The SAFE MLO test pass rate that the test’s own publisher prints is a first-time rate of 53 percent as of December 31, 2024. That single figure sits on the Test Performance Information page of the MLO Testing Handbook, and the handbook still prints 53 percent. The second public record is the set of annual reports the State Corporation Commission of Virginia files on the State Regulatory Registry (SRR) and the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System (NMLS), which print tests taken, tests passed and the pass rate by attempt, first attempt, subsequent attempts and overall, for every year from 2020 through 2025.
The two documents that publish a rate
The MLO Testing Handbook, which SRR publishes for the SAFE Mortgage Loan Originator Test, National Component with Uniform State Content, carries one page of performance data and one number on it: the first-time pass rate, with the date it was current to. The handbook’s testing FAQ adds that the rate is published and updated on the NMLS Resource Center, so the page moves when SRR republishes it. A quote of that number without its date is a quote of a moving figure. The handbook itself is public reading at the NMLS Resource Center.
Virginia is the other record, and it is a fuller one. The Commonwealth’s Bureau of Financial Institutions reports each year on SRR and NMLS to the Virginia legislature’s two commerce committees, under Title 6.2, Chapter 17, s. 6.2-1720 D of the Code of Virginia, and every report since the 2021 edition devotes part of its education and testing page to a chart of national test pass rates by attempt. Each chart gives three columns, tests taken, tests passed and the pass rate, across three rows: a first attempt, every subsequent attempt, and the overall.
The record, year by year
The 2021 report covers 2020 and 2021 together. Every later report covers one calendar year.
| Period | First attempt | Subsequent attempts | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 to 2021 | 62,178 of 112,232, 55% | 21,314 of 49,092, 43% | 83,492 of 161,324, 52% |
| 2022 | 21,272 of 38,885, 55% | 9,098 of 22,687, 40% | 30,370 of 61,572, 49% |
| 2023 | 12,165 of 21,378, 57% | 4,602 of 11,997, 38% | 16,767 of 33,375, 50% |
| 2024 | 13,514 of 24,049, 56% | 4,695 of 12,074, 38% | 18,209 of 36,123, 50% |
| 2025 | 13,237 of 25,159, 52% | 5,264 of 13,930, 37% | 18,501 of 39,089, 47% |
Every count and every percentage in that table is printed in the report for that period, the overall row included. Nothing in it is computed here.
Read down the first-attempt column and the range over six years is 52 to 57 percent. The 53 percent on the handbook page, dated to December 31, 2024, falls inside that range and within three points of the 56 percent Virginia recorded for calendar 2024, which are two publishers counting different populations over different periods and landing in the same place.
What 75 percent means on this test
The pass mark is statutory. Under the Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act (SAFE Act), an individual has not passed the qualified written test unless the score is “not less than 75 percent correct answers to questions” (12 USC s. 5104(d)(3)(A)). The statute sets a floor, so no state may license on a lower score, and 75 percent is an absolute standard rather than a rank against whoever else sat that week.
That 75 percent is a scaled score and not a tally of items. Each candidate gets a distinct form, built by linear on the fly testing, and each form is statistically equated to a standard form so that a slightly harder draw costs nothing and a slightly easier one gains nothing (MLO Testing Handbook, 9.2.1 Equating of Test Scores). The score report hands back an overall percentage plus a performance range for each content area, and the handbook is explicit that those ranges are there to point the next round of study and are not a count of how many items went right in an area or across the sitting (MLO Testing Handbook, 9.2 Score Reporting). Multiplying 115 scored items by 0.75 therefore produces a number no score report will confirm.
The first attempt and the retake are different populations
In every year of the Virginia record the subsequent-attempt rate runs 12 to 19 points below the first-attempt rate. The widest gap is 2023, 57 percent against 38. The 2025 gap is 15 points, 52 percent against 37, and 2024 sits between them at 18.
Neither number forecasts what one retaker will do, for two reasons the reports themselves make plain:
- The denominator is tests, not people. A candidate who fails three times contributes three tests to the subsequent-attempt row, so a small group of repeat takers pulls the rate down more than their number suggests.
- The reports do not follow individuals. Nothing in them says what share of candidates who fail once eventually pass, which is the question a retaker actually has. Neither the handbook nor the Virginia reports carry it.
What the record does show is that the retake rate is lower than the first-attempt rate in all six years, and that a second attempt starts with a 30-day wait and another $110 enrollment fee (MLO Testing Handbook, 10.1 Retaking a Failed Test / Waiting Period, and 2.5 Test Fees).
Figures with no document behind them
Study material reviewed for this site on September 8, 2026 carried six different first-attempt pass rates or ranges for this test, from roughly half to 58 percent, with one vendor separately claiming 85 percent for its own customers. Only one of them named a publisher, attributing the figure to the registry itself. The two records above are the whole published set: a first-time rate carrying the date it was current to, and a state regulator’s yearly counts of tests taken and passed.
The pass mark is fixed at 75 percent by statute and the five content areas carry published weights, so the variable a candidate controls is how much of the outline they know cold. Practice by section follows the outline’s five splits, and two of those splits, Mortgage Loan Origination Activities and Federal Mortgage-Related Laws, carry 27 and 24 percent of the test between them.
Sources
- SAFE Mortgage Licensing Act, 12 USC s. 5104, subsection (d)(3)(A), US Code release point 119-102
- MLO Testing Handbook, Test Performance Information, ss. 2.5, 9.2, 9.2.1 and 10.1. Restricted document, cited by heading and never quoted
- State Corporation Commission of Virginia annual reports on SRR and NMLS, the 2021 to 2025 reports, national test pass rates by attempt. Restricted document, cited by document and chart