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Official Dental Board data · Updated monthly by the Board

California RDA exam pass rates: the official 2026 numbers

Across January–June 2026, candidates passed 74.5% of 1,146 administrations of the Registered Dental Assistant Combined Written and Law and Ethics Examination. First-time testers passed at 85.2%; repeat testers at 42.3%. Every figure on this page is transcribed from the Dental Board of California's published monthly statistics.

Last verified August 9, 2026 · How Dentovio verifies content

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Monthly results, 2026

“Exams taken” counts administrations, not unique candidates — the Board's own column heading. A candidate who tests twice appears twice.

MonthExams takenPassed% passedFirst-time %Repeat %
January 202614210373%86%37%
February 202618514076%87%44%
March 202617312472%83%37%
April 202619014677%82%56%
May 202619315279%92%44%
June 202626318972%83%38%
H1 2026 total1,14685474.5%85.2%42.3%

Pass rate by eligibility pathway

The Board reports results by how candidates qualified under BPC §1752.1, and the gap is persistent: board-approved-program candidates out-passed the work-experience pathway in every published month of 2026, by as much as 17 percentage points in June (79% vs 62%). The Board publishes the numbers without an explanation, and an association is not a prediction for any individual candidate.

Pathway (Jan–Jun 2026)Exams takenPassed% passed
Board-approved program60447678.8%
Work experience47131566.9%
Mixed education and work experience585086%
Preceptorship88100%
DANB Certified Dental Assistant33100%
Registered Dental Hygienist crossover11100%

Pathway rows reproduce the Board's published monthly figures as-is. One transparency note: the Board's March 2026 report is internally inconsistent by one administration — its pathway rows sum to 172 exams against a published grand total of 173 — so this table's total is one lower than the monthly table's.

What the Board does not publish

  • A passing score. Scoring is criterion-referenced pass/fail (modified Angoff, 16 CCR §1081) — there is no fixed percentage, and the Board does not publish a cut score.
  • Unique-candidate rates. Reports count exam administrations, so repeat testers appear in each month they test.
  • Content-area performance. Failing candidates get no published per-area diagnostic — which is why knowing your weak areas before test day is on you.
  • Any causal explanation. The pathway gap is reported without analysis.

The takeaway from the retake row

Repeat testers passed 42.3%of retakes in H1 2026 — failing once is strongly associated with failing again, and each retake costs another PSI fee. The Board's reports give failing candidates no per-area breakdown, so the cheapest correction is diagnostic feedback beforethe first attempt. Dentovio's free practice test is proportioned to the official 2023 outline and returns an area-by-area map in about fifteen minutes.

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Pass-rate questions, answered

What is the pass rate on the California RDA exam?

Across January–June 2026, candidates passed 854 of 1,146 RDA Combined Written exam administrations — 74.5% overall, per the Dental Board of California's monthly statistics. Individual months ranged from 72% (March and June) to 79% (May).

What percentage pass the RDA exam on the first try?

First-time testers passed at 85.2% across January–June 2026 (734 of 862 first-attempt administrations). Monthly first-time rates ranged from 82% to 92%.

What is the RDA exam retake pass rate?

Repeat testers passed at 42.3% across January–June 2026 (120 of 284 retake administrations). The retake rate has not exceeded 56% in any 2026 month, and was 37–38% in three of the six months — failing once is strongly associated with failing again.

What score do you need to pass the California RDA exam?

There is no fixed passing percentage. Since the Board's dental-assisting examination rulemaking took effect on November 20, 2024, the exam is scored pass/fail against a criterion-referenced standard set with the modified Angoff method under 16 CCR §1081. The Board reports results as pass or fail only and does not publish a cut score.

Does the eligibility pathway affect the pass rate?

The Board's reports show a persistent association: board-approved-program candidates passed at 78.8% across January–June 2026, while work-experience-pathway candidates passed at 66.9%. The gap appeared in every month, reaching 17 percentage points in June (79% vs 62%). The Board publishes the numbers without an explanation; the association is not a prediction for any individual candidate.

Where does this pass-rate data come from?

Every figure on this page is transcribed from the Dental Board of California's official monthly RDA examination statistics PDFs, linked in the sources below. The Board publishes per-program, per-pathway, and first-time/repeat breakdowns monthly; the half-year totals here are sums of those published monthly rows.

Primary sources

Dentovio is an independent publisher. It is not the Dental Board of California, PSI, or an official government service, and this page is not legal advice.

This page summarizes publicly available California dental assisting law and official examination information as of the last verified date shown. Laws, fees, and exam logistics change. Confirm current requirements with the Dental Board of California and your current PSI candidate bulletin before acting.

This page was drafted with AI assistance, and every rule on it was checked against the primary sources listed here. Review of the currently served study corpus is a separate state: Source-cited, and every in-scope file carries a current exact-digest sign-off by Mahtab Mansour, DDS on 2026-07-25. The recorded reviewer is a dentist, not an RDA or assisting educator.