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
Part II – Patient Assessment and Management
Part III – Patient Encounters and Performance Skills

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.

 

 Published results include the performance of all first-time takers of each NBEO examination Part within the specified timeframe regardless of year of enrollment, year of graduation, or graduation status; first-time taker pass rates published on the Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry (ASCO) website (link) are limited to candidates that have graduated.

 

Annual Institutional Pass Rates for all First-time Takers of NBEO Parts I, II, and III

 

Part I NBEO: Applied Basic Sciences
Academic Year
(9/1-8/31)

# of first-time takers,
program

first time taker pass rate,
program

 first time taker pass rate,
all exam takers
2024-2025 18 77.8% Not yet released
2023-2024 14 92.9% 67.0%
2022-2023 14 78.6% 63.1%
  
Part II NBEO: Patient Assessment and Management
Academic Year
(9/1-8/31)

# of first-time takers,
program

first time taker pass rate,
program

 first time taker pass rate,
all exam takers
2024-2025 14 100% Not yet released
2023-2024 14 100% 85.9%
2022-2023 10 100% 83.0%
  
Part III NBEO: Patient Encounters and Performance Skills
Academic Year
(9/1-8/31)

# of first-time takers,
program

first time taker pass rate,
program

 first time taker pass rate,
all exam takers
2024-2025 14 71.4% Not yet released
2023-2024 15 86.7% 79.5%
2022-2023 10 90.0% 74.2%
  

Annual Institutional Pass Rates for all First Attempt Candidates
of OEBC Written and OSCE Exams  

OBEC Written
Academic Year
(9/1-8/31)

# of first-time writers,
program

first time writer pass rate,
program

 pass rate for all first-time writers,
all exam takers
2024-2025 0 N/A 95.5%
2023-2024 0 N/A 94.1%
2022-2023 0 N/A 94.2%
2021-2022 3 100.0% 89.1%
2020-2021 1 100.0% 93.0%
 
OBEC Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE)
Academic Year
(9/1-8/31)

# of first-time writers,
program

first time writer pass rate,
program

 pass rate for all first-time writers,
all exam takers
2024-2025 0 N/A 92.4%
2023-2024 0 N/A 86.3%
2022-2023 0 N/A 84.1%
2021-2022 3 66.7% 85.4%
2020-2021 1 0.0% 78.2%
 
Program Completion Licensing Examination Rates 
Calendar Year
(1/1-12/31)

# of students who
completed all program
curricular requirements

# licensed, or who passed all
parts of an exam series that
would permit licensure, in
the United States or Canada

 Program Completion
Licensing Examination
Pass Rate
2024 14 13 92.9%
2023 13 13 100.0%
2022 12 12 100.0%
2021 13 13 100.0%
2020 12 12 100.0%