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Scoring & Reporting

Table of Contents

Scoring Overview

NBEO works tirelessly to ensure each exam sets a consistent standard that is fair to candidates and protects the health and safety of future patients. Prospective optometrists invest significant time, energy, and resources into their future career, and NBEO exams represent critical evidence that licensing boards across the country use to ensure that candidates are prepared.

In-depth look at how exam content is determined

Overview of the item development and review process

Exam Forms

NBEO creates multiple versions, or forms, of each exam to maintain the integrity of the testing process. After all exams are administered, our testing professionals (also referred to as psychometricians) and our panel of experts analyze the results. Practicing optometrists serve as subject matter experts to ensure exam questions accurately reflect the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary for optometrists to practice safely and effectively. NBEO does not grade on a curve or prescribe that a certain number of candidates pass or fail. Anyone who achieves a passing score will pass. To learn more about the process for determining exam passing standards, watch the video below.

The process for determining exam passing standards

Equating

Sometimes, different forms of a test may have slightly different levels of difficulty. NBEO uses equating to ensure that a candidate’s score accurately reflects their performance, regardless of the specific form of the exam they took. Equating is a method used to adjust raw exam scores (the number of correct answers) to account for differences in difficulty across different forms of an exam. This process ensures fairness and consistency in scoring, regardless of which form of the exam a candidate takes.

How NBEO ensures fairness for candidates when using multiple exam forms

Score Scaling and Reporting

The final step in the exam scoring process is to ensure candidates understand whether they passed or failed the exam. For Part I ABS and Part II PAM, before NBEO publishes exam scores, it converts or “scales” the scores to a scale from 100 to 900. Anything above 300 is a passing score. For the Part III PEPS exam, scale scores are not reported. Instead, candidates are informed whether they passed or failed, and failing candidates receive information about how close they were to passing.

Score Release

Score reports for computer-based exams are typically posted for viewing approximately 7 weeks following the complete administration of an examination. Score release dates can be found on the Exam Calendar. NBEO will notify candidates via email once the scores are posted. For more information regarding the score release process, please click here.

Please note that score reports consist of a candidate’s entire examination history. NBEO reserves the ability to delay score release.

Scores for clinical examinations are released in the first full week of the designated month:

NBEO Part III PEPS/ISE/LSPE Score Release Schedule
Month Exam Taken	PEPS/ISE/LSPE Score Release Schedule
August	October
September	November
October	December
November	January
December	February
January	March
February	April
March	May
April	June
May	July

Release of Scores

Scores reports will be released as follows:

1. To the candidate:

Scores can be viewed online. Scores will not be released over the phone, fax, or email.
- View Part I ABS, Part II PAM, TMOD, and Part III PEPS.
- View ISE/LSPE.

2. To the optometric institution:

One score report will be issued, at no charge, to the candidate’s optometric institution if the candidate authorizes release of the scores during registration.

3. To the state board(s):

Upon completion of state board requirements, NBEO will release a free cumulative score report to the state board(s) a candidate selected during their registration.

OSLE Scores

All OSLE (Online State Law Exam) candidates will see a results screen with a score and exam summary when a test is ended. NBEO only administers the OSLE exams. State boards determine the pass/fail cut off score and release scores. A score of an OSLE exam administered by NBEO must be obtained directly from the state board; it will not appear on the NBEO score report.

Immediately following the completion of any OSLE exam, the designated state optometry board staff or department of health and services staff can review candidate scores on their password-protected OSLE administrative page.