- Why There Is No National FPABS Exam Calendar
- Who Actually Controls Your Test Date
- Allen Bradley and Siemens: Two Separate Exam Records
- What Must Be Finished Before You Can Sit
- Format, Timing and Proctoring: What Is Known
- Registration Mechanics and Cost
- A Worked Example: Reading a College Course Calendar
- Sequencing the 14 Topics Against Your Test Date
- Retakes, Renewal and Date-Sensitive Pitfalls
- Frequently Asked Questions
- No fixed national FPABS testing window was verified; your test date is set by your school or training site.
- The credential comes from Festo's FICP Level 1 program, administered through NC3 participating institutions.
- Allen Bradley and Siemens are separate exams with separate records; you book the platform your course uses.
- Eligibility needs an actively NC3-certified instructor, completed hands-on labs, and a score of at least 70%.
Why There Is No National FPABS Exam Calendar
Candidates searching for "FPABS exam dates 2026" often expect a published calendar of testing windows, application deadlines and score-release dates, the way some large professional certifications run them. For Fundamentals of PLCs - Allen Bradley/Siemens, that model does not apply, and it is better to understand why now than to waste weeks looking for a date that does not exist.
This credential belongs to the Festo Industry Certification Program (FICP), Level 1 Fundamentals. Festo is the governing body, and the National Coalition of Certification Centers (NC3), working through participating institutions and NC3Certs, is the administering and testing partner. The exam is delivered through schools, colleges and training centers that are part of that network. In practice that means the "exam date" is whatever your institution schedules once your coursework is done.
If you are still orienting yourself on what the credential is, start with What Is FPABS Certification? and then return here for the scheduling mechanics.
Who Actually Controls Your Test Date
Because delivery runs through participating institutions, three parties shape your timeline.
The institution and its instructor
Training must be delivered by an actively NC3-certified instructor using the required equipment. That instructor, or the school's testing coordinator, opens the exam for your class. The Virginia CTE Resource Center records for both platform exams describe school-administered online delivery with instructor-determined timing, which tells you the school, not a national testing center, decides when and how long you sit.
NC3 and Festo
NC3 supplies the certification infrastructure and the end-user license terms; Festo supplies the curriculum and credential framework. Neither was verified to publish a student-facing calendar of national sittings.
You
Your control is mostly about readiness: finishing the hands-on labs, getting your practice scores stable, and telling your instructor when you want the exam opened. A late finish on your final lab or project is the most common reason a test date slips.
Practical implication
Treat "exam dates" as a conversation with your instructor, not a lookup task.
- Ask when the exam window opens for your section.
- Ask whether the exam is proctored on-site or administered online under school supervision.
- Ask whether retakes are allowed and how they are scheduled.
Allen Bradley and Siemens: Two Separate Exam Records
One of the easiest ways to book the wrong thing is to assume "FPABS" is a single combined test. It is not. Both the Allen Bradley and Siemens variants sit in scope, but each has its own preparation document and its own examination record.
| Item | Allen Bradley variant | Siemens variant |
|---|---|---|
| Festo preparation document | Fundamentals of PLC-Allen Bradley, document 272391 (EN 2025.09) | Fundamentals of PLC-Siemens, document 272390 (EN 2025.09) |
| Preparation topics | Same fourteen headings | Same fourteen headings |
| Training components | 6 units, 5 labs, 1 project | 6 units, 5 labs, 1 project |
| Virginia CTE record | 50 test items, online, 70% pass | 50 test items, online, 70% pass |
| Exam record | Separate Allen Bradley record | Separate Siemens record |
The 6 units, 5 labs and 1 project belong to each platform's curriculum. They are training components, not an exam timer, and they do not mean you must complete both platforms. You take the exam that matches the equipment and software your course used. Do not read the two Virginia listings as one combined 100-question test.
The "EN 2025.09" label identifies the curriculum publication, not a verified exam-form release and not a PLC software version. Do not let a document date convince you that a particular programming-software release is required.
What Must Be Finished Before You Can Sit
The gating items matter more to your timeline than any calendar. According to the NC3 student requirements, the path to the credential involves:
- Training by an actively NC3-certified instructor.
- Use of the required equipment.
- Completion of all hands-on labs.
- An exam score of at least 70%.
Student recertification is not required. For a deeper treatment of who qualifies and how, see FPABS Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify.
Because lab completion is a gate, a realistic scheduling rule is simple: you cannot responsibly book the exam before your fifth lab and your project are done. If your course front-loads the exam before the final project, confirm with the instructor how that sequencing works at your site.
Format, Timing and Proctoring: What Is Known
The exam itself is a knowledge test, but what you can say about its format is limited to what was verified. Here is the careful version.
- Item count: Virginia CTE Resource Center records list 50 test items for each platform exam.
- Delivery: School-administered, online.
- Timing: Instructor-determined. No fixed national written-exam timer was verified, so do not trust any site that quotes a single universal time limit.
- Passing score: 70%.
- Proctoring and reference rules: School proctoring and exam-specific open-book or closed-book allowances apply. These are set at the school and exam level. Instructor rules should not be generalized to students.
A note on the 70% figure: that is a passing threshold, not a pass rate. They answer different questions. The threshold tells you what score you need; a pass rate would tell you what share of candidates succeeded, and no current issuer-wide pass rate was verified. A small historical study reported that 18 external learners who chose the Siemens exam after early-2021 UBC Okanagan training all passed, but that was a self-selected cohort, not a national or Allen Bradley figure. For a fuller discussion, read FPABS Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows and FPABS Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass.
Registration Mechanics and Cost
Registration for this credential is not a standalone checkout on a public testing portal where you pick a date from a calendar. It runs through the institution that is training you and the NC3 certification infrastructure behind it.
What the exam costs
NC3's participation comparison lists the student certification charge as US$0, and the Virginia records list no cost per test. That does not mean your training is free. Tuition and institutional charges are separate and vary by school.
A cost example, correctly framed
Virginia Western's bundled PLC/Sensors course lists estimated tuition of US$999, which it says includes online resources, lab equipment, software and the credentialing exam. That figure covers a whole bundled course covering Allen Bradley PLCs and Sensor Technology. It is not a Siemens exam fee and it is not the price of the exam alone. For a full cost framing, see FPABS Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown.
Key Takeaway
When budgeting, separate three numbers: the exam charge to the student (US$0 per the sources above), your school's tuition, and any equipment or software costs your institution bundles in. Ask your school which of these you are actually paying.
A Worked Example: Reading a College Course Calendar
Since the real "exam date" lives inside your course schedule, it helps to see how messy those schedules can be. Virginia Western's page is a useful, honest example because it contains a conflict. Its introductory text describes the course as eight weeks, while its cost table says four weeks. Both appear on official college pages.
Neither number is an exam timer, and neither tells you when the credentialing exam will happen. This is exactly the sort of ambiguity you will meet when you try to map a school's course length to an exam date. The lesson: do not infer your testing window from a course-length figure. Email the instructor, ask for the actual syllabus calendar and the date the exam opens, and get it in writing.
Use a short checklist when you contact your school:
- Which platform (Allen Bradley or Siemens) does this section test?
- What is the last lab or project deadline before the exam opens?
- When does the exam window open and close?
- Is it proctored on-site, or online under supervision?
- What happens if I do not reach 70%?
Sequencing the 14 Topics Against Your Test Date
Once you know roughly when your exam will open, work backward. The fourteen preparation topics come from Festo's curriculum sheets and are unweighted, meaning no official percentage weights were verified, so do not assume any topic carries more of the score. They are also curriculum headings, not a confirmed formal exam blueprint. For the complete topic-by-topic breakdown, see FPABS Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 14 Content Areas.
This is the one place where a study plan belongs, and it is tied to how the topics build on each other. Adjust the week count to your actual time before the exam window.
Hardware foundations
- Control relays
- PLC sections: input, logic and output
- Input types: discrete, analog and digital
- Output types: discrete, analog and digital
Number systems and logic
- Numbering systems: decimal, binary, octal, hex and ASCII
- Boolean functions: identity, AND/OR/NOT circuits
- Memory types: ROM and RAM
- Logic processing: addressing and scanning
Programming and systems
- Programming techniques
- Basic design and operation
- HMI integration
Connectivity and troubleshooting
- Communication protocols
- Networks
- Basic troubleshooting: using a PLC as a troubleshooting tool
The reasoning is dependency. You cannot make sense of addressing and scan cycles without knowing how inputs and outputs are structured, and you cannot reason about ladder logic without the Boolean truth tables underneath it. Troubleshooting comes last because it pulls from everything else.
Where candidates lose time
Number-system conversions and scan-cycle reasoning are classic places where practice volume matters more than reading.
- Drill decimal-to-binary-to-hex conversions until they are automatic.
- Write out AND/OR/NOT truth tables from memory.
- Trace a simple rung through one full scan, noting when inputs are read and outputs updated.
Practice with platform-labelled examples that match your course. The Allen Bradley and Siemens variants use different manufacturer terminology, so label your own notes by platform. When you want timed repetition, the FPABS practice test site offers original questions, and the FPABS Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt goes deeper on a full plan. For difficulty expectations, see How Hard Is the FPABS Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026.
Retakes, Renewal and Date-Sensitive Pitfalls
A few date-related traps are worth naming because bad information circulates about them.
Retake policy is local
No issuer-wide retake limit or waiting period was verified for current students. A historical study mentioned attempt limits, but those applied to that program and are not current exam specifications. Ask your instructor how retakes work at your school.
Renewal
Student recertification is not required, so there is no renewal deadline to track for the student credential. Be cautious about older material suggesting otherwise. The same historical study describes a COVID-era temporary-certificate arrangement followed by physical lab completion. That was a special circumstance; it does not establish current simulation-only eligibility or a current renewal rule.
Outdated guides
An older NC3-hosted combined guide for PLC Technology I covering Allen Bradley or Siemens exists. Prefer the current separate fourteen-topic sheets, and do not infer a required programming-software release from the legacy material.
If your motivation is employment, FPABS Jobs covers where this credential tends to show up, and FPABS Training covers how courses are structured. Finally, a quick-reference sheet is available in the FPABS Cheat Sheet 2026: One-Page Review of Must-Know Facts.
Frequently Asked Questions
No fixed national window was verified. The exam is delivered through participating NC3 institutions, so your instructor or school testing coordinator sets when the exam opens for your class.
They are separate exam records, each tied to its own platform curriculum. You normally test the platform your course used. Taking both is not a combined requirement, and scheduling is up to your school.
Timing is instructor-determined at the school level. Virginia's records list 50 items for each platform exam, but no fixed national timer was verified, so confirm the time limit with your instructor.
NC3 lists the student certification charge as US$0, and Virginia records list no cost per test. Tuition and institutional charges are separate and vary by school, so ask what your course bundles.
Student recertification is not required. You need training from an NC3-certified instructor, completed hands-on labs and a score of at least 70%, but no renewal cycle was verified for the student credential.
For a timed way to check readiness before your school opens the exam, try the original questions at the FPABS Exam Prep practice tests, and confirm every date detail with your instructor in writing.