The ICVA administers the North American Veterinary Licensing Examination® (NAVLE®) as a requirement for licensure to practice veterinary medicine in the US and Canada.
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NAVLE Eligibility
To be eligible for the NAVLE exam, you must meet ONE of the following educational requirements:
- You have graduated from or are enrolled in a veterinary school accredited by the AVMA Council on Education. The school must be accredited when you graduate. In Canada and most US states, students must have an expected graduation date no later than 10 months after the final day of their testing window.
- You are enrolled in or certified through the Educational Commission for Foreign Veterinary Graduates (ECFVG) or the Program for the Assessment of Veterinary Education Equivalence (PAVE). If you are still enrolled, you must complete the ECFVG’s Basic and Clinical Sciences Examination (BCSE) or PAVE’s Qualifying Science Examination (QSE), as applicable, before you can receive approval to take the NAVLE.
Candidates seeking licensure in Canada should follow the National Examining Board (NEB) approval process.
NAVLE Exam Outline
The NAVLE exam contains 360 multiple-choice questions, 60 of which are unscored, and it will take around 7.5 hours to finish.
The exam is administered in 12 blocks. Each block contains 30 questions and is timed at 33 minutes.
The exam is split into four competency domains.
1. Clinical Practice (70%)
The questions in this domain test your knowledge and skills related to gathering and interpreting data and health maintenance and prevention.
Data Gathering and Interpretation
- Record creation, maintenance, and proficiency
- Diagnosing the patient and developing treatment plans accordingly
- Interpreting cytologic specimens, diagnostic images, and laboratory tests
- Interpreting findings from a physical examination
- Interpreting findings from a postmortem specimen
- Interpreting principles of pathophysiology and mechanism of action
- Interpreting results of a system-specific examination
- Investigating possible exposure of companion animals to toxins
- Investigating possible exposure of food or game animal to toxins
- Observing/interpreting an animal’s mental status and other aspects of behavior
- Performing system-specific examination
- Prioritizing the need for diagnostic procedures considering available resources
- Reading and interpreting production records or farm-based computer reports to understand herd-level health parameters
- Reviewing animal medical records to determine health status
Health Maintenance and Problem Management
- Administering a biological or pharmacological agent other than anesthesia
- Administering general or local anesthesia.
- Applying a splint, cast, or another stabilization device
- Caring for wounds or surgical incisions
- Determining prognosis
- Establishing a treatment and rehabilitation plan
- Evaluating a treatment outcome
- Formulating/evaluating a behavior modification plan
- Formulating patient/herd/population management and treatment plans
- Performing common therapeutic/surgical procedures
- Performing major surgical procedures
- Prescribing a biological or pharmacological agent
- Referring clients to veterinary specialists for further diagnostic studies or treatment
- Synthesizing multiple sources of diagnostic information, including local disease prevalence, to determine diagnosis
- Treating minor injuries or trauma
2. Communication (8%)
The questions in this domain test your ability to communicate with clients and other professionals in the workplace.
Communication with Clients
- Advising a client on health maintenance for the herd, flock, or individual pet
- Advising a client regarding appropriate and inappropriate pharmacy compounding
- Discussing euthanasia with a client
- Discussing strategies with a producer or client to reduce antibiotic resistance and/or antibiotic residues
- Discussing the limits of legal extra-label drug use with the client
- Ensuring that a client understands the effects of prescribed pharmaceuticals, including chemotherapeutics
- Explaining diagnosis and prognosis to clients using lay terminology
- Explaining research results to a client, describing their implications for animal care
- Helping clients differentiate trustworthy from unreliable information to support the care of their animals
- Informing a client of bad news
- Instructing clients on how to obtain diagnostic information from an animal’s home environment
- Instructing clients on methods for isolating and quarantining diseased animals
- Negotiating a payment plan with a client
- Obtaining informed consent from a client
- Providing instruction regarding food safety practices
- Providing verbal instructions to a client regarding follow-up care
- Recommending management options to clients that are consistent with their cultural norms and personal values
- Referring a client for grief counseling
- Talking with a client to clarify concerns and expectations regarding the type and level of care
- Teaching a client about preventive care
- Using appropriate communication techniques
- Writing a summary of animal care instructions for a client
Communication with Veterinary and Other Professionals
- Building relationships with junior colleagues or new graduates
- Consulting with other veterinarians or veterinary specialists regarding animal care
- Delegating delivery of veterinary care and services to associates or staff
- Delivering verbal case summaries to other veterinarians or members of the healthcare team
- Describing disaster preparedness plan to coworkers
- Engaging regulatory bodies to improve standards of practice or to address other professional issues
- Explaining the results of the research to non-veterinary health workers
- Guiding the work of associates or other staff in the delivery of veterinary services
- Mentoring and supervising veterinary and veterinary technician students
- Responding to unprofessional or unethical behavior in others
- Training staff in animal health and care
- Writing a case summary for use by other veterinarians or healthcare team members
3. Professionalism, Practice Management, and Wellness (7%)
The questions in this domain test your knowledge and skills pertaining to professional development and veterinary practice management.
Professional Development and Life-Long Learning
- Exchanging scientific or technical information with other health professionals.
- Attending professional development seminars
- Emerging technologies
- Using reference materials
Veterinary Practice Management
- Apply appropriate animal restraint
- Describe the workings of the benefit plan to staff
- Develop a budget for your practice or employer
- Develop standard operating procedures (e.g., procedures manual for practice or work environment)
- Evaluate and purchase major medical equipment
- Evaluate and purchase office/practice management software
- Evaluate new medications, products, or treatment procedures to determine suitability for own practice
- Negotiate work or practice arrangements (e.g., compensation, work schedule) with colleagues
- Prepare or update the employee handbook
- Purchase expendable supplies
- Review practice management data, including business and financial records
- Supervise paraprofessional or technical support staff
4. Preventive Medicine and Animal Welfare (15%)
The questions in this domain test your knowledge and skills pertaining to health and safety and animal welfare issues.
Environmental Health and Safety
- Isolation/quarantining techniques
- Proper waste disposal
- Informing the community about waste management/removal
Veterinary Public Health
- Reporting disease concerns to state, regional, and national agencies
- Investigating and documenting a disease outbreak
- Conducting community education workshops related to disease and animal health
- Collaborating with community groups and government agencies concerning diseases and health risks
Animal Welfare Issues and Concerns
- Certifying that animal products meet acceptable standards
- Animal welfare audits
- Vaccinations
- Deworming
- Explaining concerns to a client
Check out Mometrix's NAVLE Study Guide!
Get practice questions, video tutorials, and detailed study lessons.
Registration
To register for the exam in the US, you must fill out an application on the ICVA website and pay the $825 testing fee. Canadian candidates apply through the Canadian National Examining Board (NEB).
Once your application has been approved, you will receive a confirmation email with instructions on how to schedule your exam appointment with Prometric.
NAVLE Online Prep Course
If you want to be fully prepared, Mometrix offers an online NAVLE prep course designed to give you everything you need to succeed!
Here's what you'll find in the NAVLE course:
- 70+ Review Lessons Covering Every Topic
- 600 NAVLE Practice Questions
- 950+ Digital Flashcards
- Money-back Guarantee
- Mobile Access
Everyone learns differently, so we've tailored the NAVLE online prep course to ensure every learner has what they need to prepare for the NAVLE exam.
Click below to check it out!
Test Day
On the day of the exam, you should arrive 30 minutes before your scheduled appointment time. Bring your scheduling permit and a current, valid government-issued photo ID. If your photo ID does not include a signature, bring a second valid ID bearing your signature.
Once you have been approved for testing, you will be asked to leave all personal items in a secured locker located outside the testing room. This includes your cell phone, watch, bags, and food items.
After your items have been stored, you will be led to your testing area and given a brief tutorial on the testing system before the exam begins.
Scores
Your NAVLE score is based on a scaling system. This system takes your raw score, which is the number of questions you answered correctly, and converts it to a numerical score reported on a range of 200-800. The passing score is a scaled score of 425.
Scores are generally released about four to five weeks after the testing window closes. Your report will contain a bar graph that shows a distribution of scores from a recent group of NAVLE test-takers, as well as your score in relation to the passing score.
Retaking the Test
ICVA allows five total NAVLE attempts under its current policy. Beginning with the March 2026 testing window, attempts made before December 1, 2025, do not count toward this limit.
Study Tips
Start with a NAVLE Practice Test
Before creating your study schedule, take a NAVLE practice test to establish a starting point. You don't need to wait until you have reviewed every species, disease process, diagnostic test, and treatment approach. At this stage, the goal is to identify where your preparation time will have the greatest effect.
Review your results across the four competency domains:
- Clinical Practice: Can you gather and interpret clinical information, develop differential diagnoses, choose appropriate diagnostic tests, and make treatment and preventive-care decisions?
- Preventive Medicine and Animal Welfare: Do you understand animal welfare, environmental health and safety, disease prevention, biosecurity, zoonotic disease, and veterinary public health?
- Communication: Can you communicate appropriately with clients, veterinary professionals, and other people involved in animal care?
- Professionalism, Practice Management and Wellness: Do you understand professional responsibilities, practice management, continuing development, and veterinarian wellness?
Then, review the same results by species. Canine and feline medicine make up about half of the species blueprint, followed by equine and bovine medicine. Don't ignore porcine, ovine/caprine, small mammals, birds, reptiles, aquatics, and the other smaller categories, but use the official weighting to help prioritize your study time.
Review Difficult Questions
After each practice session, review every question you answered incorrectly AND every question you guessed on or answered with low confidence.
For each difficult question, determine which of the following caused the problem:
- You recognized the disease but missed an important signalment or history clue.
- You identified the likely diagnosis but selected the wrong diagnostic test.
- You interpreted a lab result incorrectly.
- You selected treatment before stabilizing or further assessing the patient.
- You confused two diseases with similar presentations.
- You knew the disease but didn't account for species-specific differences.
- You overlooked a zoonotic, biosecurity, or public-health concern.
- You selected a reasonable answer rather than the single best answer for the situation.
Then, outline a specific plan for improvement based on what you discovered. In other words, don't just say, “I need to study equine medicine.” Note that you need to practice distinguishing causes of acute equine colic using history, examination findings, and diagnostic results.
Similarly, replace “study canine endocrinology” with something specific, such as distinguishing diabetes mellitus, hyperadrenocorticism, and hypoadrenocorticism from their clinical and laboratory findings.
Utilize Answer Explanations
Answer explanations are an underutilized studying resource. To take full advantage of them, read the explanation for every question you found difficult, including questions you answered correctly.
For each one, make sure you can confidently explain:
- Why the correct answer is correct
- Why each incorrect answer is less appropriate
- What disease, clinical principle, or competency is being tested
- Which findings in the case control the answer
- What the veterinarian should do next
- How the same disease or principle could appear in another species or clinical presentation
For clinical cases, reconstruct the reasoning process instead of memorizing the diagnosis. Identify the important signalment, history, examination findings, diagnostic results, and immediate risks before deciding what should happen next.
If an image, radiograph, lab result, or other diagnostic finding is provided, determine what evidence it contributes to the case rather than treating it as a separate fact to memorize.
Study Diseases by Species and System
Don't study the NAVLE as one enormous alphabetical list of diseases. Organize conditions by species and body system, then compare diseases that could produce similar presentations.
For each important condition, work through:
Species and Signalment → Clinical Signs → Key Differentials → Diagnostics → Treatment → Prevention
For example, don't just memorize individual causes of vomiting in dogs. Compare gastrointestinal, metabolic, infectious, toxic, and obstructive causes and identify which history, physical examination, laboratory, or imaging findings help separate them.
Check out Mometrix's NAVLE Flashcards!
Get complex subjects broken down into easily understandable concepts.
FAQs
Q
How many questions are on the NAVLE exam?
A
There are 360 multiple-choice questions on the exam, 60 of which do not count toward your score.
Q
How long is the NAVLE exam?
A
The time limit for the exam is ~6.5 hours, with the whole testing day taking about 7.5 hours total.
Q
What is the passing score for the NAVLE exam?
A
To pass the exam, you must achieve a scaled score of at least 425.
Q
When are NAVLE scores released?
A
Scores are generally released about four to five weeks after the testing window closes.
Q
How much does the NAVLE exam cost?
A
The examination fee is $825.
NAVLE and North American Veterinary Licensing Examination are registered trademarks of International Council for Veterinary Assessment, which is not affiliated with Mometrix Test Preparation and does not endorse this page.
