- What the Credential Actually Is
- Who Earns It and Where They Work
- Eligibility and Registration Mechanics
- Exam Format: What Sitting for It Looks Like
- The Five Domains Behind the Letters
- Reading the Numbers: 110 vs. 120 and the 52% Figure
- Original Practice-Style Questions
- Cost, Value, and the Salary Question
- Keeping the Credential: Renewal
- Sequencing Your Prep Around the Domains
- Frequently Asked Questions
- CTP here means Certified Transplant Preservationist, issued by the American Board for Transplant Certification (ABTC), not any other credential sharing the...
- Eligibility requires 12 months of organ-preservation work experience, not necessarily full-time, with a supervisor attestation.
- The exam has 100 scored items, 10 unscored pretest items, and a two-hour limit, delivered at PSI test centers.
- Organ Recovery carries 30 of 100 scored items, the heaviest domain, followed by Organ Preservation at 25.
What the Credential Actually Is
A CTP, in this context, is a Certified Transplant Preservationist: a professional who has demonstrated competence in the handling of donated organs between recovery and transplant. The credential is administered by the American Board for Transplant Certification (ABTC), and the exam is delivered through the testing provider PSI. In certification and application records you may also see the designation referenced as ROC-P.
The acronym is crowded. Several unrelated credentials in other industries share the same three letters, and none of them has anything to do with organ preservation. If you landed here from a search for a treasury, project, or payments credential, this is a different field entirely. Everything on this page concerns the ABTC credential and nothing else. For other framings of the same question, see our explainers on what CTP is, what CTP stands for, and CTP meaning.
Who Earns It and Where They Work
The credential is aimed at people whose daily work touches organ preservation: the stretch of the donation-to-transplant pathway where an organ is recovered, cooled or perfused, assessed, labeled, packaged, and moved. In practice that means professionals employed in organ procurement and preservation settings, such as organ procurement organizations and preservation or recovery teams. Hiring managers in that space tend to value a credential that documents standardized knowledge of recovery, preservation, specimen handling, and transport, because errors in those steps are costly and often irreversible.
Notably, the eligibility pathway does not require preservation to be your entire job. The experience requirement, covered below, explicitly allows work that is only part of your responsibilities. That makes the credential reachable for people in blended roles. For a closer look at the job market, see CTP jobs.
Eligibility and Registration Mechanics
The experience requirement
To sit for the exam you need 12 months of organ-preservation work experience. That experience need not be your full-time responsibility. A supervisor or employer attestation supports the application. The practical advice: talk to your supervisor early, because the attestation is a gating item and you do not want it to be the reason your application stalls. The complete prerequisites are laid out in our CTP requirements guide.
The 90-day eligibility window
Once approved, ABTC provides a 90-day examination-eligibility window in which to test. There is a wrinkle worth knowing about: public instructions are inconsistent about what starts the clock. Different pages can be read as pointing to the payment date, the application-approval date, or the eligibility-confirmation date. Do not assume these are interchangeable. Follow the specific authorization dates on your own paperwork, and if anything looks inconsistent, resolve it directly with ABTC or PSI before you schedule. Our CTP exam dates guide covers scheduling in more depth.
Retake rules
- A 90-day interval is required between attempts.
- After three unsuccessful attempts, you must complete 20 Category 1 CEPTCs (continuing education points) before reapplying.
- Fees are nonrefundable and apply again to each reapplication.
That last point shapes strategy: because every attempt carries the full fee, preparing to pass the first time is both the cheapest and least stressful route. Our CTP study guide is built around that goal.
Exam Format: What Sitting for It Looks Like
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Total questions | 110 multiple-choice |
| Scored / unscored | 100 scored, 10 unscored pretest items |
| Time limit | Two hours |
| Question style | Four options, one best answer |
| Delivery | Computer-based at PSI test centers |
| Reference materials | Closed book |
| Calculators | Prohibited |
| Identification | Two forms required |
Two things stand out. First, the "one best answer" phrasing means distractors are often plausible; you are choosing the most correct option, not hunting for the only true statement. Second, the ten unscored pretest items are indistinguishable from scored ones, so you cannot spot and skip them. Treat every question as if it counts.
With no calculator allowed and about 65 seconds per question on average, any quantitative reasoning needs to be simple enough to do mentally, and your pacing should leave a margin to revisit flagged items.
The Five Domains Behind the Letters
The official examination outline organizes content into five domains. Summing the outline's recall, application, and analysis columns gives scored-item allocations of 15, 30, 25, 12, and 18, in domain order. These are item counts, not issuer-published percentage weights, so treat them as a guide to where the points are rather than a precise formula. For the full breakdown, see our CTP exam domains guide.
| Domain | Scored Items (of 100) |
|---|---|
| 1. Professional Practice | 15 |
| 2. Organ Recovery | 30 |
| 3. Organ Preservation | 25 |
| 4. Specimen Collection | 12 |
| 5. Organ Labeling and Packaging for Transport | 18 |
Domain 1: Professional Practice
The framing domain: the standards, responsibilities, and conduct expected of someone working in this part of the transplant pathway.
- Expect scenario questions where the best answer reflects professional responsibility rather than a purely technical step.
- Fifteen scored items makes this a meaningful minority of the exam, so do not dismiss it as soft content.
Domain 2: Organ Recovery
The largest domain at 30 of 100 scored items. Nearly a third of your score rides on it.
- Understand the recovery process end to end, including how sequence and timing decisions affect organ viability.
- Be ready to reason through "what happens next" and "what is the best response" questions, not just recall definitions.
Domain 3: Organ Preservation
The second-largest domain at 25 scored items, and the namesake of the credential.
- Know the principles behind preservation methods and why each is chosen for a given situation.
- Asepsis and contamination control belong in your mental model here; the exam rewards candidates who understand why a step exists, not those who memorized its order.
Domain 4: Specimen Collection
The smallest domain at 12 scored items, but a classic place to lose avoidable points.
- Specimens accompany organs and support downstream decisions, so accuracy of collection, identification, and handling matters.
- Because it is small, candidates often underprepare. A few well-studied points here are efficient to earn.
Domain 5: Organ Labeling and Packaging for Transport
Eighteen scored items covering the final handoff of the organ into transport.
- Labeling, packaging integrity, and documentation are where small errors become serious consequences.
- Expect questions about identifying the safest or most correct action when information is missing or inconsistent.
One caution on scope: this article is educational exam review. It describes what the exam covers and how to think about the question style. It is not clinical instruction. Actual practice must follow your organization's current policies and applicable regulatory requirements, so verify those directly before applying anything you read in study materials.
Reading the Numbers: 110 vs. 120 and the 52% Figure
The question-count conflict
If you research this exam online, you may see a 120-question count. The PSI online store listing for the official self-assessment still describes a 120-question certification exam, while the current ABTC Candidate Handbook (the file dated August 13, 2026, with the CTP Examination Content Outline on PDF pages 39-40) describes 110 questions: 100 scored plus 10 unscored. When sources disagree, the handbook controls. Plan for 110 questions in two hours, and if your own candidate materials say otherwise, confirm with ABTC or PSI.
The historical pass rate
ABTC's March 2025 statistical report records a 52% pass rate among 86 candidates for 2024. Be careful with this number. It is historical, it is not a 2026 rate, it is not a passing score, and it is not documented as a first-attempt-only figure. It tells you the exam is a genuine hurdle rather than a formality, and that a sizable share of a small candidate pool did not pass in that period. It does not tell you what to expect for your particular attempt. We unpack the nuances in CTP pass rate: what the data shows.
The passing standard
Passing is determined by overall performance against an expert-established examination standard. There are no separate pass thresholds per domain, and no fixed numeric passing mark is published that you can quote. Beware of any resource that claims an exact percent-correct cutoff. See CTP passing score for how to think about this without guessing at a number.
Original Practice-Style Questions
The questions below are original illustrations written to show the style of reasoning, not actual or recalled exam items. They are for study orientation only and are not clinical guidance.
Sample 1 (Organ Labeling and Packaging for Transport)
A package is ready to leave for transport, but you notice that the information on the label does not match the accompanying documentation. What is the best next action?
- A. Ship it and correct the paperwork later
- B. Hold the shipment and resolve the discrepancy through the proper verification process before release
- C. Correct whichever record looks less official
- D. Ask the courier to verify at delivery
Reasoning: B. When identity information conflicts, the safe pattern is to stop and verify at the source before release, not to push the problem downstream.
Sample 2 (Organ Preservation)
Which consideration most directly explains why aseptic technique is emphasized when handling an organ during preservation?
- A. It speeds up transport
- B. It reduces the risk of introducing contamination to a graft that will be implanted in a recipient
- C. It eliminates the need for documentation
- D. It is primarily a regulatory formality with no clinical effect
Reasoning: B. The exam favors answers that connect a practice to its underlying purpose.
For a larger set of exam-style items, the CTP Exam Prep practice test site offers original questions organized to mirror the five domains. PSI also lists an official $60, 30-question Self-Assessment Examination with 60-day access and one scored attempt; only the public listing was reviewed for this article, not the paid question bank, so check the current listing before you buy.
Cost, Value, and the Salary Question
What an attempt costs
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Examination fee | $495 |
| Application fee | $150 |
| Total per attempt | $645 |
| International administration surcharge (if applicable) | +$225 |
| Renewal fee (single certification) | $395 |
Fees are nonrefundable and are charged again on reapplication, so a retake effectively doubles your outlay. The full picture, including renewal, is in our CTP certification cost breakdown.
Is it worth it?
The honest answer is that it depends on your situation, and it should not be reduced to an assumed raise. There is no basis here for claiming a guaranteed pay premium from holding the credential. Value can come from other directions: documented competence, credibility with employers and colleagues, a structured framework for what you should know, and continuing-education discipline. If you are weighing the decision, work through whether the CTP certification is worth it and consult the CTP salary guide with a critical eye for what the evidence does and does not show. Ask your own employer whether certification affects advancement, reimbursement, or role eligibility, since those are the questions that matter to you personally.
Keeping the Credential: Renewal
Certification is valid for three years. To renew, you have two routes:
- Continuing education: earn 60 CEPTCs, including at least 20 Category 1 and at least 10 Category 2 points.
- Re-examination: pass the exam again.
The renewal fee for a single certification is $395. Start accumulating points early in the cycle rather than scrambling in year three, and keep records of everything you complete. Current requirements are published on ABTC's recertification pages, and the August 2025 recertification requirements document is the reviewed source for these figures. Rules can change, so confirm against the latest ABTC materials when you are within a year of expiration.
Sequencing Your Prep Around the Domains
Rather than generic advice, here is a domain-driven sequence that front-loads the heaviest content. Adjust the timeline to your own schedule and work experience.
Organ Recovery (30 items)
- Build the end-to-end process model first; everything else attaches to it.
- Do scenario questions on timing, sequence, and decision-making.
Organ Preservation (25 items)
- Focus on why each method and aseptic safeguard exists.
- Practice distinguishing the "best" answer from merely acceptable ones.
Labeling/Packaging (18) and Specimens (12)
- Drill documentation, identification, and discrepancy-handling scenarios.
- Cover specimen collection and handling, a small but efficient domain.
Professional Practice (15) and full-length timed review
- Review professional responsibility scenarios.
- Sit a timed set at roughly 65 seconds per question to rehearse pacing.
For a compact reference to review in the final days, use our CTP cheat sheet, and to gauge difficulty honestly, read how hard the CTP exam is. If you want structured preparation resources, see CTP training, and for the broader overview of the credential, CTP certification is a good companion.
Frequently Asked Questions
It stands for Certified Transplant Preservationist, a credential from the American Board for Transplant Certification (ABTC). It is unrelated to other certifications that happen to share the same acronym. For related explainers, see what CTP certification is and what CTP means.
The current ABTC Candidate Handbook describes 110 multiple-choice questions: 100 scored and 10 unscored pretest items, in two hours. A PSI store listing for the self-assessment still mentions 120 questions, but the handbook controls the live exam count.
ABTC does not publish a fixed numeric passing mark you can rely on. Passing reflects overall performance against an expert-established standard, not separate domain passes. Be skeptical of any source quoting an exact cutoff.
$645 per attempt: a $495 examination fee plus a $150 application fee, with an additional $225 international administration surcharge where applicable. Fees are nonrefundable and apply again to reapplications.
Certification is valid for three years. You renew by earning 60 CEPTCs (at least 20 Category 1 and 10 Category 2) or by passing the exam again. The single-certification renewal fee is $395.