Frequently Asked QuestionsGet Answers to Common NCLEX Questions

Each nursing regulatory body (NRB) has its own eligibility requirements to take the NCLEX. NCSBN does not maintain a list of requirements for each NRB. Contact the NRB where you are seeking licensure/registration for their requirements (applicable only to NRBs of the U.S., Canada and Australia).

To take the NCLEX, you will first need to complete two separate processes (applicable only to nursing regulatory bodies (NRBs) of the U.S. and Canada):

1. Contact your NRB and request a licensure/registration application.
• Registration process for Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) candidates
• You will pay a licensing/registration fee to the NRB along with the submission of your application materials.
• Licensure/registration applications must be obtained from the NRB in the state/province/territory where you are seeking licensure/registration, as requirements vary.
2. Register with Pearson (the testing vendor) using one of the following methods:
• Online - Visit Pearson and pay with a credit, debit or prepaid card
• Phone - Call Pearson Candidate Services at 866.496.2539 and pay the exam fee by credit, debit or prepaid card

Find out more about the NCLEX registration process.

If your nursing regulatory body (NRB) has declared you eligible:

1. You must contact your NRB to make the necessary corrections.
2. Once the correction is confirmed with the NRB, please contact Pearson for a revised Authorization to Test (ATT) if needed.

If you have not been made eligible by your NRB, then you will need to contact Pearson to report the corrections.

Once you have been made eligible by your nursing regulatory body (NRB), you will receive an Authorization to Test (ATT) via the email address you provided when registering. If you have not received an ATT email, you may want to contact your NRB to ensure all necessary materials have been submitted and received, or to find out why they have not granted eligibility to your registration. You must have your ATT email to schedule an appointment to take the NCLEX.

You must test within the validity dates of your ATT (the average length of an ATT is 90 days). These validity dates cannot be extended for any reason. If you do not test within these dates you will have to reregister and pay another exam fee. The ATT contains your authorization number, candidate identification number and an expiration date. You need the ATT to schedule an appointment to take the NCLEX.

Call Pearson Candidate Services at 866.496.2539 or at one of the international telephone numbers in the NCLEX Candidate Bulletin to report a lost ATT or if your NRB has made you eligible and you have not received your ATT.

Links to all NRB websites and contact information are available on the Membership page.

For further details, visit Authorization to Test.

You can take the NCLEX year-round at any Pearson Professional Testing location, regardless of where you are applying for licensure/registration.

For candidates seeking licensure in the U.S., domestic test centers are those within the U.S. and American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands. For candidates seeking licensure/registration in Canada, domestic test centers are those within Canadian provinces/territories and the mainland U.S. (not including territories). International locations where the NCLEX is offered include Australia, Brazil, France, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines, Puerto Rico, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, Türkiye and United Kingdom.

Candidates can find test center locations by going to the Pearson website.

For more information on where the NCLEX is offered, visit the Test Center Locations page.

All forms of identification must be valid and meet the following requirements. If the ID does not meet these requirements (See Acceptable ID), you will be turned away and required to reregister and pay another examination fee:

• Physical (non-digital)
• Government-issued
• Non-expired
• Name (in Roman characters)
• Recent photograph
• Signature

Examples of acceptable forms of identification for domestic test centers are:

• Passport books and cards
• Driver's license
• Provincial/Territorial or state identification card
• Permanent residence card
• Military identification card

The only identifications acceptable for international test centers, including Puerto Rico, are:

• Passport books and cards

Candidates with identification from a country on the U.S. government's sanctioned countries will have to follow the requirements listed in order to sit for the exam.

For more information on identification, visit the Acceptable Identification page.

Definitions of Domestic and International Test Centers

Only the first and last names need to match between the candidate’s ID and ATT.

For more information on identification, visit the Acceptable Identification page.

No, the address does not need to match between the candidate’s ID and ATT.

For more information on identification, visit the Acceptable Identification page.

Official exam results are available only from the nursing regulatory bodies (NRBs) within 6 weeks of the exam appointment. Pearson and NCSBN do not provide exam results.

Candidates whose NRB participates in the Quick Results Service (only applies to candidates seeking licensure in the U.S.) can access their ‘unofficial’ results 48 hours after their exam date and time (a fee is required).

Links to all NRB websites and contact information are available on the Membership page.

For more information about getting NCLEX results, visit the Results Reporting section.

Yes, the registration fee is forfeited if a candidate cannot cancel outside of 24 business hours from their appointment and/or does not keep their appointment. The candidate will need to reregister and pay another exam fee. Because a test was not administered, the candidate would be able to test after they are made eligible again by their nursing regulatory body and receive a new Authorization to Test. The same policy applies to a candidate who does not test within their authorization period.

Yes. Effective Feb. 1, 2027, the NCLEX registration fee will be $350 in the United States and Australia. In Canada, the fee will be $570 (CAD).

Any registrations completed before Feb. 1, 2027, will be charged the current fee.

The NCLEX fee has not changed since 2000, and the adjustment reflects 25 years of inflation and the rising cost of exams, data protection and cybersecurity. 

The date of registration determines the fee, not the exam date. Registrations completed before Feb. 1, 2027, will be charged at the current fee.

The NCLEX registration fee is based on where you are seeking licensure. For example, if you reside in Canada but are seeking licensure in the United States, the U.S. fee would apply, not the Canadian fee.

Yes. The same fee applies to all NCLEX registrations, including retakes, based on the date the registration is completed.

No. Other fees, including international scheduling and change fees, will remain the same.

No. There are no refunds of NCLEX fees for any reason.

For more information, visit the Refund Policy section.

NCSBN does not recommend or endorse any review courses or study materials. If you are interested in participating in a review course or purchasing review materials, please consult a nursing education professional for suggestions. Links to all nursing regulatory bodies' (NRB) websites and contact information are available on the Membership page.

You may ask the TA for a Confidential Comment Sheet to provide any information about your exam appointment to NCSBN, the test centers or Pearson Candidate Services. If you have questions about your testing session, please contact NCSBN within two weeks of your exam appointment.

The same NCLEX-RN exam is used for Canadian and U.S. entry to nursing practice. For questions about whether you can practice in another state/province/territory, please contact the nursing regulatory body (NRB) for that jurisdiction. Links to all NRBs’ websites and contact information, including Australia’s, are available on the NCSBN website.

The following NCLEX resources are available in French:

• NCLEX-RN Test Plans 
• NCLEX Tutorial
• NCLEX Candidate Bulletin
• NCLEX Webinar Series
• NCLEX Exam Preview
• NCLEX Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

No. Candidates must answer a question in order to move on to the next question. Because the NCLEX is adaptive, each response is used to select the next item, so candidates cannot skip items or go back to change previous answers.

For more information, visit the Computerized Adaptive Testing section.

No. The number of items alone does not determine or reveal pass/fail results. The exam may stop when the scoring algorithm has enough information to make a pass/fail decision, or it may continue to the maximum number of items when the candidate’s ability estimate is close to the passing standard.

The computerized adaptive testing (CAT) algorithm selects items that are of optimal difficulty for the candidate. Therefore, each item selected will be relatively difficult for the candidate. Candidates cannot reliably identify which items are easy and which are difficult with regard to the NCLEX scale. At the end of an exam, a candidate usually receives items that they have approximately a 50% chance of answering completely correctly. The candidate's sense of what is easy and what is difficult is relative to their ability. Because the exam is adaptive, both high- and low-ability candidates will think the items at the end of the exam are challenging.

For more information, visit the Computerized Adaptive Testing section.

This means that it took only the minimum number of items for the scoring algorithm to determine with 95% certainty that the candidate’s nursing ability was below the passing standard.

For more information, visit the Computerized Adaptive Testing section.

No. Each exam attempt is independent. On a new attempt, the CAT process begins again, and item selection is based on the candidate's responses during that exam attempt.

The NCLEX uses computerized adaptive testing (CAT) to administer the items. Initially, everyone is administered an item with a relatively low difficulty level, and their progression on the exam from that point onward depends on their performance.

A complete overview on how CAT works can be found on the Computerized Adaptive Testing information page.

For more information, visit the Computerized Adaptive Testing section.

'Near the Passing Standard' means a particular candidate’s score on a specific domain (i.e., test plan content area and/or clinical judgment category) is not clearly above or below the passing standard.

For more information, visit the Candidate Performance Report section.

The NCLEX is designed as a screening tool used to identify candidates who can demonstrate that their nursing ability is sufficient to be competent in practice. Providing more detailed feedback for candidates who fail is done in an attempt to help the candidate direct their remediation strategies. Providing feedback to people who do not need remediation serves no purpose and could be misused by candidates or employers in making employment decisions.

For more information, visit the Candidate Performance Report section.

Examples of item formats can be found in the following locations:

• NCLEX Tutorial
• NCLEX Exam Preview
• Sample Pack
• Next Generation NCLEX Resources

For more information, please visit the Prepare section.

There is no predetermined percentage of item formats administered to candidates. The NCLEX is computer adaptive, and items are administered based on the candidate’s ability and item difficulty, regardless of item formats.

The multiple response (select all that apply) item format contains the qualifier ‘select all that apply’ in bold font within the question. When this qualifier appears, it indicates that one or more of the options provided will be a correct answer.

The NCLEX is computer adaptive, and items are selected based on each candidate’s ability. Each exam adheres to the test plan content area percentages. The items fall across all difficulty levels and cover all areas of the test plan. Entire exams are not focused on specific nursing specialties.

Since the beginning of its development, the NCLEX has served as a fair, reliable tool to measure the minimum competency required to deliver safe, effective entry-level nursing. The exam is developed to ensure that no candidate is afforded an unfair advantage when testing. The language and terminology selected for exam items must be universal and support the assessment of one construct—entry-level nursing knowledge while eliminating the inadvertent assessment of other factors.

The exam uses consistent language for every examinee. In order to achieve accurate, stable measurement, terminology used in exam items can have only one meaning. All NCLEX items undergo a rigorous review process to ensure items represent the client population and remain free from unintentional bias. Only items that meet statistical and differential item functioning (DIF) criteria become operational.

Yes, the NCLEX bolds key words such as best, most, essential, first, priority, immediately, highest, initial, next, refute, increased, decreased and support.

The NCLEX uses consistent language for every candidate. In order to achieve accurate, stable measurement, terminology used in exam items can have only one meaning. NCSBN understands most clinicians acknowledge both generic and brand/trade names when referring to drug medications. At this time, the NCLEX will reflect, on most occasions, the use of generic medication names only. We take into account that the use of the medication generic name is more consistent while a brand/trade medication name may vary. Some items may refer to general classifications of medications.

NCSBN does not specify a list of medications that are on the exam.

On average, NCLEX items currently include a combination of international systems of units (SI) and imperial measurement options used in the nursing profession. The unit of measurement presented in the item will be familiar to the NCLEX candidate.

Yes, items that contain a numeric lab value will include the corresponding normal reference range.

The NCLEX incorporates processes considered fundamental to the practice of nursing and therefore are integrated throughout the NCLEX Test Plan client needs categories.

For more information, please visit the Test Plans section.

Since the practice of nursing requires application of knowledge, skills and abilities, the majority of items are written at the application or higher levels of cognitive ability, which require more complex thought processing. These questions require a candidate to utilize problem-solving skills in order to select the correct answer.

A readability analysis is performed on all operational items in order to ensure that only nursing knowledge is evaluated. The NCLEX-RN exam does not exceed 1300L Lexiles and the NCLEX-PN 1200L Lexiles, which are equivalent to high school grades 10-12 reading levels and college and career readiness.

The NCLEX master pool contains enough items to make up multiple operational pools. To maintain exam security and ensure that repeating candidates will not receive the same items from one attempt to the next, operational item pools are rotated regularly.

NCLEX items have multiple item formats. There is partial credit scoring for items for which more than one key exists. There are three methods for scoring items for partial credit: 

• Plus/minus: Used when candidates are allowed to select an unspecified number of options. They earn points by selecting the correct options, and points are deducted when they select the incorrect options. Candidates achieve higher scores by identifying a greater amount of correct information. The maximum score corresponds to the number of correct options, while the minimum score is set at zero.
• Zero/one: Used when candidates are instructed to choose a specific number of responses. They earn points for selecting correct responses, and they do not earn points when selecting incorrect options. For multipoint items, the sum of all the correct responses is the total for that item.
• Rationale scoring: Used when candidates are instructed to evaluate closely associated information. The only way to demonstrate comprehension of that information is by understanding both components of the pair. The paired information is typically related through a rationale, for instance asking about the cause and effect of symptoms. Both components of the pair must be correct to earn points under this scoring rule.

The item will indicate whether the candidate should record their answer using a whole number or using one to two decimal places. For items requesting decimal places, the candidate must enter a decimal point for the answer to be considered correct.

Answers to calculation items should be rounded at the end of the calculation.

Yes. The candidate is not prompted to open all of the exhibit tabs. It is important that the candidate review each exhibit tab entirely and make an answer selection before moving to the next item.  

The candidate will be prompted with the message, ‘You cannot continue with this question unanswered,’ if the candidate attempts to move on to the next item without answering the current item.

All NCLEX operational items are reviewed on a continual basis to ensure they contain accurate content and reflect current entry-level nursing practice. In cases where there is an immediate change in nursing practice, such as changes in guidelines and policies, all items relevant to the topic in question will be reviewed to ensure that item content remains accurate. If necessary, items can be pulled from the operational pool as needed to ensure only current content remains on the exam.

To meet the needs of French-speaking Canadian NCLEX-RN candidates, NCSBN offers the NCLEX-RN exam in French. NCSBN translates two operational item pools each year into French. Following this forward translation by a translation professional with expertise in Canadian French, NCSBN works with Canadian regulatory bodies to identify a Canadian Translation Panel. The panel consists of at least three nurses proficient in English and French who review each translated item for accuracy and contextual equivalency. This method, referred to as a mixed method, process-oriented approach, is supported in the literature as a preferred method for ensuring construct equivalence in health care measurement instruments.

Following the Canadian Translation Panel’s approval, the French NCLEX-RN operational pool is administered to French Canadian NCLEX-RN candidates. Once sufficient candidate response data is obtained, the items are subject to a separate differential item functioning (DIF) analysis to ascertain whether the items appropriately measure candidates’ nursing ability irrespective of the language in which these exam items were administered. Items identified as possessing DIF are reviewed by the NCLEX DIF panel for presence of bias. In addition to the construct equivalence confirmed by the Canadian Translation Panel, the use of DIF analysis is supported in the literature as a preferred method to ensure measurement equivalence.

Reference the About and Prepare pages for additional resources.

The NCLEX definition of an entry-level nurse is a newly licensed nurse with no more than 12 months of nursing experience.

NCSBN invites nurses from all jurisdictions using the NCLEX to participate as subject matter expert nurse volunteers on the NCLEX Practice Analysis Panel and NCLEX Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSA) Panel. Because the health care industry is rapidly changing, practice analysis studies are traditionally conducted on a three-year cycle. Information gathered in the practice analysis studies assists NCSBN in evaluating the validity of the test plan. Periodically, NCSBN conducts comparative practice analyses to determine whether the current test plan is valid for testing populations in specified locations.

Reference the current and past Practice Analyses for more information.

Respondents of the practice analysis survey rate the importance of each entry-level nursing activity statement, the frequency with which they perform the activity and the relevancy of performing each activity with regard to clinical judgment. These importance, frequency and clinical judgment relevancy ratings are analyzed at the end of the survey process. Overall, tasks or activities that are deemed unimportant or infrequently performed may be eliminated from the new test plan. NCSBN ensures the remaining activity statements are categorized in the approved NCLEX categories. These categories form the basis of the test plan. Each activity's relative importance, frequency and clinical judgment relevancy ratings inform the appropriate NCLEX Test Plan category percentages used during exam administration.

For more information, reference the Practice Analyses and Test Plans.

Throughout the year, NCSBN invites nurses from all jurisdictions that use the NCLEX to participate in item development activities, including Practice Analysis panels, Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSA) expert panels, item writing and review panels, Regulatory Body Review, and the Panel of Judges (POJ) for the standard setting process. Canadian nurses also participate in translation review of NCLEX items.

To participate in the item development process, experienced nurse volunteers must work with entry-level nurses and be familiar with entry-level nursing knowledge. Input from entry-level nurses is incorporated into several stages of the process, including the Practice Analysis and KSA expert panels and the POJ.

For additional information about qualifications and volunteer opportunities, refer to Exam Volunteer Opportunities.

NCSBN invites nursing instructors in clinical areas to contribute as item writers and nurses employed in clinical settings to participate as item reviewers.

To develop meaningful exam items, NCLEX item writers should possess knowledge of entry-level nursing practice, the test construction process and item development theories. Accordingly, NCSBN invites nursing educators in clinical areas who hold a master’s degree or higher to contribute to the NCLEX-RN item writing process and nursing educators in clinical areas who hold an RN or LPN/VN license for the NCLEX-PN.

When reviewing NCLEX items, nurse clinicians who provide preceptorship, mentorship and supervision to entry-level nurses bring direct knowledge of entry-level practice. Their clinical expertise helps ensure that NCLEX items accurately reflect current entry-level nursing practice.

To minimize potential bias in the NCLEX development process, subject matter experts who have experience developing entry-level nursing licensure exam items or who have contributed to prep guides or courses within the past two years are not eligible to volunteer for the NCLEX.

For additional information, refer to Exam Volunteer Opportunities.

The NCSBN Board of Directors reviews the NCLEX-RN and NCLEX-PN passing standards every three years or following a revision to the test plan to ensure the standards remain aligned with the level of nursing ability required for competent entry-level practice.

For more information, visit the Passing Standard section.

Changes to the passing standard are expected to have a temporary effect on candidate pass rates. Historically, pass rates tend to lower immediately after an increase in the passing standard and generally rebound within a few years.

Reference the NCLEX Pass Rates for more information.

To better prepare students for the NCLEX, educators can gain familiarity with the current NCLEX Test Plan, its corresponding content distribution and exam delivery methodology. The resources listed below are available for educators and students free of charge:

• NCLEX Tutorial
• NCLEX Exam Preview
• NCLEX Candidate Bulletin
• Test Plans
• Computerized Adaptive Testing
• Information about the NGN
• X (Twitter)
• Instagram
• Facebook

NCSBN encourages educators and students to utilize these resources and become familiar with the NCLEX, its delivery, anticipated item types, specific terminology and test site administration rules. 

All nursing programs recognized by their nursing regulatory body (NRB) may subscribe to NCLEX Program Reports. The NCLEX Program Reports are designed to help program administrators and educators understand how their nursing students performed on the NCLEX exam.  

Additional information on NCLEX Program Reports may be found on the Mountain Measurement website.

NCLEX Regional Workshops are hosted by nursing regulatory bodies (NRBs). If you are interested in a regional workshop, please contact your NRB.