Ask a Nurse: How Can I Study for the Next Generation 2023 NCLEX?

Books can help with studying nursing content, but online resources may better help you get ready for the new National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) 2023 question style. On this page, you’ll find out more about these online resources, along with several other helpful ways to prepare for the new NCLEX.

So, why has the NCLEX changed? NCSBN tested the next generation NCLEX question format from July 2017 through December 2018. During that time roughly 340,000 students participated in the beta testing. The NCSBN found that students who performed well on the regular NCLEX questions also performed well on the NGN questions.

This suggests that the change in question format may help focus test-taking on critical thinking skills. The content nursing students are tested over and the guiding principles of nursing care have remained the same.

Several resources, like ATI and Elsevier, are available to help faculty prepare students for the new question format. This should ultimately help new nursing graduates to improve their critical thinking skills in practice.

There are many online resources available to students preparing for the Next Generation 2023 NCLEX exam. These include:

Much of the information for faculty focuses on helping students improve their clinical judgment and critical thinking skills. In other words, the content has not changed, only how students will process and apply the information during the test. The intent is to mimic the necessary skills to provide excellent patient care as closely as possible.

This means that nursing students can begin to best prepare for the test by thoroughly understanding the material. Instead of being able to regurgitate pure facts and knowledge, the test will ask students to apply that knowledge to specific clinical case studies.

Students should become familiar with how each test question functions so they aren’t surprised during the test situation. This can raise a student’s anxiety level and lower their overall performance.

The NCLEX 2023 combines new question styles and a stronger focus on knowledge application and critical thinking for nurses. Nursing students may find it helpful to train their critical thinking skills. These skills are important in nearly every aspect of life and are part of the nursing process.

Critical thinking deliberately employs intellectual tools that may have gotten rusty without use. Habits you can begin to develop include:

Study books have been the mainstay of preparing for standardized testing. And they will still be helpful to ensure you have a firm grasp on the content. However, because of the interactive nature of the next generation NCLEX, it may be more helpful to use online resources to practice evaluating case studies while using the new test question format.

It is crucial you begin preparing several months before the examination so you can learn from your mistakes and don’t repeat them on test day. It is possible to have an excellent grade point average in school and still fail the next generation NCLEX.

Do not make the mistake of taking the NCLEX 2023 the first time as a “practice test.” In other words, your intention when taking the test should be to pass the test since it is difficult to overcome a poor test score.

The NCSBN keeps statistics on NCLEX pass rates for each year. According to their statistics, the pass rate for first-time test-takers was 88% from January to March 2021 for bachelor’s-prepared nurses.

However, during the same time period for bachelor’s-prepared nurses taking the test for the second time or more, the pass rate was half that, at 43%. Interestingly, the pass rate for first-time test-takers was lowest between October and December 2021 for bachelor’s, diploma, or associate-prepared nurses.

The framework for the NCLEX has not changed, but the next generation NCLEX format will include five new types of questions. These questions aim to create situations more like what a nurse encounters in their practice.

The questions will be used alongside case studies. Some questions will be stand-alone, and others will build from one question to the next. Each case study will have six questions that fit the NCSBN Cognitive Aspects of Clinical Decision-Making, which they define as:

This is essentially the same nursing process that students are taught and use for clinical decision-making.

The change in the structure of some of the questions on the NCLEX 2023 is to help assess a student’s ability to think critically as they provide patient care.

There are multiple ways these questions may appear on the test. Elsevier, a medical and scientific publishing company, has created several videos to demonstrate how these types of questions could be used.

The NCLEX establishes a standard measurement of nurses’ skills to provide excellent patient care. These skills are critical to healthcare. The NCLEX has always been a test unlike any other you may have taken in the past.

Typical college and high school tests are straight knowledge-based examinations. In other words, the test asks the test-taker to regurgitate facts they’ve learned. Instead, the NCLEX is an application-based test. This means the test-taker must think strategically, logically, and wisely through case studies, in much the same way a nurse must think through patient care situations.

This also means that students must prepare completely differently than they would for a standard test. There won’t be a recitation of memorized facts on this exam. Rather, you’ll be expected to know the information and apply it to specific situations.

In 2009, the NCSBN began having conversations with clinicians about the large number of clinical practice errors made by entry-level nurses. They found as much as 65% of those errors were related to poor clinical decision-making skills. They collaborated on two studies from 2012 to 2014, which ultimately established the need for entry-level nurses to have:

From July 2017 to December 2018, a special research section was added to the NCLEX that took an additional 30 minutes for the participants to complete. The section had no impact on the scoring or results but gave the NCSBN data on which to base changes to the test.