NCMHCE pass rate

The short answer

• First attempts, nationalNBCC university sessions, 2023–2567–77%
• All attempts, Virginiaboard counts, 2014–2066.0%
• All attempts, Floridaboard counts, 2017–2451.4%

A quarter to a third of first-timers don’t pass. Counts that include retakes look lower, because each retake adds another result. No source gives a first-time rate for every candidate nationally.

National first-time rates from NBCC: 67–77% pass

NBCC runs exam sessions for students in participating university programs and sends each program the national pass rate for every session, about six months later. Southern New Hampshire University publishes those figures in its program outcomes reports, next to its own. They cover these sessions only, not every candidate.

The reports describe these figures as first-time test takers and don't give the number of candidates behind the national rates. The NCE column is there because the same sessions give the only like-for-like comparison of the two exams.

How hard is the NCMHCE? Most misses were 3 points or fewer

Pass rates say how many people pass. First-hand accounts say why it is hard, and how close people come. From accounts posted by people who took the current format:

• Misses are narrow. Of 30 people who failed and gave their margin, the middle miss was 3 points, and 20 of the 30 missed by 3 points or fewer.
• Passes are not. People who passed and gave both numbers scored a median of 10 points over their cut.
• Many pass after a failure. 28 accounts described failing and then passing: 14 on the second attempt, 7 on the third; the rest didn’t say which. Another 33 described a failure without a later result.
• The difficulty is the format, not obscure content. The reasons people gave were the reading load, two answers that both looked right, and the clock. More said the real exam felt easier than their practice than said it felt harder.

So the exam is passable, and the gap between passing and failing is a handful of questions. The passing score page shows the cut scores people reported, and how people passed has what they did.

What this means for you

• There’s no curve or quota. You pass by reaching the standard, whatever others score.
• Practice the format, not just the content: full cases, on the clock.
• Review why you missed, not only which ones, so you see the pattern.

Already failed once? The retake page covers timing, cost and focus.

Florida board counts, 2017–2024: 51.4% pass, retakes included

Florida's Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage & Family Therapy and Mental Health Counseling publishes NCMHCE pass and fail counts by university every year. It is the largest public NCMHCE dataset we found. In seven of the eight years, the share of passing results was between 46% and 56%.

On a phone, swipe the table sideways to see every column.

Percentages are our arithmetic from the board's counts; the board does not print them.

2023 is the lowest year at 44.0%, and it also has far fewer results (1,474) than the years on either side. NBCC introduced the current case-study format in 2022. The data cannot show whether the format, the smaller count or something else explains the dip.

Virginia board counts, 2014–2020: 66.0% pass, retakes included

Virginia's Board of Counseling publishes a multi-year pass and fail report by university and says the data comes from NBCC. Its pass shares are consistently higher than Florida's, between 63% and 68%.

On a phone, swipe the table sideways to see every column.

The report has university rows for 2021 but no statewide total, and at least one 2021 row does not add up, so we did not estimate a 2021 figure. No rows were published for 2015 or 2017.

Why the numbers disagree

You’ll see figures from 44% to 100%. They measure different things:

NCMHCE pass rate FAQ

Sources

1. Florida Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage & Family Therapy and Mental Health Counseling, NCMHCE exam pass rates: annual reports 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024. Accessed August 10, 2026.
2. Virginia Board of Counseling, NCMHCE pass/fail report per university and examination information. Accessed August 10, 2026.
3. NBCC, NCMHCE handbook (scoring and standard setting). Accessed August 10, 2026.
4. Southern New Hampshire University, program outcomes reports, MA Clinical Mental Health Counseling: 2024 (fall 2023, spring 2024) and 2025 (fall 2024, spring 2025): national NCE and NCMHCE pass rates reported by NBCC. Accessed October 10, 2026.
5. University disclosures: Jacksonville University, Capella University, Bethany Lutheran College, Utah Valley University, Bridgewater State University, University of Central Florida, University of San Diego. Accessed August 10, 2026.
6. Prep and information sites: CounselingExamAssist, CounselingPsychology.org. Accessed August 10, 2026.

Combined NCE and NCMHCE figures (Thomas University, Touro University, Lynn University) are excluded because the NCMHCE share cannot be separated. If you know of a public NCMHCE figure we missed, we will add it.