Frequently Asked Questions Get Answers to Common REx-PN Questions

New REx-PN items (questions) are written by Canadian nursing educators who teach in Practical Nurse programs across Ontario and British Columbia.

All items undergo:

1. Editorial review to ensure all language is clear and free from errors in grammar, spelling and punctuation.
2. Content (nursing) review to ensure items are accurate and reflect current, entry-level PN practice in Ontario and British Columbia.
3. Regulatory body review to ensure item content reflects only material that falls with the legal scope of PN practice.
4. Sensitivity/bias review to ensure fairness across Canada’s geographically and culturally diverse population of graduates.
5. Translation review (Ontario only) to ensure accuracy and equivalence of all items presented to francophone exam writers.
6. Statistical review to ensure items accurately measure the knowledge, skills and abilities of each graduate.

The cycle takes up to 18 months per question.

Because Canadian healthcare changes rapidly, every five years a Practice Analysis will be conducted to determine current nursing activities being performed by Licensed Practical Nurses/Registered Practical Nurses (LPNs/RPNs) in British Columbia and Ontario. Relevant entry-level competencies will then be assessed to ensure they align with this practice analysis.

The results will inform the REx-PN Test Plan, which identifies what content is eligible for testing and in what percentages this content will appear. Every item appearing on the exam directly links to a nursing activity from the practice analysis study. The activities are found in the Test Plan and can help students and graduates prepare for the exam.

The passing standard is the level at which exam writers need to perform in order to pass. Every five years, the REx-PN passing standard will be re-evaluated to ensure that success on the REx-PN continues to reflect the amount of nursing knowledge needed to practice competently at the entry level.

Several methods are used to ensure the REx-PN reflects Canadian practice:

• The Practice Analysis survey gathers information about what activities entry-level LPN/RPNs are actually performing as part of their jobs. The results of the Practice Analysis in turn lead to the REx-PN Test Plan, which defines the content eligible to be tested. Exam items are then developed to measure knowledge of — but not go beyond —this eligible content.
• The current entry-level competencies for LPNs/RPNs have been reviewed by Canadian regulators and nurse educators to ensure they are reflected in the REx-PN activity statements from the practice analysis.
• All REx-PN items are reviewed by expert committees of Canadian nurses who ensure that all content reflects Canadian entry-level PN practice.
• All REx-PN items will undergo a regulatory body review to ensure content falls within the legal scope of PN practice.

To meet the needs of French-speaking REx-PN writers, the REx-PN will be offered in French (Ontario only). Exam items (questions) are being translated by professional translators with expertise in Canadian French.

Following translation, a Canadian French Translation Review committee, made up of nurses who are proficient in English and Canadian French, reviews each translated item for accuracy and contextual equivalency. When this committee identifies linguistic issues requiring further input, they can refer the matter to a decision body called the Lexicon Panel which meets regularly and considers how to ensure terms and item content will be best understood by all francophone REx-PN writers. The decisions of this body inform a Style Guide that is used by translators and a lexicon of terms. The lexicon will be published as a resource for educators and REx-PN writers.

NCSBN invites nurses from all jurisdictions using the REx-PN to participate as Subject Matter Expert nurse volunteers on the REx-PN Practice Analysis Panel. Because the Canadian health care industry is rapidly changing, practice analysis studies are traditionally conducted on a five-year cycle. Information gathered in the practice analysis studies assists NCSBN in evaluating the validity of the test plan.

More information is available in the REx-PN Practice Analysis.

The periodic performance of practice analysis (i.e., job analysis) studies assists NCSBN in evaluating the validity of the REx-PN test plan. The practice analysis survey is sent to entry-level nurses to rate the frequency, importance, and practice setting applicability of each activity statement. Using this methodology, the practice analysis gathers information regarding variation across nursing practice settings. Prior to inclusion on the survey, a panel of nurse experts representative of various practice settings and geographic areas evaluates the current list of activity statements and edits them as needed. If newly licensed nurses are working in specialty units, this information is reflected in the demographic results from the practice analysis.

More information is available in the REx-PN Practice Analysis.

Over the course of a year, NCSBN invites nurses from all geographic areas and practice settings using REx-PN to participate on REx-PN Item Development Panels (Practice Analysis, item writing, item review, Regulatory Body Review and Panel of Judges [POJ] for Standard Setting Process).

To participate in the item development process, experienced nurse volunteers must educate nursing students in the clinical setting or work directly with entry-level nurses and be familiar with entry-level nursing knowledge. Input from entry-level nurses is sought out in areas of the item development process, such as the Practice Analysis and the POJ for Standard Setting.

While most questions on the REx-PN will be multiple choice, the exam also includes multiple response and fill-in-the-blank calculation. Some questions will also be provided as exhibits and graphics.

The questions provided in the REx-PN will be different for each candidate (please see this short video about computerized adaptive testing for more information about this). Each candidate will receive a unique set of questions. As a result, the frequency and number of each question type will vary for each candidate.

Yes, a calculator will be provided on the computer within the testing environment.

No. If needed to answer the question, a relevant practice setting will be stated.

While there will be a time limit of 4 hours to complete the overall exam, no time limit will be set per question. On similar exams, candidates generally take 60 – 90 seconds per question.

During the REx-PN, candidates should not feel the need to rush, but should focus on showing their competence. For more information on the time limit, please see the REx-PN Test Plan.

Yes, pretest questions (sometimes referred to as pilot or beta questions), will be included throughout the exam, but will not be scored as part of the candidate’s final result.

All REx-PN questions must be tested and evaluated before they can be formally included as a scored question.

Candidates will not know which questions are counted.

Exam results will be provided to the candidate by the nursing regulatory body in the province where the candidate seeks registration. For more information, please visit the nursing regulatory body’s website.

Your scores on the practice exam are not a predictor of whether you will pass or fail the REx-PN exam. The REx-PN Practice Exam is intended to be a tool to help you prepare for the REx-PN so you gain an understanding of the look and feel of the actual exam. While they will be similar in format, style and topics covered, the difficulty of the questions on the practice exam will not be the same as those on the actual exam, nor will you have the opportunity to answer the same number of questions as with the actual exam.

Please contact Pearson VUE at pearsonvue.com/contact.

Each exam is available for a one-time use within 45 days from the date of purchase. When you start your exam, the clock begins and the exam will run continually for 4 hours. After the clock runs out, the exam is no longer accessible. Each exam can only be started once. For that reason, before you begin, it is important to set aside the time needed to take the exam.

On the actual REx-PN exam, which is a Computerized Adaptive Test (CAT), you are required to answer questions in the order they are presented and you are not allowed to go back to previous questions. The REx-PN Practice Exam is designed to provide you with the look and feel of the actual exam. 

The REx-PN Practice Exam is non-refundable for any reason. The practice exam is not intended to be used as a tool to help you study the nursing content covered on the actual exam.

It is important to note that the practice exam will not be scored in the same way as the actual REx-PN exam. The score reports for the Practice Exam are informational only; they provide you with the percentage of questions you answered correctly from the total number of questions on the form. (If you were unable to answer all 80 questions on the form, your score is the percentage of correct questions based on the total number of questions.) 

The practice exam provides a look and feel of the actual REx-PN exam, but is not intended to be used as a nursing content study tool.

To help you most closely replicate the look and feel of the exam, we encourage you to access the REx-PN Practice Exam on a laptop or a workstation computer.

Yes, you can purchase vouchers to give to your students that will give them access to take the practice exam. Visit the voucher store website for the REx-PN Practice Exam. Complete and submit the form. Once your order is completed, the voucher store will email you with the voucher numbers. You can then distribute the voucher numbers to your students to use. Each voucher is good for one purchase.

The REx-PN tutorial will be available in the fall of 2021. Once published, it will be available to help familiarize you with the different REx-PN item types and the exam interface.