DABCRS Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling

2026-2027 Exam Date Overview

If you're planning around DABCRS exam dates, precision matters more than most candidates expect. The American Board of Colon and Rectal Surgery (ABCRS) administers the Part I Written Examination - a six-hour, multiple-choice test covering the theory and practice of colon and rectal surgery, including relevant radiology, pathology, and basic science. As of a review conducted September 23, 2026, the board's Important Dates page lists the next sitting for March 10, 2027.

There's a wrinkle worth flagging directly: the written-exam landing page on the ABCRS site still displays a legacy March 3, 2026 date in places, while the Important Dates page and the 2027 candidate timeline both point to March 10, 2027. Treat the Important Dates page and the 2027 timeline as authoritative, and always cross-check the board's own site before locking travel or leave arrangements, since these pages are updated independently of each other.

Application and Payment Timeline

Unlike many written boards where a single fee covers everything, ABCRS separates the application from the examination itself, and each has its own deadline. For the exam cycle culminating in the March 10, 2027 sitting, the published timeline was:

• August 15, 2026 - Application materials, application fee, and the ACGME operative log were due.
• August 16 - September 10, 2026 - Late application window (with an additional late charge).
• September 23, 2026 status - As of this review, the application window is closed.
• January 15, 2027 - Written-examination fee payment due.
• January 16 - 19, 2027 - Late payment window; no payment accepted after January 19.
• March 10, 2027 - ABCRS Part I Written Examination.

Because the application window for this cycle has already closed, anyone reading this who has not yet applied should check the board's site directly for the next cycle's dates rather than assume this timeline repeats identically. For a full breakdown of who qualifies to apply in the first place, see our DABCRS Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify guide.

Fee Breakdown and Late Charges

For the 2027 pathway, ABCRS publishes the following fee structure in USD:

These two payments are the core costs of sitting for Part I; they do not include separate continuing-certification obligations that begin after you're a Diplomate, nor do they reflect Part II oral exam costs. For a fuller accounting of every fee a candidate encounters across the certification pathway, our DABCRS Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown article walks through the full financial picture.

Pearson VUE Booking and Test-Day Admission

Part I is delivered as computer-based testing at Pearson VUE test centers, with scheduling coordinated through the American Board of Surgery (ABS). You cannot simply pick a date on Pearson VUE's public calendar - booking requires three things to already be in place:

1. An approved ABCRS application on file.
2. Payment of the examination fee.
3. An Examination Admission Authorization letter, which contains your Candidate ID.

On test day, bring the authorization letter and two forms of identification whose names match the letter exactly. One ID must include a photograph, and both must carry signatures. Note also that the board's dates page specifically excludes Pearson VUE centers in Quebec, Canada - if you're near that region, plan your test-center selection accordingly.

Eligibility Clock: Deadlines Tied to Training

The Part I exam date sits inside a longer eligibility timeline that starts well before you ever pick a test date. To sit for Part I, candidates must have completed an ACGME-accredited colon and rectal surgery residency, hold a valid and unrestricted medical license, have board approval of their application, have submitted the required operative log, and have already passed the ABS Qualifying Examination. There's also an outer boundary: candidates must apply within three years of completing approved colorectal training, and must complete certification within seven years following formal application approval.

Because ABS certification is a prerequisite for Part II, and Part I alone does not confer Diplomate status, the dates covered in this article are only one leg of a multi-step journey. If you're still confirming whether you meet the underlying prerequisites before worrying about scheduling, start with our requirements breakdown before working backward into the calendar.

Scheduling Your Prep Around the Six Domains

Once your test date is locked, the more useful scheduling question becomes: how do you allocate the months between now and March 10, 2027 across the exam's content? The issuer-published question-database categories - drawn from the March 2024 Instructions for Question Writers and shared across ABCRS examination programs - give six content areas to organize study around:

Because no official percentage weights or fixed question counts are published for these categories, resist the urge to over-optimize your calendar around assumed weighting. Instead, a reasonable approach is to sequence study blocks so that domains you find personally weakest get the earliest and longest runway, leaving the final weeks before March 10 for cross-domain review and timed practice sets.

For a more detailed week-by-week framework and first-attempt strategy, our DABCRS Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt expands on pacing, and you can build and track original practice sets on our main practice test platform as you move through each block.

What Happens If You Miss a Deadline

Because ABCRS enforces hard cutoffs rather than rolling admission, missing a date has concrete consequences rather than just a fee penalty:

• Miss the application deadline entirely (past the late window) - you likely wait for the next application cycle, pushing your Part I attempt back a full year.
• Pay the exam fee late (January 16-19, 2027) - you incur the additional charge but can still remain in the March 10, 2027 cohort; after January 19, no payment is accepted.
• Fail to secure a Pearson VUE seat in your target region - since Quebec centers are excluded from the board's list, candidates near that border should confirm seat availability early rather than assume any nearby center qualifies.

Given how unforgiving these gates are, many candidates find it useful to treat the January payment deadline with the same seriousness as the exam date itself. Pair your fee-payment reminder with a broader review of what's actually tested - our How Hard Is the DABCRS Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026 and DABCRS Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass articles are useful companions once your seat is confirmed.

Frequently Asked Questions