Failed the NCLEX? How retakes work

How to retake

1. Contact your nursing regulatory body and tell them you plan to retake the exam.
2. Ask what fees or documents they need to make you eligible again.
3. Register with Pearson VUE again and pay the registration fee.
4. Wait for a new Authorization to Test (ATT).
5. Book a new appointment. Retake dates start 45 days after your last exam.

Your Candidate Performance Report

If you don’t pass, you get a Candidate Performance Report (CPR). It shows how you did across the areas of the test plan, so you can see where to focus.

Use it to plan. Spend most of your time on the areas marked below the standard, but keep reviewing the others, because the next exam covers the whole test plan again.

Each attempt starts fresh

Every retake is a new exam. The adaptive testing starts over, and your earlier answers don’t carry forward. You pay the same registration fee that applies on the date you register, so a retake booked on or after February 1, 2027, costs $350 in the U.S.

The eight-a-year limit is NCSBN’s policy. Your board can be stricter, so ask before you plan dates. In Ontario, the College of Nurses says you can retake as many times as you need while your application is open, and an application stays open for up to two years.

How retakers do

In 2025, 52.7% of U.S.-educated candidates retaking the NCLEX-RN passed, and 41.7% of those retaking the NCLEX-PN. First-timers did much better, at 86.7% and 86.6%. That gap is why the CPR matters: study the areas it flags as below the standard instead of repeating what you did the first time.