You’ve worked your way through nursing school and now just one more hurdle lies between you and your stellar nursing career – the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX). The good news about the NCLEX’s testing format is that the questions adapt to your skill level, meaning the questions you go through should never be too difficult for you to apply logic and critical thinking to find the answer!
We’ve put together a compilation of the 10 free NCLEX practice tests that you can work through from the convenience of your own home.
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Free NCLEX Practice Tests
1. Kaplan
Kaplan, an industry leader in test prep, offers free practice quizzes based on the content in the actual exam. The practice questions are divided up into their respective sections:
- Safe and Effective Care Environment
- Health Promotion and Maintenance
- Psychosocial Integrity
- Physiological Integrity
Discovering which areas you are weakest and strongest in will inform your prep strategy moving forward.
As you register to take the free quizzes, you can also opt-in for Kaplan to send you their “Question of the Day” straight to your inbox (more on this feature later).
2. Nurse Plus Academy
With 4 practice tests to work through for each section of the NCLEX, aspiring nurses using Nurse Plus’s platform have the opportunity to work through 400 NCLEX-style questions.
The site’s NCLEX practice questions have a logical interface that shows your progress as you work through the questions. The site also tallies how many mistakes you can make to achieve a passing score.
One feature of Nurse Plus that many users appreciate is the user-friendly nature of the site. You can navigate to the site and begin preparation immediately — no registration or login is required.
3. Mometrix
Similar to Kaplan’s practice tests, the Mometrix RN practice test will test you on 15 questions, calculate your result and provide in-depth explanations for each question and answer.
4. Union Test Prep NCLEX-RN Exam
Although largely comparable to the other tests explored so far, what makes practicing on the Union Test Prep interface unique is the range of options. The site allows you to review the correct answers after a question, or to try answering the question again without seeing the correct answer.
Union Test Prep’s practice exams contain eight sections that comprehensively cover all the material you can expect to encounter on test day.
5. Khan Academy NCLEX-RN Practice Questions
Aside from Kaplan, Khan Academy is arguably the best-known name in test prep because it offers highly-reviewed, free prep courses for standardized tests ranging from the ACT to the MCAT.
It should come as no surprise, then, that the company also offers an extensive 673-question NCLEX practice exam to work through.
6. Varsity Tutors
Varsity Tutors provides 5 diagnostic tests with difficulty ranging from medium to hard, as well as hundreds of short practice tests broken up by concept.
The diagnostic tests provided by Varsity Tutors function like real NCLEX exams with a maximum of 75 questions. Test preppers can get a “feel” for the timing of the exam as well as real-time feedback on their progress.
When you create a free account, you can save your progress mid-test to continue later, track your scores, and even create your own individualized practice tests.
Related: Here are the easiest nursing schools to get into this year
7. Free NCLEX Questions
FreeNCLEXQuestions.com is a premium NCLEX prep resource. The site offers three 75-question NCLEX practice tests as well as an array of free NCLEX questions divided by category. Once you complete each question, the site provides the correct answer as well as an in-depth explanation.
8. Nurse Labs Practice Exam
The practice exam offered by Nurse Labs made the list because it offers preparers the choice of “Exam Mode” or “Practice Mode” whereby participants can choose either to take the full exam and then look at the answers or to immediately see the solution after completing each practice question.
One issue with “Exam Mode,” however, is that it allots only 1 minute to select an answer. There is no real justification for the time limit, as the real NCLEX allows longer than one minute to complete each question.
9. RNpedia NCLEX Practice Exams
RNpedia offers a free “practice mode,” “exam mode” and “text mode” for a bit of variety in its formats. The site’s explanations for test answers, however, leave much to be desired. RNpedia does not provide detailed clarification regarding the correct answer, so this option better serves as a “refresher” course rather than as a primary test prep tool.
10. BoardVitals
BoardVitals earned its spot on the list because of its immensely helpful customizable question bank. There are only 4 questions on this free NCLEX quiz, but if you like the style, you can consider any one of their affordable subscription-based question bank features.
11. Tests.com
Visitors to tests.com can access its free NCLEX practice exam straightaway with no registration required. Test-takers can modify their practice sessions by opting to either view questions all at once or one-by-one. You also have the option of choosing to receive graded answers one-by-one as you move through the test or to get the feedback once you finish.
12. Study.com
Study.com offers two short 15-question practice exams to visitors. Following completion of the practice tests, users can review their respective areas of strength and weakness to better understand opportunities for improvement.
13. Practical Nursing
Practical Nursing offers 150 prep questions to users right out of the gate, complete with correct answers and explanations. All of them are conveniently available on one page, so you won’t need to continually load pages for each question. You can also easily print the practice exam to physically take with you in case you can’t consistently access the web.
14. Practice Quiz
Nursing students who utilize the services of Practice Quiz for their NCLEX prep can choose between the site’s “study mode,” “test mode,” and “free daily question” features. For the “test mode,” you still have some feature options to customize your practice test. You can choose how many questions you want to work through as well as how much time you can spend on this test. This is great for those who are trying to squeeze in a quick set of practice questions rather than working through an hours-long test.
15. Test Prep Review
Test Prep Review is one of the most highly-rated exam preparation services on the web. It offers a free practice exam that covers all the essential aspects of the NCLEX test. The site also hosts a plethora of other performance-enhancing NCLEX prep resources that enterprising nursing graduates can take advantage of.
16. Registered Nursing
Registered Nursing is a wonderfully user-friendly training platform that nursing students will surely find helpful as they prepare for the NCLEX. The practice exam questions are broken up by category, similar to how they are partitioned on the actual test.
17. Nursing.com
Nursing.com’s free test prep stands out among the crowd of NCLEX prep resources because it divvies up questions based on specific subject matter – i.e., “NCLEX© Heart Attack Questions,” “Pharmacology NCLEX Questions,” and “Endocrine NCLEX© Questions.” This feature allows nursing students to explore their particular knowledge of various health issues and events as an added layer of preparation.
You can learn more about Nursing.com’s NCLEX prep app here.
NCLEX Question of the Day
Proper preparation for the NCLEX exam requires working regular exercises into your daily routine to steadily build confidence in your ability to ace the test. Several sites offer free NCLEX “Questions of the Day” that are delivered directly to your email inbox every morning.
With detailed explanations of the correct answers, you’ll be able to improve upon your test-taking ability in exchange for just a few minutes of your time each day.
To further augment your prep strategy, check out our top-rated free NCLEX “Question of the Day” email services below.
Kaplan NCLEX Question of the Day
To sign up for Kaplan’s NCLEX question of the day, you first need to answer the first question that appears on the screen. From there, it will provide you with a detailed explanation of the answer as well as a form to fill out to register for the question of the day.
Picmonic NCLEX Question of the Day
Picmonic’s NCLEX question of the day provides short, digestible videos that detail the rationale. These videos are fun and easy to watch, making this a great option for visual learners.
Preparing for the NCLEX does not need to be stressful, and we’re happy to provide you with the best resources to help you pass the NCLEX. Good luck studying, you’re going to be a registered nurse in no time!
