Notary exam results

When do New York notary exam results arrive?

You're notified by mail as soon as results are available, as pass or fail. If you pass, apply for your commission online through New York Business Express. If you fail, you can retake the exam on another date and time of your choice.

A pass is valid for two years, so apply within that time.

California results and retakes

The two official sources don't agree on timing. The Secretary of State says results are available 15 business days after the exam, while CPS HR Consulting, which gives the exam, says about 15 to 20 business days. Neither discusses results by phone.

If you score under 70, you're mailed a fail notice with a retake voucher, and you pay a lower fee to sit again. You can't take the exam more than once in the same calendar month: CPS treats a second attempt that month as invalid and keeps the fee. A pass is valid for one year from the exam date, and the fingerprinting instructions are mailed to people who pass.

CPS will rescore an exam if you ask in writing within 45 days of the test, with a $30 money order.

Results in other states

• Pennsylvania: Pearson VUE reports results electronically to the Department of State. You can retake as often as needed within six months of being approved to test; after that, you redo the course and apply again.
• Utah: results appear as soon as you pay. Each retest costs $40, within 30 days of your first test.
• Louisiana: you can retake as many times as you like, one registration at a time. Failing has no effect on a commission you already hold.
• North Carolina: renewing notaries can take the online exam three times in 30 days. After three fails, you take the notary course again.
• Connecticut: the exam is part of the application, and you must answer every question correctly to get a commission.

Is the notary exam hard? What the pass rates show

Of the states we checked, only Louisiana publishes pass rates on its notary pages. Its file, dated October 23, 2026, lists each sitting with the number who passed: on October 14, 2026, 7 of 30 people passed (23%), and on October 10, 14 of 89 (16%). Adding up the file's figures for the 2026 sittings it lists, from October back to March, 286 of 1,434 people passed, about 20%. That total is our own sum, not a state statistic. Single small sittings swing from 0% to 63%.

New York and California don't publish pass rates, and none of these states rates how hard its own exam is. Figures you see elsewhere aren't official.