CRP Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass

What Is Publicly Verified About the Passing Score

Searching for the passing score of the Certified Ringside Physician credential tends to produce confident-sounding numbers. Here, the honest answer is more useful than a guess: a universal passing score for the Certified Ringside Physician (CRP) examination has not been publicly verified. The Association of Ringside Physicians (ARP), which issues the credential and administers applications, does not publish a fixed cut score, a question count, a universal exam duration or a pass rate in the materials reviewed for this article (checked October 5, 2026).

That matters because this credential is easy to confuse with other certifications that share the same three letters. Those other credentials have their own published scoring rules, their own fees and their own testing bodies. None of that applies here. This article is strictly about the Certified Ringside Physician credential for physicians who provide medical coverage at combat sports events. It is not a sports-medicine board qualification, and it is not a state athletic-commission licensing examination.

Why You Won't Find a Fixed Cut Score Online

Several features of this credential explain why a single published number is elusive.

The Exam Is Delivered in More Than One Way

ARP offers testing at its annual conference and through an online option. Each format carries its own fee structure, and the issuer does not present one universal timer or scoring rule across both. The May 31, 2026 conference, for example, scheduled the examination from 2:15 to 4:15 p.m., after a separate review session. That two-hour window was an event-specific scheduling block. It should not be read as the official length of every sitting, and it says nothing about how many questions appeared or what score was required.

The Content Is Preparation-Driven, Not Weighted Publicly

The 28 session titles in ARP's recommended Ringside Medicine Basics Online Course are preparation-curriculum topics. They are not official weighted exam domains, and ARP does not publish how many questions map to each. Without published weighting, no outside source can responsibly say how many items you can miss in a given area and still pass.

Restricted Materials Stay Restricted

ARP's paid Combat Sports Manual and a members-only certification-review lecture are part of the issuer-recommended preparation. Their contents are not publicly available, so anyone claiming to reveal inside scoring details from them should be viewed skeptically.

How to Get the Real Number From ARP

Because the score is not public, the most reliable path is direct. Before you pay an exam fee, take these steps:

1. Open the ARP certification page at ringsidearp.org/certification and read the current eligibility and preparation links.
2. Review the registration listing for your chosen format (conference or online) and note what it states about scoring, duration and retakes.
3. Contact ARP and ask specifically: Is there a published passing standard? Is it scaled or raw? Does it differ between the conference and online formats?
4. Ask whether results are reported as pass/fail only or with domain-level feedback, which affects how you plan a retake.
5. Record the answers with the date, since policies can change between exam cycles.

If you are still deciding whether to pursue the credential at all, our ROI analysis of the CRP certification and the difficulty guide can help you weigh the commitment while you wait for ARP's reply.

What Is Confirmed About Format and Delivery

It helps to separate what is confirmed from what is assumed. The table below summarizes the publicly verifiable picture.

Notice the last row. Wild Apricot handles registration and payment, but the materials reviewed do not identify it as the system that delivers the examination itself. Do not assume the registration page tells you how the test is scored.

Fees and Registration Mechanics

Cost is one of the few areas where exact figures are available, and they depend on both format and membership status.

Separately, the optional Ringside Medicine Basics physician course costs USD 500 for members and USD 700 for non-members. It is not required to sit the exam, but it is the issuer-recommended preparation. A full cost walkthrough, including how membership status shifts the total, is in our CRP certification cost breakdown.

The Eligibility Gate Comes Before Any Score

For many candidates the real hurdle is not the passing score. It is qualifying to sit the exam. ARP requires the following:

• An MD, DO or foreign medical-degree equivalent.
• At least two years licensed and in good standing in the jurisdiction where you provide ringside care, with required licensing-body CME current.
• Documented coverage of at least three professional cards and 15 total fights, or five amateur cards and 30 total fights.
• Two eligible recommendations from an athletic commissioner, local boxing committee or ringside physician.
• Primary-specialty board certification or eligibility, where applicable.
• Commission-completed clinical-experience documentation.
• A signed physician-listing application.

Since the exam is open only to physicians with real ringside experience, the candidate pool is self-selected. That is one reason a published pass rate would be hard to interpret even if it existed. For the full prerequisite checklist, see CRP requirements, eligibility and how to qualify, and for scheduling windows see CRP exam dates and deadlines.

Where the Points Are: The 28-Topic Preparation Map

Without a published cut score, your best protection is breadth. ARP's recommended Ringside Medicine Basics Online Course lists 28 public session titles, recorded February through July 2022 (course page updated July 8, 2025). These are unweighted curriculum topics, but they are the clearest public signal of what ringside physicians are expected to know. The titles are:

1. Combat Sports Landscapes
2. Universal and Potential Requirements for Pro License
3. Pre-bout Focused Exams
4. Blood Bourne Infectious Disease
5. EKG Interpretation
6. Weight Cutting
7. The Ringside Physician's Bag
8. T UE's and Banned Substances
9. Emergency Action Plan
10. Infectious Skin Disease
11. Basic Intra-bout Physician Behavior
12. Intra-bout Evaluation of Ocular Injuries
13. Intra-bout Evaluation of OMF Injuries
14. Intra-bout Evaluation of Lacerations
15. Intra-bout Eval of Orthopedic Injuries
16. Intra-bout Evaluation of TBI
17. Choke Holds
18. Management of the Downed Combat Sports Athlete
19. Post-Bout Management of Potential TBI
20. Post Bout Management of Orthopedic Injuries
21. Post-Bout Laceration Repair
22. Referee and Ringside Physician Interaction
23. Ethics
24. Evaluation of Pre-bout HTN
25. Mouth Guards in Combat Sports
26. Concussion Management in Combat Sports
27. Neuro-Imaging Guidelines in Combat Sports
28. Malpractice and Medico-legal issues in Combat Sports

Source spellings, including "Blood Bourne" and the spacing in "T UE's," are preserved as they appear in ARP's headings. Session times in the course are not exam duration, and recording dates are not an exam-version identifier. For a deeper walkthrough of each area, read our complete guide to all 28 CRP content areas.

Prioritizing the Clusters That Define Ringside Competence

Because weighting is unpublished, group the 28 topics into clusters and make sure none is neglected. The clusters below are an organizational aid for your own study, not official exam domains.

Candidates who come from emergency medicine or primary care often feel strongest on triage and laceration care but weakest on regulatory and anti-doping material. Candidates from neurology or orthopedics sometimes have the opposite profile. Because you cannot know the cut score, use these clusters to find and close your personal gaps. Our CRP study guide for passing on your first attempt expands on how to build a review plan, and the one-page CRP cheat sheet is useful for last-pass revision.

Sequencing Your Preparation Around the Content

One short, content-driven way to order your weeks follows. It assumes about six weeks and should be adjusted to your exam date and your clinical background.

The reasoning is simple: pre-bout topics establish the baseline you reason from, injury evaluation builds on that, and ethics and medico-legal material is easiest to integrate once the clinical picture is clear. Our CRP training overview covers the preparation resources ARP recommends, including the Combat Sports Manual and consensus statements. To test where you stand, try the CRP practice tests on the main site.

After the Exam: Renewal and Recertification

Passing is not the end of the credential's requirements. Certification renews every three years and requires at least 12 hours of ringside or combat-sports-medicine CME earned during the preceding three years. Recertification is free when completed before expiration, so there is a clear incentive to submit on time. The three-year CME submission and on-time renewal fee policy are handled through ARP's own pages.

If you are weighing the long-term picture, including what the credential may mean for your practice, see the overview of CRP-related roles and the CRP salary guide. For a broader introduction to the credential itself, start with what CRP certification is.

Frequently Asked Questions