National Board of Examiners in Optometry Pass Rates

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.

Ultimate Pass Rate
Pass Rate for All Three Parts of NBEO at Graduation
Class Year	PCO Test Takers	PCO Pass Rate	National Test Takers	National Pass Rate
2022	149	83.9%	1701	87.8%
2021	164	85.4%	1778	92.5%
2020	145	91.0%	1653	92.2%

Part I NBEO: Applied Basic Sciences
First Time Test Takers
Test Date	PCO Test Takers	PCO Pass Rate	National Test Takers	National Pass Rate
March, 2023	129	54.3%	1695	67.1%
March, 2022	150	56.7%	1682	65.3%
August, 2022	2	0.0%	71	23.9%
March, 2021	146	74.0%	1676	74.1%
August, 2021	3	33.3%	78	24.4%
July, 2020	140	70.1%	1550	77.5%
November, 2020	16	25.0%	207	57.1%
January 2021	1	100.0%	10	70.0%

**Part II NBEO: Patient Assessment and Management**
**First Time Test Takers**
Test Date	PCO Test Takers	PCO Pass Rate	National Test Takers	National Pass Rate
April, 2023	5	0.0%	35	37.1%
December, 2022	143	75.5%	1737	83.8%
April, 2022	4	75.0%	39	59.0%
December, 2021	142	81.7%	1714	85.2%
April, 2021	6	50.0%	56	64.3%
February, 2021	7	71.4%	59	91.5$
December, 2020	147	83.7%	1695	89.3%
July, 2020	0	N/A	1	100.0%
December, 2019	148	90.5%	1726	90.2%

**Part III NBEO: Clinical Skills**
**First Time Test Takers**
Test Date	PCO Test Takers	PCO Pass Rate	National Test Takers	National Pass Rate
July, 2021 - June, 2022	146	81.5%	1749	79.7%
July, 2020 - June, 2021	155	84.5%	1789	80.9%
July, 2019 - June, 2020	138	87.7%	1593	85.1%
July, 2019 - June, 2019	153	83.0%	1665	87.0%
July, 2017 - June, 2018	157	73.3%	1650	75.9%

Licensing Within Six 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	87.8%
2014	155	135	87.1%
2015	168	155	92.3%
2016	163	141	86.5%