The funeral service National Board Exam (NBE): a complete guide

The NBE at a glance

What the NBE is

The National Board Examination is the licensing exam for funeral directors and embalmers in most U.S. states. It is written and owned by The Conference, whose member boards are the state licensing boards, and it is a minimum-competency exam: it isn't designed to rank candidates, only to decide whether you have the knowledge an entry-level funeral director or embalmer needs.

It comes in two halves. NBE-Arts covers the funeral-directing side — arranging and directing, merchandising, counseling, law and regulation, and cemetery and crematory operations. NBE-Sciences covers the embalming side — embalming itself, restorative art, other preparation of the deceased, and the underlying sciences. Which halves you need depends on the license you're after, and many states add their own laws, rules and regulations exam on top. Your state board is the final word on what you need.

Exam format and timing

Each section is 170 multiple-choice questions. 150 count toward your score. The other 20 are pretest questions The Conference is trialling for future exams — they don't count for or against you, but they are mixed in at random and look identical, so answer everything as if it counts.

You get 170 minutes for the 170 questions: almost exactly one minute each. Before the clock starts there is a 3-minute non-disclosure agreement (decline it and the exam ends with your fee forfeited) and a 7-minute tutorial on the testing software.

The software is more forgiving than people expect. According to the handbook you can move freely through the exam, skip questions, flag them for later, change answers, add notes, and review everything before you end. A basic calculator is built into the software (you can't bring your own), and you're given an erasable note board and marker. The timer keeps running during restroom breaks.

Want to feel the pace before test day? Our free 10-question practice test is weighted the same way the real sections are.

What's on each section

The domains are not weighted evenly, and that should drive how you split your study time. These are the scored-item counts from the current content outline, which The Conference built from a 2022 job task analysis of practicing funeral professionals and has used since January 1, 2023.

NBE-Arts

NBE-Sciences

Two domains dominate. Embalming is 62 of the 150 scored Sciences items, and funeral arranging and directing is 51 of the 150 scored Arts items. Each domain above links to a page of worked practice questions for it.

How NBE scoring works

The NBE is pass/fail, and the pass mark is a scaled score of 75 on each section. This is the most misunderstood fact about the exam: 75 is not 75%. Different candidates sit different forms of the exam, and some forms are slightly harder than others. Scaling converts your raw score onto a common scale so that a 75 means the same level of knowledge whichever form you got. The Conference says the number of correct answers needed for a 75 generally moves within a range of one or two questions from form to form.

The Conference doesn't publish the raw cut score, but its statistics give a good hint. Each program in its by-school reports shows an average scaled score alongside its average number of correct answers per domain. Plotting one against the other across every program gives an almost perfectly straight line, and in each of the four data sets we checked (Arts and Sciences, 2025 and 2026) a scaled 75 falls at roughly 102 to 103 correct out of 150 — about 68%. Treat that as an informed estimate, not an official number, and don't aim for it: the average first-time candidate got about 110 right.

What you're told afterwards

• If you pass, the screen says “Pass” and that's all. Passing numerical scores go only to licensing boards.
• If you fail, you get your scaled score and a list of the content-outline objective areas where you missed at least one question. The Conference suggests reading it as a domain-level guide, since your next form won't necessarily test the same objectives.
• You leave with an unofficial printout. The official report goes from The Conference to the licensing board(s) on your application in about three business days, and a wall certificate for each section you pass arrives by mail in about three weeks.

NBE pass rates

The Conference publishes first-time results for every accredited mortuary science program but no national total, so we added them up. These cover first-time candidates who graduated from ABFSE-accredited programs.

Roughly one first-time candidate in four fails Sciences, and Sciences has had the lower pass rate in both periods. Rates also vary a lot by program, so your school's own number is worth looking up in the Conference's statistics. The Conference notes that its figures can differ from those the ABFSE publishes, because the ABFSE exempts some candidates who test a year or more after graduating.

Where candidates lose the most points

The same reports give each program's average number of correct answers per domain. Weighted across every first-time candidate in 2025, no domain was easy — nationally, candidates got between 72% and 77% right in every one. What differs is how many points that costs, because the domains are such different sizes:

The average first-time candidate left about 17 items on the table in embalming alone — more than the 13 or so they missed in all of funeral arranging and directing, and nearly twice as many as any other Sciences domain. If you're short on time, that is where it goes.

Eligibility and registration

The handbook gives three routes to eligibility:

• graduating from an ABFSE-accredited mortuary science program;
• completing an ABFSE-affiliated program (for example, funeral directing or embalming only), pre-approved by a member board; or
• meeting a state's eligibility requirements, with the state board submitting your eligibility to The Conference.

You apply online through The Conference (or by mail) and pay $285 per section; the two sections can be paid for together or separately. Once approved you receive an Authorization to Test and book your appointment with Pearson VUE online or by phone. A few rules worth knowing before you pay:

• Applications and payments expire one year from the payment date if you don't test. Fees are non-refundable.
• You can reschedule or cancel free up to 30 days before your appointment; inside 30 days it costs $25, and no changes are allowed within 24 hours.
• Arriving late or not showing up counts as a no-show: the fee and the authorization are forfeited.
• The first state board to receive your results is included; each extra board costs $25 when you apply, or $50 to re-release results more than a year later.

What to expect on test day

• Arrive at least 30 minutes early. Late arrivals are treated as absent.
• Bring two unexpired IDs — one primary ID with a photo, such as a driver's license or passport, and a second from the primary or secondary list. The first and last names must match your application.
• Check-in includes a digital photo and a palm-vein scan. Refusing either forfeits the exam and the fee.
• Phones, bags, watches, food, drinks and personal calculators all stay in a locker. Headphones for noise are available on request.
• You can leave the room only for the nearest restroom, and the clock doesn't stop.

Retakes

If you fail a section, you must wait 30 days before retaking it, though you can apply and book the new appointment during the wait. Every attempt needs a new application and another $285, and every attempt — passing and failing — is reported to the boards on your application. Once you pass a section you can't sit it again unless a licensing board asks The Conference for it in writing. Your eligibility itself is kept on file for five years.

How to prepare

Every NBE question is tied to the content outline, to the ABFSE curriculum outline, and to at least one textbook on The Conference's approved list. In practice that means three things:

• Study in proportion to the blueprint. Embalming and arranging and directing together are more than a third of both sections combined. Counseling is worth less than a third of embalming.
• Practice reasoning, not recall. NBE distractors are usually real practices borrowed from the wrong context. Being able to say why each wrong answer is wrong is the skill that transfers.
• Rehearse the pace. A minute a question is tight over 170 items. Sit at least one full-length timed section before the real thing.

Official materials are sold by The Conference: printed or digital study guides, and an official practice NBE — 75 questions per section, taken on your own computer, single-use within seven days. For more volume, our practice questions by domain show worked examples from each of the nine domains, and the free practice test ranks your domains from weakest to strongest in about five minutes. For prices and question counts across every option, see our comparison of NBE prep resources.

Common questions

Sources

• 2025 NBE Candidate Handbook — The Conference (the current edition linked from its site as of September 25, 2026)
• NBE Statistics by Program, January 1 – December 31, 2025 — The Conference
• NBE Statistics by Program, January 1 – August 30, 2026 — The Conference
• National Board Exam FAQ — The Conference

Pass rates, domain averages and the raw-score estimate are our own calculations from The Conference's by-program reports; The Conference does not publish national totals. Rules and fees change — confirm anything you're about to pay for or rely on with The Conference or your state board. MortuaryPrep is an independent study aid and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to The Conference, ABFSE, or Pearson VUE. Last reviewed September 25, 2026.