Pass rate · passing score · 2025
CPEN Pass Rate and Passing Score: What BCEN Publishes for 2025
BCEN publishes counts, not a percentage: in calendar 2025, 1,211 CPEN exams were delivered and 689 were passed. The passing score it currently publishes is 110 of 150 scored items, and it says that number moves.
The honest version of the CPEN pass rate is a table, not a number. BCEN, the Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing, discloses, for each calendar year and each credential, how many exams it delivered, how many were passed and how many were failed. For the CPEN in 2025 that is 1,211 delivered, 689 passed, 447 failed. It publishes no percentage and no first-time pass rate, so any site that quotes you one did the division itself. This page does the division too, with the working shown and the year attached.
The second half of the query is the passing score, and there BCEN is more specific. Pass or fail is decided by raw score, the number of scored items you answer correctly, with no curve. The figure BCEN currently publishes is 110 of 150. Read the rest of that sentence on bcen.org before you carry the number anywhere: the score is described as subject to change every few years, after each role delineation study, and exam forms are statistically equated. It is a published line, not a permanent one.
1,211exams
delivered in 2025, per BCEN
689passed
per BCEN's published statistics
447failed
per BCEN's published statistics
110of 150
to pass, as currently published
The numbers BCEN publishes for 2025, and the ones we derived
BCEN's statistics page carries one line per credential per year, as an ABSNC-required disclosure. Here is the CPEN line for calendar 2025 exactly as published, with the rows we derived beneath it, labeled as ours.
| Count | Who says so | |
|---|---|---|
| Exams delivered | 1,211 | BCEN |
| Passed | 689 | BCEN |
| Failed | 447 | BCEN |
| Recertified | 882 | BCEN |
| Total CPEN certificants at year end | 5,827 | BCEN |
| Passed ÷ delivered | about 57% | our arithmetic |
| Passed ÷ (passed + failed) | about 61% | our arithmetic |
| Delivered with no recorded outcome | 75 | ours: 1,211 − 689 − 447 |
Two percentages, because the published counts do not close. 689 passed plus 447 failed is 1,136, and BCEN says 1,211 exams were delivered, so 75 exams have no recorded outcome on the page. BCEN does not explain the gap; voided or incomplete sittings are the likely reason, and that is a guess, labeled as one. Quote either percentage and you must quote the year and the source with it: about 57% of the CPEN exams delivered in 2025 were passed, per BCEN's published statistics. Drop the year or the source and you are repeating a rumor with decimals.
The other two counts describe the credential rather than the exam: 882 nurses recertified during 2025 and 5,827 held the CPEN at year end. Against the CEN's 41,636 certificants and 8,889 exams on the same page, the CPEN is the small specialty sibling: roughly one CPEN sitting for every seven CEN sittings, by our division.
The passing score: 110 of 150, as BCEN currently publishes it
Scoring is the part BCEN states plainly. The CPEN is 175 multiple-choice items: 150 are scored, 25 are unscored pretest items being calibrated for future forms, and you cannot tell which is which. Pass or fail is decided by the raw count of scored items answered correctly. There is no curve, and nothing on the report is scaled or expressed as a percentage. The cut score was set by an Angoff standard-setting study and the forms are statistically equated, which is why BCEN frames the published number as current rather than fixed.
| Items | Source | |
|---|---|---|
| Items on the exam | 175 | BCEN |
| Unscored tutorial questions, before the clock starts | 5 | BCEN |
| Unscored pretest items, mixed in, not identifiable | 25 | BCEN |
| Scored items | 150 | BCEN |
| Passing score, as currently published | 110 | BCEN, subject to change |
| Scored items you can miss and still pass | 40 | ours: 150 − 110 |
| Wrong answers you can afford on the 175, if every one of them happens to be scored | 40 | ours: a miss on a pretest item costs nothing, but you cannot tell which items those are |
Forty misses on the scored items is the margin, and it changes how you should behave on a question you cannot settle. Because the raw score counts only correct answers, a blank and a wrong answer are worth the same: nothing. A candidate who narrows four options to two and takes the fifty-fifty is spending margin on purpose; a candidate who leaves the item unanswered spends the same margin for no return. Read the four answers, strike the pair that say almost the same thing, look in the stem for the one detail that separates the survivors, and if it is not there after a fair look, pick and move on. The margin exists for exactly that.
How the 25 pretest items change the picture
The 25 pretest items do not count toward your score, are scattered through the 175, and BCEN says you cannot identify them. Two consequences follow. First, an item that looks strange, unusually hard or off the outline may be a pretest item, or a scored one, so treat every item as scored and give it the same rule-out. Second, your felt accuracy on the day is measured against 175 and your real score against 150: a candidate who believes they missed 50 may have missed fewer that count. Use that to stop recounting, not to relax.
How to read the score report
You get the result before you leave. PSI Live Remote Proctoring shows pass or fail on screen; a PSI test center prints the score report; BCEN emails it as well, and for a pass the certificate and wallet card follow within 15 business days. The report is pass/fail by raw score with a breakdown by content area, the same six domains as the outline.
Read the pass/fail line as a raw count
There is no scaling and no percentage on the report. If you passed, the domain breakdown is a curiosity. If you failed, it is the only diagnostic you will ever get for that sitting, so keep the paper or the email.
Put the domain breakdown against the item counts
The six domains are not equal. System-Focused Emergencies is 56 of the 150 scored items; Assessment and Special Considerations are 25 each; Triage is 20; Multi-System Considerations and Professional Issues are 12 each. A weak line in a 12-item domain can cost at most 12 items. A weak line in the 56-item domain has room to spend the whole 40-item margin on its own.
Weight a retake by domain size, not by how the day felt
Sort the six by item count, move the big domains where you scored weakest to the top, and start there. The study guide lists the domains in weight order with the live domain guides linked, and the practice questions filter by domain so you can drill one column at a time.
Is the CPEN exam hard? What the counts can and cannot say
By BCEN's 2025 counts, more exams were passed than failed (689 against 447) and, by our arithmetic, roughly four in ten delivered exams did not end in a pass. That is the only population-level answer that exists, and it says nothing about a prepared candidate. The difficulty you can actually read off the outline is breadth: six domains, one of which, System-Focused Emergencies, is 56 of the 150 scored items and runs through ten sub-areas, respiratory through endocrine. No single topic is the wall. The width of the map is.
The other difficulty is item style. BCEN's own sample questions are single-best-answer with four options, and the options tend to arrive in near pairs: two that differ by one word, one route, one age band, one timing. Read the stem first and you form an answer, then hunt for it and get pulled toward the near-miss. Read the four options first, strike the pair, and the stem tells you which survivor holds. Try it on the insert.
Is the CPEN harder than the CEN, the CPN or the CCRN? has no numerical answer. The CCRN is AACN's exam and the CPN is PNCB's; each body publishes what it chooses, on its own denominators, and none of it is comparable with BCEN's counts. Inside BCEN, the same 2025 table shows the CEN at 8,889 exams delivered and 41,636 certificants against the CPEN's 1,211 and 5,827 — a difference of scale, not of difficulty.
A pass rate describes the people who sat. A passing score describes the line. Only the second one is yours to move.
If you fail: 90 days, a retest fee, and no cap on attempts
BCEN's retake rules are short. You wait 90 days after a failed attempt, submit a new retest application and pay again: $200 for a retest within one year of the initial exam, per BCEN as of September 2026. Attempts are unlimited. The optional Test Assurance, $70 more on the initial fee, includes a free second attempt; it is not the default, and without it a second sitting is never free.
- Keep the printed or emailed score report. The domain breakdown is your retake plan.
- Ninety days is the mandatory wait, counted from the failed attempt; the retest application goes in after it.
- The discounted $200 retest fee is good for one year after the initial exam, per BCEN (September 2026).
- Fees, the application flow and the 90-day testing window are on the how to get CPEN certified page.
Questions about the CPEN pass rate and score
What is the CPEN first-time pass rate?
BCEN does not publish one. Its disclosure is per calendar year and exam-level only: for 2025, 1,211 CPEN exams delivered, 689 passed, 447 failed, with no split between first attempts and retests. Any first-time percentage you see for the CPEN was not published by BCEN.
How many questions do you need to get right to pass the CPEN?
110 of the 150 scored items, as BCEN currently publishes it. The other 25 of the 175 are unscored pretest items. BCEN states that the passing score is subject to change after each role delineation study, so confirm the current figure on bcen.org before you test.
Is the CPEN exam curved or scaled?
No. Pass/fail is by raw score — the number of scored items answered correctly. There is no curve and nothing is scaled. Forms are statistically equated and the cut score came from an Angoff standard-setting study, which is how BCEN keeps different forms comparable without grading you against the other candidates in the room.
Is the CPEN harder than the CEN, CPN or CCRN?
No published statistic can say. The CPN (PNCB) and CCRN (AACN) come from different certifying bodies with their own reporting. Within BCEN, the 2025 table shows the CEN at 8,889 exams delivered against CPEN's 1,211: a difference of scale, not a difficulty ranking. The CPEN's difficulty is breadth: six domains, with 56 of the 150 scored items in System-Focused Emergencies alone.
What does a CPEN retest cost?
$200 within one year of the initial exam, per BCEN as of September 2026, after the mandatory 90-day wait. The initial fee is $380 for non-members and $285 for ENA members. The application flow, the 90-day testing window and the full fee table are on the how to get CPEN certified page.
Practice the rule-out on ninety four-option items
Sets of ten, strike options out, read why the survivor holds. Free, and independent of BCEN.