can you get old nclex exams?

JR816, BSN, RN · Jun 13, 2006

That is a good question!!!!! (I doubt it is true....)

EricJRN, MSN, RN · Jun 14, 2006

The NCLEX has been using computerized adaptive testing for several years, so it's not like a paper-and-pencil exam where all of the questions are set from the beginning. Using CAT, there are a ton of possible questions and they are presented based on the candidate's responses to previous questions. The number of questions given on an exam will change from person to person as well. So one person's exam from 2005 will be much different than the next person's exam from the same year.

The NCSBN, creators of the NCLEX, do publish a Test Plan for each year, which basically tells you the approximate percentage of questions from various categories. The test plan can be found at www.ncsbn.org , under the 2006 Candidate Bulletin.

nursemomruns · Jul 1, 2006

from past years like 2003-2005? I thought I overheard one of my classmates saying that he requested past tests and "they" sent them to him.. of course, I don't know who "they" are and I was curious to see if this was true.. thanks!

No, it's not true. Doing so would compromise the integrity of the test pool and that is something that NCSBN takes very VERY seriously.

Like Eric said, those questions get used over and over again. There are some questions in the pool still being used from the 90's.