EPPP pass rates: what ASPPB publishes

What is the EPPP pass rate? ASPPB, the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards, which owns the exam, gives one national figure in its own words: at its virtual town hall of December 11, 2025, it put the first-attempt pass rate for candidates from accredited doctoral programs at about 80%. It also publishes a report every year with the pass rate of each accredited program's first-time candidates. This guide explains both: what the figures cover and leave out, how to read a program's row, what the passing score of 500 means, why the exam is hard in ASPPB's own terms, and why the integrated EPPP that starts in fall 2027 has no pass rate yet.

The short answer

For first-time candidates from accredited doctoral programs, the EPPP pass rate is about 80%. ASPPB's slide put it this way: "The first-attempt EPPP passing rate from accredited doctoral programs average at about 80%." Its 2026 report says the same in other words, an average pass rate above 80% "Across most sample years." The same slide adds that "Accredited vs. Unaccredited programs showed 30% difference pass rates." The report's figures are for today's knowledge exam, the EPPP (Part 1–Knowledge), where passing means a scaled score of 500 for independent practice. The integrated EPPP has no pass rate yet: its passing score will be set from its beta test, whose results ASPPB expects in late June 2027.

The national figure

ASPPB's town hall answered "What is the pass rate?" with one slide, and its two lines are the national picture as ASPPB gives it: "The first-attempt EPPP passing rate from accredited doctoral programs average at about 80%," and "Accredited vs. Unaccredited programs showed 30% difference pass rates."

Its annual report on doctoral programs puts the first line more carefully: "Across most sample years, doctoral-level candidates from accredited programs who take the EPPP (Part 1—Knowledge) for the first time achieve an average pass rate above 80%." It also flags the years behind the latest figures. As the previous report noted, "the COVID-19 pandemic may have affected doctoral training experiences and student learning outcomes," and "Results from the current reporting period may still reflect residual effects."

So how many people fail the EPPP? On our arithmetic, a first-attempt pass rate of about 80% means that about one first-time candidate in five from an accredited program does not pass on that attempt. ASPPB's documents give no national figure for repeat candidates, for all candidates together, or for the unaccredited programs beyond that 30% difference.

The figures also have limits worth knowing before you lean on them:

• It covers first attempts only, by candidates from programs accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA) or the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA).
• It is for Part 1, the knowledge exam. The report "includes only performance scores from the EPPP (Part 1—Knowledge)," not Part 2.
• It is not by state or province. ASPPB reports by doctoral program; some boards publish statistics for their own candidates, which this guide leaves aside.
• It is not the integrated EPPP's, which does not exist yet; more on that below.

ASPPB's report by program

The report is called Psychology Licensing Exam Scores by Doctoral Program, and the 2026 edition is its 27th. It covers first-time candidates who took Part 1 from January 1, 2021, through December 31, 2025, from doctoral programs accredited by the APA or the CPA. ASPPB publishes it every year, each time with the latest five years of first-time candidates from accredited programs, and calls that approach "the common method of reporting pass rate data."

For each program with five or more candidates in the window, the report gives three things: the number tested, the pass rate, and the candidates' percentage scores in each of Part 1's eight content areas. A program's pass rate is the share of its first-time candidates who reached a scaled score of 500 or more. Where a program had four or fewer candidates, neither the number nor the pass rate is shown, "to protect the privacy of candidates who come from programs with low numbers of graduates."

Three more details shape what a row means:

• The program is the one the candidate named. Program names come from what candidates enter when they register for the exam.
• Rows are not cohorts. In the report's words, "Score data are not reflective of candidates' school year or graduation year."
• The board decides, not the report. "Responsibility for actual pass/fail decisions rests with individual licensing jurisdictions."

The report's own copyright notice says that "No part of this document may be reproduced in any form without the permission in writing" of ASPPB, so this guide gives no program's figures. The report itself is free to read, and the link is in the sources below: find your program by its name, then read its row with the cautions in the next section.

How to read a program's row

ASPPB asks for care first: "care should be exercised if comparisons across schools and programs are made," and if a program's EPPP results are seen as an outcome measure, "it should be viewed as only one such measure." Four things are worth weighing before you compare one row with another.

1. The number tested. On our arithmetic, in a program with 5 candidates each one moves the pass rate by 20 percentage points; in a program with 200, by half a point. A small program's rate can swing a long way on one or two people, so read the count before the rate.
2. The window. Five years of candidates are pooled, and the report notes the pandemic's possible effects on the period. A program that changed in that time shows the old and the new together.
3. The content areas. The percentage scores follow Part 1's eight content areas, not the integrated EPPP's six domains, so they describe the exam that first-time candidates stop taking in fall 2027. Our guide to the EPPP's domains shows how the two outlines differ.
4. You. A program's rate describes its past candidates, not your result. What you control is how you prepare, and our guide to studying for the EPPP turns the blueprint into a plan.

What a score of 500 means

Today's EPPP reports a scaled score, which the Handbook describes as "an arithmetic conversion of raw scores (the number of questions a candidate answers correctly) to a scale that ranges from 200 to 800." Forms of the exam differ a little in difficulty, so the number of correct answers needed to reach 500 can change from form to form, and the scale absorbs the difference: "candidates are not rewarded because their exam was easier nor penalized because it was more difficult."

The 500 itself is a standard, not a quota. Through equating, the Handbook says, it is "equivalent to the criterion-referenced passing score standard" set in ASPPB's standard-setting procedure, and ASPPB adopted the level it represents as a "recommended minimum standard for independent practice as a psychologist." A criterion-referenced standard is a level of knowledge rather than a share of candidates, so on our reading no fixed share has to fail: the pass rate is simply how many candidates reach the level.

Boards make the decision. ASPPB recommends 500 for independent practice and 450 for supervised practice, and "all licensing authorities accept the ASPPB recommended passing score for independent practice on the EPPP (Part 1-Knowledge), but there is some variation among licensing authorities regarding the passing score for supervised practice." Every board needs the pass, too: "All 66 member jurisdictions require you to achieve a passing score on the EPPP (Part 1–Knowledge) prior to licensure." Our guide to the EPPP's format and scoring covers the score report on the day.

Why the EPPP is hard

The EPPP is built to a standard of minimal competence, and that is less reassuring than it sounds. ASPPB's slide on validation said that the "Purpose of the exam is to demonstrate minimal competence" and that "Prediction is not the purpose of a licensing examination." The minimum, though, is set across the whole field. The integrated EPPP "remains a general licensure examination by assessing competencies that are essential for entry-level independent practice across all areas of psychology," and "All items are developed with the expectation that a minimally competent entry-level psychologist can answer them, regardless of specialty area or practice setting." A candidate trained in one specialty has to answer outside it, across six domains, which is where much of the difficulty lies, on our reading.

The format adds to it. The integrated EPPP is 215 questions in five hours of testing, and its item types are "designed to evaluate candidates' ability to apply knowledge in professional settings," so knowing a fact is not enough: a question asks what to do with it.

ASPPB has also named what it sees shaping results. A town hall slide, "Factors that Influence EPPP Performance Outcomes," sorts them into five groups:

Some of these are fixed by the time you register; study time, its consistency and the plan around your commitments are not.

The integrated EPPP has no pass rate yet

From fall 2027, everyone taking the EPPP for the first time takes the integrated exam, and its passing score does not exist yet. The beta test, in ASPPB's words, "provides the performance data needed to establish the exam's passing score using accepted testing and psychometric practices," and its town hall timeline put "Beta testing, analysis and standard setting in Spring and Summer 2027." The result will be a single decision: the integrated EPPP "will have a pass/fail standard based on a total score."

ASPPB has described how the standard will be judged. The standard-setting process "evaluates whether a minimally competent psychologist would be expected to answer each item correctly." The beta's own candidates wait for that work: "EPPP Beta Test results are expected to be available in late June 2027," and "Unlike the current EPPP, results will not be available immediately following the examination."

Until then there is no pass rate for the integrated EPPP, and today's figures describe Part 1. ASPPB has not said how it will report the integrated exam's results by program, so any figure you see for the new exam before the standard is set is a guess.

A question to try

The course's questions look like this one: a situation, a lead-in that names the task, four options and one best answer, with the reasoning and its source. It comes from Scientific Orientation to Practice, 15% of the integrated EPPP, and it is about reporting results honestly, which is what this guide asks of pass rates too.

Where to start

• Get a study plan. The plan on the EPPP page comes by email, week by week to your exam date, with no account needed, and our study guide explains how it divides the weeks.
• Find your starting point. A free account starts with a short diagnostic, 18 questions in about 25 minutes, and builds your study order from the exam's weights and from what you already know.
• Read a domain in full. With a free account, the eight Consultation and Supervision lessons open in full, with their questions and flashcards.
• Practice at length. Full access opens all 85 lessons and their 2,902 questions, and the timed 215-question mock.