NCLEX NCLEX Basics

The NCLEX (National Council Licensure Examination) is the standardized licensure exam every candidate must pass to practice as a nurse in the United States and Canada. It is administered by the NCSBN as a computer adaptive test (CAT), meaning the difficulty of each question adjusts to your performance.

The NCLEX-RN is for candidates seeking registered nurse licensure and tests independent clinical decision-making, delegation, and care planning. The NCLEX-PN is for practical/vocational nurses and focuses more on data collection and providing care under supervision.

Both the NCLEX-RN and NCLEX-PN contain 85 to 150 items and allow up to five hours under the 2026 Test Plans. A minimum-length exam includes 15 unscored pretest items. The exam length by itself does not indicate whether a candidate passed or failed.

There is no percentage score. The NCLEX is pass/fail and measured against a passing standard on a logit scale. You pass when the computer determines with 95% confidence that your ability is above that standard — the number of questions you answer says nothing about whether you passed.

NGN added case studies and new item types (bow-tie, trend, matrix, highlight) built around the NCSBN Clinical Judgment Measurement Model. Instead of recalling facts, you recognize cues, analyze them, prioritize hypotheses, take action, and evaluate outcomes.

Most candidates need four to eight weeks of focused preparation after graduation, studying two to four hours a day. What matters far more than total hours is doing large volumes of practice questions and reading every rationale — including for the answers you got right.

Build a repeatable routine: sleep the night before, arrive early, use box breathing between blocks of questions, and reset with a grounding technique whenever you feel your focus slipping. Anxiety is manageable when you have practiced the response, not just the content.

Yes. You may retest after a 45-day waiting period, up to eight times per year, subject to your board of nursing's rules. You will also receive a Candidate Performance Report showing which content areas were below standard — use it to target your next study plan.