The National Board of Examiners in Optometry (NBEO) has issued a press release to acknowledge a reporting error in the Part II PAM/TMOD examination scores that were released to 1, 866 candidates who took the exam in December 2024.

“Unfortunately, the scores reported did not reflect candidates’ true scores on the exam due to an error in the publication process,” a statement in the press release read. “This error was the result of an incorrect data transfer between our internal database and our candidate score reporting platform, from which candidates’ score reports are generated. The issue was quickly identified, and correct scores were released at approximately 5:00 p.m. [on Friday, Jan. 24].

In noting that the error resulted in some candidates incorrectly receiving a passing grade, the NBEO said it would be reaching out to those candidates to provide the opportunity to retake the exam at no charge, along granting them free access to the NBEO Practice Items Databank through the next Part II PAM/TMOD administration. 

“NBEO is committed to making sure this never happens again,” a statement in the press release read. “Even before this incident occurred, we were already undertaking considerable upgrades to our technological infrastructure, in which we have already invested significant time, energy and resources.”

Specifically, the organization says its working to transition to a more advanced infrastructure by the end of 2026 and asking external partners in exam development and information technology to evaluate the NBEO’s policy protocols to ensure greater redundancy and reliability in the score reporting process.

For any questions or concerns regarding the examination score error, emails can be sent to December2024Scoring@optometry.org. OM