ABR-NMP-P2 Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass

What "Passing Score" Actually Means for ABR-NMP-P2

Candidates preparing for the ABR Nuclear Medical Physics Part 2 Qualifying Examination almost always ask the same question first: what number do I need to hit? The honest answer is that the American Board of Radiology does not publish a percentage-correct threshold, a scaled score target, or domain-by-domain weighting for this exam. What ABR does publish is a scoring philosophy - criterion-referenced pass/fail against an established performance standard - along with the exam's structure, timing, and content areas. This article translates that philosophy into what it actually means for your preparation, and connects it to the mechanics you'll encounter on exam day.

If you haven't yet mapped out the content itself, pair this article with the ABR-NMP-P2 Exam Domains 2026 guide for a full breakdown of the five content areas referenced throughout this piece.

Criterion-Referenced Scoring Explained

ABR states plainly that Part 2 results are determined against an established passing standard, not by ranking candidates against each other. This is called criterion-referenced scoring. Practically, it means:

• Your result does not depend on how the rest of the candidate cohort performed on your exam date.
• There is no fixed "top X%" cutoff - the standard is set independently of any single administration.
• A strong performance in one content area cannot be officially described as "offsetting" a weak one in a specific published ratio, because ABR has not released domain weights for this exam.

This is an important distinction from norm-referenced testing, where your score is judged relative to peers. Because ABR has not released the internal item-weighting formula or the numeric cutoff, the most productive use of your preparation time is building genuine competency across all five domains rather than trying to reverse-engineer a scoring formula that isn't public.

Exam Format That Determines How You Earn Points

Because there's no visible scoring rubric to study, the smartest proxy for "passing score preparation" is mastering the exam's actual format and mechanics, since every point you earn comes through this structure. According to the July 23, 2026 Medical Physics Remote Qualifying Exam Guide, Nuclear Part 2 consists of:

• 130 questions total.
• 4 hours 1 minute of answering time.
• 20 minutes of tutorial/practice time before questions begin.
• 25 minutes of break allowance during the session.
• A total allotted time of 4 hours 46 minutes when tutorial and breaks are included.

The exam is administered remotely by ABR through myABR, in a single session, and is predominantly multiple-choice. ABR's preparation materials also describe image-location items - sometimes called Drag and Drop - where you identify an anatomical site, equipment component, or graph region directly on an image. This format matters for your pacing strategy: with 130 questions across roughly four hours of answering time, you have on average under two minutes per item, and image-based items may take longer to interpret than straight recall questions.

The exam is closed book. You'll need a private, quiet testing space, one active monitor, and an external side-view webcam, with ABR staff monitoring live and reviewing recordings. You're permitted an embedded or ABR-approved handheld calculator and a compliant physical erasable whiteboard - but it must be clear at both the start and end of the session, and scratch paper or personal notes are prohibited. Completing the Exam Readiness Check on your actual test-day computer and location beforehand is not optional busywork; it's the only way to confirm your setup will actually let you sit for the exam. For a deeper look at how these conditions affect difficulty, see How Hard Is the ABR-NMP-P2 Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026.

The Five Domains You Must Clear

Since ABR does not publish domain weights, treat all five domains as equally essential to the passing standard. Weakness in any one area is a real risk to your result.

For a full walkthrough of how to sequence study across these five areas, the ABR-NMP-P2 Study Guide 2026 lays out a first-attempt strategy in more depth than this article covers.

Question Types and How They're Scored

Because the exam is predominantly multiple-choice with some image-location items, most of your points come from single-best-answer questions distributed across the five domains above. ABR also provides a list of constants and physical values for calculation questions - but explicitly does not guarantee that list contains every value you'll need, so memorizing frequently used constants (decay constants, common isotope half-lives, conversion factors) is still worthwhile rather than assuming a reference sheet will bail you out.

ABR's calculator familiarization materials include radioactive decay and Mo-99/Tc-99m generator calculation exercises. These are explicitly practice exercises, not real exam questions, but they signal the calculation styles you should be comfortable executing quickly under timed conditions - especially generator elution math and decay corrections, which show up across Domains 2, 4, and 5.

How Results Are Reported and When

Results are normally posted in myABR with an email notification roughly one month after the exam date. Because the scoring is criterion-referenced, ABR reports an overall pass/fail outcome measured against the established standard rather than a percentile rank or a public scaled score. If you're trying to gauge how the broader candidate pool performs, review ABR-NMP-P2 Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows - but note that ABR's published Medical Physics Part 2 pass-rate figures are all-specialty aggregates, not numbers isolated to Nuclear Medical Physics candidates specifically.

What Happens If You Don't Pass

There is no partial credit carried forward and no option to retake only your weaker domains. Failing Part 2 requires retaking the entire examination in a future administration. ABR lists a one-time USD 250 re-examination fee that applies after a first-attempt failure, separate from the original USD 640 Part 2 examination fee due at registration. All fees are nonrefundable, though prepaid exam fees tied to a cancellation or nonattendance are applied toward your next available exam date rather than lost outright.

Given that a failed attempt means a full retake - not a partial one - it's worth treating every domain as a potential single point of failure rather than concentrating your review on the areas you personally find most interesting.

Registration, Fees, and Eligibility Context

Understanding the administrative timeline helps you plan backward from a real exam date rather than studying indefinitely. For the current cycle, the Part 2 application window runs from the first business day in February through March 31, 2027, with approved applicants invited to register in May 2027 and the published exam date set for August 11, 2027. For the full breakdown of deadlines, review ABR-NMP-P2 Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling.

Standard Part 2 eligibility requires having passed both the General and Clinical sections of Part 1, and completing (or being on track to complete by August 31 of the exam year) a CAMPEP-accredited residency or Doctor of Medical Physics program, with residency started within 10 years of passing Part 1. Board eligibility runs for six full calendar years from residency completion or Part 2 approval, whichever comes first. Already board-certified medical physicists pursuing Nuclear Medical Physics as an additional specialty follow a different pathway involving ABR-approved prospective, supervised clinical training. Full detail on both pathways is in ABR-NMP-P2 Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify, and a fee-by-fee breakdown - including the separate USD 250 standard initial certification application charge - is in ABR-NMP-P2 Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown.

It's also worth remembering that passing Part 2 alone does not confer board certification. The full initial-certification pathway requires passing Parts 1, 2, and 3 in sequence - Part 2 is a qualifying milestone, not a terminal credential.

These are distinct certification pathways rather than interchangeable exams, so don't assume study materials or scoring rules from one apply to the other.

Timing Your Study Around the Standard

Because there's no numeric target to chase, the highest-leverage move is sequencing your review so every domain gets dedicated, deliberate time before exam day - not just passive re-reading. A simple way to structure the final stretch:

Spaced repetition and timed mock sessions work well here specifically because the real exam rewards speed and accuracy simultaneously across five distinct domains - not depth in a favorite topic. Rotating practice sets so no domain goes untouched for more than a week or two keeps knowledge fresh going into test day.

You can build this kind of full-length repetition using the practice platform at medicinephysicsexam.com, which offers original questions and worked calculations mapped to all five official content areas without recycling secure exam material. For a condensed reference to keep nearby during final review, see the ABR-NMP-P2 Cheat Sheet 2026: One-Page Review of Must-Know Facts.

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