After making a number of changes to enhance the safety of those taking the test, NCSBN has worked with Pearson VUE to reopen all NCLEX test centers across North America and to expand time slots, while following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines and recommendations. Please review the important changes below to the delivery of the NCLEX examinations:

To ensure social distancing measures are in effect, as well as increase the number of candidates that can test daily, the NCLEX-RN and NCLEX-PN examinations will be administered until Sept. 30, 2020 as follows:

Computerized Adaptive Testing (CAT) will still be used

The minimum number of test items will be 60

The maximum number of test items will be 130

The maximum testing time will be 4 hours

The difficulty level and passing standard has not changed

The Next Generation NCLEX Special Research Section will NOT be included

Version 10 (updated 08/21/2020)

Important Notice: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, NCSBN introduced several carefully evaluated and tested modifications to the NCLEX examinations. These modifications are set to expire on Sept. 30, 2020. Beginning Oct. 1, 2020, the updates detailed here will be made to both the NCLEX-RN and NCLEX-PN examinations.

To the extent that information elsewhere on the NCSBN website may differ, the updates detailed here shall control. We are working as quickly as possible to update the NCSBN website and other materials. In the meantime, any questions may be directed to nclexinfo@ncsbn.org.