Pass nursing exams Canada can.I still feel the cold sweat from the night before my jurisprudence exam. My desk looked like a crime scene: three crumpled Tim Hortons cups, a dead highlighter, and me whispering “I’m going to fail” on repeat at three in the morning.
If that scene feels familiar, hey-I get it. Pass nursing exams Canada You’re probably drowning in drug cards right now, trying to figure out how anyone keeps straight what tasks an RPN can do versus an RN, let alone remember that metoprolol can tank the heart rate.
Stop, for a second. Breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth
I’m not some guru selling rainbows and positive vibes. I’m the girl who barely slept for two years of nursing school, cried in more than one campus bathroom, and somehow still ended up with my RN license. Pass nursing exams Canada Since then, I’ve walked hundreds of Canadian students-LPNs, RNs, PSWs, even a couple of paramedic students-across the same finish line without them completely losing their minds.
This is the guide I needed then, written in those long night hours by someone who truly went through it.
First, give yourself permission to find this hard
- These exams are built to be hard. The first-time pass rate for the REx-PN was 72% in some provinces last year. Pass nursing exams Canada That means almost three out of every ten people you sat beside in class had to write it again. They’re not dumb. The test is just ruthless by design.
When you stop telling yourself, “I should be getting this by now,” the shame fog lifts and you can actually think.
Cease trying to relearn the entire program
- Six weeks before the exam is not a time to become best friends with every single page of Potter & Perry. Your brain has limits. Respect them.
Instead, go straight to the test blueprint; that’s free on your regulatory college website. Pass nursing exams Canada You will see what exact percentage weighting of every category is. Study in that exact order.
For both NCLEX-RN and REx-PN, the heavy hitters are always
Safety and care environment: priorities, delegation, infection control
Essentially, physiological integrity is pharmacology and every body system that can crash.
Psychosocial
Health promotion
If you are in a rush, then live in pharmacology and safety for the first two weeks. That’s where most of the points hide.
Start thinking like the people who write the questions
- They aren’t testing whether you’ve memorized the textbook. They are testing whether you will unwittingly kill a patient at 0300 when you are the only nurse on the floor and the call bell won’t stop ringing.
Rule of thumb that has never failed me or any of my students:
First, ABC; second, patient safety; third, feelings; and paperwork never unless the first three are safe.
If two answers look decent, pick the one where you actually put your hands on the patient or pick up the phone to call the doctor. “Keep monitoring” is almost never right when someone is turning blue.
The boring schedule that actually works
- I give every single person I tutor the same three-week plan. It’s not sexy, but it’s stupidly effective.
Week One – Repair the gaping holes
Pick your two scariest topics (99% of people say pharmacology and cardiac).
Spend 3-4 concentrated hours a day only on those. Watch Simple Nursing or Registered Nurse RN videos, scribble flashcards, explain it out loud to your very confused golden retriever.
Do 60–80 practice questions and then make yourself read every explanation even for the questions you get right.
Week Two – Practice as if it were the real thing
150 questions per day minimum. Pass nursing exams Canada
Do at least two full-length timed tests; that is 145 questions for REx-PN up to 265 for NCLEX. Pass nursing exams Canada Book a study room in the library, turn your phone face down, no bathroom breaks for snacks. Make it hurt a little.
Keep a notebook entitled “My Dumb Mistakes.” Write down every question you miss and why. The patterns show up fast.
Week Three – Sharpen and rest
One more full timed exam on Monday.
Then, cut it back to 75 questions maximum per day. Go through your Dumb Mistakes notebook as if it were the holy grail.
Last 48 hrs: skim, sleep, eat veggies, go outside. Your brain works best when it’s unconscious, trust the science.
How to make pharmacology not feel so torturous
Group drugs by their suffixes first-it’s dumb how well this works Anything that ends in -olol → beta blocker → causes bradycardia, hypotension, bronchospasm in asthmatics
-pril → ACE inhibitor → that annoying dry cough + hyperkalemia risk
-sartan → ARB → same job, no cough
-statin → watch for myopathy and LFTs
-prazole → PPI → C. diff and fracture risk if used forever
-tidine → H2 blocker (mostly famotidine now)
Then commit to memory the ten drug groups they love to test over and over
Anticoagulants, insulins + oral hypoglycemics, opioids, antibiotics, cardiac meds, psych meds, diuretics, respiratory meds, chemotherapy side effects, and IV fluids
Know the life-threatening adverse effects of medications cold: bleeding, hypoglycemia, hyperkalemia, anaphylaxis, respiratory depression. Pass nursing exams Canada That’s literally 80-90% of the pharm questions you’ll see.
The one trick that turns average students into 90% scorers
- Teach the material to a person who doesn’t know anything about nursing.
I made my then-boyfriend learn why we don’t give aspirin to kids with viral illnesses. I explained sterile technique to my mom while folding laundry. Pass nursing exams Canada I made my little brother quiz me on anticoagulation reversal agents. When you can teach it to a bored 20-year-old just wanting to play Call of Duty, you really know it.
Mental side: because this is half the battle
- You will have days where you are going to feel like a fraud.Pass nursing exams Canada You will scroll through Instagram and swear that every other student has it together. They don’t.Things that actually help
Sticky note on your mirror
“Passing is enough. Perfect doesn’t exist.”
Block one fun thing every single week, and protect it like a patient’s airway.
Do 5-4-3-2-1 grounding the moment the panic hits you: five things you see, four you can touch, three you hear, two you smell, one you taste. Pass nursing exams Canada Works in less than sixty seconds.
Day-before and exam-day playbook Pass nursing exams Canada
Night before:
Light review only. Pack your bag: ID, confirmation email, layers, since those testing centers are arctic, water, nuts or a protein bar. Be in bed by 10 p.m. – melatonin is fine.
Morning of:
Protein + complex carbs.Pass nursing exams Canada Eggs, peanut butter toast- whatever doesn’t make you crash. Leave early-traffic or a late bus is not the stress you need.
At the computer:
Take three deep, slow breaths. Say out loud, or to yourself, “I’ve done the reps; I’m ready.”
Read the very last line of each question first—that tells you what they actually want. Flag anything that makes your brain smoke and come back. The test adapts; order doesn’t matter. If you reach the maximum number of questions, you are probably in the grey zone—keep going calm. Most people in that zone still pass. Real quotes from real students I’ve worked with “Don’t compare your behind-the-scenes to everyone else’s highlight reel.” – Jess, passed NCLEX first try “UWorld rationales taught me more than three years of lectures.”-Karan, now in emerg “I failed my first attempt. Passed the second. Still got hired before some people who passed first time.” – Mike, working med-surg in Alberta You’re closer than you think If you’re reading this at midnight with red eyes and a pile of laundry you’ve been ignoring for two weeks, I see you. Pass nursing exams Canada I’ve been you. I’m telling you: the version of you in real scrubs with an actual license in your wallet is proud of this person who stays up tonight and refuses to quit. One question at a time. One day at a time. One deep breath at a time. You got this! And when those beautiful words “PASS” show up on the screen, message me. I’ll be screaming with you from here. You are going to be an amazing nurse. From someone who sat exactly where you’re sitting, survived, and now gets to watch hundreds of you do the same.
