AFK pass rate: 52.29% in 2025

AFK pass rate by year

NDEB shows only the latest year on its results page, so the 2023 and 2024 rows link to NDEB's page as saved by the Internet Archive. Results on the results page cover all exams delivered in a calendar year.

The pass rate here is the share of the candidates in the calendar year who passed. NDEB prints the percentage to two decimals, and the first-time and repeat percentages in the table are our own division of the counts NDEB publishes.

Last checked 23 October 2026. Source: NDEB exam results.

What a pass rate tells you

A pass rate is a description of a group. It tells you how many of the 1,549 people who sat the AFK in 2025 reached the passing standard. It does not tell you how hard the exam is, how a candidate with your training and study time would do, or how the next sitting will go.

The passing standard does not move to fit the group. NDEB exams are not graded on a curve and are not built to pass or fail a set share of candidates. A panel of dentists reviews the questions and decides what a minimally competent dentist would score, and that score is reported as 75. If every candidate in a year met that standard, every candidate would pass, and if few did, few would. The pass rate therefore reflects who sat the exam as much as how the exam is set.

That is also why a single year is a weak guide. The calendar-year rate was 49.83%, then 33.10%, then 52.29% across 2023, 2024, 2025. Swings of ten or twenty points between years are large, and NDEB gives no reason for them on the pages we checked.

With a pass rate near half and about three in ten candidates sitting again, it is sensible to budget time and money for a second sitting without treating it as likely or unlikely for you. The fees page shows what a retake costs, and the scoring page explains what happens to your result.

Last checked 23 October 2026. Source: NDEB scoring and equating, NDEB exam results.

First-time and repeat takers

NDEB splits each year into candidates sitting the AFK for the first time and candidates who have sat it before. The split matters because the two groups are different people. A repeat taker has already sat the exam and has a result from an earlier sitting to work from.

• 2025: first-time takers passed at 49.58% (532 of 1,073) and repeat takers at 58.40% (278 of 476). Repeat takers made up 31% of the candidates.
• 2024: first-time takers passed at 33.71% (413 of 1,225) and repeat takers at 31.88% (197 of 618). Repeat takers made up 34% of the candidates.
• 2023: first-time takers passed at 48.45% (548 of 1,131) and repeat takers at 52.12% (356 of 683). Repeat takers made up 38% of the candidates.

Repeat takers passed at a higher rate than first-time takers in 2023 and 2025, and at a slightly lower rate in 2024. Three years is too few to call a pattern. What the numbers do show is that a first attempt that does not pass is common, and that many candidates pass on a later attempt.

NDEB does not say how many attempts the repeat takers were on, how long they waited between sittings or how they prepared, so the data cannot tell you whether a second attempt is easier. It can only tell you that a large share of each year's candidates, about 31% in 2025, were sitting again.

Last checked 23 October 2026. Source: NDEB exam results.

The 2024 drop in the pass rate

The 2024 pass rate of 33.10% is the lowest of the three years NDEB shows. 1,843 candidates sat, and 610 passed. Both groups were low: 33.71% for first-time takers and 31.88% for repeat takers.

We looked for an explanation on NDEB's results page, in its news posts and on its exam pages, and found none. NDEB did not announce a change to the AFK format or to the passing score that we could connect to 2024. Some commercial prep sites offer reasons. Those are their own analysis, and we do not repeat them as fact.

Some things can be said from the numbers alone. There were 1,843 candidates in 2024 against 1,549 in 2025 and 1,814 in 2023, so 2024 was the busiest of the three years. In 2025 the rate rose by 19.19 percentage points to 52.29%, close to the 49.83% of 2023.

NDEB also reports how many Equivalency Process graduates it certified: 447 in 2024 and 745 in 2025, out of 1,646 certificates of all kinds in 2025. About 50% of the candidates certified each year received their general dentistry education outside Canada.

Last checked 23 October 2026. Source: NDEB exam results.

The annual report uses a different year

NDEB's annual report counts a fiscal year, 2024-25, so its figures do not match the calendar years above. It lists 1,581 candidates and a pass rate of 42%. First-time takers: 448 of 1,123 passed (39.89%). Repeat takers: 216 of 458 passed (47.16%).

The two sets of numbers describe different slices of time, so neither is wrong. When you compare AFK pass rates from different websites, check whether each one uses calendar years from the results page or a fiscal year from the annual report. A mix of the two in one comparison produces a trend that is not there.

Last checked 23 October 2026. Source: NDEB annual report 2024-25.

Pass rates of the exams after the AFK

NDEB's results pages also show 2025 results for the next exams on the pathway. Each exam has its own group of candidates, so these rates are not comparable with the AFK rate. The ACJ and NDECC groups have passed the exam before theirs, and the Virtual OSCE group is broader and includes accredited graduates.

The NDECC reports its two components separately, and a candidate who fails one component retakes only that one. The Virtual OSCE belongs to the Certification Process, which also serves graduates of accredited programs, so its 90.36% covers a broader group than Equivalency Process graduates. NDEB's page does not split it by training route.

The lowest rate on the route in 2025 was the NDECC Clinical Skills component, at 38.33%. The pathway page explains each exam in order and what the AFK leads to.

Last checked 23 October 2026. Source: NDEB exam results, NDEB Certification Process results.

Attempts and what comes after the third

The AFK can be taken a maximum of three times. A candidate who fails the AFK three times ceases to be an Equivalency Candidate and cannot be redesignated as one. NDEB's by-law adds no waiting period between attempts that we could find, so the practical limit on how soon you sit again is when a seat is open for the next sitting. The AFK runs in February and August, so a retake is usually about six months away.

NDEB states: If you do not attend the examination, you will not lose an attempt. A withdrawal still carries a fee, which the exam dates page sets out. Withdrawing before a sitting you are not ready for costs money but keeps the attempt.

A third failure ends the AFK route for that candidate. What NDEB offers instead is not stated on the pages we checked, and the Equivalency Process page lists other routes to certification for graduates of non-accredited programs, such as a qualifying or degree completion program at a Canadian faculty. Ask NDEB or a Canadian dental faculty about your own case.

Last checked 23 October 2026. Source: NDEB AFK Protocol 2026, NDEB By-law 2.

Using your own mock scores

The pass rate cannot tell you where you stand, but timed practice can show you. A mock exam in the real format, 200 questions in two parts of two hours, gives you a score and a profile by subject. Take the first one early, before you have studied everything, so that it points your study at the areas where you lose points.

Treat a mock score as an estimate from that mock. NDEB's passing score is set by a panel for each exam version and then rescaled, so a percentage on a practice test does not convert to an NDEB score. A rescaled 75 is not 75 percent of the questions correct, and a score of 74 can be one or several questions away from passing. The useful signals are the trend across several full mocks and the pattern of misses by subject, compared with the weight of each area on the blueprint.

Mocks work best when you review every miss and write down why you missed it: a gap in knowledge, a misread stem, or a Canadian standard you did not know. Two or three full mocks taken a few weeks apart tell you more than one. If you want a starting point, the free mini mock and placement check shows where you stand today and where to begin.

We do not predict results. No score on any practice test, ours or anyone else's, guarantees a pass on the AFK, and a low score early in your preparation says little about where you will be on exam day.

Questions candidates ask

Last checked 23 October 2026. Source: NDEB exam results, NDEB scoring and equating, NDEB AFK Protocol 2026.