HOW THE NCSBN DEVELOPED THE NEW VERSION OF THE EXAM

Curious about how the new version of the NCLEX (often referred to as the Next Generation NCLEX) evolved? Here's a timeline of the major steps that the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) took before launching the new exam on April 1, 2023. 

April 2022:
"Friends & family" beta testing began. The NCSBN selected participants (nurse regulatory board staff, stakeholders in the measurement world, & others) to take the exam in actual test centers and provide feedback.

December 2022:
"Live" beta testing took place. Actual candidates who were expected to graduate in April 2023 took a fully functioning exam, but scoring and results did not count. Resulting data was used for internal NCSBN quality control purposes to ensure validity and reliability of the exam.

April 1, 2023:
The Next Generation NCLEX launched.

HELPFUL FACT ABOUT THE NEXT GEN NCLEX

The NCSBN collected millions of data points from the RN and PN versions of its Special Research Section, which was added to the previous version of the exam for select test-takers to voluntarily answer. This information provided the foundation for the NCSBN to launch the RN and PN versions of the exam, which happened simultaneously.