A passing score is the minimum result you need on a test, exam, or course to be considered successful rather than failing. There is no single universal number. What counts as “passing” depends entirely on the context: a high school class, a professional licensing exam, a military entrance test, and a college course each set their own thresholds. Here’s how passing scores work across the situations where they matter most.
Passing Grades in High School and College
In most U.S. high schools, a score of 60% or above is considered passing. The standard grading scale breaks down like this: an A covers 90 to 100%, a B covers 80 to 89%, a C covers 70 to 79%, and a D covers 60 to 69%. Anything below 60% is an F, which means failing. A D represents minimal competency, so while it technically counts as passing, it may not satisfy prerequisites for advanced courses or meet the GPA requirements for graduation.
Colleges follow a similar letter-grade system, but many set their passing bar higher. Undergraduate programs commonly require a C (70%) or better in major-specific courses, even if the university officially records a D as passing for general elective credit. Graduate programs almost always require a B (80%) or higher, and some will place students on academic probation for earning anything below that.
The key thing to understand is that “passing” and “good enough” are not always the same. A passing grade gets you credit for the course, but scholarship requirements, program admissions, and employer GPA cutoffs often demand something well above the bare minimum.
How Passing Scores Are Set
Not all tests define “passing” the same way. The two main approaches are criterion-referenced scoring and norm-referenced scoring, and the difference matters for how you prepare.
A criterion-referenced score measures whether you met a fixed standard. If the passing line is 70%, you need 70% regardless of how everyone else performed. Most classroom grades, professional licensing exams, and certification tests work this way. You are measured against a set body of knowledge, not against other test-takers.
A norm-referenced score compares your performance to a group of peers. Standardized tests like the SAT or GRE report percentile rankings, telling you where you fall relative to everyone else who took the exam. There may not be a strict “pass/fail” line, but institutions set their own cutoffs for admission or qualification. The military’s ASVAB, for example, produces a percentile-based score that each branch evaluates against its own minimum threshold.
GED Passing Score
The GED test requires a minimum score of 145 on each of its four subjects: Mathematical Reasoning, Reasoning Through Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies. You must hit 145 or higher on all four to earn your high school equivalency credential. Scoring between 145 and 164 earns a standard pass. Scores of 165 to 174 are classified as “College Ready,” and 175 or above earns a “College Ready + Credit” designation, which some colleges accept for course credit.
If you pass some subjects but not others, most states let you retake only the subjects you failed rather than the entire test.
Professional Licensing Exams
Professional exams set their own passing thresholds, and these can vary not just by exam but by jurisdiction.
The Uniform Bar Examination (UBE), used by the majority of U.S. states for law licensing, is scored on a scale of 0 to 400. The minimum passing score depends on which state you want to practice in. The lowest threshold is 260, while some states require 270. This means a score that qualifies you to practice law in one state might not be enough in another.
The NCLEX, the licensing exam for nurses, uses a different model entirely. It is a computer-adaptive test, meaning the difficulty of questions adjusts based on your answers. The exam ends when the algorithm determines with 95% confidence that you are either above or below the passing standard. You receive a pass or fail result rather than a numerical score.
The CPA exam, required for certified public accountants, uses a scale of 0 to 99 on each of its four sections. You need a 75 on every section to pass. Unlike some other exams, that 75 is not a simple percentage of questions answered correctly. It is a scaled score that accounts for question difficulty.
Military Entrance: ASVAB Scores
The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) produces an Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) score that ranges from 1 to 99. This is a percentile score, meaning a 50 indicates you performed better than 50% of the reference population.
Each military branch sets its own minimum. The Air Force, for example, requires a minimum AFQT score of 31 for high school graduates and 50 for GED holders. The Army, Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard each have their own cutoffs, generally ranging from the mid-20s to the low-30s for high school graduates. Beyond the overall AFQT score, individual subtests determine which military occupational specialties you qualify for, so a higher score opens up more career options even if you already clear the entry threshold.
Why Passing Scores Differ So Much
A 60% passes a high school class. A 75 passes the CPA exam. A 145 passes the GED. A 270 passes the bar in many states. These numbers look wildly different because each exam measures different things at different levels of difficulty, and each institution or licensing body decides independently what level of competency it considers acceptable.
A test with extremely difficult questions might set its passing threshold at 50% of questions answered correctly, because that represents genuine mastery of hard material. A classroom exam covering introductory material might set its bar at 70% because the content is more straightforward and a higher percentage of correct answers is expected. The raw number alone tells you nothing without understanding the scale it sits on.
Before you take any exam, look up the specific passing score for that test and, if applicable, for your state or institution. “Passing” is always defined by whoever controls the credential you are trying to earn.