Nurse Plus Academy NCLEX App Review

Nurse Plus Academy is free in a way almost nothing else in NCLEX prep is: you can answer real practice questions with no account, no email and no card. The catch is where the free tier ends. We opened eight Nurse Plus tests in September 2026, and five of them were Premium only, including every Next Generation question on the site.

That matters more than it used to. Next Generation item types are the part of the exam students have not seen in nursing school, and they are the part Nurse Plus does not give away.

This review covers exactly which tests opened free and which did not, what the two Premium plans cost, and one place where the site's own exam facts are out of date.

Summary Table

The Nurse Plus Academy homepage. Source: nurse.plus (captured September 2026).

Nurse Plus Academy Overview

Nurse Plus Academy is a browser-based NCLEX question bank run by Elegant E-Learning, Inc, the company behind Driving-Tests.org and CNA Plus. The homepage says the platform has served 3.4M+ nursing students since 2016.

It is organized the way the exam is: practice tests grouped under the NCSBN client-needs categories, for both the RN and the PN exam. You pick a category, take a numbered test inside it, and read the rationale after each question. Clinical accuracy is credited to Winona Suzanne Ball, RN, MHS, with editorial oversight from Steven Litvintchouk, M.S.

Two things make it unusual among the apps in our NCLEX prep app roundup. First, there is no signup wall: the site confirms you do not need an account to take its tests or see results, and it stores progress in a browser cookie instead. Second, it sells only two plans, so there is no tier ladder to decode.

What you get on the free tier:

• Early numbered practice tests inside each client-needs category, RN and PN
• Written rationales on the questions you answer, right and wrong
• Unlimited retakes, with answer options reshuffled each time
• Progress saved without an account
• Ad slots on the test pages

Nurse Plus Academy Review For 2026

What is actually free, tested test by test

Nurse Plus does not publish a list of which tests are free, so we opened eight of them and recorded what happened. Three opened normally. Five returned the same message: "This test is a Premium member exclusive."

Eight Nurse Plus tests, opened one at a time. Source: nurse.plus test pages, September 2026.

The pattern behind that is the useful part. The early numbered tests in a category are free. The marathon version of the same category, which holds the full pool, is not: the Safety and Infection Control Marathon advertises all 155 questions in that category and is locked. So the free tier gives you a slice of each category rather than the category.

There is no label to warn you. Some free tests print the word FREE in the heading and others do not, and of the two Select All That Apply tests we opened, SATA test 1 was free while SATA test 7 was Premium. The provider's own comparison table is not a reliable guide either: it marks current item formats and SATA as Premium only, which is right for test 7 and wrong for test 1.

The Next Gen gap

Every Next Generation question on the site is Premium. The homepage advertises 163 Next Gen questions and 12 unfolding case studies across extended multiple response, extended drag and drop, cloze, enhanced hot spot and matrix items. The NGN case studies page describes exactly the right thing, a clinical scenario followed by six questions stepping through the six stages of the NCSBN Clinical Judgment Measurement Model, and then asks you to upgrade.

The CAT exam simulator is locked the same way, and so is the Challenge Bank, which collects the questions you miss and retests you on them. The site is direct about the simulator being the upgrade, and its FAQ says so in as many words.

Where the site's own exam facts have drifted

One thing to distrust on nurse.plus is its NCLEX explainer copy. The homepage FAQ tells students the RN exam "can have between 75 to 145 questions, while the PN exam ranges from 85 to 150", and the body text repeats 145 as the RN maximum.

Both exams are 85 to 150 items. The 2026 NCLEX Candidate Bulletin states that the NCLEX-RN and the NCLEX-PN can be anywhere from 85 to 150 items, with a five-hour limit whatever the count. The 75 to 145 range is the pre-2023 RN exam.

The odd part is that Nurse Plus gets it right elsewhere: its Next Gen pages carry a box reading "85-150 items, 5 hours including breaks, CAT, Pass/Fail". The stale numbers are on the page most students land on. The retake rule it quotes, eight attempts a year with 45 test-free days between them, matches the bulletin exactly.

Use the practice questions and get your exam facts from our NCLEX exam guide or NCSBN directly. Our review methodology explains how we check claims like these.

Pricing

Nurse Plus sells two plans, both unlocking the same Premium toolkit. The 60-day plan that older reviews mention is gone.

The year plan is the only sensible paid choice unless you test within a month. Twelve monthly payments come to $588, so the year costs $449 less for the same toolkit. First-time visitors are offered 20 percent off a first purchase, applied at checkout once per device.

The Pass Guarantee comes with both paid plans, not the free tier. The terms published with the plans are that you complete the program, sit the exam, and email your failing result within 30 days for a refund of your purchase.

At $139 a year, Premium undercuts most of what we review. NCLEX RN Mastery is $19.99 a month, and Archer Review starts at $79 a month. Price is the strongest argument for this product.

Who Nurse Plus Academy Is Best For

Students with no budget who need question volume. Nothing else gives you this many real NCLEX-style questions with rationales for nothing, with no account and no trial clock.

Anyone who wants to sample before paying. Because there is no signup, you can judge the question style in two minutes. Try one of our free NCLEX practice questions alongside it and compare.

Students who want a cheap full year. If you are repeating the exam or testing months out, $139 for twelve months of Next Gen practice and unlimited CAT simulations is the cheapest long access window we have found.

Students who already know the content. This is practice, not teaching. There are no video lessons and no lectures anywhere on the platform.

When You Might Look Elsewhere

You need Next Gen practice without paying. Nurse Plus gives none away. Archer Review bundles case studies and unlimited CATs into a cheaper paid tier than the big names, and it is the better first paid purchase if readiness scoring matters to you.

You want rationales that teach. UWorld remains the deepest explanations in NCLEX prep, and it is the standard other banks are measured against. It costs considerably more.

You want the most questions per dollar. NCLEX RN Mastery runs 4,000+ questions at $19.99 a month, which beats Nurse Plus Premium on raw volume if you only need a month or two.

You need recall drilling rather than questions. Brainscape is flashcards with spaced repetition, and it pairs well with a free Nurse Plus category run.

Worth noting: we also review the paid product separately, as Nurse Plus Academy NCLEX prep course.

Final Verdict

Nurse Plus Academy earns its place as the free starting point for NCLEX practice, and it should not be your last stop. The free tests are real questions with real rationales, organized the way NCSBN organizes the exam, and they cost nothing to take. The ceiling is low: the category marathons, all 163 Next Gen items and the CAT simulator sit behind a paywall, and the site tells you that only after you click.

Once you have practice scores to interpret, run them through our NCLEX pass probability calculator and see the rest of our NCLEX prep guides.

Nurse Plus Academy FAQs

Is Nurse Plus Academy really free?

Partly. The early numbered practice tests in each client-needs category are free with no account, no email and no card, and they include written rationales. The category marathons, the 163 Next Gen questions, the 12 unfolding case studies, the CAT exam simulator, the Challenge Bank and the flashcards all require Premium. We opened eight tests in September 2026 and five of them were Premium only.

How much does Nurse Plus Academy Premium cost?

There are two plans. Monthly Access is $49 a month and renews until you cancel. Full Year Access is $139 as a single payment for 12 months with no renewal, which works out at $11.58 a month. Both include the same content and the Pass Guarantee, and first-time visitors are offered 20 percent off one purchase.

Does Nurse Plus Academy have Next Generation NCLEX questions?

Yes, 163 of them including 12 unfolding case studies, and all of them are Premium only. The free tier contains no Next Gen practice at all. Since Next Gen item types are the part of the current exam students are least familiar with, plan to get that practice from Premium or from another question bank.

Is there a Nurse Plus Academy app for iPhone or Android?

No. Nurse Plus is a mobile-friendly website, and there is no app in the App Store or on Google Play. It works well in a phone browser, but you cannot download it, study offline or get it through an app store.

Can I trust the NCLEX facts on the Nurse Plus site?

Check them against NCSBN. The nurse.plus homepage FAQ still says the RN exam runs 75 to 145 questions, while the 2026 NCLEX Candidate Bulletin says both the RN and the PN exams run 85 to 150 items in five hours. The practice questions themselves are reviewed by a registered nurse, and the site's Next Gen pages quote the item range correctly, but the homepage explainer is out of date.

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