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% |