The eight NCLEX categories
The NCLEX-RN draws its 85 to 150 items from eight client-needs categories, each with a set share of the exam. Here is what each one tests and where candidates lose points.
Safe and Effective Care Environment
Management of Care15–21% of the examHow you run the care of several clients at once: who you see first, what you hand to the LPN or the assistive personnel, when you advocate, and what the law and ethics require of you.Safety and Infection Prevention and Control10–16% of the examHow you keep clients and staff from harm: preventing falls and errors, using restraints only when nothing less will do, handling emergencies, and choosing the right precautions for each infection.
Health Promotion and Maintenance
Psychosocial Integrity
Physiological Integrity
Basic Care and Comfort6–12% of the examThe care that fills most of a shift: mobility and assistive devices, nutrition and tube feeding, elimination, rest and sleep, hygiene, and pain relief without medication.Pharmacological and Parenteral Therapies13–19% of the examMedications from order to effect: dosage calculation, administration and IV therapy, blood products, expected and adverse effects, interactions, and what to check before you give a dose.Reduction of Risk Potential9–15% of the examCatching problems before they become harm: laboratory values, diagnostic tests, care before and after procedures, changes in vital signs, and the complications of treatment.Physiological Adaptation11–17% of the examAcute and life-threatening illness: fluid and electrolyte imbalance, hemodynamics, respiratory and cardiac emergencies, sepsis, shock, burns and the client who is getting worse.
Guides
Free NCLEX practice test15 questions in exam proportions, explained. No sign-up.Next Generation item typesMatrix, cloze, bow-tie, multiple response and case studies, with one to try for each.How the NCLEX is scoredComputer-adaptive testing, the 85 to 150 items, and when the exam stops.How to study for the NCLEXA plan for the weeks before your exam, by the hour and by the category.NCLEX lab valuesThe adult reference ranges to know, and what a value outside them means.
Category ranges are from the 2026 NCLEX-RN test plan published by NCSBN. The NCLEX-PN uses a parallel set of categories with its own ranges.
Find out where you stand today.
Fifteen questions across all eight categories, each one explained. No account needed.