Registered nurse licensure

The NCLEX-RN path, built to the 2026 Test Plan

National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN)

Try the free diagnostic: ten questions, no account, a result by exam area

The RN dragon · Stage 4 of 5: DrakeIt grows only as areas of the exam turn secure.

The NCLEX-RN follows NCSBN's 2026 Test Plan: eight Client Needs categories, 149 activity statements and the six steps of clinical judgment, delivered adaptively in 85 to 150 items. This path follows the Test Plan category by category and statement by statement, and its mock follows the exam's length, timing and stopping rules.

Start today Try sample questions How the exam works

Practice and mock exams come with a subscription, monthly or every three months; cancel any time. The library, the study guides and a sample of the games stay free.

Trained outside the US and Canada? How the exam fits your licensure

ExamDragon is independent exam preparation. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or reviewed by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) or Pearson VUE. NCLEX, NCLEX-RN and NCSBN are registered trademarks of NCSBN, used only to name the examination. Every item and guide here is our own, written from NCSBN's published 2026 NCLEX-RN Test Plan. We never accept, use or discuss items from a real NCLEX: NCSBN's candidate rules forbid sharing them.

The exam in numbers

items, adaptive: 85 to 150items, adaptive
including breaks: 5 hoursincluding breaks
Client Needs categories: 8Client Needs categories
activity statements: 149activity statements
case study items: 3 cases of 6: 18case study items: 3 cases of 6
unscored pretest items: 15unscored pretest items

What the path holds now

Every item is original, written to the 2026 Test Plan, and checked in seeded audits against our authoring rubric, with every flagged item fixed and re-read.

Try 8 items and a case study free

300practice items: Across the eight categories at the midpoint of each Test Plan range, in every Next Generation format, with NCSBN's scoring method for each and a rationale for every item.
14case studies: Six items each, one per clinical judgment step, in 14 care settings from the emergency department to home health.
1adaptive mock: A pool of 300 items and 12 case studies, 85 to 150 items in five hours, the three stopping rules, and a report by category and step.
9study guides: One per Client Needs category and one for clinical judgment, covering all 149 activity statements in our own words.
4study games: Short rounds of the path's own questions and clinical decisions, with your dragon beside you.
Dailyplan and progress: A short session each day, each category from learning to secure, and every past mock kept.

Everything in the NCLEX-RN path

Eight Client Needs categories

Ranges as NCSBN prints them in the 2026 Test Plan; a single exam may differ by up to 3% in each category. Clinical judgment is measured across all of them: Recognize cues, Analyze cues, Prioritize hypotheses, Generate solutions, Take action, Evaluate outcomes.

Internationally educated nurses

Trained outside the US and Canada?

The NCLEX-RN is the licensure exam for registered nurses across the United States and in Canadian jurisdictions such as Ontario and British Columbia, wherever you studied. Here is how it fits your licensure, what the exam assumes about entry-level practice, and how this path helps.

Your regulator decides, first: Each nursing regulatory body sets its own eligibility rules, and NCSBN does not keep a list of them. You apply to the regulator where you want to practise; it decides whether you meet its requirements (in Ontario, your education is validated by an approved education credential assessment provider) and declares you eligible before you can book the exam.
One exam, US and Canada: The same NCLEX-RN is used for entry to practice in the United States and in Canada. In Ontario, every RN applicant must pass it; Canadian candidates can also sit it in French.
Where you can sit it: At any Pearson VUE test centre that delivers the NCLEX, whatever jurisdiction you are applying to, including international centres in countries such as India, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, Kenya, Mexico and Australia. International centres accept only a passport as identification.
Beyond the exam: Regulators also look at language proficiency and practice experience: Ontario asks for proficiency in English or French and nursing practice within the past three years.

What the exam assumes

Entry-level practice, as NCSBN defines itThe exam is written for a newly licensed nurse with no more than 12 months of experience. Answer as a nurse in their first year would, within policy and scope, whatever experience you bring.
Delegation and scopeWhich tasks go to an LPN or VN, to assistive personnel, or stay with the RN, and when to involve the provider: all tested under Management of Care.
Client rights and advocacyInformed consent, confidentiality, advance directives and advocacy for client rights: all tested under Management of Care.
Generic drug names and two systems of unitsItems use generic medication names on most occasions and give measurements in both SI and imperial units, so pounds and Fahrenheit appear as well as kilograms and Celsius.
The Next Generation formatsSelect all that apply, matrix, drop-down, highlight, bow-tie and six-item case studies, scored with partial credit. The format is part of the challenge.

How this path helps

The adaptive mock85 to 150 items in five hours, modelled on the exam's published stopping rules, so the length and the pace are familiar before the day.
Case studies in 14 settingsEmergency, home health, long-term care, public health and more: the unfolding records the exam uses, each step explained.
Practice by categoryEvery item has a rationale, and multiple choice, select all that apply, select N and bow-tie items give a reason for each option, so the reasoning behind the answer is on the page.
The AI GuideThe dragon in the corner of every page, except during the mock, answers a question in plain English: a term, an abbreviation, why a rationale says what it says.

A practice tool cannot predict your result or replace your regulator's requirements.

Sources: NCLEX.com FAQs and Testing Locations; NCSBN NCLEX & Other Exams; College of Nurses of Ontario, Registration Examination and Outside Canada; BC College of Nurses and Midwives, Applicants from the United States. Fetched 13 November 2026. NCSBN publishes pass rates for internationally educated candidates in its NCLEX pass rate dashboard. Requirements change: check with your regulator.

The exam, as NCSBN describes it

Delivery: Computerized adaptive testing (CAT) only. Each answer updates the estimate of your ability, and the next item matches it and keeps the Test Plan's percentages. Everyone starts on a relatively low difficulty item.
Length and time: 85 to 150 items in five hours. The five hours include the introduction and every break; two optional breaks are offered, after two hours and after three and one half hours.
The minimum: Of the 85: 52 items from the eight content areas, 18 items in three clinical judgment case studies (six items each), and 15 unscored pretest items you cannot tell apart.
Clinical judgment: Each case study item measures one step of the NCSBN Clinical Judgment Measurement Model: recognize cues, analyze cues, prioritize hypotheses, generate solutions, take action, evaluate outcomes. About 10% stand-alone clinical judgment items as well.
Moving on: One item at a time. You must answer to move on, and once you press Next you cannot go back. An on-screen calculator is provided.
Item formats: Multiple choice, select all that apply, select N, matrix, drop-down, drag and drop, highlight and calculation items, with charts, tables and exhibits. No fixed share of each format.
Scoring: Partial credit where an item has more than one key, by three methods: plus/minus, zero/one and rationale scoring.
Passing: The computer stops when it is 95% certain your ability is clearly above or below the passing standard (0.00 logits through 31 March 2029), or decides at 150 items, or by the run-out-of-time rule. The length does not tell you the result.
Results: Released by your nursing regulatory body. A candidate who fails receives a Candidate Performance Report: below, near or above the passing standard for each content area and for clinical judgment.

Sources, all from NCSBN: 2026 NCLEX-RN Test Plan, 2026 NCLEX Candidate Bulletin, Computerized Adaptive Testing, NCLEX FAQs, Passing Standard, Clinical Judgment Measurement Model. Fetched 13 November 2026. Licensure questions (eligibility, registration, accommodations, results) go to your nursing regulatory body: NCSBN member boards.

What NCSBN does not publish, and what we do

NCSBN calibrates every item's difficulty from pretest data and does not publish its pool or algorithm. Our mock follows the published rules (85 to 150 items, five hours, three case studies, 15 pretest items, the content balance, the three stopping rules, the passing standard at 0.00) with our authors' difficulty estimates. It is a practice model and cannot predict your result.
Our report shows the rule that ended your sitting, where the model's estimate sits against the passing standard, and a performance indicator per category and for clinical judgment in the CPR's words. The thresholds are ours.
Partial credit uses NCSBN's three methods; which method each format uses follows NCSBN's own rule for when each applies.
The Sample Pack, Exam Preview and tutorial are NCSBN's. Every item here is original and none is copied or adapted from NCSBN material or any prep company. Explanations, guides and the review after a mock are study features the real exam never gives.

Open the Test Plan