The North Carolina Notary Public examination is the written examination approved by the North Carolina Secretary of State that an applicant for an initial notary public commission must pass at the end of a mandatory course of classroom instruction of not less than six hours, and that an applicant for recommissioning must pass again. Under Chapter 10B of the North Carolina General Statutes, an applicant must answer at least eighty percent (80%) of the questions correctly in order to pass the exam. The content of the course and the examinations is notarial laws, procedures, and ethics, the commission runs five years with statewide jurisdiction, and the North Carolina State application fee is $50.
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What this commission is
A North Carolina notary public is a public officer of the State of North Carolina, commissioned by the Secretary of State through the Department of the Secretary of State’s Notary Public Section, which administers the statewide notary program: issuing commissions, developing notary training and testing materials, certifying notary instructors, and enforcing the notary laws. A notary’s work is fraud prevention in person — taking acknowledgments, administering oaths and affirmations, and taking verifications or proofs — and a commissioned notary may perform notarial acts in any part of the state for a term of five years.
North Carolina’s gate to that office is a paired gate, and this page states its structure at the top because third-party material routinely separates what the statute joins: a mandatory course and its examination, taken together, inside a three-month window. Every applicant for an initial commission must, within the three months preceding application, take a course of classroom instruction of not less than six hours approved by the Secretary and take a written examination approved by the Secretary — and the examination returns at every recommissioning, when it is taken online on the Department’s website. One group is outside the gate in the statute’s own terms: a licensed member of the North Carolina State Bar is exempt from both the course and the examination, at initial commissioning and at recommissioning alike. The companion North Carolina Notary Public Exam Guide sets out the statute, the rules, and both sittings in detail.
The examination at a glance
| Item | Verified position |
|---|---|
| Examination | North Carolina Notary Public written examination — approved by the Secretary of State; the initial examination is the notary course exam, administered at the end of the mandatory course of instruction by the certified notary instructor; the recommissioning examination is taken online on the Department of the Secretary of State’s website |
| Commission | Notary public, commissioned by the Secretary of State; a notary is a public officer of the State of North Carolina; jurisdiction in any part of the state; term of five years |
| Course | Course of classroom instruction of not less than six hours, approved by the Secretary and taught by a certified notary instructor, taken within the three months preceding application for an initial commission. The Department of the Secretary of State develops the training and testing materials and certifies the instructors |
| Format — initial | Written examination approved by the Secretary, taken as the examination of the mandatory course. The official sources read for this page do not publish a question count or a time limit for the initial course examination, and this page prints neither |
| Format — recommissioning | Online examination on the Department’s website: 20 questions per the Secretary of State’s Notary Tutorial for reappointment, with 30 minutes to complete it under Title 18, Chapter 07 of the North Carolina Administrative Code |
| Content | Notarial laws, procedures, and ethics — the content the statute prescribes for both the course of instruction and the written examinations. No topic weights are published |
| Passing standard | In the statute’s exact published form: an applicant must answer at least eighty percent (80%) of the questions correctly in order to pass the exam (G.S. 10B-8(a)) |
| Application fee | North Carolina State fee: $50 nonrefundable application fee, charged by the Secretary of State (G.S. 10B-13); an online recommissioning payment carries an additional $3 transaction fee per the Secretary of State’s published renewal steps |
| Manual | Every applicant must purchase and keep as a reference the most recent manual approved by the Secretary. The current edition is the North Carolina Notary Public Manual (2026), prepared by the North Carolina Department of the Secretary of State and published by the UNC School of Government — $35, per the School of Government’s publication page; the Secretary of State’s renewal steps require owning the 2026 manual before completing a renewal application |
| Exemption | A licensed member of the North Carolina State Bar is exempt from the course and the examination — at initial commissioning under G.S. 10B-8(a), and at recommissioning under G.S. 10B-8(b) and G.S. 10B-11. At recommissioning only, the examination requirement also does not apply to a notary who has been continuously commissioned in North Carolina since July 10, 1991, and has never been disciplined by the Secretary |
| Administrator | North Carolina Department of the Secretary of State, Notary Public Section. PassProfessor is independent and is not affiliated with the Department of the Secretary of State |
What the examination covers
The statute prescribes the content of the course of instruction and of the written examinations in one sentence — notarial laws, procedures, and ethics (G.S. 10B-8(c)) — and publishes no finer breakdown and no weights. The syllabus in practice is therefore Chapter 10B itself, the Department’s rules in Title 18, Chapter 07 of the Administrative Code, and the current North Carolina Notary Public Manual, which the law requires every notary to purchase and keep. The areas below follow that material’s own organization.
Qualifications and commissioning
G.S. 10B-5 through 10B-14: who may be commissioned — at least 18 years of age or legally emancipated; residing or having a regular place of work or business in North Carolina; residing legally in the United States; able to speak, read, and write the English language; holding a high school diploma or equivalent — together with the application itself, the instructor’s certificate or signed statement evidencing successful completion of the course, the notarized declaration, the grounds on which the Secretary may deny a commission, the five-year term, and the oath of office at the register of deeds. Candidates treat commissioning as paperwork; it is the first body of law the course teaches and the examination tests.
The notarial acts
G.S. 10B-20 and the certificate provisions that follow it: the three acts a notary may perform — acknowledgments, oaths and affirmations, and verifications or proofs — with their statutory definitions in G.S. 10B-3, the personal-appearance and identification requirements (personal knowledge, or satisfactory evidence), the disqualifications that bar a notary from acting, and the prescribed certificate forms. This is the working core of the office, and of the course.
Signature, seal, and fees
G.S. 10B-31 through 10B-38: the official signature, signed by hand in ink on a paper record; the official seal — the notary’s name exactly as commissioned, the words “Notary Public,” the county of commissioning, and the words “North Carolina” — kept secure as the notary’s exclusive property, with the 10-day notification duties when a seal is lost or stolen; and the maximum fees, $10.00 per notarized principal signature for acknowledgments, jurats, and verifications or proofs, and $10.00 per person for oaths or affirmations without a signature, with the duty to display a fee schedule.
Conduct, limits, and discipline
The boundaries of the office: the acts a notary must not perform, official misconduct as the statute defines it, the Secretary’s enforcement and discipline, and the ethics content the statute names as a third of the course’s subject matter. A candidate who knows the mechanics but not the prohibitions knows half the examined material.
The route, in order
Step 1 — Confirm you must take the course and examination, and that you are eligible
Most applicants must pass both. The exemption is scoped exactly as the official sources state it: subsection 10B-8(a) “shall not apply to a licensed member of the North Carolina State Bar,” and the Administrative Code’s attorney-notary rules confirm that a Bar member applying for initial appointment is not required to attend the notary course, pass the notary course exam, or obtain an instructor’s signature — while still being required to maintain a personal copy of the most recent approved manual. No other applicant group is exempt from the initial course and examination. Check your eligibility against G.S. 10B-5(b) before you enroll, including the denial grounds in G.S. 10B-5(d): among them, a felony or a crime involving dishonesty or moral turpitude — with no commission issuable within 10 years after release from prison, probation, or parole, whichever is later — and a prior revocation or discipline of a notarial commission or professional license.
Step 2 — Purchase the current manual and complete the course
Purchase and keep as a reference the most recent manual approved by the Secretary — currently the North Carolina Notary Public Manual (2026). Then take the course of classroom instruction of not less than six hours, approved by the Secretary and taught by a certified notary instructor, within the three months preceding your application. The rules require the application to be submitted within three months after successfully completing the course and exam: the course, the examination, and the application all live inside one short window, so schedule them as one event. An applicant who is not personally known to the instructor must present satisfactory evidence of identity before the course begins, before the instructor signs the application, and at any other time during the course on the instructor’s request.
Step 3 — Pass the course examination at the 80 percent standard
At the end of the course, take the written examination approved by the Secretary. The passing standard is the statute’s: at least eighty percent (80%) of the questions answered correctly. The instructor proctors the examination, grades paper examinations, reviews the grades of examinations administered electronically on the Department’s website, and submits student exam grades to the Department within two business days. If you fail, the Administrative Code’s retesting rule is narrow: you may retake the exam if the institution at which the course was taught permits retesting, and the retest is taken within 30 days of the date of the exam failure.
Step 4 — Apply to the Secretary of State
Submit the application in the form the Secretary prescribes, with the statement of personal qualifications, the instructor’s certificate or signed statement evidencing successful completion of the course, your notarized declaration, and the $50 nonrefundable North Carolina State application fee. You are commissioned in your county of residence — or, if you are not a North Carolina resident, in the county of your employment or business.
Step 5 — Take the oath at the register of deeds within 45 days
If the Secretary grants the commission, appear before the register of deeds in your county of commissioning no later than 45 days after commissioning and take the oaths of office. No commission is effective before the oath, and any notarial acts performed before the oath are invalid. If you do not appear in time, the commission is returned and you must reapply — although if you reapply within one year of the granting of the commission, the Secretary may waive the educational requirements.
Step 6 — At five years, recommission — and pass an examination again
A commissioned notary may apply for recommissioning no earlier than 10 weeks before the commission’s expiration date. Timely recommissioning does not repeat the course: it requires a new application, the $50 fee, the current 2026 manual owned before the renewal application is completed, and a passing score on the online recommissioning examination — 20 questions, 30 minutes, at least 80 percent, taken on the Department’s website, with up to two additional attempts within 30 days of the first taking if you fail. Failing to pass within that 30 days means the application is denied; the Secretary of State’s tutorial states the consequence path — attend a Notary Public course of instruction, complete a new application, and pay another nonrefundable $50 commissioning fee — and the rules also let a recommissioning applicant take the initial course and its exam instead of the recommissioning exam. The examination exemption at recommissioning covers licensed members of the North Carolina State Bar and, in its own narrow terms, a notary continuously commissioned since July 10, 1991, who has never been disciplined by the Secretary. An individual may also apply for recommissioning within one year after the commission expires; beyond that year, commissioning is available only on completing all the requirements for an initial commission.
What makes this examination demanding
The demand is compression. The standard — four of every five questions correct — is set by statute, and the examination sits at the end of a single course of not less than six hours: the distance between first hearing a rule and being examined on it can be a single day, so the course cannot be treated as an attendance event. The three-month window disciplines everything around the sitting: take the course too early and the application falls outside it. The material is statutory text with exact figures and exact duties — a 45-day oath deadline, a 10-day seal notification, a $10.00 fee cap, a seal with four prescribed elements — where near-enough knowledge is wrong knowledge. And the gate is not passed once: the examination returns at every five-year recommissioning, in an online sitting of 20 questions in 30 minutes, against the same 80 percent standard and the current manual.
The credential at work
The North Carolina commission is held across the state’s banks, law offices, real estate and lending firms, hospitals, dealerships, and government offices, because the transactions those workplaces run on — deeds, loan documents, powers of attorney, affidavits — require an impartial officer’s certificate. It is a public office, not a certificate of attendance: the notary is commissioned in a named county, sworn before the register of deeds, recorded in the county’s notary record, and authorized to act anywhere in North Carolina for five years at a time.
A boundary this program keeps
Electronic notarization in North Carolina is a separate registration under Article 2 of Chapter 10B, with its own course at a community college, its own examination at the same 80 percent standard, its own $50 registration fee, and its own oath — and licensed members of the State Bar are not exempt from the electronic notary course and exam. This program prepares candidates for the base North Carolina Notary Public commission and its examinations; it does not merge the electronic notary registration’s facts into them, and nothing here substitutes for that separate registration.
What the PassProfessor program will cover
Practice in the examinations’ own shape. The program in the works practices for both sittings this commission imposes: the written course examination at the end of the mandatory six-hour course, answered to the statute’s standard of at least eighty percent (80%) of the questions correct, and the timed online recommissioning sitting — 20 questions in 30 minutes — that returns every five years.
Written from the primary sources. The program is written from the Department of the Secretary of State’s own publications and rules, Chapter 10B of the General Statutes, and the current North Carolina Notary Public Manual — the qualifications, the course and examination structure, the register of deeds oath, and the recommissioning cycle — and teaches the Bar exemption in its exact statutory scope. Where the official sources do not publish a figure — a question count or time limit for the initial course examination — the program prints none and says so.
The whole candidate, not only the test-taker. Around the practice, the program carries the route as the state publishes it — the three-month course-and-application window, the manual every notary must own, the instructor-signed application and its $50 state fee, the 45-day oath at the register of deeds, and the 10-week recommissioning opening — because on this route the calendar failures are as fatal as the knowledge failures.
Preparation only. This is preparation for examinations approved by the North Carolina Secretary of State and for a course taught by instructors the Department certifies. PassProfessor is not affiliated with the North Carolina Department of the Secretary of State, and nothing in the program substitutes for the mandatory course, either examination, the application, or any commission requirement. PassProfessor does not provide the mandatory course of instruction.
Tell me when enrollment opens. The North Carolina Notary Public program is in the works and enrollment is not yet open. Leave an email address and PassProfessor will write to you when the program is ready — and only about this program.
Frequently asked questions
What is the passing score for the North Carolina Notary Public examination?
In the statute’s exact published form: an applicant must answer at least eighty percent (80%) of the questions correctly in order to pass the exam (G.S. 10B-8(a)). The same at-least-80-percent standard governs the recommissioning examination under the Department’s rules.
Do I have to take a course, or can I just take the examination?
Both, together, for an initial commission: within the three months preceding application, a course of classroom instruction of not less than six hours approved by the Secretary, and a written examination approved by the Secretary taken as the course’s examination. The only applicants outside that requirement are licensed members of the North Carolina State Bar.
I am a licensed North Carolina attorney. Am I exempt?
Yes — from both the course and the examination, at initial commissioning and at recommissioning, in the statute’s terms: G.S. 10B-8 does not apply to a licensed member of the North Carolina State Bar. You must still apply, pay the application fee, and purchase and keep the most recent approved manual. The exemption does not extend to the separate electronic notary course and examination.
How many questions are on the initial examination, and how long do I have?
The official sources read for this page — Chapter 10B, the Department’s rules, and the Secretary of State’s published steps — do not publish a question count or a time limit for the initial course examination, so this page prints neither; figures published elsewhere conflict with each other and are not used here. The recommissioning examination’s published shape is 20 questions with 30 minutes to complete it.
How long is the commission, and where can I act?
Five years, and in any part of North Carolina (G.S. 10B-9). You are commissioned in your county of residence — or, if you are not a state resident, the county of your employment or business — and you qualify by taking the oath at that county’s register of deeds.
What does the state charge?
A $50 nonrefundable application fee to the Secretary of State for a commission or a recommissioning (G.S. 10B-13), plus a $3 transaction fee when a recommissioning payment is made online, per the Secretary of State’s published renewal steps. Course charges are set by the institution offering the course and vary, and the current manual is $35 from the UNC School of Government. These are North Carolina State and institutional charges, separate from any preparation program.
What happens if I fail the course examination?
Under the Administrative Code, you may retake the exam if the institution at which the course was taught permits retesting, and the retest is taken within 30 days of the date of the exam failure. At recommissioning, a failed online examination may be taken up to two additional times within 30 days of the first taking; failing to pass within those 30 days means the application is denied, and the route back runs through a Notary Public course of instruction, a new application, and another $50 fee.
Do I need a bond to be commissioned in North Carolina?
No bond appears among the qualifications the statute sets for a commission. G.S. 10B-5(b) lists the requirements — age or legal emancipation, residence or a regular place of work or business in the state, legal residence in the United States, English literacy, a high school diploma or equivalent, passing the course of instruction, purchasing the current manual, and a complete application — and a bond is not one of them. Material presenting a bond as a North Carolina commissioning requirement is not describing G.S. 10B-5.
When can I apply for recommissioning, and do I retake the course?
No earlier than 10 weeks before your commission expires. A timely recommissioning does not require retaking the course — it requires a new application, the fee, ownership of the current 2026 manual, and passing the online recommissioning examination. Recommissioning remains available within one year after expiration; after that year, only the full initial route remains.
Is PassProfessor affiliated with the Secretary of State?
No. PassProfessor is an independent preparation provider, not affiliated with the North Carolina Department of the Secretary of State or its Notary Public Section. The program confers no commission, provides no part of the mandatory course, and reports nothing to the Department.