Nine out of ten is the number every nursing program puts on a slide. It is correct, and it describes one specific group of people under one specific condition: first attempt, U.S.-educated.
The 91.2% belongs to one cohort
Set the cohorts side by side and the headline stops being a pass rate and starts being a description of who you are on test day. Repeat test-takers and internationally educated test-takers pass at roughly half the headline rate. That is not a statement about who is a better nurse. It is a different question being asked by the same exam.
The 91.2% headline is one cohort — and one half of the year.
NCSBN's 2024 statistics: first-time U.S.-educated candidates passed at 91.2%. The other cohorts — and the fourth quarter — tell a different story.
The quarterly slide — 94.2% to 82.2% — is unexplained by NCSBN. Schedule when your preparation peaks, not when the calendar drifts.
If you are retesting, 91.2% is not your number, and planning against it is how a second attempt becomes a third.
The quarter you test in shows up in the data
First-time U.S.-educated pass rates fell in every quarter of 2024, and the fourth quarter landed twelve points below the first. NCSBN does not explain the slide, and the statistics do not record how long after graduation anyone tested.
Treat the pattern as a prompt rather than a verdict. It argues for scheduling when your preparation peaks instead of when the calendar drifts, and for treating "whenever the ATT arrives" as a decision you are making rather than one you are skipping.
First attempt is the variable. Degree path barely moves it.
A point and a third separates BSN from ADN. The gap that decides outcomes in this data is first attempt against repeat, on both exams, and it is enormous. Which is worth knowing before you spend a year of prep energy on the wrong variable.
Start with the licensure map for your state's steps after the exam.
Sources
- Pass rates by cohort, degree path, and quarter, for both NCLEX-RN and NCLEX-PN: NCSBN 2024 NCLEX Examination Statistics, Research Brief Volume 94, July 2025; checked 20 July 2026. First-time U.S.-educated NCLEX-RN candidates, n=186,760, of whom 170,256 passed.
From this guide
Read the NCSBN statistics
