The NBCE Part 1 pass rate is a touchy subject. The 2018 data reflects that the pass rate can be as low as 66% for US Chiropractic Colleges, which means that the fail rates are as high as 44%. It changes year to year and school to school. Because of the process that takes place behind closed doors, there is no specific number of questions that need to be answered correctly. It changes.

Every year, NBCE will go through a process of deciding which questions stay and which questions get thrown out. They also will set cut scores for each exam based on the various sections to determine what is required for a pass on NBCE Part I through Classical Test Theory (CTT) and Item Response Theory (IRT) for its scoring practices.

Although we can’t know for sure exactly how many questions you need to answer correctly, we can tell you that NBCE questions often get thrown out, or are found to have multiple correct answers. This means that you shouldn’t feel bad when you see odd questions or questions you don’t know the answer to. Chances are, if you’ve prepared properly, then everyone else is in the same boat and the questions are likely to get modified or thrown out.