Can You Pass the Nutrition and Dietetics (NDLE) Board Exam With Self-Review?

Yes. You can take the Nutrition and Dietetics (NDLE) Board Exam, the Nutritionist-Dietitians Licensure Examination, without a review center, and no law requires one for your first attempt. Whether self-review works for you depends on your discipline and on a few things specific to the NDLE exam. This post covers the law, the passing rate, what review centers cost, and what you'd need to do it alone, as of November 2026.

After reading this, you can decide whether to self-review for the NDLE exam, and what you need if you do.

Where this comes from

The rules come from RA 10862 and PRC's documents. The passing rates come from PRC's results, which I collected in board exam passing rates. Review center prices are from the centers' own sites. I checked all of them on November 9, 2026.

What the law says

To pass, you need a 75% general average, with no subject below 50% (RA 10862).

If you score 75% or higher in at least half the subjects, you retake only the ones below 75% within 2 years. Fail the retake and you take all subjects next time.

The full retake rules for 10 boards are in what happens if you fail the board exam.

What makes the NDLE exam harder to self-review

• There's no posted Table of Specifications. I couldn't find a topic-by-topic TOS for the NDLE on PRC's site. You only get subject names and weights, so you'll lean on your curriculum and practice questions.
• The subject names changed in November 2026. Nutritional Biochemistry and Clinical Dietetics became Nutrition and Dietetics, and Community and Public Health Nutrition became Community and Applied Nutrition. The weights stayed the same.
• It's once a year. Failing costs you a full year, not a few months.

The passing rate, for context

The NDLE passing rate was 69.4% in November 2025.

That's everyone who took the exam, with or without a review center. PRC doesn't publish separate rates for self-reviewers, so this number can't tell you which method works better. It only tells you how hard the exam is overall.

What a review center would cost

I found one NDLE review program with a published price: FNDRC's online review at ₱9,000 for the November 2026 exam. Ask any other center for a written quote.

What you need to self-review the NDLE exam

1. The official coverage. Start from PRC's own documents, not a random reviewer PDF. I laid out every subject and topic in NDLE board exam coverage.
2. Practice questions with explanations, organized by subject. Answering questions builds memory faster than rereading notes.
3. A schedule with an end date. Nobody will notice if you fall behind, so write the plan down. I built one in how long to review for the NDLE board exam.
4. At least two full timed mock exams. Board exam days are long, and focus needs practice too.
5. An allowed calculator, checked against PRC's calculator list.
6. A fallback. If one subject won't improve after a few weeks, pay for help on just that subject instead of a full review.

Where prepPH fits

I built prepPH, so I'm biased. It has NDLE practice questions with explanations, organized by subject, with spaced repetition built in. That covers the practice part of a self-review. It doesn't replace live teaching, and it won't count as a refresher course if your law ever requires one.

My verdict

Self-review can work for the NDLE, but the missing TOS makes it harder to know what to study. If you self-review, build your topic list from your curriculum and test yourself often. And don't miss the once-a-year filing window.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I pass the NDLE board exam without a review center?

Yes, it's allowed. No law requires a review center for your first attempt. Whether it works depends on your discipline and your practice.

Is a review center required for NDLE retakers?

No. RA 10862 has no refresher course requirement for repeaters.

What's the NDLE board exam passing rate?

It was 69.4% in November 2025, based on PRC's results.

Ready to test yourself? Try the free NDLE board exam reviewer. For the general comparison, see review center vs self-review.

Sources

• Republic Act No. 10862, Nutrition and Dietetics Law of 2016 (LawPhil), checked November 9, 2026
• Revised Program of the November 2026 Nutritionist-Dietitians Computer-Based Licensure Examination (PDF), checked November 9, 2026
• PRC List of Requirements, checked November 9, 2026