The NMC OSCE pass rate

Written and checked against the NMC’s published sources by The NMCMATE editorial team.Last checked 2 September 2026.

Search this and you will be handed a figure in the first three results. It is usually 78 per cent, it is usually presented as your odds on the day, and it is usually the NMC's own headline being used to answer a question it does not answer. The NMC does publish these figures, in more detail than almost anyone quoting them seems to have read: by test centre, and with first sittings separated from resits. Read that way, one exam has three pass rates, all of them correct, and the gap between them is the whole story.

What the NMC published for January to March 2026

• Per candidate, the NMC's own headline: 3,009 candidates sat the OSCE and 78 per cent achieved a pass. Somebody who failed once and passed the resit is counted here as a pass.
• Per sitting, from the same page's table: 4,099 sittings were delivered across the five test centres, and weighting each centre by its own volume puts about 57 per cent of them as passes.
• Per first sitting, which is the one that answers "will I pass on the date I have booked": about 42 per cent. Fewer than half.
• The spread between centres is wide. On first sittings it runs from 57 per cent at Northumbria University at Newcastle, which has since closed, down to 26 per cent at Oxford Brookes University, which has since closed too. Read the top of that range carefully whatever happens to it: the NMC suppressed that centre's first-sitting count as fewer than 10, so the figure rests on a handful of candidates rather than on a quarter's worth.
• Second sittings pass at a much higher rate than first ones at every centre, 84 per cent at Oxford Brookes against 26 per cent first time.
• For the CBT, 2,967 applicants sat it and 63 per cent passed both parts. Numeracy holds up on a resit, 76 then 80 per cent, while clinical falls, 77 then 63 then 59.

Where candidates come unstuck

• Taking the headline figure as your odds on the day. It counts candidates rather than sittings, so it includes everyone who got there on a resit. The figure for a first sitting is roughly 36 points lower.
• Reading the third column of the table as the resit column. It is labelled Overall and covers every attempt, including third attempts, which get no column of their own even though an application allows up to 3. Mistaking one for the other is how most of the tables online came to exist.
• Choosing a centre by its rate. You do not choose: you are allocated one, and a resit returns to the same centre. The centres also differ enormously in volume, so a rate resting on fewer than ten sittings is not comparable with one resting on the 1,545 that Northampton took.
• Reading the high resit rates as proof that a resit is easy. The people sitting a resit have already seen the exam once, which is a different population rather than a different exam. What it suggests is that the first sitting is where the unfamiliarity costs you, not that the second one is gentler.
• Reading a low first-time figure as a reason to delay booking. It describes a population and not you, and the clock on a work visa is rarely on the side of waiting.

Common questions

What is the pass rate for the NMC OSCE?

It depends which question you are asking, and the three answers for January to March 2026 are 78 per cent of candidates, about 57 per cent of all sittings, and about 42 per cent of first sittings. All three are the NMC's own figures. The last one is the one that describes the day you have booked.

Do more than half of candidates fail the OSCE first time?

On the published figures for January to March 2026, yes. Weighted across the five centres, about 42 per cent of first sittings were passes. Most candidates do get there in the end, which is what the headline figure is describing, but the majority do not do it on the first attempt.

Why is the first-time rate so much lower than the headline?

Partly because the headline counts people rather than sittings. But the structure of the exam does the rest: all 10 stations have to be passed and each one is judged on its own, so there is no strong station to average a weak one against. A candidate who is competent in 9 of them has not passed, which is why a first-sitting rate below half is as much about the format as about ability, and why the second sitting goes so much better.

Why do different sites give different pass rates?

Mostly because they are quoting different denominators without saying so, and partly because the per-centre table is easy to misread. A site quoting one number for the OSCE pass rate has picked one of three without telling you which.

Does the NMC publish pass rates by test centre?

Yes, for all five centres, every quarter, with first sittings and second sittings separated. It is on the NMC's Test of Competence pass rates page. This site said for a while that no such breakdown existed, which was wrong, and the correction is worth stating plainly rather than quietly.

Which test centre has the best pass rate?

In January to March 2026 the highest first-sitting rate was Northumbria University at Newcastle and the lowest was Oxford Brookes University. It is not a useful basis for a decision, because candidates are allocated a centre rather than picking one, and one quarter at one centre can rest on very few sittings.

Is there a pass rate for the computer-based test as well?

Yes. In January to March 2026, 63 per cent of applicants passed both parts. A pass rate and a pass mark are different things, and the NMC publishes both: the CBT pass marks are in its Test Specification, 13 out of 15 for numeracy and generally 60 to 70 per cent for the clinical paper.

Where these figures come from

• NMC: Test of Competence pass rates and candidate numbers, the quarterly pass rates, link checked 8 October 2026
• NMC OSCE candidate information booklet for nurses, the ten stations, their timings and how each is passed, link checked 8 October 2026

This page is one part of the exam. Work through the whole thing with the NMC CBT study guide.