CLT Test Dates, Registration & Logistics, 2026–27

How Registration Works 

Step One: create your free CLT account.

Registration runs through a student account at cltexam.com (the sign-in itself lives at app.cltexam.com). One detail deserves some extra care at this stage: the name on the account must exactly match the name on the photo ID your student will show on test day. A mismatch is grounds for an unscored exam. It goes without saying that it is much easier to double-check the name first before obtaining a corrected ID later.

Step Two: choose the administration type.

Individual families can register only for the remotely proctored dates: sign in, pick the date, and pay (Step Three). For in-school dates the roles reverse, since the school will register its students, so if you want the in-school experience (or the optional essay, which exists only there), talk to your school’s appropriate administrator and do so well ahead of the in-school deadlines that fall four to five weeks before test day.

Step Three: pay–or apply for assistance.

The remotely proctored CLT costs $112 and the CLT10 costs $69; both prices include score analytics and unlimited score sending. CLT offers financial assistance to qualifying students, but the application must be submitted at least two weeks before the registration deadline of the intended test date, which effectively moves your planning deadline up.

Step Four: install LockDown Browser and run the test-run simulation (for at-home testers).

Remote testers take the exam inside LockDown Browser, which must be installed before test day. Updated Chromebooks (with CLT’s extension), macOS 12 or later, and Windows 10 and 11 are all compatible; tablets and iPads are not, and a Windows machine in S-Mode must leave S-Mode first. Returning testers should run the verification step to confirm the app is up to date. Once a remotely proctored registration is active, a full test simulation appears on the student dashboard: run it days ahead, not the night before, so camera and screen-share permissions get sorted while there is still time.

An Extra Note about Changes and Refunds: Registrations can be rescheduled to a different date through test day itself, directly from the account dashboard. Refunds are another matter: CLT does not refund tests canceled after the registration deadline, so if plans change, it is better to reschedule than cancel outright.

Test Day 

The at-home CLT is recorded; it is not proctored live, and the recording is reviewed for conformity after the fact.

The shape of the day

The test itself is two hours: Verbal Reasoning (40 minutes), Grammar & Writing (35 minutes), and Quantitative Reasoning (45 minutes).

Including the pretest steps, plan for about two hours and twenty minutes. There are no breaks apart from optional one-minute stretch breaks between sections. Remote testers may begin any time between 7:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Eastern on test day, which is (again) more flexible than you will get with ACT and SAT. So if you are a student who works best in, say, the mid-morning, then you can schedule for that particular time. 

The room

CLT’s requirements for the testing room are specific and enforced by that video review.

The room must be closed and well lit, the student alone in it, seated at a desk or table on a standard chair or stool: beds, couches, and overstuffed chairs are named and excluded. The student’s head and shoulders must remain visible to the camera for the entire exam. Before the test begins, the student shows the camera the requisite ID, the desk surface, the chair, a slow full circle of the room, and both sides of every sheet of scratch paper. You also have to show your ears and wrists.

Be careful not to rush through these steps. Hurrying through these requirements is one of the most common reasons exams are voided, precisely because nobody is watching live to ask for a redo. 

Acceptable identification 

Any of the following works, provided the name matches the CLT account and the photo matches the student:

• Passport, driver’s license or permit, or state ID
• Physical high school ID from the current year
• HSLDA student ID from the current year, or a college ID
• Military or military-dependent ID
• CLT’s own Student ID Form, notarized

Note: a photograph of an ID on a phone does not count, and presenting one leads to an unscored exam–and the phone itself is barred from the room in any case. 

What can be on the desk?

Permitted: up to six sheets of blank scratch paper (shown to the camera, front and back, during check-in; pre-written notes void the exam), up to two writing implements, and water or another beverage.

Prohibited: calculators of any kind on every section; phones, tablets, and watches (not silenced, not face-down: out of the room, and a phone present in the room voids the exam even if it is only touched for technical support); headphones and earbuds (ears are shown empty at check-in); other people in the room; virtual camera backgrounds; and speaking or reading aloud. 

Avoiding Voided Exams 

CLT publishes its own list of the five most common causes:

• drifting out of camera view;
• skipping pretest steps;
• performing pretest steps too quickly for the reviewer to verify;
• consulting outside resources (prewritten notes, open browser tabs, a phone);
• having a phone in the room at all.

It should be said that every one of these is perfectly avoidable with a deliberate, unhurried check-in and a thoroughly cleared room. 

Choosing Dates Wisely

The CLT permits unlimited retakes, limited to one sitting per test date–and would you really want to sit for it twice in one day?–and colleges receive only the scores a student chooses to send. That combination rewards testing early and often more than shooting for one perfect attempt.

For juniors, the natural first sitting is spring of junior year: the February 18, March, or April dates. That spring baseline leaves the August, September, and October dates of senior year for retakes, with room for a summer of targeted preparation in between.

For seniors who may be cutting it closer to submitting applications: count backward from application deadlines using the score-release column, not the test-date column.

To illustrate, for November 1 early action deadlines, the September 17 remote administration (scores October 7) is the last comfortable at-home date; the October 17 remote test releases scores November 4, after most early deadlines have passed.

For sophomores, the calculation is simpler: the October 8 or November 5 CLT10, taken while the $2,500 partner-college scholarship is on the table, and the February or April dates as the fallback. 

Receiving and Sending Scores 

Scores will show up on the student dashboard on the release dates in the tables above: about six days after an in-school test and about three weeks after a remote one.

From there, sending is free and unlimited, at the student’s direction. CLT won’t share scores with any college unless the student requests it. 

Accommodations, Homeschoolers

Testing accommodations

Accommodation requests must reach CLT at least four weeks before the test date, and the documentation bar is substantive. You will need evidence that the condition rises to the level of a disability, plus information about functional limitations in daily life. The most frequently approved accommodations are extended time at 25, 50, or 100 percent, along with provisions for students with Type 1 diabetes. Others are available on request.

Two features of CLT’s system are unusually family-friendly. Once they are approved, accommodations stay attached to the student’s account for the approval period, so there is no re-application for each retake. And accommodation status is never shared with colleges.

Requests can be submitted through the forms linked on CLT’s testing-accommodations page. Specific questions go to cltaccommodations@cltexam.com. Combined with the financial-assistance lead time, the practical rule is to settle accommodations and funding a month or more out, then register.

Homeschooling families

The CLT’s logistics suit many homeschoolers. See our guide for that here.

Parent FAQs

• How many times can my student take the CLT?
  As many times as they like, once per test date. Attempting to test twice in one day voids the exam.
• Is anyone watching during the at-home test?
  Not live. The video, screen, and audio are recorded and reviewed by CLT staff afterward, which is why the pretest routine must be done carefully; there is no proctor to vouch for you later.
• Can my student use a calculator?
  No. The CLT allows no calculators on any section, in either format. Six sheets of scratch paper carry the arithmetic load.
• What if our plans change after registering?
  Reschedule from the dashboard, which is possible through test day itself. Refunds exist only for cancellations made before the registration deadline.
• Is there an essay?
  An optional essay is offered only at in-school administrations, adding thirty minutes. Students testing at home do not have the option.