PANCE Pass Rate and Passing Score: What NCCPA Publishes

What is the PANCE pass rate?

The PANCE pass rate is high, and it has been steady. In NCCPA's table of the last five years, 91.5% of first-time takers passed the Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam in 2025, and 88.4% of all PANCE exams given that year were passes. The overall figure is lower because it counts every exam administered, including repeat attempts.

The passing score is a separate number: 350 on a scale that runs from 200 to 800. The rest of this page covers both figures, as NCCPA published them and as checked on November 1, 2026, plus what they can and cannot tell you before your own test date in 2027.

PANCE pass rates by year, 2021 to 2025

NCCPA's table gives two populations side by side. "Total exams administered" counts exams, not people, because some candidates test more than once. "First time test takers" counts candidates on their first attempt.

The same document reports 12,963 PAs passing the PANCE in 2025 and 201,038 certified PAs as of December 31, 2025.

Does NCCPA publish a pass rate for repeat takers?

No. NCCPA's table gives two rates only: one for first-time takers and one for all exams administered, which includes repeat attempts. It does not print a separate rate for repeat takers, so any repeat-taker figure you see elsewhere is not NCCPA's.

Is the PANCE pass rate going down?

The first-time rate has moved within a narrow band: 93.2% in 2021, then 91.9% to 92.4% from 2022 to 2024, and 91.5% in 2025. Over the same five years, the number of first-time takers grew from 11,064 to 13,145. The table does not explain the movement, so any cause would be a guess, and a national rate says nothing about one candidate's result.

What does the PANCE passing score of 350 mean?

NCCPA reports PANCE performance as a scaled score. Its performance guide gives the scale a minimum of 200 and a maximum of 800, and says an examinee must reach or exceed 350 to pass. A scaled score is reported on NCCPA's own scale, not as a percentage of questions answered correctly.

That is why no fixed number of correct answers equals a pass. We found no NCCPA document that converts 350 into a count of questions, and any figure you see online that does so is an estimate, not NCCPA's rule. The mean scores in the table give context of a different kind: in 2025 the average scaled score was 458.65, about 109 points above the passing score, with a standard deviation of 82.27.

How NCCPA sets the PANCE passing standard

NCCPA uses the Angoff method. A panel of certified PAs reviews the questions and judges whether someone who is "just qualified" would answer each one correctly. Their recommendation goes to the NCCPA Board of Directors, which approves the passing standard. The pass rate document adds that NCCPA's blueprints rest on practice analyses run about every five years, that exam questions are written by practicing certified PAs and physicians, and that each exam includes a small number of unscored pretest questions. NCCPA is accredited by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies.

The content you are measured against is the blueprint: 14 organ systems and Professional Practice, crossed with seven task areas. The PANCE blueprint guide explains those weights, and planned PANCE prep for launch follows the same 15 content categories.

How do I find my PA program's PANCE pass rate?

National rates describe everyone. If you are choosing a program, or want to know how graduates of yours have done, the program's own report is more useful.

ARC-PA, the accreditor of PA programs, lists the "Current annual PANCE Exam Performance Summary Report Last 5 Years report provided by NCCPA" among the information programs must make readily available to prospective and enrolled students, updated no later than April 1 each year (standard A3.11c in its December 2025 Accreditation Handbook). Three details from that handbook help when you read one:

• ARC-PA does not require the report to be on the program's website, though many programs put it there. If you cannot find it, ask the program
• ARC-PA's directions have programs pull the five-year report without limiting it to first-time takers, so compare it with NCCPA's national figures for the same population
• A program PANCE pass rate of 85% or below is one of the portal alerts after which ARC-PA asks the program for more information

What happens if you fail the PANCE?

Results arrive by email when they are posted to your NCCPA record, approximately two weeks after your test date. NCCPA's performance guide says the score report gives information about your performance in each content area, which is the starting point for a retake plan.

The retake rules come from NCCPA's PANCE policies, as checked on November 1, 2026:

• You may take the PANCE once in any 90-day period, or three times in a calendar year, whichever is fewer
• If you graduated from an ARC-PA accredited program on or after January 1, 2003, and have never been certified, you may take the PANCE for up to six years after completing your program's graduation requirements, and no more than six times in that period
• When either the six attempts or the six years run out, whichever comes first, eligibility ends, and the only way to regain it is to complete an entire accredited PA program again
• Each application requires the $550 exam fee, as listed on NCCPA's Become Certified page

Because of the attempt and year limits, a retake is worth planning rather than booking at the first open date. The free PANCE retake planner spaces study across the weeks before your next attempt. For the systems you missed most, flashcards for the blueprint's conditions are planned for full PANCE prep, alongside practice questions.

Can a practice exam score predict a PANCE pass?

No practice score is a promise. NCCPA sells PANCE practice exams of 120 questions for $50 each (as checked on November 1, 2026) and gives a performance profile based on the blueprint when you finish, but it says the practice exams are "not intended to predict your performance" on its exams. The same caution applies to every other practice source.

What a practice set can do is show where you lose points. The 20 free PANCE practice questions cover all 15 content categories, with an explanation for every option, so a miss points to an organ system and a task. The same reasoning applies to a full rehearsal: a timed mock of all 300 questions is planned as part of full PANCE prep, and it is most useful as a pacing check across five 60-minute blocks, not as a forecast.

PANCE scoring questions candidates ask

Does the PANCE passing score change from year to year?

NCCPA's performance guide gives 350 as the passing score on the 200 to 800 scale. NCCPA's board approves the standard on the recommendation of a standard-setting panel, and NCCPA had announced no change as of November 1, 2026.

Is the first-time pass rate the same as my chance of passing?

No. A national rate describes a large group with very different preparation. It cannot tell you your own probability, and neither can a practice score.

When does NCCPA publish new pass rates?

The current table covers 2021 through 2025. Check NCCPA's pass rate document for the 2026 figures before relying on the numbers above.