- What Does CCC-A Actually Mean?
- Who Awards the CCC-A and Who Administers the Exam
- Praxis Audiology (5343): Format and Scoring
- The Five CCC-A Exam Domains
- Eligibility Requirements Before You Can Sit the Exam
- What the CCC-A Costs, Start to Finish
- Keeping the CCC-A: Renewal and CE Rules
- Who Actually Needs the CCC-A
- A CCC-A-Specific Way to Plan Your Study Time
- Frequently Asked Questions
- CCC-A stands for Certificate of Clinical Competence in Audiology, awarded by ASHA's Council for Clinical Certification.
- The required exam is Praxis Audiology (5343): 120 selected-response questions in 2 hours, $146 fee.
- ASHA's passing score is 162 on a 100-200 scale; Assessment is the heaviest domain at 35%.
- ETS administers the exam through 2026; PSI takes over administration on January 11, 2027 with content and passing point unchanged.
What Does CCC-A Actually Mean?
CCC-A stands for Certificate of Clinical Competence in Audiology. It is the national credential audiologists in the United States use to demonstrate they've met the academic, clinical, and examination standards required to practice independently. If you've landed here searching for a plain-language explanation, you're in the right place - this is not the same acronym used by unrelated certifying organizations in other fields. Everything on this page refers specifically to the audiology credential and the exam ASHA requires for it.
For a deeper look at how this credential fits into a broader career picture, see CCC-A Certification and the related explainer pages: CCC-A Meaning and What Does CCC-A Stand For?.
Who Awards the CCC-A and Who Administers the Exam
The credential itself is awarded by ASHA's Council for Clinical Certification in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology. The exam requirement, however, is handled separately: the national test is Praxis Audiology (5343), which is owned and administered by ETS. ETS will continue running the exam through 2026. Starting January 11, 2027, administration shifts to PSI - but ASHA has confirmed that the exam content and the passing score stay the same through that transition. If your test date falls near that boundary, plan your registration around the administrator that's active for your window rather than assuming continuity of scheduling systems.
This split - ASHA as the certifying body, ETS/PSI as the testing vendor - trips up a lot of first-time applicants. Your certification application goes to ASHA; your exam registration and score report come from the testing administrator.
Praxis Audiology (5343): Format and Scoring
Praxis Audiology is a computer-delivered test consisting of 120 selected-response questions administered in 2 hours. Some administrations may include unscored (pretest) items mixed in with scored questions, so you won't necessarily know which questions count toward your result - treat every item as if it does. The current fee is $146.
Scores are reported on a 100-200 scale, and ASHA's required passing score is 162. That number matters more than any raw percentage you might see referenced elsewhere, since scaled scores account for question difficulty across different test forms. If you want the full breakdown of what 162 means in practice and how scoring works, read CCC-A Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass.
Key Takeaway
Register early and confirm which administrator (ETS or PSI) is running your specific test date - the passing score of 162 and the 120-question format don't change, but scheduling logistics do after January 11, 2027.
For candidates trying to gauge how demanding the test feels in practice - pacing, question style, time pressure - see How Hard Is the CCC-A Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026. If you want data-driven context on outcomes, check CCC-A Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows.
The Five CCC-A Exam Domains
Praxis Audiology is organized into five content domains, and they are not weighted evenly. Knowing the weighting is arguably more useful than knowing the raw number of questions per section, because it tells you where to spend your limited study hours.
Domain 1: Foundations of Audiology (20%)
Covers the anatomical, physiological, and acoustic principles underlying hearing and balance. Expect items on auditory system anatomy, sound physics, and the theoretical basis for clinical measurements.
- Anatomy and physiology of the peripheral and central auditory system
- Acoustics and psychoacoustic principles
Domain 2: Prevention and Screening (10%)
Focuses on identifying at-risk populations and administering appropriate screening protocols before diagnostic assessment begins.
- Newborn and school-age hearing screening protocols
- Noise exposure and hearing conservation programs
Domain 3: Assessment (35%)
The largest domain by far, and the one that determines whether most candidates clear the 162 passing score. It covers the full diagnostic toolkit audiologists use across the lifespan.
- Pure-tone and speech audiometry interpretation
- Tympanometry, otoacoustic emissions, and auditory brainstem response
- Vestibular and balance function assessment
Domain 4: Intervention (25%)
Covers management planning once a diagnosis is established, including amplification, rehabilitation, and counseling approaches.
- Hearing aid and cochlear implant candidacy and fitting principles
- Aural rehabilitation strategies across age groups
Domain 5: Professional and Ethical Responsivities (10%)
Tests knowledge of scope of practice, ethical decision-making, and collaboration standards expected of certified audiologists.
- ASHA Code of Ethics application to case scenarios
- Interprofessional collaboration and documentation standards
Because Assessment and Intervention together make up 60% of the exam, most successful candidates give those two domains the majority of their review time. For a full domain-by-domain study breakdown, see CCC-A Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 5 Content Areas.
| Domain | Weight | Relative Study Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Assessment | 35% | Highest |
| Intervention | 25% | High |
| Foundations of Audiology | 20% | Moderate |
| Prevention and Screening | 10% | Lower |
| Professional and Ethical Responsivities | 10% | Lower |
Eligibility Requirements Before You Can Sit the Exam
The CCC-A isn't something you can register for cold. ASHA requires applicants to satisfy several standards before certification is granted:
- A doctoral degree in audiology (or an equivalent recognized route)
- Demonstrated knowledge and skills across the required content areas, typically documented through coursework and clinical logs
- Completion of a supervised clinical practicum under a qualified mentor
- A passing score on the Praxis Audiology (5343) examination
These four pillars - degree, knowledge/skills, practicum, and exam - must all be documented in your application. For the complete eligibility checklist, including how programs typically map coursework to ASHA's standards, see CCC-A Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify.
What the CCC-A Costs, Start to Finish
Budgeting for the CCC-A involves more than the exam fee alone. Here's how the pieces add up:
- Praxis Audiology (5343) exam fee: $146
- Initial ASHA certification fee: $490 with ASHA membership, or $446 without membership
- Ongoing costs: annual dues or certification maintenance fees, plus continuing education requirements (detailed below)
Notice that certifying with membership costs more upfront than without - membership carries its own separate value (journals, discounts, advocacy access) that candidates should weigh independently of the certification fee itself. For a full multi-year cost projection, see CCC-A Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown.
Keeping the CCC-A: Renewal and CE Rules
Passing the exam and getting certified is not the end of the obligation. To maintain the CCC-A, holders must:
- Pay annual dues or certification fees to ASHA
- Complete 30 professional-development hours every three years
- Include at least 1 ethics hour within that 30-hour cycle
- Starting in 2026, complete 2 hours in designated person-centered, reflective, or collaborative-practice topics
The 2026 addition is worth flagging specifically because it's a content-area requirement, not just a raw hour count - audiologists renewing after that date need to make sure their CE selections satisfy the new category, not just the total 30-hour threshold.
Who Actually Needs the CCC-A
The CCC-A is the standard credential expected of practicing audiologists in clinical, educational, and many hospital settings across the U.S. Employers ranging from ENT practices and hearing centers to school districts and VA facilities typically list it as a baseline requirement in job postings, since it signals that a candidate has met ASHA's degree, practicum, and exam standards. If you're mapping out where this credential leads professionally, CCC-A Jobs and CCC-A Salary Guide 2026: Complete Earnings Analysis go into more detail on employer expectations and career paths. For a broader cost-versus-benefit view, see Is the CCC-A Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026.
A CCC-A-Specific Way to Plan Your Study Time
Rather than a generic study calendar, it makes more sense to build a schedule around the domain weights themselves. Since Assessment (35%) and Intervention (25%) account for 60% of the exam, they deserve proportionally more weeks - and within each week, spaced review of missed practice questions matters more than passive re-reading of textbooks.
Foundations of Audiology
- Review anatomy, acoustics, and psychoacoustic principles
- Build a reference sheet of formulas and structures for quick recall
Assessment (heaviest domain)
- Drill audiogram and immittance interpretation daily
- Practice case-based scenarios combining OAE, ABR, and vestibular findings
Intervention
- Work through amplification candidacy and fitting scenarios
- Review aural rehab approaches across pediatric and adult populations
Prevention/Screening, Ethics, and Full Review
- Cover screening protocols and the ASHA Code of Ethics
- Take a full-length timed practice run to rehearse the 2-hour, 120-question pace
Whatever pacing you choose, timed practice under exam-like conditions is the piece most candidates skip. Working through full-length practice sets on our practice test platform helps you calibrate pacing for 120 questions in 120 minutes before test day, and reviewing missed items by domain shows you exactly where your 162-target score is at risk. For a structured week-by-week plan with more detail than the outline above, see CCC-A Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt, and keep CCC-A Cheat Sheet 2026: One-Page Review of Must-Know Facts handy for last-week review.
Key Takeaway
Allocate roughly 60% of your study weeks to Assessment and Intervention combined, since those two domains make up 60% of the exam's question weight.
If you're still early in the process and haven't locked in a test date, CCC-A Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling walks through registration timing relative to the ETS-to-PSI transition. And if you're using practice exams to benchmark readiness, aim to hit a comfortable margin above 162 on full-length simulations before scheduling your real attempt.
Frequently Asked Questions
CCC-A stands for Certificate of Clinical Competence in Audiology, a national credential awarded by ASHA's Council for Clinical Certification in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology to audiologists who meet degree, clinical practicum, and examination requirements.
You must pass Praxis Audiology (5343), a 120-question, computer-delivered selected-response exam administered in 2 hours, with a required ASHA passing score of 162 on a 100-200 scale.
The Praxis Audiology exam costs $146. Initial ASHA certification costs $490 with membership or $446 without membership, plus ongoing annual dues and continuing education costs to maintain the credential.
No. ETS administers the exam through 2026, and PSI takes over on January 11, 2027, but ASHA has confirmed the exam content and passing score of 162 remain unchanged through that transition.
Holders must complete 30 professional-development hours every three years, including 1 ethics hour, plus 2 hours in designated person-centered, reflective, or collaborative topics starting in 2026.