Cypress-Fairbanks ISD
Closes August 5 · August 13, 2026, testing Aug 13 · 18 more by November
Four courses, split the way the exam scores them, so you practise the section that is costing you points.
See SAT & PSAT →
Calculus AB and BC, Physics 1, Computer Science A and more, written to the exam as it is scored today.
See AP courses →
Problems sit where they sit on the real paper, so an easy one early and a hard one late feel like the contest.
See AMC prep →Testing windows and deadlines for 26 Texas districts, from their own calendars. How this works →Independent · not affiliated with any district.
Deadlines closing soon
August first, then the rest of the next four months.
| Apply by | District | Window | Testing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 5 today | CY Cypress-Fairbanks ISD | August 13, 2026 grades 6-12 · course content | Aug 13 |
| Aug 14 in 9 days | PF Pflugerville ISD | Fall 2026 K-12 | Aug 24–Sep 11 |
| Aug 21 in 16 days | LE Leander ISD | September 2026 K + high school courses | Sep 14–25 |
| Aug 31 in 26 days | CY Cypress-Fairbanks ISD | September 2026 grades 6-12 · all types | Sep 15 |
| Sep 1 in 27 days | LE Lewisville ISD | First Fall Testing grades 1-12 | Sep 21–25 |
| Sep 4 in 30 days | MA Mansfield ISD | Cycle 1 · October 2026 without prior instruction · not for mid-year promotion | Oct 6–7 |
| Sep 23 in 49 days | NO Northside ISD | October 2026 administration ES/MS grade level · MS math · HS course acceleration, recovery, validation | Oct 24 |
| Sep 28 in 54 days | CY Cypress-Fairbanks ISD | October 2026 grades 6-12 · all types | Oct 20 |
| Oct 1 in 57 days | NO Northwest ISD | October 2026 elementary whole grade · HS courses · world languages | Oct 8 |
| Oct 9 in 65 days | KA Katy ISD | November 2026 grades 1-12 · home campus | Nov 16–20 |
| Oct 13 in 69 days | LE Lewisville ISD | Second Fall Testing grades 1-12 | Nov 9–13 |
| Oct 16 in 72 days | HO Houston ISD | CBE #2 grades 9-12 only · advance in a course | Nov 9–13 |
| Oct 17 in 73 days | LE Little Elm ISD | Autumn session High school CBE and second-semester LOTE. Not for elementary acceleration. | Nov 3–21 |
| Oct 26 in 82 days | CY Cypress-Fairbanks ISD | K-8 grade acceleration · November 2026 K-8 · grade level acceleration | Nov 16 |
| Oct 30 in 86 days | LE Leander ISD | December 2026 high school courses only | Dec 7–18 |
| Oct 30 in 86 days | PF Pflugerville ISD | Winter 2026 grades 6-12 · one-semester and high school courses ONLY | Nov 9–Dec 11 |
| Nov 2 in 89 days | CY Cypress-Fairbanks ISD | November 2026 grades 6-12 · all types | Nov 17 |
| Nov 13 in 100 days | MA Mansfield ISD | Cycle 3 · May 2027 (AP exams only) AP exams only · registered at the high school campus | May 3–14 |
| Nov 30 in 117 days | CY Cypress-Fairbanks ISD | December 2026 grades 6-12 · course content | — |
Exam news from Texas districts
Headlines link to the publisherAnnouncements that change when or how a student can test. Nothing else.
A district deadline is rarely the only one a family is tracking. The exams above the CBE run on their own calendars, and we build for those too.
Browse everything →
A district deadline is rarely the only one a family is tracking. SAT, PSAT, AP and AMC run on their own calendars, and we build for those too.
Browse everything →More families are testing every year
Middle-school credit-by-exam sittings through UTHS, one of the two vendors Texas districts buy from. Volume is up 66% in five years. This is a floor on the state total, not the total itself — Texas Tech sittings and district-written exams are not counted here.
29% passed
29% passed
32% passed
30% passed
35% passed
Sittings are the six series UTHS publishes — maths and science at grades 6, 7 and 8 — added together. The pass rate shown is for 8th-grade maths, the largest single series, at the 80% bar. See the five-year breakdown →
Latest updates
When we last checked each district against its own published calendar.
DFW North
All 5 windows this year
| Apply by | Testing | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 1 | Oct 8 | elementary whole grade · HS courses · world languages |
| Dec 11 | Jan 4 | HS courses · world languages |
| Mar 5 | Mar 22 | HS courses · world languages |
| May 13 | May 25–29 | elementary/middle whole grade · MS math acceleration · HS · languages |
| Jun 24 | Jul 13–15 | elementary/middle whole grade · MS math acceleration · HS · languages |
Austin
All 4 windows this year
| Apply by | Testing | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 21 | Sep 14–25 | K + high school courses |
| Oct 30 | Dec 7–18 | high school courses only |
| Jan 29 | Feb 24–Mar 5 | grades 1-12 |
| Apr 30 | Jun 8–10 | grades 1-12 |
All 6 windows this year
| Apply by | Testing | Who |
|---|---|---|
| May 22 | Jul 20–Aug 7 | K-12 |
| Aug 14 | Aug 24–Sep 11 | K-12 |
| Oct 30 | Nov 9–Dec 11 | grades 6-12 · one-semester and high school courses ONLY |
| Jan 22 | Feb 8–Mar 5 | grades 6-12 · one-semester and high school courses ONLY |
| Apr 9 | May 3–27 | K-12 |
| May 14 | Jul 19–Aug 6 | K-12 |
Houston
All 7 windows this year
| Apply by | Testing | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 5 | Aug 13 | grades 6-12 · course content |
| Aug 31 | Sep 15 | grades 6-12 · all types |
| Sep 28 | Oct 20 | grades 6-12 · all types |
| Oct 26 | Nov 16 | K-8 · grade level acceleration |
| Nov 2 | Nov 17 | grades 6-12 · all types |
| Nov 30 | — | grades 6-12 · course content |
| Dec 7 | Jan 5–11 | K-8 · grade level acceleration |
All 4 windows this year
| Apply by | Testing | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Jul 10 | Jul 30–Aug 5 | K-8 skip a grade · 6-12 advance in a course · 5th grade DLI only |
| Oct 16 | Nov 9–13 | grades 9-12 only · advance in a course |
| Jan 22 | Feb 8–12 | grades 9-12 only · advance in a course |
| May 14 | Jun 7–11 | K-8 skip a grade · 6-12 advance in a course · 5th grade DLI only |
All 4 windows this year
| Apply by | Testing | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 9 | Nov 16–20 | grades 1-12 · home campus |
| Feb 5 | Mar 1–5 | grades 1-12 · home campus |
| Apr 16 | Jun 7–10 | grades 1-12 · location TBD |
| May 8 | Jul 12–15 | grades 1-12 · location TBD |
San Antonio
All 7 windows this year
| Apply by | Testing | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Jun 10 | Jul 11 | ES/MS grade level · MS math · HS course acceleration, recovery, validation |
| Jul 1 | — | kindergarten · age 5 by Sept 1 |
| Jul 30 | Aug 4–6 | middle school · new to NISD only |
| Sep 23 | Oct 24 | ES/MS grade level · MS math · HS course acceleration, recovery, validation |
| Feb 17 | Mar 20 | ES/MS grade level · MS math · HS course acceleration, recovery, validation |
| Apr 21 | May 22 | ES/MS grade level · MS math · HS course acceleration, recovery, validation |
| Jun 9 | — | ES/MS grade level · MS math · HS course acceleration, recovery, validation |
Dates go out through the campus · 10
These districts run credit by exam but publish the calendar to counsellors rather than on the website. Their guide has the questions to put to the campus — it is a phone call, not a dead end.
Not surveyed yet · 9
We have a guide for each of these but have not read the district calendar at source, so we do not claim a date for them. We would rather say so than guess.
How Texas CBE scheduling works
Under 19 TAC §74.24, a district must offer a testing window in each quarter of the year — January–March, April–June, July–September and October–December — so there are normally four chances a year. A student may sit a given exam once per window, and the rule also says the dates are to be publicized. Every district we have fully surveyed offers a window in all four.
The rule fixes how many windows, not where the quarters fall. Most districts draw them on the calendar year as above; Mansfield ISD runs September–November, December–February, March–May and June–August instead. Both satisfy §74.24, so do not assume two districts’ cycles line up. Some districts also offer more than the minimum — Allen and Pflugerville publish six.
What changes district to district is who may use which window. Some restrict the mid-year windows to one-semester courses, so a year-long course such as Algebra 1 or Geometry can only be taken in summer. Some open only grades 9–12 outside the summer windows. That restriction is in the “Who” column of each district's calendar above.
The deadline that matters is the parent application deadline, not the campus ordering deadline that follows it. A campus cannot order an exam against a request that was never filed, so the later date is not a second chance. Lead times vary widely — Houston ISD gives families a five-day request window; Katy ISD asks five weeks ahead of the exam.
Every date on this page is copied from the district's own published calendar, stamped with the day we last checked it and linked back to the source. Even so, figures and dates here may differ from what your district tells you. Districts revise calendars during the year, some leave last year's schedule published for months, and a few give only a month range or send families to a counselor instead of publishing dates at all — those are marked as such rather than filled in with a guess. Counts on this page describe the districts we have surveyed, not all of Texas, and they change as we add more. Confirm with your campus counselor before you file anything, and treat the district's own page — linked from every entry — as the authority over ours.
Credit by Examination in Texas — common questions
Answered from the 26 districts surveyed on this page, not from the rule alone.
How many times a year can a Texas student take a Credit by Examination?
Under 19 TAC §74.24 a district must offer a testing window in each quarter of the year, so there are normally four opportunities, and a student may sit any given exam once per window. Some districts offer more than the minimum — Pflugerville ISD publishes six.
What score does a student need to pass a Texas CBE?
For credit without prior instruction under TEC §28.023 — the free district route — the standard is 80%. The paid route under 19 TAC §74.24, with prior instruction, is 70%. Districts may also set the bar by purpose rather than by route: Northside ISD requires 80% to accelerate but 70% to validate or recover credit.
Which deadline matters — the application deadline or the campus ordering deadline?
The parent application deadline. The campus ordering deadline that follows it is not a second chance, because a campus cannot order an exam against a request that was never filed. Lead times vary widely: Houston ISD gives families a five-day request window, while Katy ISD asks about five weeks ahead of the exam.
Do all Texas districts use the same testing quarters?
§74.24 fixes how many windows a district must offer, not where the quarters fall. Most draw them on the calendar year — January to March, April to June, July to September, October to December — but Mansfield ISD runs September to November, December to February, March to May and June to August. Two districts’ cycles cannot be assumed to line up.
Do all Texas districts publish their CBE testing dates?
No. Of the 26 districts surveyed here, 10 publish exact dates. The rest give only a month range, or direct families to a campus counselor. Several also leave the previous school year’s calendar published well into the new one, so the year on the page is worth checking.
Who writes the exams a Texas district uses for Credit by Examination?
Most districts order from the University of Texas High School (UTHS) or Texas Tech University K-12. Some split by subject — Carroll ISD uses UTHS generally but Avant for world languages, and Denton ISD lists all three. Richardson ISD requires a student’s second attempt to come from a different vendor than the first.