Part 107 test passing score: what you need and how scoring works

The Part 107 test passing score is 70 percent, and on the Unmanned Aircraft General exam that means at least 42 of the 60 questions answered correctly. There is no partial credit, no penalty for guessing, and no oral follow-up: the computer tallies correct answers, compares the percentage to the standard, and produces the result before you leave the testing center. Eighteen wrong answers still pass. Nineteen do not. For a working pilot the number itself matters less than the paperwork behind it, because the report the test generates follows you into the certificate application and beyond.

This article covers the passing standard and the arithmetic behind it, the Airman Knowledge Test Report you walk out with and how to read its codes, and how long a passing result stays usable. It closes with the reason a score report deserves a place in company records rather than a kitchen drawer: the test is a single event, but the dates it starts keep running for years.

Seventy percent, and how the math works out

The exam presents 60 multiple choice questions drawn from the FAA's bank, each with three options and one correct answer. Pass or fail turns entirely on the percentage answered correctly, and 70 percent of 60 is 42. The FAA publishes the topic mix the exam draws from but not a question by question breakdown, so the safest mental model is that every question counts. Nothing else influences the outcome: not speed, not which topics you missed, not how close a wrong answer was. A 71 and a 98 earn exactly the same certificate.

The distribution of misses still matters, just not to the pass line. Questions map to defined knowledge areas, regulations, airspace, weather, loading and performance, operations, and the mix of what you got wrong becomes the diagnostic record on your report. Two candidates can both score 85 with completely different gaps, one shaky on airspace classes, the other on weather minimums. The score decides the certificate. The pattern decides what a careful pilot, or the company hiring one, should pay attention to next, and that pattern is printed and coded on the report.

Reading the Airman Knowledge Test Report

Before leaving the testing center you receive an Airman Knowledge Test Report, the AKTR, showing your name, the exam taken, the date, the score, and a code for every question answered incorrectly. Those codes point into the FAA's Remote Pilot Airman Certification Standards, and the current standards document, published as the FAA's UAS ACS, translates each code into the specific knowledge element it represents. A report listing codes like UA.I.B.K4 is not being cryptic; it is pointing at the exact task and knowledge area you missed, which turns a raw score into a study plan.

The AKTR matters twice more after test day. The certificate application process draws on it, tying the passing result to your airman record, so the document has to survive at least until the application is complete. It matters again if you ever retest, change employers, or face a client who wants proof of when you qualified. Print a copy, photograph it, and file the original somewhere better than a wallet, because replacing a lost report means going back through the testing vendor and waiting far longer than the filing would have taken.

How long a passing result stays usable

A passing initial knowledge test result is valid for 24 calendar months for the purpose of applying for the remote pilot certificate. Pass in March 2026 and the window to file runs through the end of March 2028; miss it and the test has to be taken again at full price. Most people apply within days, so the window rarely bites, but it does catch career changers who test early and apply late, and companies that pay for testing months before a program has aircraft to fly.

The same 24 calendar month rhythm governs currency after the certificate issues, satisfied through free recurrent training rather than another proctored exam, so the test date quietly becomes the first deadline in a chain that never really ends. A pilot who qualified in March is due for recurrent completion by the end of March two years on, then again two years after that. The score got the pilot in the door. The dates on the paperwork are what the operation has to keep tracking for as long as that pilot flies.

Scores fade from memory, records do not

Six months after test day, nobody remembers whether the score was 78 or 88, and no client or auditor will ever ask. What they ask for is proof: that the pilot holds a certificate, that the currency behind it is intact, and that the company can demonstrate both without a scavenger hunt. The AKTR, the certificate that followed it, and the recurrent completions that keep it alive form a single thread of evidence, and threads snap when every bead lives in a different inbox.

Programs that handle this well treat test day as a record creation event. The report is scanned and filed against the pilot the day it is issued, the certificate number and issue date join it when the card arrives, and the recurrent deadline goes onto a calendar the whole operation can see rather than one person's phone. None of that takes ten minutes. All of it is the difference between answering a client questionnaire the same afternoon and asking a pilot to dig through two year old email.

Common mistakes in reading Part 107 test results

Fixating on the number. A 72 and a 95 confer identical privileges. The part of the report worth studying is the code list underneath the score, which says exactly which knowledge areas were weak on test day and what to review before those gaps meet real airspace.

Discarding the report after passing. The AKTR feeds the certificate application and anchors the passing date that later deadlines key from. Pilots who toss it end up reconstructing their test history through the vendor when an application or an audit asks for it.

Misreading the validity window. The 24 calendar months attached to a passing result governs applying for the certificate, and the clock runs to the end of the month. Paying for testing two years before a program launches can quietly waste the result.

Ignoring the codes because you passed. The coded misses are a free diagnostic. A pilot who missed three airspace questions passed the test and still has an airspace problem, and the report is the only document that says so in writing.

Keeping the result in one place. A single paper copy in a wallet serves one person until it is lost. Programs should hold the report, the score date, and the certificate data in shared records where hiring, scheduling, and audits can all reach them.

FAQ

What score do you need to pass the Part 107 test?

Seventy percent. The Unmanned Aircraft General exam presents 60 multiple choice questions, so passing means at least 42 correct answers. There is no partial credit and no penalty for guessing, and every attempt is scored against the same standard.

How many questions can you miss and still pass?

Eighteen. Passing requires 42 of the 60 questions answered correctly, so a nineteenth wrong answer fails the attempt. The published standard is a straight percentage, so every question on the exam carries exactly the same weight.

What is the AKTR and why does it matter?

The Airman Knowledge Test Report is the printed result issued at the testing center. It carries your score, the test date, and codes for each missed question, and the certificate application draws on it, so it belongs in permanent records.

How long is a passing Part 107 test result good for?

A passing initial test result stays valid for 24 calendar months for applying for the remote pilot certificate. Apply inside that window; once the certificate issues, currency continues through recurrent training on the same two year cycle.

Closing thought

The passing score is the least interesting fact about the Part 107 test. Seventy percent is fixed, public, and identical for everyone; what varies is what happens to the paperwork afterward. Pilots and programs that treat the score report as a record, filed, dated, and connected to the certificate and the deadlines it feeds, spend the next decade answering questions in seconds. The ones that treat it as a souvenir spend the same decade reconstructing dates from memory.

If you are decoding a Part 107 score report for yourself or a new pilot, FlybyOps was built for the operational record problem at the center of regulated drone work. A pilot registry that tracks certification and currency, a document vault with expiration tracking, and an append-only audit log are all part of how the platform keeps each pilot's test result filed with the certificate and currency dates it feeds.