Scoring the Exam

All candidates will receive notification of pass/fail status after completing the computer-based exam. Formal PNCB exam results are sent approximately three weeks from your test date. In this mailing, you will receive an Individual Performance Report (IPR) to inform you of your performance on the exam.

Successful candidates will receive a certificate of achievement and a Certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner lapel pin. No results are given over the telephone or Internet.

Unsuccessful candidates may repeat the Primary Care CPNP® Exam. Opportunities for re-examination will be based upon the number of available exam forms. Candidates may apply for re-examination afer receiving formal notification of fail status from the PNCB. PNCB's eligibility requirements must be met at time of application. On receipt of an application and re-examination fees, a new 90-day testing period will be assigned.

How is the exam scored? The CPNP Primary Care Exam is a criterion-referenced exam and is scored by statistical analysis of test items according to standard psychometric procedures. On your Individual Performance Report (IPR) three values are presented to reflect your performance. One score is the "raw score" - the number of items that you answered correctly. This number by itself does not mean much, so the "raw score" may be converted to a "percentage score" - indicating the percent of items you answered correctly. The third score is called the "scaled score". To understand the "scaled score", you need to know the scoring process used by the PNCB.

In the PNCB criterion-referenced certification exam the raw score (percent score) is measured against or compared to an absolute criterion of mastery. This criterion is called the "cut-point". The number or percentage of items that must be answered correctly in order to pass is not decided arbitrarily. Rather, a panel of experts (CPNP & CPN National Exam Committees) evaluates each item individually for its level of difficulty. The average of these item values determines the criterion or "cut- point" for the exam depending on the items that appear on the exam. This means that if, for example, Form A of the exam contains more difficult items than Form B of the exam, the cut-point of Form A will be lower than that of Form B. Remember that the cut-point reflects the difficulty level of the items on the exam and indicates the score considered necessary to pass the examination.

Because not every candidate sits for the same form or version of the exam, the cut-points for evaluating the obtained score will differ. The "scaled score" is a way of putting all scores, regardless of the version of the exam a candidate takes or the total number of items on the exam, on the same scale or frame of reference. We use scaled scores that range from 200 (0 items correct) to 800 (all items correct) with a scaled score of 400 corresponding to the cut-point on the exam.

Exam Statistics

The cumulative passing rate (since January 2003) for the PNCB's CPNP Primary Care Exam is 88%. The 2007 passing rate was 73%.

In 2007, 825 PNPs took the Exam and 601 passed.