This CST cheat sheet distills the NBSTSA Certified Surgical Technologist exam into a printable rundown of the facts examiners test most. It's a premium cheat sheet built by Capital Prep — the one premium prep we trust — and it's yours free. Reinforce it with the rest of your free CST toolkit: the practice test, study guide, and flashcards.
CST exam at a glance
- Questions: 175 multiple-choice (150 scored + 25 unscored pretest)
- Time: About 4 hours, computer-based at a PSI center
- Passing standard: 102 of 150 scored items (~68%), reported pass/fail
- Cost: ~$190 AST members / ~$290 non-members + application fee (verify at nbstsa.org)
- Maintenance: 30 CE credits every 2 years (≥4 Live) via AST, or re-examination
What’s on the CST cheat sheet
- Perioperative Care (97 of 150 items) — preoperative prep and the time-out, sterile technique, positioning and draping, instruments, counts, hemostasis and electrosurgery, and postoperative care — the heart of the exam.
- Ancillary Duties (23 of 150 items) — administrative and personnel scope, decontamination and the Spaulding classification, sterilization methods, and monitoring and storage.
- Basic Science (30 of 150 items) — anatomy and physiology, microbiology and infection control, and surgical pharmacology — the science behind the scrub role.
How to use it in your final week
- Front-load Perioperative Care — it's 97 of 150 scored items, and Intraoperative Procedures alone is 68. If you master one block from the sheet, make it sterile technique, instruments, and counts.
- Drill the reflexes: sterile touches only sterile, the five count trigger points, and the wrong-count sequence (notify the surgeon → recount → search → X-ray if not found).
- Memorize the quick pairings — #3 handle with #10/#11/#15 blades, Mayo vs. Metzenbaum scissors, and Spaulding critical = sterilize, semicritical = high-level disinfect.
- Read the sheet the morning of the test, then take one short timed practice set to keep pacing sharp for the 4-hour, 175-item clock.
The cheat sheet is your review layer — your CST practice test drives the exam-readiness ring at the top of this page. Download it, review, then take a full practice exam (or drill with the study guide and flashcards) to see where you stand.
CST cheat sheet FAQ
Yes — the CST cheat sheet downloads as a PDF with no sign-up and no payment. It sits alongside Career Employer's free CST toolkit: the practice test, study guide, and flashcards, so your whole review stays in one place.
It condenses the highest-yield NBSTSA facts into a fast reference — sterile boundaries, the count sequence, instrument families and scalpel-blade pairings, the Spaulding classification, sterilization monitoring, and the surgical positions — grouped by the three domains the CST is weighted around.
No — the sheet is a cram and last-look tool, not a full course. Intraoperative Procedures alone is 68 of 150 scored items, so you still need reps on sterile technique, instruments, and counts through the practice test. Use the sheet to lock facts in and the practice exam to prove readiness.
It's built from the current NBSTSA CST content outline and cross-checked against AORN, CDC, and AST guidance, and we review it against those official sources on a regular cadence.
Click the download button or the preview card at the top of this page to open the PDF instantly. Bookmark the page so it's one tap away the morning of your exam.
References
- 1.National Board of Surgical Technology and Surgical Assisting (NBSTSA). “CST Examination Content Outline.” nbstsa.org, 2026. ↑
- 2.National Board of Surgical Technology and Surgical Assisting (NBSTSA). “CST Certification & Eligibility.” nbstsa.org, 2026. ↑
- 3.Association of Surgical Technologists (AST). “Continuing Education Requirements & CST Recertification.” ast.org, 2026. ↑
- 4.Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN). “Guidelines for Perioperative Practice.” aorn.org, 2026. ↑
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