What the NMC CBT pass mark is, and what we got wrong

A correction first. This post was called "There is no pass mark for the NMC CBT", and it said the NMC does not publish one and that any site quoting a figure was guessing. That was wrong. The NMC publishes the pass marks in the Test Specification it issues for candidates, and we missed it because we had read the candidate booklet, which only says the standard is maintained statistically. We have rewritten the post, and every page on this site that repeated the claim, rather than quietly change the wording.

Here is what the NMC actually says. For Part A, the numeracy paper, the current pass mark is eighty seven per cent, which means thirteen of the fifteen questions correct. For Part B, the clinical paper, the pass marks vary across the nursing fields, because each field sits a different paper and they are not equally hard, and they are generally set within sixty to seventy per cent. The NMC does not say where in that range your own field sits. Our guide to the CBT pass mark links to the document and the section it comes from.

Two words in the NMC's wording matter. The first is "current". The standard was first set by a panel method and is held steady across different versions of the paper by statistical techniques, so the figures describe the paper as it stands and can move. The second is "generally". A clinical pass mark is a range, not a number, so a site quoting a single figure for Part B is being more precise than its source.

The result you receive has not changed. You are told pass or fail for each part, and you are not given your score, so you will never know by how much you cleared the line or missed it.

What this means for how you prepare is sharper than it looks. Thirteen out of fifteen leaves room for two slips in numeracy and no more, which makes Part A the stricter half of the exam, not the easier one. And a practice score that just reaches the line is not a pass in waiting, because a practice paper is not the paper you will sit. Aim to be comfortably clear of it across the whole blueprint, look hardest at the questions you got wrong, and sit full mocks under the real timings so the clock is not the surprise.

Pass rates are a different thing again, and the NMC publishes those too, quarterly, which this post also used to deny. A pass mark is the standard you are measured against, and a pass rate is how many people cleared it. Our guide to the pass rates has the latest figures.