EPPP Passing Score: What a Scaled 500 Means and How Your Board Uses It

The EPPP passing score at a glance

All figures are from ASPPB's EPPP Candidate Handbook (September 2026). ASPPB's EPPP page gives the same recommended 500 for Part 2.

How EPPP scaled scores work

The handbook describes the scaled score as an arithmetic conversion of your raw score, the number of questions you answer correctly, onto the 200–800 scale. The point of converting is to make scores mean the same thing on every form of the exam:

• If your form is a little easier than the form on which the passing standard was set, you need more correct answers to reach 500.
• If your form is a little harder, you need fewer.

ASPPB's summary: candidates aren't rewarded for an easier form or penalized for a harder one. The process that keeps forms comparable is called equating. Through it, 500 on any form matches the criterion-referenced standard that ASPPB set in a formal standard-setting procedure, the level it adopted as the recommended minimum for independent practice.

Only the 175 scored questions count. The 50 pretest questions don't, and because they're mixed in at random, the format guide recommends treating every question as scored. There's no penalty for a wrong answer, so a guess always beats a blank, and finishing all 225 in time is a skill you can rehearse with a full-length timed EPPP mock exam, planned for launch.

Why 500 isn't a percentage

People search for an EPPP "scaled score to percentage" conversion and for how many questions they can miss. ASPPB doesn't publish either, and by its own description there isn't one fixed answer: the number of correct answers needed for 500 changes from form to form. Any conversion table you find online is unofficial. Two points help keep that in perspective:

• 500 isn't 500 out of 800. The scale starts at 200, and the scaled number isn't a share of anything. Reading it as 62.5% is a mistake.
• Practice-test percentages don't map onto it either. ASPPB's sample exams report a percent correct, and the handbook says ASPPB makes no representation that sample-exam performance predicts your result.

What you can control is the share of each content area you reliably get right. Watching that by area is more useful than hunting for a cut, and it's how you'll track accuracy by content domain with the planned EPPP question bank, once it launches.

How boards use the EPPP passing score

ASPPB recommends the standard; boards apply it. The handbook says each board sets the passing standard for its state, province or territory and reports the result to candidates, and that at present all licensing authorities accept ASPPB's recommended 500 for independent practice on Part 1. The variation it mentions is in the passing score for supervised practice.

So for the "EPPP passing score by state" question, ASPPB's answer for independent practice is the same in every jurisdiction today: each licensing authority accepts the recommended 500 on Part 1. If you're applying for a credential that allows only supervised practice, ask your board which cut it uses rather than relying on a forum list. The board also decides when, after a passing score, you're formally considered licensed, because the EPPP is only one of its requirements.

What you get when you finish the EPPP

The handbook and ASPPB's prep checklist describe the sequence:

1. An unofficial score at the test center, right away. The handbook calls it the only notification you'll receive from ASPPB. Keep it: the checklist says it can't be duplicated.
2. Your score in Clarus. It's transferred into ASPPB's registration portal, where you and the board you selected at registration can see it. The checklist says that board receives your official score report within 5 business days; ASPPB's score-transfer page gives a longer timeline, covered below.
3. Your board's decision. The board determines whether the score meets its passing standard.

A few more rules: the score won't change except in rare cases such as an exam irregularity or a suspected security violation; neither ASPPB nor the Pearson VUE helpline gives out score information; and the test-center printout can't be used for score transfers.

If you score below 500, you automatically get performance feedback at the test center as part of your score report: a bar graph of your performance by domain, at no charge. It's the best starting point for a retake plan, covered in the guide to retaking the EPPP.

Sending your EPPP score to another board

Your score is automatically registered with ASPPB's Score Transfer Service, which keeps a permanent record. Your exam fee covers the report to the board where you're seeking your first license. ASPPB's pages give two timelines for that report, within 5 business days on the prep checklist and typically within 10 business days on the score-transfer page, so allow up to two weeks. For any other board:

Transfers are free for holders of ASPPB's Certificate of Professional Qualification in Psychology (CPQ), and each report also includes any disciplinary sanctions reported to ASPPB's Disciplinary Data System. ASPPB keeps your score permanently, but whether a board accepts a score from years ago is that board's decision, so ask before you apply.

Using your EPPP score to plan what's next

If you passed, your board takes the next step, which may include Part 2 if your jurisdiction requires it. If you didn't, your domain bar graph tells you where the points went; the free EPPP retake planner turns it into weeks. For a sense of how common a first-attempt fail is, the EPPP difficulty guide has ASPPB's national pass rates. Rebuilding the weak areas is where the 1,350 explained questions planned for EPPP prep are meant to help; checkout isn't open yet.