Practical and vocational nurse licensure
The NCLEX-PN path, built to the 2026 Test Plan
National Council Licensure Examination for Practical Nurses (NCLEX-PN)
The NCLEX-PN follows NCSBN's 2026 Test Plan: eight Client Needs categories, 153 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.
Open to everyone while it is built. No card, no account; your results stay in this browser.
Licensing in Ontario or British Columbia? Practical nurses there sit the REx-PN instead; where the NCLEX-PN is used
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-PN 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-PN 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
- 153activity 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.
- 300practice items
- Across the eight categories at the midpoint of each Test Plan range, in every Next Generation format, written for the practical nurse's scope, with NCSBN's scoring method for each and a rationale for every item.
- 12case studies
- Six items each, one per clinical judgment step, in 12 care settings from long-term care and home health to the clinic and the mother-baby unit.
- 1adaptive mock
- A pool of 220 items and 6 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 153 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-PN path
- TodayA short session for the day: some practice, one activity to study, the mock when you are ready.
- Practice300 original items in every Next Generation format and 12 clinical judgment case studies, each answer explained.
- Mock examAn adaptive mock: 85 to 150 items in five hours, three case studies, the 95% confidence rule, and a report in the CPR's words.
- LibraryThe Test Plan's 153 activity statements in our words, a study guide for each category and one for clinical judgment.
- ProgressEach category from learning to secure, your past mocks and your readiness.
- PlayShort rounds of the path's own questions, with your dragon beside you.
Eight Client Needs categories
- CCCoordinated CareSafe and Effective Care Environment18 to 24%31 activities
- SIPCSafety and Infection Prevention and ControlSafe and Effective Care Environment10 to 16%14 activities
- HPMHealth Promotion and Maintenance6 to 12%17 activities
- PSYPsychosocial Integrity9 to 15%20 activities
- BCCBasic Care and ComfortPhysiological Integrity7 to 13%16 activities
- PTPharmacological TherapiesPhysiological Integrity10 to 16%16 activities
- RRPReduction of Risk PotentialPhysiological Integrity9 to 15%22 activities
- PAPhysiological AdaptationPhysiological Integrity7 to 13%17 activities
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.
Where the NCLEX-PN is used
The NCLEX-PN is the licensure exam for practical and vocational nurses in the United States. Each nursing regulatory body decides who is eligible and registers candidates, wherever they studied; questions about eligibility, accommodations and results go to yours. In Ontario and British Columbia, practical nurses sit a different exam, the REx-PN.
Your regulatory body: NCSBN member boards. Registered nurses: the NCLEX-RN path.
The exam, as NCSBN describes it
- Who sits it
- Candidates for licensure as a practical nurse (LPN) or vocational nurse (LVN), as each US nursing regulatory body requires. The Test Plan's activity statements set the entry-level practical nurse's role: collect data, reinforce teaching, assist and monitor, within the scope the jurisdiction allows.
- 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 (-0.18 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-PN 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 -0.18) 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. NCSBN publishes no NCLEX-PN sample report, so the format follows the one it describes for both exams; 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, written for the practical nurse's scope, and none is copied or adapted from NCSBN material, any prep company or our own NCLEX-RN path. Explanations, guides and the review after a mock are study features the real exam never gives.