CDAAC Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass

What the Public Record Says About a CDAAC Passing Score

If you searched for "CDAAC passing score," you probably wanted a single number: a percentage, a scaled score, or a count of questions you must answer correctly. Here is the honest answer for the Christian Drug, Alcohol & Addictions Counselor credential: the supplied official source context does not establish one.

The Association of Christian Alcohol and Drug Counselors (ACADC) publishes a core curriculum page listing the preparation modules behind the CDAAC. That page confirms the pathway requires passing the CDAAC examination. It does not, in the materials reviewed, state a pass score, a scoring method, an item count, a timer, module percentages, or fee data.

That distinction matters. A passing score is a precise claim, and precise claims need a precise source. This article tells you what is documented, what is not, and how to prepare sensibly while the cutoff remains unconfirmed.

Why No Cutoff Appears in the Issuer's Materials

Certification bodies handle score disclosure in different ways. Some publish a fixed percentage; others use scaled scoring and release only a pass/fail result; others share requirements only with enrolled candidates. The ACADC curriculum page is oriented toward education: it lists what students study, not how the final exam is graded.

The source page is also dated. It carries a revision marker of Rev. 06/16, and the curriculum includes historical clinical references and issuer theological views that should not be read as contemporary clinical consensus. A page with that profile is a curriculum outline, not a candidate handbook, so the absence of scoring details is unsurprising.

For you as a candidate, the practical consequences are:

• Do not assume a percentage. A figure like "70%" may be common in other certifications, but it is not documented for the CDAAC examination.
• Do not assume equal weighting. The 52 domains are unweighted preparation topics, so there is no official statement that each counts equally or that any one is worth more.
• Do not import rules from other credentials. Other certifications share the CDAAC acronym or sit nearby in the addiction-counseling field, and their entrance rules, fees, and score thresholds do not apply here. In particular, CSAC entrance-inventory rules do not apply to this separate examination pathway.

What You Are Actually Being Prepared For: The 52-Module Curriculum

Since the cutoff is unconfirmed, the most productive use of your time is mastering what the curriculum covers. ACADC's core curriculum lists 52 domain lines, each anchored to specific readings. They span clinical addiction content, pastoral-counseling content, and regulatory content. For a deeper walk through them, see our complete guide to all 52 CDAAC content areas.

Clinical and Pharmacology Foundations

Intervention, Crisis, and Safety Content

Several domains deal with high-stakes counseling situations: Addiction Intervention (Domain 4), Crisis, Trauma and PTSD Counseling (Domain 20), Suicide Intervention (Domain 25), and Domestic Violence (Domain 12). Questions in these areas are the kind where understanding the counselor's role and appropriate response matters more than recalling a single fact. Suicide Intervention, for example, draws on Hunt's Chapter 47 and pages 331-360 of Caring for People God's Way.

Law, Ethics, and Regulation

Faith-Integrated and Pastoral Content

What sets the CDAAC apart from secular addiction credentials is the integration of Scripture and Christian counseling frameworks. Expect domains such as Breaking the Power of Shame (Domain 5), Intimacy with God (Domain 42), The Art of Surrender (Domain 44), and Discerning Spiritual Conditions & Spiritual Intervention (Domain 23). Several draw on the Life Principles Bible (New King James Version, edited by Dr. Charles Stanley), and one, Domain 12 aside, cites specific Life Principles by number. Learn which Life Principle attaches to which domain; it is an efficient way to organize your notes.

How Passing the Exam Fits Into the CDAAC Pathway

The exam is one requirement within a larger pathway, and the supporting details have their own uncertainties. Here is a summary of what is and is not established:

The education-hour discrepancy is worth flagging. If you are planning your timeline, do not rely on either number until ACADC clarifies which applies to you. For eligibility questions, see our breakdown of CDAAC requirements, prerequisites, and how to qualify, and for the money side, our CDAAC certification cost guide.

How to Spot Unreliable Pass-Score Claims

Because the CDAAC acronym is shared by other credentials, search results mix up unrelated certifications. A page quoting a pass mark, a domain weighting table, or a fee schedule may be describing a different credential entirely. Use these checks before you trust any number:

1. Confirm the certifying body. The credential discussed here is issued through the Association of Christian Alcohol and Drug Counselors. If a page names another organization, its numbers are not about this exam.
2. Look for a primary citation. A genuine pass score should trace to an ACADC document or a written statement from ACADC, not to an unsourced blog assertion.
3. Check for invented precision. Exact percentages with no stated source, or domain weights presented as official when the issuer says the domains are unweighted, are red flags.
4. Beware the pass-rate trap. A claimed pass rate cannot substitute for a published cutoff. For what is and is not known on that front, read our CDAAC pass rate analysis.

Building Your Own Readiness Benchmark

Without a published threshold, you need a self-set standard. A sensible one for a curriculum-driven exam like this is to aim for comfortable mastery across every domain rather than hunting for the minimum you can get away with. Because no weighting is published, you cannot safely skip any module on the theory that it counts for less.

Use one short, CDAAC-specific sequencing plan to organize your preparation:

The reasoning: regulatory and ethics material is the most factual and reference-driven, so it rewards direct reading of primary documents, while the pastoral domains reward familiarity with the specific frameworks the curriculum uses. For a longer plan, see our CDAAC study guide.

Which Domains Deserve Your Early Attention

Since weights are unpublished, prioritize by two criteria: how much reading a domain involves and how much it supports other domains.

• Heavy-reading domains: Co-Occurring Disorders (Perkinson pages 157-195), Counseling Theories and Practice (Perkinson pages 79-99 plus Neil Anderson's Christ Centered Therapy), and 12 Step / 8 Beatitude Therapy (Dick B., pages 131-175) all carry large assigned readings.
• Foundational domains: Introduction to Drug, Alcohol and Addiction Counseling and Basic Pharmacology supply vocabulary for the rest.
• Assignment-style domains: Several domains involve written work or inventories: Aptitude & Spiritual Gift Inventory (Domain 21), Significant Issues for the Field of Addiction Counseling (Domain 46, which includes an interview and written report), and the therapeutic-pitfalls domains (Domains 50 and 51, with theme papers). These are curriculum tasks, so confirm with ACADC how they relate to the examination itself.
• Assessment and framework domain: Domain 43 covers the 12 Core Functions, TAP 21, and DSM-IV, drawing on Perkinson pages 31-51 and 67-78 and Addiction Severity Index administration. Note that DSM-IV is an older framework, which is exactly the kind of historical reference the issuer's materials contain.

If you are unsure how demanding all this will be, our CDAAC difficulty guide frames the workload honestly.

Questions to Put to ACADC Directly

Rather than guess, send ACADC a short list of written questions and keep the replies. Doing this turns unknowns into documented facts you can plan around:

1. What is the passing score for the CDAAC examination, and is it a raw percentage or a scaled score?
2. How many questions does the exam contain, and what is the time allowed?
3. Are any domains weighted, or are all curriculum modules treated equally?
4. What is the retake policy, and are there waiting periods or additional fees?
5. Which education-hour figure applies to my situation, 315 or 155?
6. Do written assignments, interviews, or inventories count toward exam completion, or are they separate curriculum requirements?
7. What are the current exam and certification fees?
8. What are the scheduling options? (See our note on exam dates and scheduling.)

While you wait on answers, you can pressure-test your knowledge with realistic practice at our CDAAC practice test site, and review the essentials with our one-page CDAAC cheat sheet. Candidates weighing the investment may also want our analysis of whether the credential is worth it, and those exploring careers can look at CDAAC jobs and the salary guide. For a refresher on the basics, start with what the CDAAC is.

Frequently Asked Questions