When you’re preparing to take the NCLEX, you’re probably focused on getting that score that’s high enough to pass the exam.
And when you’re focusing on that passing score, you’re probably also wondering what the pass rate is for the NCLEX.
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How is the NCLEX Scored?
The NCLEX is a Computerized Adaptive Test that tailors the questions of the exam to your ability level. The exam starts off by asking everyone questions that are at the same basic level. When you give a correct answer to a question, the next question will be slightly more difficult. If you give an incorrect answer to a question, the next question will be slightly less difficult.
To pass the NCLEX exam, you’ll need to answer a certain number of questions correctly. If you answer enough questions correctly and are doing very well on the exam, your test may include as few as 75 questions. However, if you do not answer many questions correctly, your test may include up to 265 questions.
The NCLEX exam tries to find a level of difficulty of questions that you can consistently answer correctly. If you keep answering questions at a level above a certain baseline, you pass the exam. If you don’t answer questions at that baseline, you don’t pass the exam.
NCLEX-RN Pass Rates
Between January and December 2021, there were a total of 278,815 test-takers for the NCLEX-RN exam. The pass rate for the total number of test-takers was 68.85%.
Within the 278,815 test-takers, 240,254 were educated in the United States. 185,062 of those were first-time test-takers, with a pass rate of 82.48%. The remaining 55,192 were repeat test-takers, and had a pass rate of 45.52%.
There were also 38,561 internationally educated test-takers. 18,495 of these were first-time test-takers, with a pass rate of 45.48%. 20,066 were repeat test-takers, and had a pass rate of 27.75%.
|
CANDIDATE TYPE |
# OF TEST-TAKERS |
PASS RATE |
|
ALL |
278,815 |
68.85% |
|
FIRST-TIME, US EDUCATED |
185,062 |
82.48% |
|
REPEAT, US EDUCATED |
55,192 |
45.52% |
|
FIRST-TIME, INTERNATIONAL |
18,495 |
45.48% |
|
REPEAT, INTERNATIONAL |
20,066 |
27.75% |
NCLEX-PN Pass Rates
Between the same dates, there were a total of 64,871 test-takers for the NCLEX-PN with a total 66.92% pass rate. Out of that number, 63,776 were US educated. A total of 46,356 were first-time test-takers, and 17,420 were repeat test-takers. The pass rate for first-time test-takers was 79.60%, and the pass rate for repeat candidates was 35.42%.
The remaining 1,095 test-takers were internationally educated. There were 435 first-time test-takers, and they had a pass rate of 51.49%. 660 were repeat test-takers, with a pass rate of 18.18%.
| CANDIDATE TYPE | # OF TEST-TAKERS | PASS RATE |
| ALL | 64,871 | 66.92% |
| FIRST-TIME, US EDUCATED | 46,356 | 79.60% |
| REPEAT, US EDUCATED | 17,420 | 35.42% |
| FIRST-TIME, INTERNATIONAL | 435 | 51.49% |
| REPEAT, INTERNATIONAL | 660 | 18.18% |
This data was collected from NCSBN (ncsbn.org), the creator of the NCLEX RN and NCLEX PN exams.
