correct answers that lands a candidate on 650 is not public, which means any percent figure quoted to you as the cut score is a guess.

Two practical consequences. First, only the 150 scored questions feed that number, but the 20 pretest items look identical and sit anywhere on the form, so you answer every one as if it counts. Second, a blank can never be right, so put an answer on every question before the clock runs out.

When you finish, you get a preliminary score report at the test center, with pass/fail and percent correct per content area. If the result is a fail, that per-area breakdown is the most useful document you own, and it is worth reading against the domain weights:

Time on the clock and how to pace it

The appointment runs 3 hours: 2 hours 50 minutes of question time plus 10 minutes for the tutorial and the post-exam survey. With 170 items in 170 minutes, the hard ceiling is one minute a question.

A one-minute average with no slack leaves nothing for a second look at the hard ones. Calculation items (a Fick output, a valve area, a shunt ratio) and image items such as a hot spot on a tracing take longer than a recall question, so run a 50-second target and bank the difference for the questions that need a second look:

The practice test has a pacing strip set to the same one-minute ceiling.

Fee and pass rate, with their dates

The exam costs $365, including a $100 non-refundable application processing fee (CCI, checked October 2026). Fees move, so confirm the figure on the RCIS page at CCI the week you apply. The non-refundable part is the processing fee: if you apply and then withdraw, that portion stays with CCI.

CCI reports a 75% first-time pass rate for 2025 (CCI, checked October 2026). Read it plainly: in 2025, roughly one first-time candidate in four did not pass. The rate is published per year, so a figure without a year attached tells you nothing; the current one is in CCI FAQs.

If you want a readiness check from the credentialing body itself, there is CCI's online self-assessment exam ($55), which reports percent correct by area but does not let you review items (CCI, checked September 2026). It shows where you are weak but not why; the worked RCIS questions on this site explain the why, option by option.

From application to test day

1. Confirm your pathway

   Match your training and hours to RCIS235, RCIS4 or RCIS5 on the eligibility page before you pay anything. Students in an accredited invasive program can apply before graduating.

2. Apply early

   Apply as early as your eligibility allows. There is no fixed processing time to plan around; the requirements page explains why, so leave a wide margin before the date you want.

3. Your Authorization to Test opens the window

   Approval gives you a 90-day testing window that opens with the Authorization to Test; one 90-day extension can be requested. Write the closing date on your plan the day it arrives.

4. Book the seat early in the window

   Appointments are year-round at 230+ Pearson Professional Centers in the US and 3,000+ Pearson VUE authorized centers abroad (CCI, checked October 2026). Book through Pearson VUE in the first weeks of the window, so a reschedule still lands inside it.

5. The week before

   Read the identification and arrival rules in your authorization and on the Pearson VUE confirmation. Do one last timed run, then stop adding new material.

6. On the day

   The tutorial comes first (it shares 10 minutes with the post-exam survey) and walks you through the screen and the question formats. Use it: it does not come out of your question time.

If you do not pass: the retake rules

A second attempt needs a new application and full fees; you can reapply one day after testing, but the next attempt must be at least 45 days later. CCI FAQs set the spacing; the dates fall out like this:

Six and a half weeks is enough to move a score if you spend it on the right domains. Rank the areas on your report by weight times gap, and put the first three weeks into the top one. For most candidates that is diagnostic procedures, the 40% domain.

Is the RCIS exam hard?

CCI reports a 75% first-time pass rate for 2025 (CCI, checked October 2026), so it is passable first time, and the points it costs come from three predictable places.

Hemodynamic arithmetic

Fick and thermodilution output, resistance with the ×80 conversion to dyn·s·cm⁻⁵, Gorlin valve area (built on the mean gradient, not the peak-to-peak), and shunt ratios. The slips are mechanical, so they are fixable in a few weeks of working numbers:

Waveforms and images

Expect to tell constriction from restriction by whether LV and RV systolic peaks move together or apart with breathing, to spot a blunted y descent in tamponade, and to remember that a large v wave in the wedge is not proof of mitral regurgitation. Hot-spot and drag-and-place items put some of this on a tracing or an angiogram instead of in words.

Complications under time pressure

Emergencies are 13% of the exam and focus on what goes wrong mid-case: perforation, no-reflow, dissection, a device that embolizes or migrates. These items reward knowing the first move, which is where the interventional procedures guide spends its time. The arithmetic and waveform side is covered in the diagnostic procedures guide, and the full week-by-week route is in the study guide.

RCIS, RCES or ARRT CI: which exam is yours

These three get mixed up in job posts and forums, and they test different rooms. Choose by the lab you work in, not by the acronym a colleague holds.

The overview sets out who the RCIS credential is for. RCIS is a voluntary professional credential at registry level, not a state license; many employers require or prefer it.

Before you book

Questions people ask