CAQ Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling

The 2026 Testing Window at a Glance

Unlike exams offered on rolling testing windows throughout the year, the Certificate of Added Qualification in Adolescent Medicine follows a much tighter calendar. Because this credential is developed jointly by the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM), the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP), and the American Board of Internal Medicine, and is administered by ABP through Prometric testing centers, the initial certification examination for family physicians is only offered in even-numbered years. For 2026, the initial examination date is April 15.

That single date is the entire cycle for family medicine candidates pursuing initial adolescent medicine certification this year. There is no fall retake window and no rolling appointment system for first-time candidates. If you are preparing for this administration, everything - your application, your fellowship verification, and your study plan - needs to be built around that fixed date.

Who Can Register: Eligibility Timeline

Before you can even think about scheduling, you need to confirm eligibility - and this is where many candidates lose valuable months. Full details are covered in our CAQ Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify guide, but the calendar-relevant pieces are:

• Active ABFM certification in good standing - your base family medicine board certification cannot lapse or be under review.
• Compliant medical licensure and professionalism status - any pending licensure action can delay or block registration.
• At least 24 months of ACGME-accredited Adolescent Medicine fellowship training completed after family medicine residency.
• Program-director verification - your fellowship director must formally confirm completion of training, which is a step that takes real lead time and should not be requested at the last minute.

Because program-director verification is a required, human-dependent step, it is the most common source of scheduling delay. If your fellowship end date lands close to the registration deadline, start the verification conversation with your program director months in advance, not weeks.

Application & Registration Deadlines

Registration for the April 15 administration opens well before exam day and closes on a fixed deadline set by ABFM's annual examination booklet. Candidates should treat the registration deadline as a hard stop - late submissions are not accommodated the way they might be for exams with continuous scheduling windows.

Key structural points to build your timeline around:

• The application fee component (USD 200 of the total USD 1,300 fee) is non-refundable once submitted, so confirm eligibility documentation before you pay.
• Program-director attestation must be finalized before your application can be considered complete.
• Once your application is approved, you'll receive instructions for scheduling your seat at a Prometric testing center for the designated date.

Exam Day Logistics at Prometric

The Adolescent Medicine CAQ exam is a four-hour, proctored, computer-based assessment delivered at Prometric testing centers - the same network used for many other physician board examinations. A few operational details matter for planning your exam day:

• Closed book format: personal calculators, notes, and any outside study materials are prohibited in the testing room.
• No penalty for guessing: the shared passing standard, set by ABP before the administration, does not penalize incorrect answers, so no question should be left unanswered.
• Single sitting: the four hours are your full allotment for the entire content set, so pacing across all 15 topic domains matters as much as content knowledge.

For a deeper breakdown of how difficult the format and pacing actually are in practice, see How Hard Is the CAQ Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026. If you want to understand exactly what score threshold you're working toward, CAQ Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass walks through how the shared standard is established.

What's Actually Tested on April 15

The 2026 examination booklet lists 15 content topics that candidates should expect to see represented on exam day. This is a non-exhaustive topic list rather than a fully weighted blueprint, but it gives you a concrete map of where your study time belongs in the months leading up to the fixed exam date.

The remaining domains - Collagen Vascular Diseases, Hematology/Oncology, Cognition, Renal Disease, Infectious Diseases, Gastrointestinal Diseases, Dermatology, Substance Abuse, and Disease Prevention - round out the full 15-topic list. For a complete walkthrough of every domain with study priorities, see CAQ Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 15 Content Areas.

Fees Tied to the Calendar

Because the exam runs on a fixed even-year schedule, fee timing matters more here than for exams with rolling registration. The 2026 booklet identifies a full examination fee of USD 1,300, which includes a non-refundable USD 200 application-processing component. Once that portion is paid, it is not returned even if you later withdraw or fail to meet an eligibility requirement - which is exactly why confirming program-director verification before submitting payment is so important.

For the full breakdown of what this fee structure means across the life of your certification, read CAQ Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown.

Missing the Window: Why Even-Year Timing Matters

Because initial examinations are offered only in even-numbered years, missing the April 15, 2026 date is not a minor scheduling inconvenience - it pushes your entire certification timeline out to the next even-year administration. This has real downstream effects:

• Job offers or credentialing requirements tied to CAQ status may need to be renegotiated with employers.
• Fellowship-to-certification gaps widen, which can complicate documentation of your 24-month training requirement.
• Study momentum built for one cycle often needs to be refreshed after a multi-year gap.

If you're weighing whether the time and fee investment makes sense given your career plans, our analysis in Is the CAQ Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026 and CAQ Salary Guide 2026: Complete Earnings Analysis can help frame that decision before you commit fee dollars to a specific cycle.

Building a Study Timeline Around the Exam Date

With a single fixed date instead of a flexible testing window, your preparation calendar should be built in reverse from April 15. Rather than generic weekly study templates, sequence your review around domain weight and personal weak spots identified early.

For a structured, week-by-week study plan built specifically around passing on the first attempt, see CAQ Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt. And if you want a compressed, high-density review for the final stretch before April 15, our CAQ Cheat Sheet 2026: One-Page Review of Must-Know Facts is designed for exactly that phase. Timed practice through our practice test platform can also help you calibrate pacing across all 15 domains before exam day arrives.

After You Pass: The Recertification Calendar

Passing the April 15 exam does not put you on a countdown to recertify by a fixed expiration date - successful candidates receive continuous certification without a printed end date. However, that status is conditional on three ongoing calendar obligations:

• Maintaining your underlying family medicine certification with ABFM.
• Paying the annual CAQ continuing-certification process fee of USD 100.
• Completing required longitudinal assessment on schedule.

Newly certified physicians begin MOCA-Peds in their sixth year of certification, and the maintenance structure runs on five-year cycles from that point forward. This means your calendar planning does not end at April 15 - it shifts from "getting certified" to "staying certified," with a new set of dates to track starting roughly five years out.

Understanding how the exam is scored also helps you gauge how much margin you actually have on test day; see CAQ Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows for more context on outcomes tied to this credential specifically.

Frequently Asked Questions