NA-CLTM Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows

What the Published NA-CLTM Pass Rate Actually Is

Search for the NeuroAnalyst-CLTM pass rate and you will find a mix of confident round numbers, recycled vendor claims, and figures borrowed from other credentials that share the "NA-CLTM" abbreviation. The only figure from the credentialing body itself is narrow: ABRET Examination Statistics 2024 reports a 60% pass rate for ten NA-CLTM candidates, with repeat examinees excluded from the overall rate. It appears on page 2 of the 2024 statistics document published by ABRET, the organization that issues and administers the exam.

That is the whole verified data point. It describes one calendar year, one small group, and first-time candidates only. It does not describe 2026, and labeling it a 2026 pass rate would be inaccurate. If you want the broader context for what a number like this means for your preparation, our guide to how hard the NA-CLTM exam is walks through the difficulty factors in more detail.

Why Ten Candidates Is Not a Pass Probability

With ten candidates, a 60% rate means six passed and four did not. Moving a single candidate from fail to pass raises the rate to 70%; moving one the other way drops it to 50%. One person changes the headline by ten percentage points. A statistic that swings that much on a single outcome cannot tell you the odds of passing for the next person who sits.

There is a second problem: the number says nothing about who those ten people were. Their reporting experience, case volume, familiarity with the Persyst platform, and preparation approach are all unknown. Treating 60% as your personal chance of passing, whether you read it as discouraging or comforting, is reading precision into noise.

What Has Not Been Verified for 2026

ABRET's statistics index also lists 2025 statistics, but the 2025 download repeatedly failed to retrieve during research. That means a newer numerical rate exists somewhere in ABRET's materials but was not confirmed here, and we will not guess at it. If you need the most current figure, open ABRET's examination statistics page directly and read the 2025 document yourself.

Several other facts are also unpublished or unverified, and they matter when interpreting any pass-rate claim:

• Total question count, scored versus pretest split, and exam timer: neither the NA-CLTM handbook nor ABRET's live exam and FAQ pages state them. Vendor claims of a specific question count are unsupported and should not be treated as official.
• Numeric pass mark: the Board sets a minimum-competence standard and matches forms for difficulty and content, but a numeric cut score was not verified.
• A separate 2026 blueprint: the handbooks index links the 2025 NA-CLTM handbook, while the 2026 entry has no retrievable handbook link. The 2025 outline is the currently linked scope document, supplemented by live 2026 eligibility and scheduling information.
• The next sitting: the posted 2026 exam was held October 3 in Irving, Texas, with a September 1 application deadline. Both have passed, and a 2027 date was not verified. See our NA-CLTM exam dates page for how to track announcements.

Be wary of any site presenting a precise, recent-looking NA-CLTM pass rate without citing an ABRET document. Older vendor statistics, or numbers from unrelated credentials that happen to use the same acronym, should not be reused as current. ABRET's own October 2025 examination-security statement is a reminder that this exam is closely guarded; claims of insider or recalled exam data deserve the same skepticism as unsourced percentages.

What Passing Measures: A Minimum-Competence Standard

ABRET sets a minimum-competence passing standard rather than a fixed curve, and it matches forms for difficulty and content. In practice, this means the pass rate is an outcome of how many candidates met the standard, not a target ABRET aims to hit. A low rate in one cohort says more about that cohort's readiness than about the exam being "rigged" to fail people.

The format also shapes what readiness means. The exam combines computer-based questions with live, reviewable EEG/video clips in Persyst, where you can adjust sensitivity and montages, using two platforms at once on ABRET-standardized equipment (laptop, second monitor, and mouse). It is administered and proctored in person on ABRET's announced dates, not remotely. Personal devices, books, notes, and calculators are prohibited; supplied scratch material or a whiteboard is allowed, and you may not leave the room while the test is in session. A candidate who knows the content but has never practiced navigating review software under time pressure is at a disadvantage that a raw pass rate will never reveal.

Where Candidates Are Likely to Lose Points

ABRET does not publish domain-level performance data, so what follows is an inference from the blueprint weights, not a finding from the statistics. The published weights are the best guide to where marks are available. For a full walkthrough, see our complete guide to all four NA-CLTM content areas.

Two observations follow from the weights. First, Domain 3 dominates: seven of every ten points depend on analysis and semiology, so a candidate who is strong on reports but slow on the clips has little room to recover. Second, Domain 4 is a full fifth of the exam and is often treated as the "easy" part by people who write reports daily. It is not trivial: the exam-specific terminology rule requires ACNS 2021 terminology, even though some report-template language in ABRET's FAQ still permits 2012 or 2021. Candidates who learned on older terminology and never updated their habits can lose points in a domain they feel comfortable in. The handbook also names the 2015 ACNS continuous-EEG consensus and the 2017 ILAE classifications as exam references.

Why the Pool Is Pre-Filtered

NA-CLTM is an advanced credential, and its eligibility rules mean candidates arrive with substantial documented experience. Eligibility requires one of two alternatives, not both:

• Pathway I: at least a bachelor's degree, two years as a CLTM technologist, 30 advanced-practice LTM CEUs, and 50 documented technical reports.
• Pathway II: no degree requirement under the practice track, three years as a CLTM technologist, 50 advanced-practice LTM CEUs, and 50 reports.

Current CPR/BLS is also required. Each of the 50 cases must be a distinct recording session of at least 12 hours, reviewed and reported by the applicant after earning CLTM and within five years; multiple daily reports from one continuous recording do not count as multiple cases. Patients must be at least one year old, 10% of cases must fall within the last 12 months, normal recordings without patient events are capped at 20%, and every page must be signed by the medical director or an actively ABRET-credentialed supervisor. Full details are in our NA-CLTM requirements guide.

The practical implication for interpreting pass rates: this is not an open-enrollment exam. Everyone in the cohort has already completed dozens of documented reports. That makes a 60% rate more sobering, not less, because it is a pool that has already cleared a high experience bar. It also means comparing the NA-CLTM rate to entry-level credential rates is not apples to apples.

Attempts, Fees, and the Cost of a Miss

Because the pass rate is not a guarantee, the cost of a miss is worth understanding before you apply. The exam fee is USD 700, with no member/nonmember tier. Each application provides one attempt. The handbook lists rescheduling fees of USD 225 at least 30 days before the appointment and USD 300 within 30 days, with no refunds, extensions, or transfer of fees. After three unsuccessful attempts, the current NA-CLTM page requires a six-month wait and ten advanced-practice CEUs. For a full breakdown, see our NA-CLTM certification cost guide.

Given that a pass rate near 60% means a meaningful share of candidates need another attempt, the fee structure argues for treating your first sitting as the one to prepare for fully, not as a trial run.

How to Read the Next Statistics Release

When ABRET's 2025 or later NA-CLTM numbers become accessible to you, apply the same discipline you would to a research abstract:

1. Check the cohort size first. If it is again small, discount the percentage heavily.
2. Check whether repeat examinees are included. The 2024 overall rate excluded them, so comparing it to a figure that includes them is invalid.
3. Check the year and the label. A 2025 rate is a 2025 rate, not a 2026 forecast.
4. Look for multi-year context. One year of a tiny cohort says little; a pattern across several years says more, though still not enough to predict an individual outcome.
5. Ignore decimals that imply false precision. With a cohort this size, the difference between 58% and 62% is not a real difference.

Turning the Data into a Domain-Weighted Plan

The honest takeaway from a small, dated pass rate is not a prediction but a priority list. Since the score is built 70% on analysis and 20% on the report, preparation time should follow those weights rather than treating the four domains as equal. Here is one way to schedule it; it is a structure, not an ABRET-endorsed timeline.

For a fuller methodology, see our NA-CLTM study guide and keep the NA-CLTM cheat sheet handy for the terminology and fact review. When you are ready to test yourself under realistic conditions, NA-CLTM Exam Prep's practice tests are built around the domain weights above, and you can start from the main practice test site at any point in your plan.

Frequently Asked Questions