The National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX-RN® exam) has one purpose: To determine if it’s safe for you to begin practice as an entry-level nurse. It is significantly different from any test that you took in nursing school. While nursing school exams are knowledge-based, the NCLEX-RN® tests application and analysis using the nursing knowledge you learned in school. You will be tested on how you can use critical thinking skills to make nursing judgments.

Questions are primarily multiple-choice with four possible answer choices; however, there are also alternate question types. Alternate question types include multiple-response, fill-in-the-blank, hot spots, chart/exhibit and drag-and-drop. All questions involve integrated nursing content.