RankHighCompetitive Exam Prep

How the Border Patrol Exam Score Is Used

Under Direct Hire Authority there is no rank order and no eligible list. The examination is something you must complete and pass. CBP does not publish a passing score.

There is no ranking

The live Border Patrol Agent announcements state that the vacancy is filled under Direct Hire Authority, that all applicants meeting the minimum qualification requirements will be reviewed, and that Veteran's Preference and traditional rating and ranking of applicants do not apply. The examination appears in the announcement as a pre-employment step you must complete and pass.

This is genuinely different from a state or city civil service examination, where a score becomes a number on a ranked eligible list. There is no list here to be near the top of.

What CBP does not publish

CBP does not publish a passing score for this examination. It is not in the preparation guide, on the CBP Careers pages, or in any of the job announcements. CBP confirms that a threshold exists — the retest rule begins "if you do not obtain a passing score" — without ever saying what it is.

A figure of 70 appears widely on commercial preparation sites. We have not found an official source for it, and we will not repeat a number CBP has not published. If you find one on an official CBP page, that page is the authority and not this one.

So why prepare at all

Because failing is expensive. If you do not obtain a passing score there is a 90-day waiting period before you are permitted to retest, and if you do not complete the examination within the deadlines your application is treated as abandoned and you must reapply in the next open period.

The argument for preparing here is not about beating other applicants. It is about not losing three months.

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