Anybody know why the failure rate is higher for 2nd time NBDE part 2?

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PGHDent15

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Anyone have any insight on this? The failure rate for the NBDE part II is 5% for first time takers and almost 30% for second time takers? Is this due to a smaller testing pool where one failure accounts for a lot more percentage wise or is the grading much harder?

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Anyone have any insight on this? The failure rate for the NBDE part II is 5% for first time takers and almost 30% for second time takers? Is this due to a smaller testing pool where one failure accounts for a lot more percentage wise or is the grading much harder?

Smaller testing pool is one reason.

Second and I think most important is to think about the testing ability of those individuals that fail in the first place. The 30% of second takers that fail for that second time are likely just not very good at taking tests for whatever reason (language barrier, severe test anxiety gets the best of them, Ect). I Just can't see people getting that far along in dental school and straight up fail due to pure laziness or unwillingness to study. Twice.

I can't imagine they would ever grade harder or even take into account the number of times one takes it. The pass barrier as X/500 questions for any given test will be same each time it's administered.
 
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