The National Board of Examiners in Optometry (NBEO) (www.optometry.org) administers three examinations that students need to successfully pass to be eligible for state licensure and utilize the Doctor of Optometry degree earned from the College:

Part I   – Applied Basic Science (ABS)
Part II  – Patient Assessment and Management (PAM)
Part III – Clinical Skills Examination (CSE)

Historically, a student's individual cumulative GPA at PCO has been a strong predictor of first time NBEO test-taking success. The better a student's performance is in his/her optometry studies, the better he or she performs on the NBEO examinations. 

More specifically, our analysis of the data indicates that students with a cumulative PCO GPA of between 2.0 and 2.3 have a greater level of difficulty in passing the NBEO Part I – Applied Basic Science examination on the first attempt, compared to other students.

The data in the table below indicate the Ultimate (Overall) Pass Rates, in other words, the percentage of students who have passed all three parts of the NBEO examinations at the time of graduation from a school or college of optometry.


Pass Rate for All Three Parts of NBEO at Graduation
Year of Graduation

Ultimate National Pass Rate

Ultimate PCO Pass Rate

Class of 2019 93% 90%
Class of 2020 92% 91%
Class of 2021 93% 85%
Class of 2022 TBN TBN
Annual Institutional Pass Rates for all First Time Test Takers of NBEO Parts I, II, and III

                                             2019-2020*                           2020-2021                             2021-2022
NBEO
Exam Part
# of
all first-
time takers
Pass Rate
(%) of first-
time takers
# of
all first-
time takers
Pass Rate
(%) of first-
time takers
# of
all first-
time takers
Pass Rate
(%) of first-
time takers
Part I: Applied Basic Science (March and August Administrations) 157 66.24% 149 73.15% 150 56.67%^
Part II: Patient Assessment & Management (December and April Administrations) 148 90.54% 153 82.36% 146 81.50%
Part III: Clinical Skills Examination (July - June Administrations) 138 87.68% 155 84.52% 146 81.51%
*COVID year: Part I includes administrations in July 2020, Nov 2020, and Jan 2021, Part II Includes administrations in Dec 2019 and July 2020
^ Only includes March of 2022


 
Matriculants Within 6 Years
Matriculation Year # of Matrics Attempted & Passed NBEO
Parts I-III or Obtained Licensure
Attempted & Passed NBEO
Parts I-III or Obtained Licensure
within 6 yrs of Matriculation
2013 156 137 87.82%
2014 155 135 87.10%
2015 168 155 92.26%