NBE Arts

The Sciences portion tests embalming, restorative art, microbiology, pathology, and chemistry - the technical handling of remains. The Arts portion tests the business and human side: management, merchandising, law, ethics, counseling, grief sociology, communication, and accounting. Most candidates sit both, and the study strategies are genuinely different, so plan separate blocks for each.

Those figures are set by the sponsoring organization and are revised periodically, so any number quoted online - including on commercial prep sites - may already be stale. Check the current candidate handbook or the official website for the live question count, time allowance, and appointment length before you book a testing slot.

Passing standards are set and periodically revalidated by the sponsoring organization, and some jurisdictions impose their own additional requirement on top of the board score. Rather than relying on a number from a forum thread, confirm the current scaled-score requirement in the official handbook and check whether your state board adds anything to it.

Candidates usually find it differently hard rather than more or less hard. The Sciences reward memorization and lab repetition. The Arts section punishes shallow reading: the law and ethics items hinge on fine distinctions, and the management and merchandising items hinge on judgment. People who cram definitions without practicing application tend to underperform here.

Underweighting the smaller domains. Candidates pour hours into funeral service law because it feels concrete, then walk in shaky on accounting ratios, merchandising math, and the counseling models - and those areas add up to a large share of the scored items. A balanced coverage plan beats deep specialization almost every time.

Start with the frameworks the other domains depend on: management principles and business math first, then law and ethics, which use both. Move to merchandising and marketing, then the psychology, grief, and communication material, which is easiest to absorb once you can already think in terms of scenarios. Finish with full-length practice sets under timed conditions.

Enough to matter. Expect markup and margin, unit pricing of caskets and vaults, proportional allocation of a service package, simple interest, depreciation, and basic financial-statement ratios. You will not need calculus, but you will need to work cleanly without a spreadsheet. Practice by hand until the formulas are automatic, then check your answers.

Retake rules - waiting periods, attempt limits, and whether a fee applies again - are set by the sponsoring organization and sometimes modified by individual state boards. Look up the current retake policy in the official handbook rather than assuming the previous cycle's rules still apply. Some jurisdictions also require a remediation step between attempts.

Most candidates who pass comfortably report several weeks of structured review after finishing their program, not a weekend of cramming. Build a schedule that touches every domain at least twice, with the second pass focused entirely on missed questions. If you are working full time, add buffer rather than compressing the plan.

No. This is independent study material and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the board that administers the examination. Nothing here substitutes for the official candidate handbook, and no third-party course can guarantee an outcome. Use official sources for eligibility, scheduling, scoring, and any regulatory question.