Average pass rate of total number of Candidates attempting the QE & OCE
The American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (ABOMS) is providing the pass rates on both the Qualifying Examination (QE) and Oral Certifying Examination (OCE). The ABOMS Pass Rate Data Report represents our commitment to transparency in surgical residency education by providing a comprehensive six-year analysis (2019-2025) of surgical residency program performance. It is important to note that the Pass Rate Data Report features cumulative averages of all actual, anonymized resident examinees by program, over the six-year period.
Because residents can appear in multiple years if they retake examinations, a program's reported pass rate may appear lower than their actual eventual success rate. For example, if a program has 10 residents and two need to retake an exam the following year, those two residents would be counted in both years, potentially making the program's multi-year average appear lower than 100 percent even though all residents eventually passed.
This pass rate data will continue evolving, with additional metrics including first-time pass rates and procedure-specific data planned for distribution in the coming months and years. Our goal is simple: support excellence in oral and maxillofacial surgery education through transparent, constructive data sharing.
This information serves as one factor in evaluating residency programs and does not reflect the quality of patient care provided by institutions.