CDCES Study Guide 2026–2027 — Redesigned Illustrated Edition | 200 Practice Questions

Prepare for the Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist (CDCES®) exam, formerly the Certified Diabetes Educator (CDE) exam, with a complete, illustrated study guide organized around the current CBDCE Exam Content Outline. It reviews every domain the way the exam tests it: assessing the person, planning individualized education, teaching self-care, interpreting glucose and CGM data, calculating doses, and applying DSMES and coverage standards.

This 217-page digital guide combines concise explanations with more than 140 quick-reference tables, flows, worked calculations, and illustrated schematics, plus two 100-question practice tests of case-based questions, so you can learn the material and then practice it the way the CDCES tests it.

What's Inside

• An overview of the current CDCES exam: 175 multiple-choice questions (150 scored, 25 pretest) in 4 hours, the three content domains with their question counts, eligibility, fees, PSI and live remote testing, renewal, and the passing scaled score of 70
• Assessment: health history and the comprehensive foot exam, laboratory testing and A1C limitations, psychosocial and distress screening, social determinants and insurance, self-management behaviors and stages of change, learning, health literacy, and culture
• Disease Process and the Individualized Education Plan: pathophysiology and classification, diagnostic criteria and screening, individualized A1C and CGM targets, treatment by comorbidity, collaboration, SMART goals, and motivational interviewing
• Self-Care Education, Part 1: medical nutrition therapy, carbohydrate counting and label math, the plate method, physical activity safety, insulin types and dose calculations (500 and 1800 rules), and every non-insulin medication class
• Self-Care Education, Part 2: SMBG and CGM interpretation with the AGP, hypoglycemia, DKA and HHS, chronic complications and screening, sick-day, surgery, and travel problem solving, and living with diabetes and prediabetes
• Evaluation, Follow-Up, and Standards and Practices: outcome evaluation, documentation, referral, the National Standards for DSMES, Medicare DSMT, MNT, and MDPP rules, evidence-based practice, ethics, HIPAA, and person-first language
• Illustrated schematics, including monofilament foot-exam sites, glucose regulation, CGM time-in-range targets, the plate method, insulin action curves, a sample AGP, a complications map, and the evidence pyramid
• A final review checklist, 12- and 8-week study schedules, FAQs, test-taking strategies, and recommended resources
• 2 practice tests (200 questions) in the content outline's proportions, with answer keys that explain why each answer is right and why the tempting options are wrong

Format

• Instant digital download (PDF), 8.5 × 11 in
• Clickable table of contents
• Print it or study on a tablet, laptop, or phone

Please note: This is a digital product. No physical item will be shipped.

CDCES® is a registered trademark of the Certification Board for Diabetes Care and Education (CBDCE). Test Treasure Publication is not affiliated with or endorsed by CBDCE or any testing organization; all exam and organization names referenced are trademarks of their respective owners.