What's a "good" CALE pass rate?
A "good" CALE pass rate isn't really a single percentage — it's a percentage you can trust, and trust comes from how many people it's built on, not just the number itself. That's the real question hiding under this one: not "which number is highest" but "which number would still look the same next year.
A "good" CALE pass rate isn't really a single percentage — it's a percentage you can trust, and trust comes from how many people it's built on, not just the number itself. That's the real question hiding under this one: not "which number is highest" but "which number would still look the same next year."
A rate from 40 test-takers and a rate from 3 test-takers can both read as, say, "90%" — but only one of them tells you much about what a new student's odds actually look like. A single retake can swing a 2–3 person cohort by 20–50 points; it barely moves a cohort of dozens.
Here's what the multi-year (2021–2025) California Acupuncture Board data, aggregated in Five Branches' TCM Education Guide (last checked 08/2026), shows across Northern California schools:
| School | Cumulative test-takers (N) | Cumulative pass rate | What the size tells you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Five Branches University | 169 | 85.8% | Every year in the high-20s to low-40s — the largest, steadiest cohort in this set |
| University of East-West Medicine | 74 | 85.1% | Mid-sized (16–23/yr); two perfect years alongside two high-60s/70s years |
| Academy of Chinese Culture & Health Sciences | 88 | 83% | Shrinking cohort (26→10) with a wide swing (69–94%) |
| California University–Silicon Valley | 15 | 73.3% | ~2/yr average, one year of 7 — a single result moves the whole percentage |
So a "good" rate is really two things held together: a strong cumulative percentage (mid-80s or better tends to be the durable range here) and a cohort large enough — dozens per year, not a handful — that the number isn't just noise. A 90% from 3 people and an 86% from 169 people are not the same kind of evidence, even though the first number looks better on paper.
Curious how a specific school you're weighing stacks up on this — or want to talk through what else besides pass rate matters for your decision?
Sources
- Five Branches University — Cale Pass Rates Northern California checked 2026-08
- Southwest Acupuncture College (Scottsdale Campus) — Southwestacupuncturecollege.Com checked 2026-08
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