Retake Candidates

Continue to Pursue Your Certification Goals

When candidates do not achieve National Board Certification on their first attempt, they often find success as retake candidates. We encourage candidates who don’t achieve to take advantage of the option to retake certain entries and/or exercises. This section provides instructions and tools to help you as a retake candidate for National Board Certification.

Retake candidates should refer to the Retake Flyer for an overview of the National Board's policies and guidelines for retaking a portfolio entry or assessment center exercise.

Important preparation information for retake candidates can be found in the Scoring Guide, Part 1: Understanding and Interpreting Your Scores. This publication features comprehensive information and tips about how to select the appropriate portfolio entries or assessment center exercises to retake; how to use the online retake calculator; and other key considerations.

Retake Application

Ready to make the commitment to continuing the National Board Certification process? Get started by completing the retake application by signing in to View My Scores and following the instructions for retake candidates.

Note: The deadline to apply and submit payment for retakes is January 31.

Portfolio Retake Instructions
The work you submit for your retake portfolio must be new. All candidates should read the Retake Flyer for more information about requirements, guidelines and deadlines.

Understanding and Interpreting Your Scores
Please read the Scoring Guide, Part 1: Understanding and Interpreting Your Scores for tips and tools about retake considerations.

Assessment Center Retake Instructions
Please read the Assessment Center: Policy and Guidelines for information about test day and additional instructions and policies.

Retake Score Calculator
The score calculator is a great tool for helping retake candidates decide which entries to retake.  The calculator can be used to compute the scores needed on entries to achieve National Board Certification.  The calculator is located in the retake application and will be available with the score report when scores are released.

Retake Worksheet

If you wish to consider potential retake selections for the upcoming retake cycle, you may use the Retake Worksheet, with a copy of your last score report and a calculator, to determine which entries/exercises you wish to consider for retake. Use the Scoring Guide, Part 1: Understanding and Interpreting Your Scores, Retake Considerations, beginning on page 1-18, to guide your calculations.

Score Banking Process
NBPTS automatically banks the individual portfolio entry and assessment center exercise scores for candidates who did not achieve National Board Certification during their initial attempt. This allows candidates to retake any combination of entries and/or exercises on which they did not meet the individual performance standard of 2.75. Read more about this process in the Guide to National Board Certification (PDF - 1.8Mb).